The Israeli Mind

May 11, 2015
As an Israeli-American who is also a clinical psychologist, Gratch seems uniquely qualified to dissect the Israeli mind-set, which he does in this provocative blend of psychological profile and foreign policy analysis. Gratch brings up habits of thought in his home country’s mentality that made sense when the nation was young but are now counterproductive to its peaceful coexistence with other countries and peoples. He traces many of them to a sense of helplessness engendered by the Holocaust, asserting that it led to a culture of defensive hypermasculinity. After profiling the collective Israeli mind, he speculates about how changes in thinking could help Israelis better confront present challenges, including the BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) movement and Iran’s nuclear ambitions. If readers accept the premise that a national character can be dissected in the same manner as an individual psyche, then they will find this book illuminating and full of fresh insights into contemporary geopolitics. At the very least, it is a fascinating thought exercise, and worth the read for that alone. Agent: James Levine, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency.

June 1, 2015
An attempt "to forge a comprehensive, provocative, and accessible narrative about the Israeli mind." Israeli-American clinical psychologist Gratch (If Love Could Think: Using Your Mind to Guide Your Heart, 2005, etc.), based in New York, uses his background as a sabra (an Israeli Jew born in Israel), combined with humor and anecdotal evidence, to provide a useful exploration of Israeli national character traits, most of which he shares. The "outside-inside" approach is compelling, though admittedly, the author is wading into perilous waters; a fellow scholar warned him that "the very concept of national character could be racist." Yet as a psychologist, Gratch is fascinated by group action and conflict resolution. First, he delves into the trauma and fragmentation inherent in the Israeli makeup: the endurance of cycles of war and peace, followed by immigrant arrival and absorption, dramatic change, instability, and forced adaptability. Israelis are hugely polarized along right-left lines and largely secular yet devoted to the national Jewish founding (i.e., biblical) myth, although Gratch shows how each side is passionately attracted to its opposite-a reflection of Freud's concept of reaction formation. The author offers astute observations regarding the mind and actions of the narcissist. On one hand, the Jews' self-identity as the chosen people allowed them a self-aggrandizing role in history; on the other hand, their "outsized" accomplishments in all fields over the ages have resulted from a "compensatory drive" to overcome their sense of insignificance. Another facet of Israeli narcissism, Gratch notes, is the lack of empathy, revealed in the inability to understand and experience the plight of their neighbors, the Palestinians. More troubling than the Israeli disrespect for authority and penchant for cutting corners is the deeply internalized sense of victimization that manifests in paranoia and defensiveness-a frightening mix vis-a-vis the Iran nuclear crisis and conflict with the Palestinians. A solid overview of how psychology, rather than violence, might provide the way to peace.

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