ABSTRACT. Ob jec tives :The pur pose of this re search was to ex plore the va lid ity of the con cept of dis so ci a tion as mea sured by a He brew version of the Dissociative Ex pe ri ences Scale (H-DES) in Is rael.De sign : The first study ex am ined the re li abil ity and va lid ity of the H-DES by as sess ing 340 con sec u tive ad mis sions to an Is raeli out pa tient clinic, and 290 non-clin i cal sub jects. The sec ond study ex plored the construct va lid ity of the con cept of dis so ci a tion by study ing re la tion ships be tween re ported past traumatization and cur rent lev els of dis so ci a tion among a dif fer ent co hort of 70 women Is raeli out pa tients.Re sults: The H-DES has good test-re test and split-half re li abil ity in clin i cal and non-clin i cal sub jects, and is in ter nally con sis tent. Its con vergent va lid ity with the MMPI 2 Philips Dis so ci a tion Scale is good, and it has good cri te rion-re lated va lid ity with DSM-IV dissociative dis or der di ag no ses. The con cept of dis so ci a tion as mea sured in Is rael by the H-DES has high re li abil ity and va lid ity. Con clu sions:The re li able iden ti fi ca tion of dis sociative ex pe ri ences in Is rael as well as in sev eral cul tures out side North Amer ica sup ports dis soci a tion as a valid psy cho log i cal con struct with wide spread cross-cul tural ap pli ca bil ity. This study con tra dicts claims that dis so ci a tion is merely a pass ing North Amer i can pro fes sional fash ion. Ad dress cor re spon dence to: Eli Somer, PhD, School of So cial Work, Uni ver sity of Haifa, Mt. Car mel, Haifa 31905, Is rael (E-mail: somer@re search.haifa.ac.il).

This study investigated Stambali, a Tunisian trance-dance practiced in Israel as a healing and a demon exorcism ritual by Jewish-Tunisian immigrants. The authors observed the ritual and conducted semi-structured ethnographic interviews with key informants. Content analysis revealed that Stambali is practiced for prophylactic reasons (e.g. repelling the ‘evil eye’), for the promotion of personal well-being, and as a form of crisis intervention. Crisis was often construed by our informants as the punitive action of demons, and the ritual aimed at appeasing them. Communication with the possessing demons was facilitated through a kinetic trance induction, produced by an ascending tempo of rhythmic music and a corresponding increased speed of the participant’s movements of head and extremities. The experience was characterized by the emergence of dissociated eroticism and aggression, and terminated in a convulsive loss of consciousness. Stambali is discussed in terms of externalization and disowning of intrapsychic conflicts by oppressed women with few options for protest.

Therapists will be more effective practitioners when they understand the factors that contribute to sexual boundary violations. The authors' interviews with former victims indicated that offending therapists were mostly reputable psychologists working alone, and that boundary violations developed gradually. The clients were often victims of child sexual abuse. Many reported pleasurable feelings during the affair but saw the experience as hurtful or exploitative in retrospect. The authors' findings imply that practitioners should minimize seemingly innocuous physical consolation or self-disclosure, especially with survivors of child abuse. They are encouraged to select offices with other professionals and to participate in peer-supervision activities.

This single-site study looked at reactions of Israeli patients in psychotherapy to the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Data were collected during the first psychotherapy session following the fatal shooting of the Prime Minister. Thirty-one vignettes were provided for investigation by eight clinicians. The patients' reactions were subjected to qualitative data analysis that yielded high intercoder agreement with regard to 20 codes clustered in four content categories: (1) object of reference; (2) perceived threat; (3) personal association; (4) affect. No apparent relationships between DSM diagnoses and any response patterns were identified, indicating that our subjects might have responded with grief reactions that transcended diagnostic nosologies. Our findings indicate, however, that subjects with a history of paternal child abuse were significantly more likely to respond in a unique way: they often identified with members of the surviving family or with the assassin rather than with the slain leader, explored anxieties about the looming dangers emanating from the Israeli

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