Aicha+Psychology

To be honest, this is not an east subject to blog about but I'll try my best.
In perek gimmel, this guy goes on one crazy ride. He does a lot of developing, so I thought I'd try to relate some of his actions to what we're learning in psychology.

At first he is angry with G-d for punishing him arbitrarily. He doesn't even mention G-d's name for the first 17 passim. He feels like G-d is cruel and that everything that is happening is in no way connected to his actions. This is kindof like the egocentric attitude young children have because they have not yet developed the ability to think about things from others points of view. This guy (either Yirmiahu or the universal man) is only too see this from his point of view in the beginning. He doesn't feel that he has done anything wrong and is angry that he is being punished. He is not able to see the big picture and realize that G-d is not spiteful and is only punishing him because he sinned. In class, we talked about the different phases of trauma this guy is going through. Maybe the shock and anger at the beginning are the cause of egocentrism--he is unable to look at what's been happening clearly.

Then he says G-d's name. He is still angry and feels that G-d is cruel, but after saying G-d's name, walls come down. He begins to develop a bit more and is able to see that he is the target. It is not arbitrary. There is a G-d. It's like he's growing up and thinking more abstractly and realizing that even though he can't see G-d, He is still there (sort of like object permanence). He also realizes that if G-d in control of the world, then He is also the reason there is good in the world. Maybe then there is hope..G-d might do good things for him in the future. Once he recognizes this, everything changes. It's like he's hitting adolescence and the world is starting to make sense to him.

G-d is not spiteful. He is only punishing him for sinning. There is hope for this complicated relationship. We looked back into  Devarim and saw that G-d told the people that He would punish them if they ever sinned, so He's just following through with that. It's like a father telling his young son that if he gets in a fight with other kids at school, he will be punished. After getting in a fight at school, the father takes away the boy's electronics and doesn't let him watch the Super Bowl. The boy is angry at first and does not realize why his father is being so cruel. After calming down a bit, he sees his friend at school and his friend asks him what happened. He tells his friend that his father punished him. The friend asks why and the boy responds that his father told him not to fight at school. After talking about it and actually saying what he did aloud, he realizes that his father was just following through with the punishment he promised if the kid got in a fight. It all made sense now. The father is not trying to be mean. He is trying to teach the child. The kid must be punished so he can understand that fighting is wrong and won't do it again.

Basically, G-d is positively punishing the Jews. He brings destruction and chaos and pain to Yerushalayim in order to show the people that what they did was wrong and ensure that learn their lesson and don't repeat this behavior anymore.