Life-cycle

Having introduced numerous students through the years to Erikson's theory of psychosocial development, I was excited to meet this author in print and thrilled to see various weavings in color, helping me to understand in greater depth than before.

Important topics (such as succession, development stages and inter & intragenerational issues) are covered in detail to enlighten the reader. Contrasting viewpoints are also included to make the reader think for his or herself.

In general, the book is fairly easy to read since it explains the modeling theory with examples from numerous enterprises.
I strongly recommend it all who are destined to work in the complex system called family business.

Different prayers for different circumstances. This book is very good as is other Williamson books.

Linda Senn, author of "Your Pocket Divorce Guide," co-author of "The Divorce Recovery Journal"

The book is divided into two broad topics: The Need for Change and The Transition Process. There is a brief epilogue following.

Part 1: The Need for Change
Americans seem, much more than people from more traditional, more grounded, and more static cultures, to always be in a state of transition, moving from one thing to another, both personally and professionally. This can be seen in the increasing pace of career-change, personal relocation, divorce and remarriage rates (which only scratch the surface of the larger transitional base of undocumented relationships), and so on. One could say that American culture is built upon constant transition (and some Marxists thought they were developing a system of institutionalised revolution -- they could probably never outdo modern American society for that!)

Being in transition is natural, but sometimes a confusing state, not simply because of the situational difficulties, but because they are not supposed to be difficult to handle.

'The big events -- divorce, death, losing a job, and other obviously painful changes -- are easy to spot. But others, like marriage, sudden success, and moving to your dream house, are forgotten because they are 'good events' and therefore not supposed to lead to difficulty. We expect to be distressed at illness, but it is a shock to find recovery leading to difficulty.'

Anyone who has returned from a big holiday trip knows the truth of this -- how often does one feel 'I need a vacation to recover from my vacation'?

Modern psychologists have identified different stages in life -- different psychologists offer up frameworks that vary in the particulars, but what they all have in common is a recognition of struggles and adjustment periods as one makes transition from the various stages, from childhood to adolescence, to young adulthood, etc. These are transitions that underlie the situational transitions. Like the answer to the riddle of the Sphinx, the answer to dealing with transitions depends upon understanding what underpins the human being.

The two greatest areas of transition that are addressed in this text surround those issues involving love and work. Other transitions occur, but few concern us that do not concern one of these issues. All our relationships with others, as well as our internal integrity issues, relate in some way to these two issues. Bridges provides some background, as well as a checklist to follow for understanding the transition.

Part 2: The Transition Process
It seems somewhat trite to say, but every ending can be a new beginning. The essence of the transition process lies in this statement. What most people overlook in making this statement is that most transitions are not smooth progressions from point A to B. There is a disruption, a confusion, often a sadness, sometimes an elation, but in every case some period of adjustment to the positive and negative changes that have occurred. Some cultures have specified timeframes for grief and mourning that assist in times of death; the honeymoon is meant to be a transitional period after marriage (a term co-opted by others who wish to have a smoother period of introduction after a change -- as in political honeymoons after a transition of government).

It is unfortunate that most neglect to properly grieve for things that are important but are not the 'actual death of a person'. We don't allow ourselves to grieve for the lost job, the lost relationship, the lost community when one moves -- we know and recognise there has been a change, but we are reluctant to call it grief, and thus not always able to deal with the issues properly. This is perhaps the greatest contribution of Bridges -- to put processes together to permit adjustment periods. Only when this is done may the truly new beginning be made. The conclusion of Part 2 deals with new beginnings.

The importance of keeping our grounding as human beings is emphasised over and over, so that we don't rush ourselves into a new beginning prematurely -- even if circumstances require the change (your job ended, and a new one starts immediately), you can work through the transition process to internally cope better with the change, giving up the old and embracing the new in a healthy manner.

Epilogue
Bridges uses the story of Psyche and Amor, and the trials of Psyche in her task to be reunited with Amor, to illustrate the power of transitions. There will be help along the way, but the greatest task still remains one of personal responsibility. There are no guaranteed happy endings, either.

This book is an interesting and helpful guide to understanding the constantly changing milieu in which we live from the standpoint of personally coping with change. As a society, we are undergoing various changes, the dramatic nature and radical impacts of which are unlikely to be fully known for years, if not decades. If ever a book on coping with transitions was needed, it is now.

The author, William Bridges, is a writer, lecturer, and consultant on human development. He taught at Mills College (California), and operates transition seminars in the western United States. He was president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology.

I found the strong process parallels with Khubler-Ross' work ("On Death & Dying") very interesting.

An easy, quick read.

Buy a good cover - you are going to read this many times over.

What I found disappointing was the narrowness of the focus. The subtitle of the book is "The Spiritual and Cultural Practice of Judaism Today," but it really should have been "The Practice of Orthodox Judaism Today." Although Goldman notes in passing where Conservative and Reform (and, very occasionally, Reconstructionist) Judaism differ from Orthodox practice, he plainly considers Orthodoxy to be the "real" Judaism. He claims that "you don't have to do it all" (26) and that he intends to show that all idiosyncratic practices (such as the man who eats his non-kosher ham and cheese sandwich on matzah during Passover) are "efforts to reach for the holy" (32). Yet what he is really asking is "why don't these people do more?" And his "hope" is to make (Orthodox) ritual more accessible, so that more people will make more of it part of their lives. (32-33) I don't mean to suggest that there is anything wrong with this goal; it's just that both the subtitle and the book jacket are misleading to the extent they suggest that this book celebrates the variety of spiritual experiences and practice within Judaism.

"Being Jewish" is also somewhat lacking in the "spiritual" aspect advertised in the subtitle. Given the amount of territory Goldman covers in only 280 pages, it's probably not surprising that the mechanical details of the rituals predominate. But only a few chapters (particularly those on the Sabbath and prayer) gave me any sense of the spiritual experience that one might find in these rituals.

Last but not least, I remain troubled by a statement in the last chapter of the book, concerning the study of Torah. Goldman describes the Orthodox approach as treating both the Written and the Oral Torah as the revealed word of God, and the act of studying as an act of devotion. He then describes the "historical and critical" approach to the texts taken by the non-Orthodox rabbinical seminaries, and concludes that "You cannot both critique and fully revere texts at the same time." (259-60) (To be fair, Goldman also notes that the "faith-based approach" often flies in the face of historical fact.) This conclusion, that critique and reverence are fundamentally at odds, seems to me to be symptomatic of Goldman's attitude throughout the book. If you define "fully revere" as "accept uncritically," then of course reverence and critique are mutually incompatible. What Goldman fails to acknowledge (here and elsewhere) is that there may be other ways to "fully revere" the text (or to respect traditions and rituals) that have the same spiritual impact for particular individuals as traditional observance plainly has for Goldman.

An advantage of Being Jewish is the more specific examples of how the different denominations practice some of the customs of Judaism. The book has a very modern appeal and that is a plus.

However, the author does tend to cite a few times too many that there are people who vary the practice of Judaism to their own needs. To paraphrase the author, there are six million jews and six million interpretations. Whereas some Jews alter their beleifs somewhat, I would say its a bit extreme to say that Judaism can be catered to the individual. Goldman eventually does focus in on the core foundations of each custom, holiday, etc.

And its the history behind each ceremony that makes this book stand tall. Goldman really gives a very good account on the history of the Brith noting the rise and the fall of its prominence in today's society. He also gives a nice history of the first Bat Mitzvah and how this trend has caught the attention of the Jewish Community. Some good summaries from the Bible are included to illustrate such points of marriage and keeping kosher. Even issues of vegatarianism are discussed as a part of the stories of Noah and Adam.

Some good summaries exists at the end of each chapter which make for easy learning. One can utilize the Bibliography as a guide for suggested readings even if it is not too extensive.

A good guide for those intersted in pursuing Judaism further. It provides a good hsitorical point of view while adding a modern touch.

Oh, and, by the way... According to Lewis' system, 9:00 AM on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, was suitable time for traveling or making financial investments.

Lewis wrote some interesting books, but stay away from this turkey!

Mike