'Sanity and Sanctity: Mental Health Work Among the Ultra-Orthodox in Jerusalem'

When the two psychiatrists met Ezra, his angel came too. It was a punishing angel. It plagued Ezra with guilt about his father's death and ordered the yeshiva student to fast repeatedly and to practice other forms of self-denial.

Antipsychotic medication did some good, when Ezra would take it, but the angel stayed powerful. So the psychiatrists tried something new. With Ezra's brother, they convened the semblance of a "lay Jewish religious court" to confront the angel directly. They

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