There's an interesting psychological theory which says that human psychology is influenced by three things, two of which are "imaginary" and "real" (the third one is called the "symbolic" but I'm not gonna overcomplicate things here). To understand how these influence each other, imagine a 3-5 year old female child looking into a mirror and recognising herself reflected back at her for the first time. This would be a traumatic experience for she will also recognise for the first time that all those loving and reassuring comments from parents and friends like "oh, you are such a good girl!", "oh, aren't you a little beautiful princess!" and all that were not really directed at the "real" her but at her "imaginary" reflection of the "real" her. Self-doubt, acknowledgement of imperfection, and fragmented and suppressed emotions, and more - all that "real" her coming up against the outside image of her that does not quite fit what she knows herself to be. Only "ego" (including "god complex" you mentioned) can bridge that gap but it's all too fragile. The distance between the "imaginary" and the "real" her can never be bridged - not especially after going through such a traumatic "mirror stage" in her childhood development. Teenage rebellion follows (how often do we hear teenagers say, "but, mom, you are not understanding me!" and such like...), but the trauma haunts even her adulthood if it were not for a supportive social circle of friends and family reassuring her that she's enough for who she really is. But not everyone is lucky enough to have such a loving social circle as they grow up. For some, such trauma is carried into their internet persona and their rage onto a virtual crowd who, in the end, does not care a jot about their inner struggles and, worse still, cannot replace a loving social circle of friends and families they so desperately craved in their childhood. So sad. :(
The description you are providing is the impact of flattery on the ego, but there are other shapers of the ego like comparison, criticism, and provocation.
In evolutionary reasoning, the behavior of attempting to inflate the ego works both as a mechanism to discourage intrasexual competitors and to enhance one's status. The inability to experience shame can become an asset as it makes certain behaviors less internally bottlenecked. Although it must be within social norms or it can lead to social ostracism.
The theory is not gender-specific. I just took an example of a female perspective. You could have used a boy's perspective growing up. It'd be the same :).
Also, it's just a theory. You can use another theory to explain the ego if you like. Nothing is stopping anyone from using any theories they see fit. Whatever rocks your boat :).
You had that IG story a few months ago where you were listening to Fate of Ophelia at the gun range, but I really hope you've been able to get some emotional release from songs like Cassandra and Who's Afraid of Little Old Me because your experience and the lyrics of those songs have so much overlap. Not to mention the Reputation album! You and Taylor Swift are basically the same person at this point LOL....Thank you for continuing to write! Stay safe, stay sane!
Seemed almost like you were a new actress in Hollywood who attended a party, and got disillusioned with the whole process. As they say sometimes, never meet your heroes. I always wanted to think streamers or content creators did get along in real life, but have now figured sadly that a lot of it is about clout and content, and the relationships seem largely phony or fake. Hopefully some are genuine, and probably the smaller content creators are the ones who are more genuine.
The world of online politics relies heavily on inflammatory headlines for profit.
The issue is there is so much competition for attention that only the most primal language succeeds in garnering investment.
Additionally, many wrap their identity in specific labels that help them understand their world easier. Adding layers of complication requires too much cognitive processing for most people.
People want heuristics that are successful in getting them what they want more often than not.
There's an interesting psychological theory which says that human psychology is influenced by three things, two of which are "imaginary" and "real" (the third one is called the "symbolic" but I'm not gonna overcomplicate things here). To understand how these influence each other, imagine a 3-5 year old female child looking into a mirror and recognising herself reflected back at her for the first time. This would be a traumatic experience for she will also recognise for the first time that all those loving and reassuring comments from parents and friends like "oh, you are such a good girl!", "oh, aren't you a little beautiful princess!" and all that were not really directed at the "real" her but at her "imaginary" reflection of the "real" her. Self-doubt, acknowledgement of imperfection, and fragmented and suppressed emotions, and more - all that "real" her coming up against the outside image of her that does not quite fit what she knows herself to be. Only "ego" (including "god complex" you mentioned) can bridge that gap but it's all too fragile. The distance between the "imaginary" and the "real" her can never be bridged - not especially after going through such a traumatic "mirror stage" in her childhood development. Teenage rebellion follows (how often do we hear teenagers say, "but, mom, you are not understanding me!" and such like...), but the trauma haunts even her adulthood if it were not for a supportive social circle of friends and family reassuring her that she's enough for who she really is. But not everyone is lucky enough to have such a loving social circle as they grow up. For some, such trauma is carried into their internet persona and their rage onto a virtual crowd who, in the end, does not care a jot about their inner struggles and, worse still, cannot replace a loving social circle of friends and families they so desperately craved in their childhood. So sad. :(
Why is the analogy gender coded?
The description you are providing is the impact of flattery on the ego, but there are other shapers of the ego like comparison, criticism, and provocation.
In evolutionary reasoning, the behavior of attempting to inflate the ego works both as a mechanism to discourage intrasexual competitors and to enhance one's status. The inability to experience shame can become an asset as it makes certain behaviors less internally bottlenecked. Although it must be within social norms or it can lead to social ostracism.
The theory is not gender-specific. I just took an example of a female perspective. You could have used a boy's perspective growing up. It'd be the same :).
Also, it's just a theory. You can use another theory to explain the ego if you like. Nothing is stopping anyone from using any theories they see fit. Whatever rocks your boat :).
You had that IG story a few months ago where you were listening to Fate of Ophelia at the gun range, but I really hope you've been able to get some emotional release from songs like Cassandra and Who's Afraid of Little Old Me because your experience and the lyrics of those songs have so much overlap. Not to mention the Reputation album! You and Taylor Swift are basically the same person at this point LOL....Thank you for continuing to write! Stay safe, stay sane!
Seemed almost like you were a new actress in Hollywood who attended a party, and got disillusioned with the whole process. As they say sometimes, never meet your heroes. I always wanted to think streamers or content creators did get along in real life, but have now figured sadly that a lot of it is about clout and content, and the relationships seem largely phony or fake. Hopefully some are genuine, and probably the smaller content creators are the ones who are more genuine.
The world of online politics relies heavily on inflammatory headlines for profit.
The issue is there is so much competition for attention that only the most primal language succeeds in garnering investment.
Additionally, many wrap their identity in specific labels that help them understand their world easier. Adding layers of complication requires too much cognitive processing for most people.
People want heuristics that are successful in getting them what they want more often than not.