Pteridophyta

4 Pteridophyta PsychologyIntroductionThe themes of the ferns can be found in the recent works of several psychotherapists. Synchronicity showed me the studies of several psychologists. The first was Gabor Maté writing his book of "The myth of normal". He describes the connection between early childhood traumas and problems later in life like ADHD, addictions and diseases. A second I was pointed to, was Arno Gruen. He titled one of his books "The insanity of normality". The theme of "normal" becomes prominent. This is peculiar, because "normal" tries to divert the attention away from what is happening. Normal is not interesting, it is dull and harmless, so it seems. But these authors place it in the centre of the problem. This is because to become normal means that one cannot be oneself.Maté: Authenticity versus AttachmentGabor Maté describes this conflict between being oneself and having to be normal as the conflict between Authenticity and Attachment. A child is dependent on his parents and thus has to adapt if his parents wish so, otherwise he could lose their contact and support and thus his survival. The child is not allowed to be himself, authentic.
Maté writes: "No conceivable condition exists under which a human being has less agency or fewer options than in infancy and early childhood. The imperative to survive overrides everything, and that survival depends on the maintenance of attachment, at whatever cost to authenticity. This is why so many childhoods, particularly in a culture that both breeds stress and feeds on it, are marked by a tense stand-off between the two, where the outcome is predictable and the consequences are lifelong."Education, Socialisation, NormalisationParents tend to raise their children to adapt to society, to be normal, common. That means they will be more accepted, and thus will obtain better positions in society, with a better income. Maybe with the result that they will be better suited to take care of them, the parents, later in life. In this we see the essence as Gabor Maté describes it: the clash between authenticity and attachment. It is a clash between allowing oneself to be oneself and adapting to society and being accepted, recognised and loved.
Arno Gruen describes the socialisation process this way: "Insofar as the socialisation process blocks autonomy, however, this process engenders the evil it attempts to prevent. If parental love is so distorted that it demands submission and dependence for its self-confirmation, social adjustment turns into a test of obedience and the child's efforts to comply bring with them the loss of genuine feelings."The white ribbonA very expressive example of a dictatorial and unloving education is the movie "The White Ribbon". A pastor in a small German village before the second World War is very dictatorial. His education is done by silencing his children, who are not allowed to say anything back. They are not allowed to have their own will, they are only allowed to be silent, submissive and obedient. As a reaction they become mischievous and malicious. They bully other children, create accidents and kill people and animals.Trauma, ACE, Adverse Childhood ExperiencesFor children, traumas are not only the obvious events like emotional, physical and sexual abuse. They are also a lack of love, encouragement and recognition. They include a lack of breast feeding, touch, contact with parents, and being left alone while crying because the parents are convinced that taking the baby up will spoil it.
Research shows that traumas have negative effects later in life. They are named more neutrally Adverse Childhood Experiences, ACE. Research shows that the more Adverse Childhood Experiences a child experiences the more there will be addictions, hyperactivity and criminality later in life.
Typical of early childhood traumas is that they are hidden. Psychologists have overlooked them for centuries. They are hidden for the patients themselves, as they have occurred in early childhood. The traumas have been forgotten and suppressed. The feeling is still present, but cannot be verbalised as they were pre-verbal experiences. But they exert their influence all the more, in a hidden way.NormalEssential is the concept of normal. Gabor Maté explained very well that "normal" is used in two different, very opposite ways. The first is what is common in most situations: normal is what most people have or do. The second is that normal means healthy. For example, obesity is very normal in the first sense because it is very common, but it abnormal because it is not healthy. The same is true for hypertension, allergies, obedience, gossip and war.Community level, Iron seriesA prominent part of life takes place at the community level, which is the theme of the Iron series. A big issue there is to be normal, to be like the others, not to be deviant, extravagant or extraordinary. It is the theme of socialisation and normalisation. Strong concepts are togetherness, community, collectivity, solidarity, belonging and fellowship.Gruen: Betrayal of the SelfArno Gruen describes the same process of self-denial and self-hate. It is a betrayal of oneself. It arises from the same conflict as Maté describes. Gruen uses words like Autonomy versus Adaptation. He discovered that the lack of early love is usually experienced as a flaw, as a disgrace, as one's own fault. The child thinks that there is something wrong with him and starts blaming himself for the traumas. This makes self-love very difficult and enhances self-denial, and in the extreme forms, self-hate. The consequence of addictions and criminality are then self-evident.
Gruen writes: "Yet it is the paradox of our nature that the failure to attain autonomy can go underground and hide beneath subjection and submissiveness, beneath a surrender of self to the will of others." Maaz: Narcissistic SocietyJoachim Maaz addresses the same theme of adapting to the norms and how that devaluates oneself. He coined the word Normopathy. This is the disease of following the norms, the rules. Adapting to the norms leads to the devaluation of oneself. To overcome the devaluation of oneself one can start showing off. One can overcompensate the feeling of being worthless with narcism, showing one's greatness. Society, and especially the political scene, is full of those personalities, leading to a narcissistic society.
Maaz describes the devaluation as follows: "The lack of early love is usually experienced as a flaw, as a disgrace, as self-inflicted" and "Inferiority and self-doubt are the consequences of experiencing devaluation, rejection or a lack of recognition. Parents who do not take the time to recognise and understand their children and to affirm them in their specific way make it more difficult, distort it and prevent the development of a healthy self."Violence Hate Destruction WarAs a psychiatrist, Gruen was fascinated by the events of the second World War. How could people behave as they did, killing as a physician and so on. How could people like Hitler, Goebbels and Göring behave the way they did? He came to the conclusion that they were forced to be "normal", but thereby lost contact with their inner world. They denied their own inner core in order to be accepted. But then they lost their humanity, their empathy, like psychopaths. Like Eichmann explaining that he did nothing wrong, that he just followed orders, that he even rescued a lot of Jewish people. It is the insanity of normality. The human being then becomes the true source of evil.
Hannah Arendt has studied totalitarianism, WWII, and especially the case of Eichmann. Eichmann defended himself by saying that he had done nothing wrong, he had only obeyed orders. He used obedience to deny responsibility. Hannah Arendt came to the conclusion that evil has a banal quality: the "banality of evil". But Gruen shows very convincingly that in the case of Eichmann there is an underlying self-hate. And this self-hate is projected, unconsciously, onto the outside world. The explanation "banality of evil" hides the source of self-hate.
Freud proposed the desire for destruction as a death instinct, Thanatos. For Gruen this is a similar tactic of denying the true source of destruction. There is no independent, elementary death instinct. There is only a projection of violent, destructive qualities of the self onto the outside world. The basic lie of "being someone bad" is suppressed and comes out as a destructive force into the world. Hitler was fascinated by looking at big cities ruined by bombs and fire and could watch those movies for hours.PatriarchalismBoth Gruen en Maaz connect the above inferiority feelings with patriarchalism. Men become narcissistic in order to overcome their feelings of worthlessness. Women submit to men because of their feelings of worthlessness. This leads to the dehumanisation of men and the oppression of women. Gruen writes: "Our tendency to abstraction masks and smothers the natural drive for autonomy; it lies at the heart of the male's tendency to oppress women, but also of his own dehumanisation." Obedience versus autonomyCentral to the whole problem is who decides over one's life, others or oneself. It is obvious that the decider should be oneself, with the limitation that that does not hinder others in their freedom. It is about autonomy versus slavery. The fear of autonomy and freedom is strong in many men and women, originating from the fear of being punished.
Obedience is the easiest solution, especially when one is still a weak child. The down side is that one loses one's self, one's vitality, spontaneity and liveliness. One becomes more like a machine, a robot. Gruen writes: "All this reduces people's access to their own past, thereby making them more and more dependent on external stimulation, they thus become stimulus-bound and robot-like."
But one has to come back, struggle back to autonomy, authenticity, being one's Self.
This dichotomy of adapting versus autonomy is more common and general. The typical thing of the ferns is that it is connected to becoming like the community, the tribe. Following the norms of the community will give one security but leaves one empty, without empathy and love for oneself and the world.