2023-04-18 11:07:16
Jean-Pierre Lebrun, author of this book, is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, vice-president of the International Lacanian Association.
Has the adult become an endangered species? We have authorized ourselves to refuse any limit and to reject constraint because it limits our hypertrophied individualism. Indeed, growing up is no longer a recipe and the success of coaches of all kinds responds to an increasingly strong demand for assistantship, which refuses maturity.
Will we soon all be affected by the syndrome of Peter Pan, the child who did not want to grow up? We can ask ourselves the question in a trivial way by observing fifty-somethings slaloming on scooters, tattoos on their arms and AirPods in their ears, in the streets of our metropolises. Our society obsessed with youth considers that to become an adult is to resign oneself! Have a less adventurous life.
Jean-Pierre Lebrun explains that there is a link between the psychological construction of the individual and sociability – the dimension of societal otherness – which is dependent on neoliberal ideology. For him, in fact, our society has not taken the measure of its mutation, nor of the need to put an end to the child’s fantasy of omnipotence. Until a few decades ago, you had to tick a few boxes to feel like an adult. The rites of passage were simple: finish school, get a job, get married, leave home, have a child. Now, these criteria are no longer sufficient. Growing up is no longer a dream! Especially if the parents are toiling away, arguing at home and struggling to make ends meet…
How to move from an “open mouth” to a responsible citizen, asks Jean-Pierre Lebrun? Not to remain a greedy consumer taken always more in addictions? Indeed, the empire of coaches creates a tyranny of happiness and a negation of expectation. The patients have become big babies who spend their lives suckling. We have returned to the breast age! When they are implicated in one way or another, more and more adults claim the status of victims, cutting short any endorsement of personal responsibility.
The prevailing discourse, centered around consumption and immediate satisfaction, feeds an intolerance to frustration. The pleasure principle takes precedence over the reality principle. We want to enjoy at all costs and without hindrance, without worrying about others and the future. This new social norm of enjoyment weakens our psyche and generates more depressive disorders, because the limits no longer exist.
The individual no longer supports hierarchy and morality because it disturbs his enjoyment. And this progression of immaturity is perpetuated by education. Failing to feel legitimate, parents want to be able to love their children without having to take on the wrong role. In reality it is they who become dependent on the love of their children. But the latter need a framework to build their psyche… And one day become adults.
A high quality book that asks an essential question!
A reading by Dominique BARBIER, psychoanalyst (Avignon)
• I would rather not – Is growing up still on the agenda? Jean-Pierre Lebrun, érès Editions, October 2022.
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#growing #agenda