Standing in Two Worlds with Doctor Sam Juni-Episode 30-Truth isn't the point-Our Verbal Arguments are a Civilized form of the Caveman's Mallet

Does speech channel aggression or elevate our instincts?

There are current raging arguments in Israel about the vagaries of social distancing and the fierce post-election political debates in the USA. The common feature in all of these is a sense that the parties are yelling at each other rather than talking to each other, sharing new information, or exchanging perspectives. R. Kivelevitz structures this phenomenon as an apparent breakdown in communication, using it as a stimulus to examine the psychology and sociology of argumentation in general. Pursuing this end, Prof. Juni brings in findings and concepts from the Arab-Israeli Roundtables he chaired for a decade and from his extensive diagnostics of warring families and clans.
Dr. Juni explains the Psychology of Maladaptive Arguments by detailing the concepts of Disqualification (where adversaries focus on each other’s illegitimacy or credibility, rather than on the issues) and Punctuation (disagreements on defining the source or scope of the problem. In such conditions there is no communication, since each combatant is only interested in being heard while there is no pretense of wanting to understand the other’s perspective. Explaining the construct of Cognitive Dissonance Theory, Prof. Juni argued that adversaries often do not argue rationally because most people who adhere to a cause do so because they have been habituated to into a group with behaviors while not really understanding the logic of their beliefs at all. In this context, R. Kivelevitz engages Dr. Juni in the position of the late Chabad Rebbe that doing mitzvoth engenders the igniting of the Neshama of any Jew.
R. Kivelevitz raised the possibility of alternative narrative interpretations of a specific situation, analyzing how this may dovetail with – and how it contrasts with – the Talmudic adage of אלו ואלו דברי אלוקים חיים, bringing in interpretations from R. Samson Raphael Hirsch and Sefer Hachinuch.
R. Kivelevitz discusses the thesis of Unkeles which verbal communication as a higher level interaction quality of humans. Dr. Juni takes exception to this categorization, claiming that humans tend to use language as a civilized alternative to claiming right by fiat, while the language they use merely belies the irrational quality of their interpersonal behaviors.
Doctor Samuel Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today.
He has published groundbreaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals, and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations.
Samuel Juni studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick.
Professor Juni is a prominent member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences.
Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in important research.
Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psycho-dynamic psychopathology perspective.
He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies
entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations.
Professor Juni created and directed NYU's Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments.
Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors.
Below is a partial list of the journals
to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 articles.
Many are available on line

Journal of Forensic Psychology
Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma.
International Review of Victimology
The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
International Forum of Psychoanalysis
Journal of Personality Assessment
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology
Psychophysiology
Psychology and Human Development
Journal of Sex Research
Journal of Psychology and Judaism
Contemporary Family Therapy
American Journal on Addictions
Journal of Criminal Psychology
Mental Health, Religion & Culture

As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT.
Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim.
Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

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