Parenting or Pygmalionism?
Hoffmann, Miguel
Parenting or Pygmalionism? - 2003.
54
The capacity to decide on one’s own path in life does not depend solely on external circumstances. The constitution of a subject, both as active receptor and as agent, depends on the way the environment responds to the subject’s first initiatives. The capacity to choose a satisfying activity, a partner, a way of life, or a set of values is the outcome of a process few people can complete. Early submissive compliance reduces the chance of becoming a creative being, or an original and efficient contributor to contextual objectives. Even if the emerging subject has a solid core, the process of negotiation with the context continues throughout life. The environment, as described here, has three matrices or molds that keep pressing onto the psychic space where the subject dwells, shaping it in greater or smaller ways. In some cases even, the subject is unable to find a social space in which he/she can conduct his/her life. If this situation cannot be remedied by the subject alone or in tandem with others, the subject’s being will be reduced to lesser groups of belonging. Being within the boundaries of a minority group implies participative impoverishment. I would like to end with a quotation that seems to me to summarize what this paper is trying to convey: “ It is difficult for us to remember how modern is the concept of a human individual. The struggle to reach this concept is reflected, perhaps, in the early Hebrew name for God. Monotheism seems to be closely linked to the name I AM . . . Does not this name (I AM) given to God reflect the danger that the individual feels he or she is in on reaching the state of individual being?” (D.Winnicott, 1968)
Parenting or Pygmalionism? - 2003.
54
The capacity to decide on one’s own path in life does not depend solely on external circumstances. The constitution of a subject, both as active receptor and as agent, depends on the way the environment responds to the subject’s first initiatives. The capacity to choose a satisfying activity, a partner, a way of life, or a set of values is the outcome of a process few people can complete. Early submissive compliance reduces the chance of becoming a creative being, or an original and efficient contributor to contextual objectives. Even if the emerging subject has a solid core, the process of negotiation with the context continues throughout life. The environment, as described here, has three matrices or molds that keep pressing onto the psychic space where the subject dwells, shaping it in greater or smaller ways. In some cases even, the subject is unable to find a social space in which he/she can conduct his/her life. If this situation cannot be remedied by the subject alone or in tandem with others, the subject’s being will be reduced to lesser groups of belonging. Being within the boundaries of a minority group implies participative impoverishment. I would like to end with a quotation that seems to me to summarize what this paper is trying to convey: “ It is difficult for us to remember how modern is the concept of a human individual. The struggle to reach this concept is reflected, perhaps, in the early Hebrew name for God. Monotheism seems to be closely linked to the name I AM . . . Does not this name (I AM) given to God reflect the danger that the individual feels he or she is in on reaching the state of individual being?” (D.Winnicott, 1968)
Réseaux sociaux