Joanne Greenberg (1932–) is best known for writing Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1964), a groundbreaking, fictional representation of a teenage girl’s recovery from schizophrenia, based on the therapeutic relationship between Greenberg and Frieda Fromm-Reichmann; the novel was recently re-issued with a new after-word. In addition to writing daily, Greenberg, who is Jewish, teaches writing, ethics, and anthropology at the Colorado School of Mines. This conversation with Gail Berkeley Sherman took place at Greenberg’s home in August 2007 and provides an example of how the Judaic/rabbinic concept of two yetzers (i.e., an evil inclination and a good inclination within each of us) fits into the worldview of a Jew.
GBS: Let’s start with why you got interested in writing. What were the passions that drove you when you first started?
JG: I don’t know. I know when, but I don’t know why. I was nine. I had read a wonderful book, The Black Tanker, by Howard Pease. I was taken out of myself... I mean the whole thing was just wonderful! It was not December 7 yet; it must have been the spring of that year [1941]. My father, who was an immigrant, was distraught over what was happening [to Jews in Europe,] and I though I could kind of fix it, so I wrote a letter to Hitler. Hitler never answered, so my good advice went to waste. But I liked doing that; I liked doing that.
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Author: Gail Berkeley Sherman
Keywords: Evil Inclination, Yezer hara, Yezer ha ra, Yeser hara, Yeser ha ra, Yetzer, Yetser, Yetzer ha ra, Yetzer hara, Satan, The adversary, Devil, The devil, Evil One, Angel of Death, Death angel, Fallen angels, Dualism, Jesus's temptation, Jesus' temptation, Temptation in the wilderness, Temptation, Jesus tempted, Jesus tempted in the wilderness, Tempted in the wilderness, Tempter, Yetser hara, Yetser ha ra, Evil impulse, Evil urge
Bible reference(s): Genesis 6:1-4, Job 1:6-9, Job 1:12, Job 2:1-4, Job 2:6-7, Psalm 109:6, Zechariah 3:1-2, Matthew 4:10, Matthew 16:23, Matthew 4:1, Matthew 4:3, Matthew 4:5, Matthew 4:8, Matthew 4:11, Matthew 5:37, Matthew 6:13, Matthew 13:19, Matthew 13:38, Matthew 25:41, Mark 1:13, Mark 4:15, Luke 4:2-3, Luke 4:5-6, Luke 4:8, Luke 4:13, Luke 8:12, Luke 13:16, Luke 22:3, Luke 22:31, John 6:70, John 8:44, John 13:2, John 13:27, John 17:15, Acts 5:3, Acts 13:10, Acts 26:18, Romans 16:20, 1 Corinthians 5:5, 1 Corinthians 7:5, 2 Corinthians 2:11, 2 Corinthians 6:15, 2 Corinthians 12:7, 2 Corinthians 11:14, Ephesians 4:27, Ephesians 6:11, Ephesians 6:16, 1 Thessalonians 3:5, 2 Thessalonians 2:9, 1 Thessalonians 2:18, 1 Timothy 1:20, 1 Timothy 3:6-7, 1 Timothy 5:14-15, 2 Timothy 2:26, Hebrews 2:14, James 4:7, 1 John 2:13-14, 1 John 3:8, 1 John 3:10, 1 John 3:12, 1 John 5:18-19, Revelation 2:9-10, Revelation 2:13, Revelation 2:24, Revelation 3:9, Revelation 12:9, Revelation 12:12, Revelation 20:2, Revelation 20:7, Revelation 20:10
Source: “A Conversation with Joanne Greenberg,” Studies in American Jewish Literature, Vol. 28 (2009), pp. 86-7.
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