Pain of Being Human

by Eugene Kennedy

The elegant style and pragmatic tone of Eugene Kennedy's writing are typified in the following passage: "We may thank God that we can feel pain and know sadness, for these are the human sentiments that constitute our glory as well as our grief." As a psychologist, Kennedy is concerned with the mature person and notes that maturity is marked by the acceptance of the distress that is part and parcel of our relationships with others. Escape into drugs, work, vapid entertainment, or even prayer, is not a solution. We must accept the pain as well as the pleasure of relationships, for "close and affectionate relationships with other people are the prime signal of healthy personhood."

It is interesting that there is no place for solitude in Kennedy's world. Perhaps he is right that the primary obligation for all of us is the difficult work of loving others.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Self Help, Psychology

Paperback

First published January 15, 1974

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't finish this. Firstly, the writing very much reflects it's time. It was written in the 70s and so refers to women as housewives and men as breadwinners. After the third gender stereotype reference I had to put it down (I realise this is not necessarily the author's fault because these viewd reflects society at that time). Also there were A LOT of religious references, which I don't necessarily mind but any mention of meaning seemed to be connected to God. As a strong atheist I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with that? This book was on my course reading list but if I'm honest I'm not sure why. I can't say it's a bad book but it's certainly very outdated and not readable for me personally, given my strong gender equality and atheist beliefs.

[Ed Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Pain of Being Human? More like The Pain of Reading This Book, am I right? Naw, it wasn’t that bad. The real problem is that it has too many topics and not enough depth—more than 80 short reflections across 280 pages. I would have preferred a small fraction of the essays offered here but developed with illustrations and underlying psychology, theology, etc.

Just a small handful of takeaways here by way of sampling:

+We are mistake-makers, we always will be, and the sooner we are able to forgive ourselves for it, the richer will be our enjoyment of life.

+”Loneliness,” Thomas Wolfe once wrote, “far from being a rare and curious phenomenon, peculiar to myself and to a few other solitary men, is the central and inevitable fact of human existence.”

+If we want to know whether we are being guided by the Spirit, we can ask whether we are being led into truly redemptive relationships with others. If we are not, then it is some voice other than the Spirit’s to which we are attending.

[Utsav Matukumalli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very close to my heart because this was the first one in its genre (Philosophy) that I ever read and it opened my eyes to a lot of new ways of looking at the world.
However, the book gets way to religious in certain parts of the text, I guess that is to do with Eugene Kennedy's background as a catholic priest.
I wish this wasn't the case and it was more of a pure philosophical text, that would have made the experience much better.

[Jayden Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

i did read this book miraculously at a time that i needed it. there were so many beautiful & insightful things that truly did hit me. especially in regards to love and ….. the pain of being human …..

my only critiques are that sometimes what Eugene Kennedy is saying does feel random and the book does have a lot of religious themes. i will say, however, that the religious themes don’t overpower the narrative unlike other books i have read.

[გიორგი გურჯიევი · Rating 1 out of 5]

Christian trash

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

your secrets are revealed
fantastic one