Continuing the previous Posts, today’s young adults are being exposed to loads of information, creativity and to expanded horizons of life. This has had the positive effect of making people more sensible to diversity, i.e, to differences. One example of that is how empathy has become a usual word in current language in the last generations and also a sort of attitude that is socially expected. On the other side, the expansion of horizons and the assumption of creativity as a guiding principles, have naturally brought more uncertainties in what concerns life choices. Regarding parenting, the core value of freedom of choice brought new challenges to Millennials as parents because they don’t have structured references on how to guide their children as they had in their childhood[1] They are supportive parents but are not usually identity references to their kids as their parents were. This transitory nature of models is associated with the increase in existential anguishes and with new anxieties[2]. Finally, a corelated psychological effect of this context is hesitancy. This is not good or bad per se. It is a consequence of people not having pre-established paths or hierarchical models anymore. Therefore, people have more doubts that come from many possibilities of choices, and parents have more doubts because there is no “parental established script” on how to raise their kids appropriately. This is not a judgment and there is no simple answer to that. These are real challenges brought by cultural changes that cause proportional anxieties until new tacit social rules are established or, in other words, a new social psychological ground is established. And, it is worth noting, cultural context is by no means responsible for anxieties alone. If we keep the focus on cultural influences on identities, what we can clinically attest is that, when limits don’t come from the outside (external world), they usually come from the inside (internal world-in the form of symptoms). Therefore, regardless of having strength of Ego, many possibilities of future define, alone, an anguishing scenario. In addition, having experiences of much expansion/possibilities and no restrictions or limits, potentially feeds anxiety. And, by the time life demands choices, if people can’t choose or have no external restraint (from parents or financial ones, for instance), then they may find a fertile ground for a range of new pervasive symptoms that are the result of their neurosis (scape, sabotage, denials) mixed with their existential anguishes: “Who am I? What do I want? Where am I going to?”.
To sum up, roughly speaking, this is our hypothesis to understand in which point cultural changes, instability of paths/relationships (transitory purposes), expanded egos and new anxieties are intertwined. And how to deal with it in our everyday clinics?
To be continued in the next Post [1] For more details see Post 6 and 7… [2] For more details see Posts 9 and Post 10, in: Cultural Influences on Identity. In: www.ceciliapsicologa.org
[1] Para maiores detalhes ver Post Baby Boomers e Psicanálise. Post 6, Millenials - Geração Y e Post 7- O Pós-superego e a crise de autoridade, in: Influências culturais na formação da identidade. In: www.ceciliapsicologa.org. [2] Isso não quer dizer que não existam condutas e comportamentos socialmente adequados e apropriados . Quer dizer que a natureza dos modelos de hoje é instável.
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