Gautama Siddhartha's mother died a few days after he ways born, but his father was powerful and wealthy and lavished him with every comfort and convenience and security.
One can only speculate about Jesus' relationship with Mary and Joseph, but I can only imagine it was difficult for everyone.
Mohamed's father died before he was born and his mother died when he was five. Mohamed's childhood was brutal.
Does missed parental nurturance predispose one to prophetic vocation?
2 comments:
Bowlby's Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis suggests that complete or almost complete deprivation (of a primary caregiver) could "entirely cripple the capacity to make relationships". Partial deprivation could result in acute anxiety, depression, neediness and powerful emotions which the child could not regulate. The end product of such psychic disturbance could be neurosis and instability of character.
His stuff was largely questioned at the time of publication, but his research is considered background for the development of a more current philosophy of “attachment theory” which describes the dynamics of long-term relationships between humans. Its most important tenet is that an infant needs to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for social and emotional development to occur normally.
Wow.
#1 - I am amazed anybody is reading my blog.
#2 - What an amazing response! I shall research Bowlby.
I watched a PBS documentary on the Buddha, and one of the commentators speculated that perhaps the Buddha's exploration of suffering was rooted in the trauma of never relating to his mother. A few weeks later, I watched a PBS documentary on Mohammed, and was aghast at how brutal his childhood was, never knowing his father, abandoned by his mother, reuniting with his mother and then losing her shortly thereafter, then losing his caregiver-uncle.
I do believe that suffering is a motive to inquiry, introspection, exploration. Most all of the spiritual athletes I know have suffered. There are no epic tales of mild mannered people that live quiet, peaceful, bourgeoise lives of comfort, convenience and security. I can see that the struggle with suffering could lead to prophetic vocation, but I wonder if there is correlation between the specific suffering of "maternal deprivation" - Thank you Mr. Bowlby - and the call to prophesize.
Oh Jana, You are wonderful.
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