Jennifer Armstrong 1 second ago
+Narcissist Free Some people seem to believe in psychological determinism, whether they put that in the context of biology or psychical forces. I'm really not of the view that there is anything strongly deterministic or watertight regarding how the children turn out when their parents are to varying degrees less than perfect. It is a very modern and recent notion that one is made the way one by authorities who have power over one. This in itself seems to be a self-fulfilling prophesy. But it is very dangerous and already very damaging, I think. Consider how it is that nowadays children tend not to learn very much from play, including the semi-dangerous forms of play which involve doing activities unsupervised by parents. This was how one used to learn to develop one's own character and what the limits of it might possibly be. Nowadays, there is the view that any time a child comes into contact with an adult, they are in fact being molded by this authority. It is also held that nothing more is required for the child than this -- to be molded by "good" authorities. But these children who grow up without genuine play end up becoming victims in some way, more often than not. Not all the molding forces and good intentions behind them in the world can prevent this from happening. Somehow reality itself sees to it that the products of society end up less than perfect.
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