Keywords

1 Introduction

The ideal pole in the psychology of the self raises our eyes to the ideal and enables us to build the self of the individual. The ideal is related to being connected to the other, to the past, to what is beyond oneself, and to the cosmos (Izard 1977). The ideal start with the vision of a whole that wants to do good with itself and to be good for its inhabitants rather than with the shortcomings, the vulnerability and the defects that need to be corrected. Joy is the vision, a utopian expression of the healthy structure of the self. As an ideal of wholeness, it is not connected to a lack but to a holistic being. Unity is crucial to development, holistic functioning, and flow (Danner et al. 2001). Our self is healthy if there is enough empathy towards us or when the person and his environment connect with the ideal. Joy can be supported if we do not focus on where we come from, but rather on where we strive to go. Kohut (1977) describes the importance of empathy as oneness with the world. Kohut refers to a search ‘imbued with joy’ implies a search that is not just directed to the object, but also open physically and mentally to the space (1985, p. 247). Joy, according to Kohut, stems from an environment which allows us to flourish, fosters creative directions and is happy in our development. Aside from the immediate human environment, what is the role of physical urban space in building and supporting joy?

A growing body of research explores the relationship between sustainability and happiness relating to the concept of sustainable happiness, which holds significant potential for individual and community well-being (O’Brien 2008; Flint Ashery 2014, 2017). Social happiness, as the type of behaviour that leads to desirable quality of life, plays a significant role in the life of individuals and urban planning (Bokharaei et al. 2018). In particular, subjective well-being is regularly used as a policy measure for social progress, with proponents promoting the idea of the ‘happy city’ (Kent et al. 2017). While previous studies have considered the impact of specific aspects of the built environment on components of subjective well-being, the literature on joy as an essential component of subjective well-being is lacking. The joy that comes from holistic planning is based on the protections, compromises, and sublimations of man in relation to his passions, friends, and culture. It is planning that addresses the urban systems together and improves the quality of life of an individual within his environment. It is planning that begins with the destination we aspire to and examines how using the land uses creates an environmental experience of well-being and contentment for individuals.

According to various studies on the effects of joy on the human being, joy contributes significantly to creativity, productivity, fruitful collaboration, flexibility, extending our range of attention and acceptance, integrity, and a sense of security for health and longevity. However, despite its potential impact on residents, the emergence of joy in the psychoanalytic as well as in the planning literature, and its effect on the neighbourhood as a whole, has received little attention. How come these professions disengaged with joy when they assist people’s existential experiences? How can we explain the hidden but sweeping disappearance of joy from psychoanalytic and planning discourses in which it takes place? We can explain this absence from the psychoanalytic literature by the fact that psychoanalysis originated as a response to a pathological problem, as a way to alleviate, facilitate, or understand it. Presumably, most of the investment goes to these areas because patients seek treatment as they are distressed, thus the obvious and understandable response would be to dig into the pain. Despite its potential impact on the total population and the whole urban space, the effects of joy have received little attention in the planning theory and practice and generally have been attributed to happiness, which is closely associated with human-nature relations, community relations, and sustainability. This work aims to address the conspicuous lack of high-resolution studies that identify the role of physical urban space in the building and supporting joy, contending that in order to examine these processes, one must refer to the social system that drives the local process and the set of values from which it is draws its strength.

This study sheds light on the role of neighbourhood planning in building and supporting joy. The study focuses on Beit Safafa, a well-established Arab Muslim village in the metropole of Jerusalem. The main conflict is the gap between the planning policy for Beit Safafa itself, that has been approved in 2015 and a comprehensive building policy alongside the light rail train for the entire city, which might change the rural attributes of Beit Tsafafa and Sharfat. While the entrepreneurs seek a higher number of new dwellings and rise above six floors, the residents are worried about losing their way of life. We use Geodesign, an iterative design method, to use stakeholder input (residents, municipal planners, NGOs), geospatial modelling, impact simulations, and real-time feedback to facilitate holistic decisions, resolve conflicts between different points of view and build a ‘joyful’ future for Beit Safafa 2040. Drawing on the complexity theory allows reference to mega-complex systems, which emphasizes an all-encompassing context, the ‘texture of the whole’ (Sella 2014). This concept, located both in the psychoanalytic discourse of self-psychology and contemporary intersubjective psychology and in urban discourse, represents progress in the advanced analysis of joy in urban planning with far-reaching implications for planning policy.

Our first objective is to remove barriers through comprehensive design, which refers to integrating the planning systems as a means to unite the built fabric. Our second objective is to recognize Beit Safafa as part of the entire city and promote connections between its various parts, as well as between the neighbourhood and its surrounding areas, which will allow Beit Safafa to grow by connecting and matching. Our third objective is to propose a plan for strengthening local identity through reliance on existing social-spatial components and maintaining the village’s unique identity within the entire matrix. Our fourth and final objective is to plan Beit Safafa’s inspiration for economic development and social welfare, as well as environmental preservation, so its uniqueness and character will contribute to the entire city. As this paper offers the only data on comprehensive planning of joy, the findings add to the literature on the effects of specific aspects of the built environment on joy, as an important component of subjective well-being.

The rest of the paper has the following structure: Sect. 10.2 presents a theoretical background, followed by Sect. 10.3 describing the case study and the methods. Section 10.4 describes the results, including Mudita Connective planning; planning for strengthening existing power sources; the residents’ perspective, and how ‘inspiring joy’ planning for Beit Safafa’s unique character will benefit the entire city in terms of economic development, social welfare, and environmental protection. The paper concludes with a discussion and summary.

2 Theoretical Background

2.1 Joy in Psychoanalysis Discourse

Classical psychoanalysis has a paradigm of depth: The mind is perceived as layered, from the conscious to the pre-conscious and then the unconscious. Acknowledged models convey the perception that the mind is constructed by layered structures that have accumulated over time (Bion 1962; Vermote 2015). This perception is searching for the palimpsest that lies beneath, bringing the unconscious to consciousness. Within the psychoanalysis value position, depth, truthfulness, pain, and suffering are entwined. Simplicity can easily be perceived as superficial, meagre, one-dimensional, and associated with naivety and frivolity (Greenson 1962; Buechler 2002, 2010). But it can also be used to express complete, holistic, unbroken innocence (Canarelli 2010; Newcombe 2010; Weizbard 2010). Erel (2020) describes ‘the life energy that drives the process of development of the self-nucleus’, includes, in addition to satisfying impulses, elements of vitality, playfulness, and creativity, which become central to Winnicottian thinking (see Winnicott 1971; Eigen 2013). “The simplicity of the spirit”, says Ricard (2005), “is accompanied by clarity of intuitive knowing”... “consciousness … goes deeper and deeper into the experience, behind mental constructs and behind the veil of your emerging tendencies”.

Freud (1890) motivation theory posits that unconscious psychological forces, such as hidden desires and motives, shape an individual’s behaviour. The source of the individual’s motivation is his passionate impulsive satisfaction or sublimation. The realization of this motivation brings pleasure. Kohut, however, argues that the source of human motivation is an expression of the self (Kohut 1974b; Kohut and Wolf 1978) and of a potential nuclear programme: “Joy relates to experiences of the total self” (1977, p. 60), resulting from the sense of cohesion (1974a, L8. 116). Kohut used to call the psychology of the self ‘psychology of the depths' (Kohut and Elson 1987; Kohut 2009a, 2009b, 2009c, 2013). He speaks of a life of “passion and joy” (1985, p. 147), of a “deep sense of joy” (1977, p. 69). The appearance of expressions of joy in therapy can be indicative of other, archaic, deep experiences that undergo resuscitation in the empathic matrix, not necessarily through understanding and awareness, and connect to an initial fusion as it was (p. 250, 263). Heisterkamp (2001) describes Kohut as the founder of psychoanalysis of joy, who defines human development as self-construction through joy, while anxiety is associated with disintegration. Tamir (2012) sees joy as one of the three cores of human essence, along with hope and responsibility, which form the substrate for narcissistic self-nuclearity.

The different manifestations of the selfobject are deeply embedded within the complexity theory, which have gained increasing prominence in the psychoanalytic discourse of self-psychology and contemporary intersubjectivity. This concept deals with mega-complex systems and emphasizes the totality of an all-encompassing context, the ‘texture of the whole’ (Heisenberg 1959, p. 96) that becomes ‘Lived complexity, at its deepest level … undivided wholeness akin to Zen states’ (Sucharov 2013).

Joy accompanies the process of moving forward to the next desirable and natural development. In Buddhist thought, meditative practice expands our ability to serve in the four virtues, demonstrating that it is possible and essential to cultivate joy (Ricard 2011). Kulka (2005, 2010) distils the meaning of joy: “Kohut” he describes, was “on the verge of placing the concept of joy as a conceptualization, as a kind of watershed between process development and complex development, which were separated by the magnifying empathic matrix”. The tragic person Kohut describes is the one who fails to live his or her ideal nucleus, or whose environment prevents it. Kulka (2012) continues to develop Kohut’s idealized concept, calling it the ‘Psychology of space’ and describing a grandiose world, as a distinctly structured world that transcends boundaries towards wholeness. We are in constant motion between these, open closed open (Haber Mosheiov 2013), finite and infinite (Green 2008). Is it possible to say that a happy person is one who lives in accordance with his/her potential nucleus in an environment that allows such living? Bacal (1985) explains how appropriately tailored empathy can deeply enhance development. A special virtue of empathy is the intention to be for the other not as an object, but for her or him as a selfobject (Stern 2010, 2018). Bollas, in his article on ‘The psychonalyst’s celebration of the analysand’ (1991), explains that treating the negative strongly is the therapist’s ‘safe ground’. Leaving this safe ground is crucial to therapy. Therefore, it can sometimes be necessary to venture away from the known, the structured, and the expected, to express effort and creativity.

2.2 Joy in Urban Discourse

Most urban writings used the term happiness, rather than joy, to describe how social relationships, community amenities, and environmental conditions contribute to the lives of residents (Layard and Layard 2011; Leyden et al. 2011). A community’s socioeconomic characteristics may also affect its social cohesion (Flint Ashery 2020). More educated, wealthier, and older people tend to be more socially connected than less educated, younger people (Wilson 2012; Rohe and Lindblad 2013). Connectivity and social capital among residents may help communities resist threats such as crime and recover from disasters (Seidman 2013; Flint Ashery 2019). Overcoming threats and crises can play an important role in bolstering residents’ sense of agency, social ties, and happiness (Cloutier and Pfeiffer 2015). The ability to connect with others may greatly influence our overall health and well-being, as well as our long-term well-being (Hawton et al. 2011). Relationships that connect individuals with their communities can also build social capital, where we can use our relationships to gain knowledge and obtain resources (Coleman 1988; Flint-Ashery and Hatna 2021).

Community characteristics shape social and capital relationships (Flint Ashery 2023a). Among these are the physical conditions of the built environment, including housing design, density, street connectivity, mix of land uses, and public spaces (Duany et al. 2001; Freeman 2001; Mason 2010). Residents’ subjective well-being may be directly affected by neighbourhood amenities like green space and transit access. There is evidence that green and natural environments promote well-being (Akers et al. 2012). Having access to green spaces or wide open spaces that allow for exercise may boost happiness. Campbell and Wiesen (2011) describe open spaces that make people happier as ‘restorative commons’. Among them are parks, community gardens, botanical gardens, building exteriors, and rights of way (Wells and Laquatra 2009). Seeing green may drive some of these effects, as seeing green makes people feel at peace (Akers et al. 2012). Green environments may also indicate fertility and food availability, which may be deeply engrained in us to seek out in order to survive.

Complexity theories of cities (CTC) is a domain of research that applies to cities the various theories of complexity that originated in the sciences. Alexander (2021) shows that properties such as value and wholeness that throughout most of the twentieth century were treated as subjective and thus ‘non-scientific’, should form the theoretical core not only of architecture but of the current sciences of complexity—in general and in connection with cities, urban planning, and design. Additionally, the complexity and malleability of these spaces may promote wonder and exploration, which may contribute to well-being and joy (Campbell and Wiesen 2011). In spite of the potential link between community characteristics and happiness, Joy is generally not seen as a goal of community development or achieving social justice or economic growth (Vidal 1996). Sustainability sciences are enhancing community development by applying new principles. The ‘three pillars’ of sustainability are the environment, the economy, and social equity. It has now become clear to community development practitioners that achieving these goals involves negotiating among competing desires and outcomes (Campbell and Wiesen 2011). Additionally, they are increasingly mindful of the importance of being culturally competent and engaging residents in their practices (Sue 2006).

More recent investigations concern logical expressibility in other areas of complexity theory such as optimization and counting. Geodesign (Steinitz 2012), a cutting-edge planning approach that is rooted in the history of planning practice, has become one of the most popular approaches for sustainable planning and design activities after 2000s. Planners tend to think of design at a site scale, but Geodesign covers a variety of scales, bridging the gap between the regional and the local contexts (Flint Ashery and Steinitz 2022). This is important because to be practically effective and politically prudent, Smart Growth plans need to make sense across a spectrum of scales and disciplines. This ranges from design, urban design, community planning, town and city planning, and regional planning, up to planning for mega-regions. From a digitalization context, as the projects get more complex with more stakeholders, communication, and coordination become critical (Sigalov-Klein et al. 2024).

We use here the Geodesignhub platform, a digital web-based workflow based on a systems approach. Enabled by rapid advances in digital technology Geodesign is an iterative design method that uses stakeholder input, geospatial modelling, impact simulations, and real-time feedback to facilitate holistic decisions and smart decisions. It provides a framework and set of tools for exploring issues from a transdisciplinary perspective and for resolving conflicts between different points of view. It is designed to foster collaboration and negotiation among professionals and their clients, and among teams of professionals.

3 Geodesigning the Future for Beit Safafa

Beit Safafa is a well-established Arab Muslim village in the metropole of Jerusalem. The village was divided after the 1948 war between Israel and Jordan, splitting families and households. After the Six-Day War, both sides were spatially reunited, but the scars remain. Today Beit Safafa is included in Jerusalem and is known as a well-established neighbourhood, where most of its’ residents are Arab Muslims.

The planning policy for Beit Safafa, which was approved in 2015, adds 5400 new planned dwellings, 13,310 dwellings and approximately 60,000 residents by 2030, allowing buildings between 3 and 6 floors. The main conflict is the gap between the planning policy for Beit Safafa itself, that has been approved in 2015 and a comprehensive building policy alongside the light rail train for the entire city, which might change the rural attributes of Beit Safafa and Sharfat. While the entrepreneurs seek a higher number of new dwellings and rise above six floors, the residents are worried about losing their way of life. A deep public engagement is critical to moving forward.

Building the future for Beit Safafa 2040 (Fig. 10.1), residents, municipal planners, NGOs, and students talked about how social hierarchies are translated into socio-spatial patterns, related to specific urbanization paths, property allocation mechanisms, the creation of the built environment, and planning regulations, and how they affect the reproduction of social inequality. We use Geodesign, an iterative design method, to use stakeholder input, geospatial modelling, impact simulations, and real-time feedback to facilitate holistic decisions and resolve conflicts between different points of view (Steinlauf-Millo et al. 2021; Flint Ashery 2023b). It should be noted that although there are polygons in other systems that may fit more than one investment direction, to simplify the idea we have almost completely separated the systems in the printed maps shown here (unlike the digital version). Therefore, if there are overlaps between the polygons on the map, i.e. adjacent or overlapping areas (such as a conservation site within a green area), the representation in the printed maps avoids confusion and overlap and presents the most relevant system.

Fig. 10.1
Two maps illustrate the plan of the Beit Safafa, which includes residents and N G Os.

A comprehensive planning to Beit Zafafa

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4 Results

Joy represents the psychology of wholeness, of simplicity in its highest essence and the removal of pain does not necessarily lead to joy (Emde 1991; Seligman 2002). Nevertheless, we wanted to confirm this ‘common knowledge’ for Beit Safafa. Here are some additional investment planning options that certainly give rise to many more.

4.1 Mudita Connective Planning

The ability to have pure joy at the success and good fortune of others. Mudita is a pure joy unadulterated by self-interest and is significant as one of the four Buddhist virtues (Immeasurables or brahmavihārās, Kornfield 2007). According to this concept, you don’t need to be the “master of the joy” in order to enjoy it. Actually, it can sometimes be difficult even for therapists, to recognize and celebrate others’ happiness and achievements when we are facing tragedy ourselves. Particularly when the patient’s source of joy brings us face to face with a painful wound of our own, or situations that can lead to narcissistic harm, such as a patient who is happy to end treatment, for example (Tamir 2012). We will relate the concept of Mudita to the notion of connective planning. The high level of transformational ability of therapists may be found in the world of planning when conflicting interests are met, with the planner taking part in the conflict as a mediator. In the case at hand, Beit Safafa is located between the neighbourhoods of Katamonim, Pat, Gilo, and Talpiot. For years, the neighbourhood was an ethnic and cultural enclave whose development was hampered by conflicting land uses, such as the industrial area of Talpiot and the development of the ultra-Orthodox space at its age.

Despite being the only Arab neighbourhood located within the 1967 borderline, considering the neighbourhood as an integral part of the entire city and promoting connections between its parts, as well as between it and its surrounding neighbourhoods and the city as a whole, will allow Beit Safafa to develop by linking and matching (Fig. 10.2). Such a constructive manner may contribute to the cultural-spatial prosperity of the neighbourhood and address broader spatial issues. The construction of mixed-use buildings near major arteries and railways as well as in employment centres and parks, future development will provide housing improvements as well as future housing for the next generation. The proposed energy policy includes a partnership in the supply and distribution of energy, and the development of energy independence through the establishment of solar, and photovoltaic systems. Selling energy out may create a basis for socioeconomic cooperation towards future energy challenges. In the proposed planning, public transportation and shuttles will be prioritized in the centre of the village, electric buses will be used and inner and surrounding neighbourhood bike paths will be built as well as new roads will be upgraded. The proposed projects and policies will allow residents to actively engage in inter and intra-neighbourhood activities such as cycling to Gilo’s music centre. Green roofs will cover the arterial road that separates the parts of the village so that it can be traversed safely by pedestrians.

Fig. 10.2
A geo design of the Beit Safafa.

Mudita connective planning for Beit Safafa 2040

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4.2 Planning for Strengthening Existing Power Sources

Being able to see the patient’s visible and hidden sources of joy. It is based on the principle that joy is the hidden, pure original innocence, the true essence of human experience. If so, what should we pay attention to? What should be our flashlight’s focus? In order to promote free associations, a wider and more comprehensive beam of light is needed, which does not leave the light in the dark. Since the influence of the subject’s attitude in perception has become a cornerstone in understanding the therapeutic process, a tendency towards one direction while being blind to the other can create an actual bias. Focusing exclusively on the difficulty will fill the psychic world with it. Also, seeing the denial element of joy, if it exists, does not need to obscure the possibility of connecting to these forces, the vitality, and the merit inherent in their necessity to hold the self (Kohut and Seitz 1963).

In planning Beit Safafa’s future for 2040, we focused on the task of strengthening existing power sources considering identity issues (Fig. 10.3). Despite the importance of comprehensive planning that encompasses Beit Safafa as being part of the urban complex of Jerusalem, maintaining its unique identity within the entire matrix is equally important. Interviews with key figures in the neighbourhood suggest that the struggle for forming and preserving local identity and pride in the face of the surrounding Jewish population, the dissolution of traditional values in the face of modernization, and the selective assimilation of Western values in the face of disintegration are constant challenges.

Fig. 10.3
A geo design illustrates the power sources of the Beit Safafa.

Planning for strengthening existing power sources

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The desire to strengthen local identity through reliance on existing spatial social components has led to a diverse range of planning proposals concerning the mobilization of hidden forces that could serve as agents of renewal. The proposed conservation policy takes into account the need to strengthen the existing centre and define a village core. Preservation of the village core and the nearby archaeological sites will serve as anchors while the village museum and a natural nature area for southwest conservation will serve to strengthen local identity.

The expansion of approved public buildings was accompanied by proposing of additional local cultural, sports, and community institutions. In addition to the building structures, green complexes were also proposed, which will accompany the basin project, which includes orchards and cooperative agriculture, and Tantor Park in the south of the neighbourhood. In order to meet market demands, additional low-density construction was proposed in the sensitive internal areas. The proposed agricultural policy, which aims to preserve the agricultural landscape near the village core, aims to strengthen existing power sources for the future. Maintaining food security in order to alleviate future challenges is achieved through a cooperative agriculture project, which entails the construction of terraces and agricultural gardens within existing olive groves. The village’s transportation policy provides an area without vehicles in the village core.

4.3 Removing Barriers by Planning for Beit Safafa 2040

The removal of barriers can be accomplished by identifying and working with the dynamics of the patient and his or her environment that disables joy, as well as working with a position that views happiness as an ethical violation. It can be seen, for example, in post-traumatic families where there are heavy losses or great suffering, in which joy is felt and considered as betrayal and abandonment of the sufferers or their memory. Taking this psychoanalytical approach to planning Beit Safafa, we refer to the neighbourhood as a whole, without functional or municipal boundaries between its various sub-areas (Fig. 10.4). We are working to remove barriers of a painful memory of years of disconnection, of scars that have not merged between the sub-communities within this environment. The proposed comprehensive design (Fig. 10.1) refers to the ten systems together as a means of unifying the built fabric through shared uses. Therefore, the planning proposes covering main arterial roads in the neighbourhood so that people can meet in the central areas and walk safely, taking advantage of the moderate slopes in the area. Examples include the archaeological garden project which connects the past to public functions in the present and Sharafat Park which mediates the spatial functions that take place in different parts of the neighbourhood (the green polygons). Commercial and employment areas offered along the Jerusalem Light Rail, within Dov Yosef Street, are accompanied by a commercial front with the intention of removing socioeconomic barriers and encouraging employment among residents of Beit Safafa in these areas, which are connected by public transportation to the entire city (the purple polygons). Especially when disconnection and repression are the barriers to connecting past and present, the preservation of archaeological sites can open up those channels and bring the past into the present in a meaningful way.

Fig. 10.4
A geo design illustrates the sub-areas of Beit Safafa.

Removing barriers by planning for Beit Safafa 2040

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4.4 Inspiring Joy

Kast (1991), emphasizing the importance of joy to our everyday lives, asks: Can joy be induced? Could joy be abundant? Inspiration is related to inducements. Thinking of joy as a state of contentless consciousness, one does not necessarily have to speak it but be in it. Permission for joy is required, so that joy may also be allowed to clearly appear in therapy. Related to this is the need to remove the dynamic and moral barriers regarding patients, and professional judgement. Removing guilt, and shame, and removing the experience of responsibility as a burden. Is it possible to release the connection between responsibility and burden, as the default connection? Can it be possible to connect responsibility and lightness? Shall two walk together?

Winnicott distinguishes speech about a parent’s capacity to be in a state of pleasure and joy: “The mother’s joy she can count on”, as Abram (1996) defines it. The mother’s pleasure in her infant is a crucial aspect of her ability to hold. Winnicott brings a full basket of recommendations and encouragement: “Enjoy being thought important. Enjoy letting other people look after the world while you are producing a new one of its members. Enjoy being turned in and almost in love with yourself, the baby is so nearly part of you”. Take care of your infant, enjoy their discoveries, and enjoy the long list of other joys and excitement Winnicott (1949) recommends to the mother. He argues that this pleasure, Joy, is vital to the baby, and it cannot be taken for granted, unlike physical activities such as feeding and washing clothes: “… enjoy yourself! If you are there enjoying it all, it is like the sun coming out, for the baby. The mother’s pleasure has to be there or else the whole procedure is dead, useless, and mechanical”. It is imperative that mothers be able to enjoy contexts independent of their babies in order to experience motherly joy. There are so many parallels between parental care and therapy care. Can this parallel also be applied to the planning of human living spaces?

A movement can be directed to the patient (mirroring selfobject) or exists within itself (idealized selfobject). Both are not self-evident: An empathic attitude usually identifies with being reactive to the patient’s mindset. Sometimes, however, it may be necessary to also be in an empathic state that initiates and establishes consciousness—a mental dynamic activity that blows wind and creates a new experience. In Jewish Kabbalah, it was found that admiration is intrinsically linked to emotional action. Also, with the focus on unconscious communication, Winnicott considers that the ability to communicate does not rely, initially, on language acquisition, but on a preverbal interaction through ‘mutuality’. Inspiration is also conditional upon the ability to be in it, to return to it, that the movement of the air—visible or hidden—will allow the presence of joy.

Through the opening of a food and ornamental market, we hoped to expose city residents to the local culture that had developed over generations in Beit Safafa (Fig. 10.5). On the conservation front, there is currently a protected archaeological site that is not used by the locals for fear that tourism would harm their identity if it were opened up. In order to increase empathy for the other and balance the desire to preserve local culture and connect with neighbours, it was proposed to preserve the Burj archaeological site for the local population and to preserve an ancient winepress archaeological site adjacent to the main road for a wider audience. It was proposed, with the input of community members, to build a number of small hotels near the archaeological site conservation project and the small conservation site in the centre of the village so that the number of visitors could be monitored. Likewise, bilingual school is expected to attract students from nearby neighbourhoods. Thus, the uniqueness and character of Beit Safafa will benefit the entire city in terms of economic development, social welfare, and environmental protection.

Fig. 10.5
A geo design illustrates the residents of the local culture.

Inspiring joy

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5 Discussion and Conclusion

In this article, we discovered new aspects of the relationship between joy and the spatial structure of a peri-urban area. Based on the study to date, it is clear that the literature on user-space relationship still has some important gaps. Addressing the theory of complexity while bridging the gaps inherent in it between joy and planning makes it possible to fill the theoretical gap. Complexity must include all those elements—connectivity, strengthening existing power sources, removing barriers, inspiration—that will enable us to understand the social system in question from outside the system itself, which does not necessarily lead to joy, to reveal its gaps and complete them. In particular, symmetry-breaking that deteriorates systemic homogeneity is caused by missing or incorrect connections whose origin cannot be explained solely in terms of joy.

Joy has a strengthening and preventive function (Seligman 2002) and is like a ‘universal vaccine’, helping us bear our negative emotions as they arise (Buechler 2010). Kohut describes how joy characterizes the child’s own experience while he develops. The child who enters the developmental stage, the child who steps forward, the child who succeeds in the developmental task (1985, p. 133), and the one who reaches self-fulfilment of the three components of the narcissistic sector in his personality (1977, p. 57). A parent’s proud smile can instil a person with confidence and a sense of self-worth, sustaining the person throughout his lifetime (Alvarez 2012).

The look that sees us up close and inside, the mirroring, allows us to experience uniqueness from the otherness. (See Levinas 1989). We are not ‘other’ to each other, but each of us is special in our own way. We are a unique show within the fabric of life. Moving between realization, ‘breaking forth’ in Kulka’s words, and back to the infinite potential. The vital importance of the presence of the ‘other’, a presence whose characteristics arise from the context, is the foundation of human, personal, and collective experience. A conception that does not see primary narcissism as a separate narcissistic bubble, a closed energetic system with the ‘other’ being outside of it, but a holistic, all-encompassing being, in which the initial experience is a oneness connection with the world, and between the world and the individual.

The Kohutian ‘other’ is not the one outside the bubble, separate and distinct, nor does it adhere to the phenomenological definition of the other: everything that is not me. It is an otherness which is not experienced as outside. This ‘other’ is outside of me, yet it is experienced as if it were me. Both ‘other’ and ‘myself’ at the same time- this is the self-object. The experience of ‘otherness’ can take many forms: person, object, party, idea, culture, or occurrence. It is crucial to our psychological development; we are born into it and our identity grows and is shaped by it.

The ‘other’ is an unfixed context. As a perpetual urban dynamic, it is always in affinity. Its qualities can be characterized through the perspective of its movement: movement towards, which constitutes the one-time self, and movement beyond, which transcends beyond the self. Empathy and these two selfobject formations, mirroring and the connection to an ideal figure, are the channels of preservation of the initial connected experience. When a person feels internally and deeply understood by the other and is able to blend in with the other’s power and direction, the experiences of connection necessary for his growth are constantly present, at evolving levels of maturity.

Since the 1970s, complex systems and connectivity theories have emphasized the broad context and dynamics within systems. Effective insights were derived from sociology, economics, law, and public policy, distinguishing between the system—identifying its components—and the processes—the forces shaping those components. In the field of planning, there is an increasing critique that planning is subjective, does not reflect pluralism, and sanctifies the mechanism at the expense of the essence and is therefore blind to its complexity. In the same way as network theory, complex systems theory has not evolved from vision to tool. Complex research has vague implications at best, and there are issues with the production and distribution of space. In this study, the concept of Modita is related to the concept of comprehensive planning while maintaining urban context. In Beit Safafa, architects design buildings, planners focus on procedures, and the urban design fall between the chairs instead of being the connecting link. Knowledge gaps are created in the neighbourhood that are not filled by complementary knowledge bodies.

Kohut devoted his life to the search for the way in which psychoanalysis can bring a person back from his otherness, from a place where they are neither of themselves nor of anyone else. That the world is not yours, nor are you a part of it. This can be a horrifying crisis. When the movement towards us does not occur, or when we are unable to move beyond ourselves, we abandon the other, and then the experience of otherness appears, and when it increases, the experience of alienation is added. The experience of alienation is a consequence of the loss of context attachment. It may even produce otherness that seeks its removal. Thus, identifying the native Arab population as a foreign and undesirable minority, thereby creating a substrate of mutual existential threat, greatly challenges the movement towards the other.

The other’s disregard for us causes us outwardly alienated, causing us to be otherness to ourselves. This is an initial state of mind in which there is threatening dualism within the individual. It can be experienced from within as an otherness of secret, criticism, or perversion. It can manifest itself in different degrees of isolation, disconnection, rejection, or dissociation. These experiences can be very difficult and debilitating. Kohut argues that in the absence of joy the impulses become isolated, the self becomes depressed, and it seeks to sustain itself through a ‘search for hopeless pleasure’ (1985, p. 278).

The experience of the otherness in the world of planning may be experienced by the public when the municipal authority pays lip service to public participation procedure. The public is alienated from planners who use professional jargon and are inaccessible to them, and as a result, do not share with them the vernacular knowledge that is at their disposal, nor are they involved in the decision-making process. The decision-makers, on the other hand, have little real knowledge of the population, and their decisions are not technology-based on real data. The weak lose out as there is almost no local knowledge involved in planning. They are usually the disorganized individuals who are outwardly alienated from their home city. As a result, the planning system is incapable of recognizing and responding, missing insights that are only possible at the micro-level. The inability to reach planning agreements slows and cumbersome planning, and land usage competition determines spatial reality.

According to Kohut, joy characterizes the experience of the self, reaching a psychological balance between being an initiation-focal and the ability to devote to expanding oneself (1977, p. 42). Joy is the result of an empathic matrix, and it plays a significant role in the formation of this matrix. Expressions of joy in therapy can suggest liberation from the injured areas; they can signify the beginnings of structural change—the emergence of compensatory structures (1985, p. 263)—which strengthen existing power sources. In Beit Safafa, the desire for strengthening local identity through using existing spatial social components has led to a variety of planning proposals related to the recruitment of covert forces that can facilitate renewal. Based on the idea that joy, through identity, is the hidden, pure, original innocence, the true essence of human experience, the proposed preservation policy was developed. Seeing the visible and hidden sources of joy of the ‘patient’ takes into consideration the need to strengthen the existing centre and define the village nucleus.

Joy, according to Kohut, characterizes the reaction of the selfobject that matches the development of the child, often corresponding to his appropriate developmental stages.

Joy is a key component of being a selfobject that sees both the grandiose and the transformative, including motherly joy in her son’s future development, that is, in the construction of his virtual self (1977, p. 48).

Enlightenment is the appearance of mental health. It forbids, restraints, regulates and refines, and thus also allows for a complex existence, based on the defences, compromises and sublimations of man in relation to his passions, friends, and culture. Rationality sends us to maturity, judgement, seriousness, conflict resolution, and self-observation.

The workshop presents a collaborative and transparent method for planning that relies on management and negotiation frameworks. Compromise lies in understanding the full scope of the complexity and positively impacting the negotiations. Only the better alternatives are left after negotiations. The feedback process can be used to update the planning scenarios and management of the existing situation: If excessive bureaucracy exacerbates gaps, then the demonstrated planning tool can be used to curb them. A digital process makes it possible to strike a balance between competing interests, satisfying needs, and interests within a holistically managed system.

The proposed planning development promotes urban renewal and real estate development while balancing professional knowledge with local knowledge. Decisions will be taken at the lowest possible level through local management. In order to avoid stagnation and opposition, powers will be transferred to residents. Providing residents with knowledge, power, ability, and authority through a clause that allows residents to determine what they are interested in will allow them to offer a development plan. Planning should avoid freezing the existing situation to remove barriers to the painful memory of years of disconnection and of scars that didn’t merge between the sub-communities. This plan, therefore, will define development with planning referring to the entire neighbourhood.

As Kohut points out, joy is essential to the essence of a parent, to the atmosphere in which the parent lives and inspires. Therefore, it is a key element to being the parent, the caregiver, and an idealized self (1985, pp. 190, 194). Thus, the experience of the otherness is presented to us—the therapists, the planners—as a prayer, request, or demand to approach it. This is the call of the patient’s otherness, that we will not abandon him to his alienness. Liability is related to resuming an interrupted flow. Towards the restoration of dynamics or the starter for the return of self. For the constant renewal of movement beyond the self and toward the otherness. The uniqueness he needs is a continuation of this dynamic. As original as they may be required, finding and inventing ways to constitute something of the presence essential to her or him is to dare step outside the lines and into the spaces.

Similar to the concept of otherness, the multilayered idea of the selfobject is not fully understood. Patients are immensely motivated to find, create, and sometimes invent such selfobjects otherness for themselves. Selfobject is a presence in motion, a presence that seeks. As the patient succeeds in teaching the therapist about the path that leads to him and leads the therapist to be a selfobject to him, his otherness diminishes. That is the movement toward, which constitutes the self in its one-time uniqueness, which is always arising and constitutes our movement as therapists, beyond ourselves. A movement can be directed to the patient (mirroring selfobject) or exists within itself (idealized selfobject). Both are not self-evident: An empathic attitude usually identifies with being reactive to the patient’s mindset. Sometimes, however, it may be necessary to also be in an empathic state that initiates and establishes consciousness—a mental dynamic activity that blows wind and creates a new experience. The search for the presence of others’ self is a fundamental life force. If we persist, we will find it hidden from view. There are those who seem to have given up hope and movement while others are not willing to give up on the hesitant movement of approximation. There are those who protest and there are movements, individual or collective, that arise spontaneously when it becomes impossible to tolerate the non-motion towards and from us.

Kast (1991), emphasizing the importance of joy to our everyday lives, asks: Can joy be induced? Could joy be abundant? Joy is an experience of contentless consciousness, not something one speaks about, but rather, experiences. There is a need to remove dynamic barriers and increase professional judgement in regard to the subject. Is it possible to release the default connection between responsibility and burden? In a therapist and patient relationship, or as a mother and baby, or as a planner and city, can we bring the vitality and joy rooted within us and our relationship with the world into our roles? The answer to this question has to do with our decision to undertake these roles and our intention to influence life to be worthwhile and enjoyable. Consistent with complexity theory and towards the “tool phase”, this study focuses on four planning strategies, their characteristics and composition and explains the motivation and reasoning for multi-system comprehensive planning. However, while the descriptive complexity theory assumed that certain fixed relations, e.g. an ordering, are present, we do not consider such built-in relations. The research highlighted the accumulated impact of the relationships between the object and the subject–between the therapist and the patient, the planner and the plan as well as between the individual users and the urban fabric as a whole. In order to increase empathy, as part of balancing the desire to preserve local culture with the proposed development, exposing the entire city to the local culture that has developed over generations at Beit Safafa may be economically, socially, and environmentally beneficial. As a consequence of the present study, various interdisciplinary issues, such as sustainability, require new solutions that combine economics, sociology, and building engineering as a basis.