Neurotics, Narcissists and Nihilists
In the works of Carl Jung we explore the Neurotic, a condition-laid person with disorder aplenty;
Why are so Many People Neurotic? — Carl Jung as Therapist — YouTube
“If we follow the history of a neurosis with attention, we regularly find a critical moment when some problem emerged that was evaded.”
— Carl Jung, The Eros Theory
Avoidance theory dictates that psychosis such as these are built up from shying away from, or avoiding altogether the moments that force us to grow, or otherwise develop the full potential of our character.
“Cowards die many times before their deaths, The valiant never taste of death but once.”
In our modern society we hear much about the woes of the narcissists', neurotics and delinquents of society; But what of their causes?
Nature VS Nurture aside, let’s discuss how parents quite literally turn their children into social delinquents.
“. . .the psychic disorders of children are more often than not causally connected with the psychology of the parents, and in most cases one would do well to pay more attention to the faulty attitude of parents and educators than to the child’s psyche, which in itself would function correctly if it were not disturbed by the harmful influence of the parents.”
— Carl Jung, Collected Works Volume 18
You’ll hear terms thrown around like ‘Helicopter Parent’, you know what it means, but do you know what happens when those children grow up?
Anger, depression and anxiety can be surface manifestations of keeping your baby on your hip well into their teens/adulthood.
Leaving adults to struggle with basic tasks like doing laundry, or taking care of their hygiene.
It also develops traits of narcissism in young adults and a sense of entitlement.
An overt example of this is nepotism, the inability for the parent to allow the child to make independent choices, leaving them stunted both in personality and career prospects.
It’s unethical and also damaging to society, a form of cronyism.
With the larger economic picture aside, Nepotism hurts people.
Indeed gives us some examples;
Ignoring the family member’s habitual lateness
Assigning less work to the related employee than other employees
Promoting a family member over other more deserving employees
Not addressing the relative’s poor work performance
And defines the crux of the social issue;
When those in managerial positions hire unqualified family members, there’s no ownership to pass on to the relative, unlike in a family business.
My country, Canada, has laws on the books to attempt to prevent this.
Moreover, should the Nepotism candidate (usually the child) lose their job, they are stunted in their career due to the false title and lack of real-world experience/references.
The question of taught life skills comes up often.
But another interesting correlation I’ve noted is;
A Common bond between the mistreatment of children and animals.
Mired in some sort of chronic psychosomatic stimuli because of self-victimization with the intent of the ever popular; guilt trip.
Other symptoms may include Responsibility deficit disorder, Main character syndrome, Nihilism, Boy Psychology and avoidance behaviour.
Because parallel to our world, most inhabit a fantasy world with a grandiose sense of self worth.
“A true world is a destination; a destination such that to reach it is to enter (or perhaps re-enter) a state of ‘eternal bliss’, a heaven, paradise or utopia. Hence true-world philosophies…give meaning to life by representing it as a journey; a journey towards ‘redemption’, towards an arrival which will more than make up for the stress and discomfort of the travelling…a true-world account of the proper course of our lives is a kind of story, a narrative.”
— Julian Young, The Death of God and the Meaning of Life
So maybe you didn’t smother your child with affection, maybe you were too busy working to tend to your childs needs as they became adults.
The effects are the same.
As they say, if you feel there’s something missing in the world, that’s because you didn’t bring it.
Why do we have such an explosion of Young people who feel they have anxiety. ‘Tiktok Tic’ was coined as an example of this.
Let’s take one example, the surplus of entitled people who claim to be prolific writers.
Those people whom rather than focusing on the development of their own character, create fantastical fictitious stories (usually fan fiction or other outright plagiarism of IP)
It’s a placeholder personality.
Where you are so devoid of talent or individuality that you must invent or ‘cosplay’ as someone else.
Perhaps (As we English Teachers believe) because of our teach-to-test culture, but moreover because of writers welfare.
It’s the new equivalent of the ‘Entrepreneur is a French word for unemployed’ joke. Or the DJ cliché.
It’s a line of work where you can’t accept any accountability for your failure.
A telling sign is the level of violence they exhibit when questioned, how ironic, ‘writers’ who can’t resolve things with words?
There are covert and overt signs, but the usual flowchart of most conversations look something like this>
Gaslight > Blame Shift > Love Bomb
Or even; idealization, devaluation, discarding, and hoovering.
Do you think you’ve encountered a person like this?
