UPSG
Posts: 331
Joined: 1/22/2009 Status: offline
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: CatdeMedici I'm going to admit, ( not bragging ok?), I never had this situation so I don't have a frame of reference--but I see and hear comments like "I blame My parents", " My parents were xxx or did xxx"--outside of the gross neglects or abuses that come to mind---why do adults who are seemingly into adulthood with some life experience on their resume, still feel the need to blame their parents for the way they are? Isn't there a point that if someone is a certain way because of parents and they aren't happy or don't like it, only they can make the effort to change? Isn't there a point that one should start taking responsibility for their quirks, idiosyncracies, habits and the changes required? Am I missing something? A professor of mine commented to me once that it is generally the case - not always but generally - that if a person has "f*cked up" parents they will become "f*cked up." He was making that comment from the perspective of a social scientist. I think many psychiatrists or psychologist would agree with that for the most part. One of the reasons the U.S. military has an age limit for bootcamp is because after a certain age it becomes difficult to mold another person's mind - brainwash. Young people that are 19 and 24 are still fairly easy to brainwash. Legally they are adults, yet older figures with Drill Instructor's caps, still retrain their minds. Parents have a major impact on children during their prime development years for their personality. I believe so. I would also say other things like neighborhood culture, schools, extended family, friends and so forth also contribute. The will and given personality of the person also contributes to the person's further developing personality - at least I would think so. The purpose of a liberal arts education is to help make the person a more well-rounded person, to help broaden their mind so to speak. This is not the same thing as being trained in high school, professional schooling like law and medicine, as a grunt in the military, or parental indoctrination. Many people don't even have a frame of reference for change. And changing yourself can be very difficult - though not impossible - after a certain point. I could be wrong but it seems to me, most adults need a shock to change, like the rape victim, the combat veteran, the cop that has seen to much, drug addiction, being beaten up very badly... these kinds of things can cause a significant change in a person's personality or some element of it. I know a young man that has been partly, and slowly, change some aspects of his personality and behaviors through the means of studying Aikido for several years now. This change and path to change has not required any "shock" to the system.
|