We tend not to recognize, after a time, the inventors of a seizmic shift in consiousness or perspectivethat reverberates for decades for an entire people. After a time, we come to believe that a movement, not advanced by war or the economic equivalent of such tyranny, was something that was simply meant to be. We will even begin to give credit to the erstwhile disciples of the movement- those who ride the crest of a preexisting wave- in a search for who to acknowledge; in part from a fear of believing an individual can in fact change the world so profoundly with insight, creativity and generosity.
John Bradshaw's HOMECOMING is such a work, and he is such a man. His ideas have long since become the stuff of trivialization, as the buzz phrase "inner child" has been drained of its marketable exploitation and appeal. And yet that trivialization has been a response to the degree to which we are now intellectually and emotionally living in his world.
I rank this book as one of the most important written during this now ending twentieth century. Make no mistake, our concerns about something as seemingly unrelated as child labor practices in India and China today, and how much we care about it now (when it has existed for centuries, just like here) can be traced back in part back to Bradshaw's influence in how we see the life of children, and subsequently the inner and outer life of adults- ourselves.
Its effect on the world as we know it will be felt for years to come, long after it has been forgotten or redefined as a late eighties/early nineties pop psychology fad.
Do not be surprised by the books and authors, living and dead, of a multiplicity of disciplines, you find yourself drawn to after reading this. Do not also be surprised at how well it teaches you about who you are, and how deeply it touches your soul.