Abstract
This paper proposes an admittedly difficult thesis that emotional pain and suffering can be good news. Rather than denying and running from emotional pain and suffering, we suggest embracing and carrying the pain. Through academic and spiritual writings, an observation of Hamlet’s tragic suffering, an examination of pastoral care case study data, and a B.L.E.S.S. acronym, this paper proposes that within the experience of suffering lies the transformative potential for meaning and fullness.
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Notes
For purposes of this paper, we choose to limit our inquiry to emotional pain and suffering. This is not to say that emotional pain is disassociated from physical pain; nor does it suggest that what we learned about emotional pain is inapplicable to physical pain. We simply do not draw conclusions about physical pain in this paper. Our thesis contends that we must embrace the emotional pain and suffering associated with the normative, universal human condition, e.g., loss, disappointment, confusion, uncertainty, and transitions.
Christianity: “…In the world ye shall have tribulation…” (John 16:33 King James Version).
Buddhism: “The third mark of existence is suffering…” Chodron. Comfortable with Uncertainty, p. 53.
Of Shakespeare’s four main tragic heroes, Hamlet embraces his emotional pain and suffering. Macbeth caves in, folds under his pain, and life becomes “a tale/Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,/Signifying nothing” (V.v.26–28). Othello, in denial at first, acknowledges, too late, that in killing Desdemona, he “lov’d not wisely but…Perplexed in the extreme;…threw a pearl away” (V.ii.344–347). Lear, unable to step outside his own perspective, cannot reconcile with his daughters. His bitter renunciation of the universe is evident at the death of Cordelia—“Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,/And thou no breath at all? Thou’lt come no more,/Never, never, never, never, never” (V.iii.307–309). More could be said about these heroes, but—to be brief—Hamlet gets it right. He embraces his pain and suffering and is transformed by Act V.
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Minton, M.E., Antonen, K. Carrying the Pain: The Journey from Suffering to Transformation—Perspectives from Shakespearean Tragedy and Pastoral Care. J Relig Health 52, 467–474 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-011-9495-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-011-9495-3