COUNTERTRANSFERENCE and Other Plays

About the Book

This book consists of four plays. The first one is a three scene play, Countertransference. The first scene is a modification of a play of the same name from an earlier Xlibris publication, Countertransference and Retribution, consisting of two plays with names as indicated. The second play, Irresistible Impulse is a two act play which is a modification of the play “Retribution” from the aforementioned Xlibris publication. The third play, “Masada Revisited II” is a play about a famous incident in Jewish history that occurred in 73 C.E. It is about the last stronghold of the Jews in the war against the Romans that began in 66 C.E in the region that is Israel today. Masada, a mountaintop fortress near the Dead Sea was the last stronghold of the Jews which the Romans besieged for, supposedly, three years. On the night before when it was very likely that the fortress would be captured by the Romans the next day, the Jewish defenders committed mass suicide so that when the Romans entered the fortress the next morning all they found were dead bodies. This comes down in history from one author, Josephus, a Roman Jewish author. Since Josephus wrote to satisfy the Romans, his version of what happened is suspect. The play in this book gives a different take on what happened there. The last play, “On the Shoulders of Giants” is a play about the famous mathematician Isaac Newton. This play was co-authored with Herbert Hauptman. Herbert Hauptman was the first mathematician to win a Nobel Prize. Since there is no prize in mathematics, he won it in chemistry in 1985 for his work in applying mathematics (Advanced Probability) to crystallography. John Nash of “A Beautiful Mind” was the second mathematician to win a Nobel Prize. He won it for his work in applying mathematics (Game Theory) to economics.

About the Author

The author, Arthur Ziffer, besides writing plays is a mathematician who has worked for the U.S. government and private industry as a mathematician. He was born in New York City and worked at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory where he worked for Herbert Hauptman, the co-author of the last play in this book. The first two plays in this book deal with the issue of countertransference in talk therapy. Previous versions of these two plays were published in the Xlibris publication, “Countertransference and Retribution” by the author.