Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE Not then but now San Antonio, Tex. To the Editors: Edward Gaffhey' s ignorance of the subject on which he pontificates ["One Troubled Family," November 4] is illustrated by his...
...As McGaughan notes, Dr...
...While a Nationalist (Catholic) was twice as likely as a Unionist (Protestant) to be unemployed in 1968, the disparity has now grown to a ratio of two-and-ahalf to one...
...Providers" like me experience a similar dislocation when we give dedicated attention to a patient—excuse me, a "contract-holder"—and become lost in a blizzard of paperwork, telephone reviews, numbers...
...To the Editors: Edward Gaffhey' s ignorance of the subject on which he pontificates ["One Troubled Family," November 4] is illustrated by his identification of the Shankill Road as Belfast's Catholic ghetto...
...Dysfunctional parent Blue Bell, Pa...
...Much of medicine is a small group or one-to-one, hands-on, intuitive trade...
...Ignorant" (MacEoin) and "wrongheaded" (McGaughan) I may be, but I didn't mean to be "patronizing" nor was I speaking "piously" when I used the metaphor of family therapy as a way of understanding the way forward for the many parties in Northern Ireland who are both deeply connected with and deeply divided from one another...
...Unfortunately, with practice it all becomes routine...
...And whether Gaffney likes the Rev...
...I see significant compromises daily...
...The good people of Northern Ireland are not committed to mutual self-destruction...
...If you look into the kindly eyes of your personal physician and see them flicker up and down in columns, glazing over, driven by the clock—caveat emptor...
...In contrast with the efforts of human rights organizations like Amnesty International, the religious press has been notoriously quiet on the issue of government-inflicted human rights abuse in Northern Ireland...
...Reconciliation between communities that have been set against one another by an exploitative colonial administration is a necessary part of the process, but not the only element in the search for peace, and it cannot be expected to take place without other radical changes in the society...
...I loved his description of the soul-wrenching alienation involved in setting a price for a procedure such as "resuscitation of a newborn...
...Such views are important and must not be brushed off as a "distraction...
...Thus, the point of the metaphor is not to blame victims, but to commend a process of political negotiation that can bring an end to victimization...
...Moreover, I think the metaphor makes a point—especially if, as McGaughan recommends and I intended, it is seen as "a necessary part of the peace process but not the only element...
...As another leader has said, "It's the economy, stupid...
...To the Editors: Just a note to say how eloquent and graceful I found Margaret O'Brien Steinfels's brief essay, "What Women Have Lost" [October 21...
...More troublesome is his basic thesis, namely, that memories of ancient wrongs underlie the past twenty-five years of murderous conflict...
...As the column noted: (1) the metaphor wasn't of my coining but was offered by two Irish psychiatrists...
...it is often resisted in the first stages and is hard work even for the willing...
...To the Editors: Christopher Roller's article on health-care reform [November 4] is a masterly dissection of the body politic, as it looks after our physical health...
...Ian Paisley or not, when Paisley accuses Britain of having sold out the Unionists, he is honestly reflecting a view widely held in his community, and one that is not without some compelling supporting evidence...
...If we are to accept the "dysfunctional family" analogy favored by Gaffney, we must look at the whole family, including the abusive "parent" who still lives with the family and still inflicts grievous harm...
...But now I am puzzled when the noted author of Northern Ireland: Captive (Continued on page 30) 2 CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 2) of History appears to repudiate the notion that "memories of ancient wrongs" have something to do with today's conflict...
...But his frequent temper tantrums, in my view, do not help solve the serious problems of securing human rights and economic justice for all in Northern Ireland...
...WILLIAM J. HOUGHTON, M.D...
...To return to the metaphor: whatever the reasons for "the troubles," the laying down of arms is akin to dropping unnecessary defenses, which is a precondition for the healing of wounds, whether in family therapy or in politics...
...Ian Paisley does reflect the views of many and therefore must not be brushed off...
...In my view, therapy isn' t just happy talk for the middle class...
...2) it was only a metaphor, insufficient to reflect the complexity of the situation...
...it's for anyone who can benefit from shedding unnecessary defenses and learning the discipline of genuine civility toward others...
...ANN McGAUGHAN The writer is a director of American Protestants for Truth about Ireland...
...The failure of the British government to deal with the human rights issue since it reinstituted direct rule in 1972 is evident in the most recent employment statistics...
...That conflict resulted from the determination of one party to end present wrongs—the disparity in job opportunity and housing—and the determination of the other party to maintain the disparity...
...GARY MacEOIN The writer is author of Northern Ireland: Captive of History...
...Curiously, after excoriating the figure, McGaughan makes use of it by denouncing the British government as "an abusive parent...
...For decades I have regarded Gary MacEoin as one of the most thoughtful proponents of this view of Irish history...
...The good doctor notices your look, your gestures, your mix of values, is willing to listen for your best choice, even if you don't put it into words...
...That commentators now speak of family therapy for the dysfunctional is an insult...
...He responds in your own idiom...
...Perhaps the lumbering heavy conservatism of magisterial Catholicism can more faithfully compel the "gravities" of truth, moral and theological, in a world having lost all moral bearings, (rev...
...EDWARD McGLYNN GAFFNEY, JR...
...But the utter equivocation about, if not affirmation of, feticide has made me greatly question the moral compass of our church...
...What else is lost Boston, Mass...
...As an Anglican, I rejoice in some aspects of our progressive Catholicism...
...and (3) what I had in mind was not a shrink's couch but a conference table...
...The column's insufferable middle-class bias comes dangerously close to blaming the victim...
...But therapy is not easy...
...I agree with MacEoin that the major source of the current troubles has been "the disparity in job opportunity and housing...
...To the Editors: I hardly know where to-, begin in responding to Edward Gaffney' s wrongheaded, patronizing, and seriously uninformed column, "One Troubled Family...
...jurgen w. liias Science of the Lambs Milwaukee, Wis...
...It was the pieces of women's broken hearts that I found myself trying to put back together after abortions that converted me to see the great darkness that our culture has let in...
...The institutionalized violence of Northern Ireland, including discrimination, repression, and physical and psychological abuse of citizens, is not a thing of the past but something the Nationalist and Unionist people live with every day, and yet it is never mentioned by Gaffney...
...The only things I would add to Roller's illuminating diagnosis are, first, that many of us overestimate the power of science, and, along with that, the value of objectivity, of detachment from common emotions, such as pity...
...We hope that "with proper oversight the quality of care will not suffer," but I doubt it...
...The author replies: Both my correspondents are much surer than I that we disagree deeply...
...In the circumstances, it took remarkable courage on the part of people who felt that physical force was their only protection to lay down their arms...
...It may not be entirely a distortion that many in the public view the new doctor, born of the large-scale social planners, as another Hannibal Lecter...
...and, second, that the passion of planners, whether in business or government, is to lump together large groups, the bigger the better, rather than preserving the smaller groups that are livable for people...
Vol. 121 • December 1994 • No. 21
