Redeemed somewhat by the ending, which acknowledges that despite the treatment helping a great deal, the young man and his family will likely be dealing with the trauma of both his illness and its treatment for years to come. Single-Issue Psychology and Epiphany Therapy heavily factor into it. Danny, in his clinical training, treats a very disturbed young man. Hollywood Psych: One of the book's flaws is that, to modern readers, it suffers deeply from this.Fired Teacher: Reuven's dad taught at a Jewish high school but left because of a factional dispute.Rachel was raised by less observant, modern Jews with a relaxed attitude to the secular world. Culture Clash: Danny was raised in a strictly observant Hasidic family.

Here he uses this to treat a disturbed young man. Call-Back: Danny is raised in silence in The Chosen.Later, Abraham Gordon gives Reuven's father David a position when he's forced out of his job. A Friend in Need: Abraham and Ruth Gordon desperately need to treat their son.And the Malter family's friendship with the family of Abraham Gordon, a most unorthodox Jewish scholar, has repercussions that - in the end - no one could have foreseen. In the background, great changes are shaking up the Yeshiva world: new rabbis from Europe, refugees from The Holocaust, have arrived and are pushing an almost reactionary brand of Orthodoxy, threatening the livelihood of Reuven's father, who is moving in an ever more progressive direction. Chaim Potok takes us back to New York City a few years later, where Reuven Malter is now studying for his semicha (rabbinic ordination) and Danny Saunders is finishing up his doctorate in clinical psychology.

The Promise by Chaim Potok