Okay, I guess I am going to have to check out Lacan. Interesting to me that going through grad school does some of the same work in economics as in theology: a person finds it necessary to critique authority and put the received methodology into context.
In grad school I interacted with a guy who suggested to his girlfriend that she should re-think her religion-based prohibition on sex before marriage. Somehow I got involved in a discussion about this and suggested that he had overstepped. Later, an attractive female student of his came on to him and wanted an evening of sex. He was anguished, and felt this was wrong. I foolishly observed that there was a certain irony about his situation. As a response, he decided to go ahead and sleep with his student.
It doesn't only happen to the religious. But premature reaction is real.
Thank you so much Jim. I'm a cradle Catholic, who just went through the motions into early adulthood, then I became very engaged with it, and now I'm back to going through the motions, but from a different place. This piece named that "different place" and put some ground underneath what had felt groundless for several years now. I even see this happening within my marriage to an extent.
Another insightful article. Thank you. I’ ve already deeply experienced this, after an abusive marriage with a man i truly loved just tore my whole world and being into scattered pieces. (He had a multiple personality disorder.) i’ve been actively rebuilding a “real world” — real enough to suit me very well. But something in this stirred me to do something more about helping people who are experiencing this. I had a cat and s dog who helped me enormously. I wrote a book about the cat, named My Teacher My Cat. But i sense that nowadays people need more help, through the intensity to their own inner reality. You’ ve stirred me again, Jim Palmer!
This was a very interesting and insightful piece. I am not sure if this is like my break with religion. I was raised in my paternal grandparents church. They were Friends. My father remarried when I was ten and started attending my stepmother's church, which was a United Methodist church. This was different but it wasn't too much of a contrast with the Friends to shake me up. Then, when I was 16 she changed and started dragging me to an Evangelical church. There, the contrast between the Evangelical church and the Friends meeting house was so extreme that I left religion completely and even ran away from home. Fortunately, my grandparents took me in and stayed with them until I graduated high school and enlisted in the Army. Many years later I took this online questionnaire, where I answered twenty multiple choice questions and they would tell me which faith I aligned with. Interestingly the answer was a tie between Quakerism and the Universal Unitarian church.
Jim. Thanks for this. Mirrors my experience.
Okay, I guess I am going to have to check out Lacan. Interesting to me that going through grad school does some of the same work in economics as in theology: a person finds it necessary to critique authority and put the received methodology into context.
I really enjoy your writings. I see in my past this experience. And i can see am going thru it.
You seem to have an answer to questions i can't get into words. Thankyou for your wisdom.
In grad school I interacted with a guy who suggested to his girlfriend that she should re-think her religion-based prohibition on sex before marriage. Somehow I got involved in a discussion about this and suggested that he had overstepped. Later, an attractive female student of his came on to him and wanted an evening of sex. He was anguished, and felt this was wrong. I foolishly observed that there was a certain irony about his situation. As a response, he decided to go ahead and sleep with his student.
It doesn't only happen to the religious. But premature reaction is real.
Thank you so much Jim. I'm a cradle Catholic, who just went through the motions into early adulthood, then I became very engaged with it, and now I'm back to going through the motions, but from a different place. This piece named that "different place" and put some ground underneath what had felt groundless for several years now. I even see this happening within my marriage to an extent.
Another insightful article. Thank you. I’ ve already deeply experienced this, after an abusive marriage with a man i truly loved just tore my whole world and being into scattered pieces. (He had a multiple personality disorder.) i’ve been actively rebuilding a “real world” — real enough to suit me very well. But something in this stirred me to do something more about helping people who are experiencing this. I had a cat and s dog who helped me enormously. I wrote a book about the cat, named My Teacher My Cat. But i sense that nowadays people need more help, through the intensity to their own inner reality. You’ ve stirred me again, Jim Palmer!
Yes. As a therapist I agree it is very helpful to understand this process as development, not something to fear or feel guilty about. Thanks.
Yes! Just thinking that I wish my therapist understood this.
This was a very interesting and insightful piece. I am not sure if this is like my break with religion. I was raised in my paternal grandparents church. They were Friends. My father remarried when I was ten and started attending my stepmother's church, which was a United Methodist church. This was different but it wasn't too much of a contrast with the Friends to shake me up. Then, when I was 16 she changed and started dragging me to an Evangelical church. There, the contrast between the Evangelical church and the Friends meeting house was so extreme that I left religion completely and even ran away from home. Fortunately, my grandparents took me in and stayed with them until I graduated high school and enlisted in the Army. Many years later I took this online questionnaire, where I answered twenty multiple choice questions and they would tell me which faith I aligned with. Interestingly the answer was a tie between Quakerism and the Universal Unitarian church.