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had a weak character and always supported her husband. The patient
believed that she bore responsibility for her father’s behavior by inad-
vertently arousing his passions. She had tried to rectify the situation
by becoming anorexic and losing a lot of weight. She saw herself
as a bad person who was deserving of punishment and at times she
inflicted pain and injury on herself in attempts to atone for her “sins.”
There had been times when she considered suicide though she had
never actually attempted it.

The goal of the therapy was to help the patient see herself as a
victim rather than a partner in sin, to validate her right to privacy
and empower her to be the one to determine how people relate to
her, to enable her to recognize her father’s inappropriate and sick
behavior in an efficient and consistent manner and to direct her anger
and punitive conduct outward rather than towards. With significant
encouragement and urging on the part of the therapist, the patient
began to resist her father’s attempts at approaching her, improved her
ability to stand up for herself, spent less time at home and began to be
more aware of her anger and to openly express her suppressed rage,
fury and hatred toward her father, both within and without the thera-
peutic framework, instead of directing her anger inward and harming
herself physically and emotionally. (I should note that the Heaven’s
assistance, the therapy was successful.)

The question is: has the psychologist who conducted the therapy
fulfilled the mitzvos of healing (ve’rapo yerap’e), of restoring lost prop-
erty (hasheiv teshiveim – in the realm of emotional health) and of not
standing idly by while a fellow Jew is being harmed (lo saamod al dam
rei’echa – because the father can be considered a rodef, pursuing his
daughter to harm her for he endangered her mental health)? Or has
the therapist sinned by bringing the parents’ role in the patient’s trou-
bles to her attention and leading her to sin through being unwilling to
respect her father and even to scorn him thus incurring “cursed is he
who slights his father and mother” and in addition, “healing should
not be attained through that which is forbidden.”

Disrespectful thoughts towards Parents 2 197