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DR JACK DOMINIAN - OBITUARY
Dr Jack Dominian was a psychiatrist and Catholic theologian who
celebrated loving sex between unmarried and gay partners
Dr Jack Dominian
7:15PM BST 28 Aug 2014
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11061797/Dr-Jack-Dominian-obituary.html
Dr Jack Dominian, who has died aged 84, was a British psychiatrist
and Roman Catholic theologian who championed a rethink on Christian
sexual ethics at the same time as he fought to uphold the institution
of marriage.
As early as 1977, Dominian had warned against the Catholic Church's
preoccupation with marital chastity at the expense of other factors in
a successful marriage. Writing shortly after the Vatican had published
its Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics decrying
the corruption of moral standards brought about by the "unbridled
exaltation of sex", Dominian outlined his own Proposals for a New
Sexual Ethic. There he argued that the presence of a genuine love
between two people - whether they be married or not - validates sex,
making it an activity worthy of celebration. Sexual pleasure, he wrote,
must not be trivialised in the eyes of the Church, being one of the
"gifts of God to Man which can become the springs of joy, pleasure
and loving communication".
Dominian went on to extend the same argument in defence of the
love between same-sex couples. To think of sex solely in terms of
procreation, he wrote in New Internationalist in 1986, was to deny
its "capacity to give life in a more than biological sense", its
role in strengthening a couple's sexual identity and their sense of
commitment to each other. While Dominian admitted that the teachings
of the Bible condemned homosexual practices, he ventured that same-sex
marriages would one day be possible, and that couples should receive
the support of Church and State.
At that time Dominian was working as a senior consultant at the
Central Middlesex Hospital in Acton, where he had been struck by the
number of dissolved and unhappy marriages among his patients. Wanting
to understand more, in 1971 he founded the Marriage Research Centre
(now One Plus One) to conduct research and offer marriage advice.
Under his direction the centre tracked the progress of 65 volunteer
couples from their wedding day in 1979 through the first six years of
marriage, and then at regular intervals thereafter, in an attempt to
identify the factors behind spiralling divorce rates. Using this data,
Dominian identified three separate phases to a married relationship:
the crucial first five years, during which some 30 to 40 per cent
of all divorces take place; the middle decades, during which couples
must juggle commitments to immediate family with commitments to work
and their ageing parents; and the final decades, when one half of a
couple is often left to cope with the death of the other.
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Yet Dominian came to feel disillusioned with the ability of counselling
to resolve long-standing marital discord, since by the time most
couples arrived at One Plus One the issues that had led to their
unhappiness were already too deeply entrenched. From the mid-1990s
he began to call for an approach that focused on the prevention of
relationship breakdown, rather than belated attempts at a cure. In the
future, he argued, couples would need to be prepared for marriage,
and given tools to develop the "companionate" love that arises from
intimate coexistence.
It was a love that had been markedly lacking in Dominian's early life.
He was born Jacob Dominian in Athens on August 25 1929, to a Catholic
father and Greek Orthodox mother, and attended the Lycee Leonin, one of
the city's oldest independent schools, before moving with his family
to India at the age of 12. His father, elder brother and sister were
all distant figures throughout his childhood, and the relationship
with his mother was often under strain. "Nowadays, she would have
been a business magnate, but in those days she took her frustrations
out on me," he later recalled. "She was a very self-centred person."
Yet it was from his mother that he inherited his keen sense of
ambition, and after National Service he went up to read Medicine at
Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, gaining his Master's degree from Exeter
College, Oxford. He met his future wife, Edith, at a 1955 meeting of
the Union of Catholic Students in Worcester, and they married later
that year.
Having attended the Maudsley Hospital in London to complete his
psychiatric training, Dominian became a consultant physician to
the Central Middlesex Hospital in 1965, where he remained for the
next two decades. He was appointed MBE in 1994 for his services to
marriage counselling.
In all he published more than 30 books, including The Definitive Guide
to What Makes a Marriage Work (1995), and One Like Us: A Psychological
Interpretation of Jesus (1998), which employed modern psychoanalytic
theories to explore Christ's childhood development.
Applying psychiatry's diagnostic criteria to himself, Dominian
identified his own personality type as neurotic -- "but then," he
added cheerfully, "neurotics can be fascinating to live with".
Dr Jack Dominian's wife predeceased him in 2005, shortly after the
couple had celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. They had
four daughters.
Dr Jack Dominian, born August 25 1929, died August 10 2014
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Dr Jack Dominian was a psychiatrist and Catholic theologian who
celebrated loving sex between unmarried and gay partners
Dr Jack Dominian
7:15PM BST 28 Aug 2014
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11061797/Dr-Jack-Dominian-obituary.html
Dr Jack Dominian, who has died aged 84, was a British psychiatrist
and Roman Catholic theologian who championed a rethink on Christian
sexual ethics at the same time as he fought to uphold the institution
of marriage.
As early as 1977, Dominian had warned against the Catholic Church's
preoccupation with marital chastity at the expense of other factors in
a successful marriage. Writing shortly after the Vatican had published
its Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics decrying
the corruption of moral standards brought about by the "unbridled
exaltation of sex", Dominian outlined his own Proposals for a New
Sexual Ethic. There he argued that the presence of a genuine love
between two people - whether they be married or not - validates sex,
making it an activity worthy of celebration. Sexual pleasure, he wrote,
must not be trivialised in the eyes of the Church, being one of the
"gifts of God to Man which can become the springs of joy, pleasure
and loving communication".
Dominian went on to extend the same argument in defence of the
love between same-sex couples. To think of sex solely in terms of
procreation, he wrote in New Internationalist in 1986, was to deny
its "capacity to give life in a more than biological sense", its
role in strengthening a couple's sexual identity and their sense of
commitment to each other. While Dominian admitted that the teachings
of the Bible condemned homosexual practices, he ventured that same-sex
marriages would one day be possible, and that couples should receive
the support of Church and State.
At that time Dominian was working as a senior consultant at the
Central Middlesex Hospital in Acton, where he had been struck by the
number of dissolved and unhappy marriages among his patients. Wanting
to understand more, in 1971 he founded the Marriage Research Centre
(now One Plus One) to conduct research and offer marriage advice.
Under his direction the centre tracked the progress of 65 volunteer
couples from their wedding day in 1979 through the first six years of
marriage, and then at regular intervals thereafter, in an attempt to
identify the factors behind spiralling divorce rates. Using this data,
Dominian identified three separate phases to a married relationship:
the crucial first five years, during which some 30 to 40 per cent
of all divorces take place; the middle decades, during which couples
must juggle commitments to immediate family with commitments to work
and their ageing parents; and the final decades, when one half of a
couple is often left to cope with the death of the other.
Related Articles
Herbert McCabe
20 Aug 2001
Ivan Illich
05 Dec 2002
Canon Howard Root
27 Nov 2007
Arabella Weir on trips to Scotland
Sponsored by Esso
Yet Dominian came to feel disillusioned with the ability of counselling
to resolve long-standing marital discord, since by the time most
couples arrived at One Plus One the issues that had led to their
unhappiness were already too deeply entrenched. From the mid-1990s
he began to call for an approach that focused on the prevention of
relationship breakdown, rather than belated attempts at a cure. In the
future, he argued, couples would need to be prepared for marriage,
and given tools to develop the "companionate" love that arises from
intimate coexistence.
It was a love that had been markedly lacking in Dominian's early life.
He was born Jacob Dominian in Athens on August 25 1929, to a Catholic
father and Greek Orthodox mother, and attended the Lycee Leonin, one of
the city's oldest independent schools, before moving with his family
to India at the age of 12. His father, elder brother and sister were
all distant figures throughout his childhood, and the relationship
with his mother was often under strain. "Nowadays, she would have
been a business magnate, but in those days she took her frustrations
out on me," he later recalled. "She was a very self-centred person."
Yet it was from his mother that he inherited his keen sense of
ambition, and after National Service he went up to read Medicine at
Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, gaining his Master's degree from Exeter
College, Oxford. He met his future wife, Edith, at a 1955 meeting of
the Union of Catholic Students in Worcester, and they married later
that year.
Having attended the Maudsley Hospital in London to complete his
psychiatric training, Dominian became a consultant physician to
the Central Middlesex Hospital in 1965, where he remained for the
next two decades. He was appointed MBE in 1994 for his services to
marriage counselling.
In all he published more than 30 books, including The Definitive Guide
to What Makes a Marriage Work (1995), and One Like Us: A Psychological
Interpretation of Jesus (1998), which employed modern psychoanalytic
theories to explore Christ's childhood development.
Applying psychiatry's diagnostic criteria to himself, Dominian
identified his own personality type as neurotic -- "but then," he
added cheerfully, "neurotics can be fascinating to live with".
Dr Jack Dominian's wife predeceased him in 2005, shortly after the
couple had celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. They had
four daughters.
Dr Jack Dominian, born August 25 1929, died August 10 2014
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress