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Letters by a modern St. Ferdinand III about cults

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Plenty of cults exist - every cult has its 'religious dogma', its idols, its 'prophets', its 'science', its 'proof' and its intolerant liturgy of demands.  Cults everywhere:  Corona, 'The Science' or Scientism, Islam, the State, the cult of Gender Fascism, Marxism, Darwin and Evolution, Globaloneywarming, Changing Climate, Abortion...

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Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Vivre avec soi – French psychologist Jacques Salomé and the psychology of 'self'

There is no communal 'we' in the psychology and development of an individual.

by StFerdIII





Jacques Salomé is a famous and prolific French psychologist. He has written over 30 works in the past 20 years on various topics – mostly around relationships, family and the difficulty in getting to know and accept yourself. His works are instructive because he does not focus on pop-culture dogma, theoretical abstractions or fantasy. He tries to identify the internal, individualistic reasons why people fight, mis-communicate, hate themselves, are happy, or get into trouble – by using common sense, observation and a deep appreciation that the psyche of each patient is indestructibly unique. It is the individualistic nature of human development which is important.

One of the great benefits of Freud and by extension Salomé is that the psychological makeup of a person is an individual matter. The sub-conscious, the ego, the esteem of the self, is impacted by, but not dependent upon, the mythical community of others. It is deeply individualistic. This truism highlights the futility of those who believe that socialisation of society will improve the lot of the individual. It tends to do the opposite by restricting the knowledge of the individual. Freudian psychology – which Salomé in part follows – teaches this fact. The individual and his or her psychology is profoundly unique – and forcing the conscious and sub-conscious into socialised-communal templates and dogma only distorts that individual's development.

Salomé for instance writes in one of his books, 'Papa et Maman, écoutez moi vraiment' [Dad and Mom really listen to me]; that children have myriad ways of communicating their individualist personalities – both verbally and non-verbally. It is up to the parents to receive those messages and work with the child to develop that individualism. You can't outsource it to a community program, or a state run school.

Children get into trouble and usually remain in trouble throughout most of their lives when the parents reject or don't notice these forms of communication – and don't understand what they mean. The basic needs of a child – security, love, a feeling of being unique, stability in relationships – are expressed in a verbal and non-verbal manner. No template, no social program, no community wide dogma can possibly deal with the individuality of that child. This is something that Freud taught the world, and which the world has largely forgotten.

In 'Vivre avec Soi' Salomé makes a list of key 'valeurs' or values which were transferred to him by his mother and which he followed for his entire life. It is a list which today is rarely taught;

-respect of others
-respect the property of others
-a belief in a better future
-the power and salvation of study and learning
-do what you say
-the value of experience
-a respect for life
-discretion in all affairs

and ''La necessite de rester digne, de se respecter, meme dans les situations difficiles” - the necessity to respect yourself, remain dignified especially or even in difficult situations. This is the most important. In trying to live with yourself you have to know yourself. In order to respect yourself you have to like yourself. You can't like yourself, if you don't know who you are, what you want in life, or what to do in life. You can't respect yourself if you don't have self-awareness; and a self-belief formed around a true belief system based on real virtues, morality, and the knowledge that failure and experience are the prices one pays for future achievement and progress.

These are attitudes and ideas largely out of fashion.

Salomé makes the claim that if you ignore your self, and your sub-conscious, you will be led to ruin. He says that Freud rightly taught some important concepts which most people are not aware of:

-The sub-conscious talks to us. "Il nous addresse des messages, pas toujours suffisament clairs et forts pour retenir notre attention." It talks to us, not always clearly and strongly enough to have us pay attention.
-Dreams, lapses, and other non-standard actions are the language used by the sub conscious
-These languages are relating various and important concepts: desires, conflicts; inter-personal problems; work issues; or life issues. They need to be interpreted, and taken seriously.

For an individual to blossom he or she must get in touch with the inner sub conscious and self. Not to do so will most likely result in various issues in life – conflicts, breaks, and perhaps a lower quality of work, personal and romantic life.

Most importantly the development of the self means that the individual is responsible. As Salomé makes clear it is the individual which will determine his or her own fate. You can be happy, sad, productive, mean, good or bad. It is up to you. No social program, no community offering, and no state imposed set of doctrines or propaganda will aid you in your development. It is up to yourself. That injunction of individualism is so obvious, so clear that one is agape at all the various ideologies and isms which elevate the communal – and degrade the individual.

As Salomé so correctly writes; “Tout etre humain nait inacheve, sa maturation en devenir le rend vulnerable, sensible, receptif aux influences de son environnement. La conquete d'un peu plus d'autonomie passera par la facon dont il parviendra a attenuer l'impact des empreintes recues.”

Or roughly – all humans are born un-made and mature influenced by their environment. The conquest of this fact by a person's autonomy will be reached in part by using these influences in the development of the self.

This is true. It is of course much harder today for an individual to be an individual than it was 2 or 3 generations ago. Now the cultural theme ignores real virtues, experience, trial and error and exalts the superficial, the state, the community and cultural relativity. The individual today is an after-thought, a burden, a concept of remote interest.

This is probably why pop-culture is so viable – it is a replacement for life, self awareness and the effort of living.


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