A few months ago I wrote a review of the film 'He Was a Quiet Man' for my Untamed Newsletter.
The movie and the article dealt with a fictitious man who decides to murder a collection of despised co-workers as part of his dramatic suicide. I explored what I understood to be the central factor leading to this event - maternal rejection.
I indicated that mothers' rejection of their sons is an overwhelmingly common domesticated human experience, expressed to varying degrees and producing matching resultant damage (to read my article please see http://www.untamedlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1555 ) .
It was then, with interest, that I recently read an article in Rolling Stone Magazine entitled 'Everyone Will Remember Me as Some Sort of Monster', by Mark Boal (who also penned the original story that led to the movie 'In the Valley of Elah', about which I wrote another article dealing with the impact of domestication on human males - please see http://www.untamedlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1556 ).
The magazine article deals with the story of Robert Hawkins, the 19 year old who killed eight others and himself with an assault rifle at a Nebraska mall last December. Significantly, it focuses on his history of neglect ("from the very beginning of his life, Rob Hawkins was a throwaway kid") and his very inconsistent relationship with his mother in particular. The parallels of Hawkins' story with the film and my analysis are profound.
To read Boal's article please see http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/22248593/everyone_will_remember_me_as_some_sort_of_monster/1 (it is also very interesting to review the readers' comments about the article, particularly those apparently by Hawkins' mother's sister).
In a similar but different vein, I came upon a newspaper article this week on breastfeeding that describes the strong societal forces mitigating against this most natural of all means of feeding one's offspring ( http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/columnists/story.html?id=7c249e4c-4847-40cb-a1a4-2e82d610eba3 ) .
The relatively good news is that the incidence of breastfeeding has risen markedly over the last three decades (in the Canadian population surveyed at least), although it is still highly underutilized.
Of note, it is much less commonly done by the youngest, poorest, and least educated mothers - those whose babies would benefit from it the most.
Practising medicine, as I do, in Mississippi, I rarely encounter a mother who breastfeeds her newborn for any period of time at all. I clearly recall a discussion with a young, poor mother-to-be who responded indignantly to my inquiry regarding whether she intended to breastfeed - "I sure don't plan on being there 24/7 for this kid!"
The bonding that can occur between mother and child through breastfeeding is tremendous, as are its potential psychological benefits (and other salutary effects).
I would strongly suspect that Robert Hawkins was either not breastfed at all or, if he was, it was only for a very short period of time.
It might well have been a lifesaving move for him and the others murdered at the mall that day if it had occurred.
That being said, like the 'savaging' of piglets by their traumatized mothers (see the discussion of this topic in my article re 'He Was a Quiet Man' alluded to above), the lack of breastfeeding and its dehumanizing consequences are truly just symptomatic - an expression of some of the dysfunction and denaturing experienced by caged human animals due to their domestication.
The movie and the article dealt with a fictitious man who decides to murder a collection of despised co-workers as part of his dramatic suicide. I explored what I understood to be the central factor leading to this event - maternal rejection.
I indicated that mothers' rejection of their sons is an overwhelmingly common domesticated human experience, expressed to varying degrees and producing matching resultant damage (to read my article please see http://www.untamedlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1555 ) .
It was then, with interest, that I recently read an article in Rolling Stone Magazine entitled 'Everyone Will Remember Me as Some Sort of Monster', by Mark Boal (who also penned the original story that led to the movie 'In the Valley of Elah', about which I wrote another article dealing with the impact of domestication on human males - please see http://www.untamedlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1556 ).
The magazine article deals with the story of Robert Hawkins, the 19 year old who killed eight others and himself with an assault rifle at a Nebraska mall last December. Significantly, it focuses on his history of neglect ("from the very beginning of his life, Rob Hawkins was a throwaway kid") and his very inconsistent relationship with his mother in particular. The parallels of Hawkins' story with the film and my analysis are profound.
To read Boal's article please see http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/22248593/everyone_will_remember_me_as_some_sort_of_monster/1 (it is also very interesting to review the readers' comments about the article, particularly those apparently by Hawkins' mother's sister).
In a similar but different vein, I came upon a newspaper article this week on breastfeeding that describes the strong societal forces mitigating against this most natural of all means of feeding one's offspring ( http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/columnists/story.html?id=7c249e4c-4847-40cb-a1a4-2e82d610eba3 ) .
The relatively good news is that the incidence of breastfeeding has risen markedly over the last three decades (in the Canadian population surveyed at least), although it is still highly underutilized.
Of note, it is much less commonly done by the youngest, poorest, and least educated mothers - those whose babies would benefit from it the most.
Practising medicine, as I do, in Mississippi, I rarely encounter a mother who breastfeeds her newborn for any period of time at all. I clearly recall a discussion with a young, poor mother-to-be who responded indignantly to my inquiry regarding whether she intended to breastfeed - "I sure don't plan on being there 24/7 for this kid!"
The bonding that can occur between mother and child through breastfeeding is tremendous, as are its potential psychological benefits (and other salutary effects).
I would strongly suspect that Robert Hawkins was either not breastfed at all or, if he was, it was only for a very short period of time.
It might well have been a lifesaving move for him and the others murdered at the mall that day if it had occurred.
That being said, like the 'savaging' of piglets by their traumatized mothers (see the discussion of this topic in my article re 'He Was a Quiet Man' alluded to above), the lack of breastfeeding and its dehumanizing consequences are truly just symptomatic - an expression of some of the dysfunction and denaturing experienced by caged human animals due to their domestication.
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