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Published: July 12, 2022, 1:37 a.m.

Prof. Juni begins by charting humanity\u2019s ignominious tradition of attributing malice onto those of us whose maladies we fail to understand. Even after prejudice toward the physically disabled began to wane, this ignoble tendency remained steadfast when we confronted illnesses with no blatant physical cause, and especially when we saw people behaving \u201cirrationality. Moored in the legends of the archetypal Eve whose defiance of G-d\u2019s anti-apple injunction was \u201cnecessarily\u201d caused by an unholy alliance with the evil snake, we consequently burned \u201cnefarious\u201d witches, performed gruesome exorcisms on hapless victims who \u201cobviously\u201d consorted (implicitly or explicitly) with the devil, shamed those of \u201cpoor moral character,\u201d lambasted depressives, disparaged the anxious, and humiliated non-achievers as lazy-good-for-nothings. 

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Juni contextualizes this phenomenon, arguing that \u201cblaming the victim\u201d has been the prevalent response to injustice for millennia across all cultures. This stance serves a defensive psychological function: if we were to accept the presence of unexplained causes of maladies which are beyond the control of victims, then it would engender massive anxiety among all of us lest we, too, might become victims. Far better to see victims as sinners, incompetents, or of \u201cbad character\u201d \u2013 thus assuring ourselves immunity from such travails. 

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Focusing on stammering and stuttering, the discussant agree that verbal dysfluency evinces an inhibition of verbal expression which the speaker desperately attempts to battle. Juni elaborates traditional Freudian theory which anchors such dysfluencies in symbolic expressions of underlying sexual and aggressive inhibitive responses. The notion here is that the ego is inhibiting free verbal expression to avoid the likelihood that inappropriate sexual and aggressive content would burst forth from the repressed unconscious of individuals who suffered childhood traumatic experiences. Modern day psychoneurologists have succeeded, for the most part, in discrediting these hypothesized dynamics, pointing to spurious neurological inhibitions and recursive activation loops as the likely underlying causes. 

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Rabbi Kivelevitz highlights the significant self-esteem and self-efficacy deficits which become intrinsic in individuals with speech dysfluency, referencing both prominent historical figures (such as Joe Biden and King Arthur) as well as examples from his own constituents whom he counsels. Capitalizing on cultural humor as the gateway to prejudice, Juni illustrates the pejorative demeaning stereotypes of dysfluent individuals which pervade the biases of even the kindest and interpersonally sensitive among us. R. Kivelevitz stresses that notwithstanding the current medical understanding of dysfluency as a physiological and conditioned behavioral disorder, counseling is an absolute requirement for sufferers of this malady due to pervasive social censure and self-debasing tendencies. 

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Prof. Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today. He has published ground-breaking 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.

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He studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Dr. Juni is a board 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 cutting-edge research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psychodynamic 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.

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Professor Juni created and directed the NYU 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.

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Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 article (many are available online): 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, and Culture.

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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.

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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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