Saturday, March 16, 2013

brain and attachment

I read The Developing Mind by Daniel Siegel for class the last two weeks, and it was quite interesting (the brain and its many abilities never ceases to amaze me). One thing that was pointed out over and over in that book was how important attachment is, and how many things an insecure attachment can affect. This led to questions of how we, as church, as pastoral caregivers, and even as fellow humans can help promote secure attachment and provide resources for new parents about attachment and raising children. It also made me wonder about the connections between these things and acts of violence in the world, and how this might be one thing we should focus more on that can have positive impacts on the future mental health of many. We have a lot of symptoms in the world today, and addressing the symptoms is only a partial solution. How can we dig deeper into cultural and social issues and patterns and root out causes of violence and suffering? And how do we do that when some are already content to stay in it? What questions can we ask? What do we stand on? How do we appeal to the personhood of all persons and then also reach for something beyond ourselves?