aldompdx
Posts: 538
Joined: 10/24/2004 Status: offline
|
In a parent child relationship, unconditional love is primarily in one direction. That is the nature of the immature ego. As a person matures, they become able to reciprocate unconditional love. This growth does not preclude one from continuing to experience their partner's unconditional love, thus continuing to feel open and safe -- plus the capacity to share their own unconditional love. Part of growing up and learning responsibility is also learning that love arises in the only place you ever feel it, your very own heart. It never really came from a parent in the first place. It was merely inspired when a parent shared their own love, which is not given or taken in a bargain. The problem exists when an adult holds onto, and perpetuates, an immature ego. Often this can be a coping mechanism for deep childhood pain, abandonment, or an ignorant parent who simply lacked the ability to share unconditional love. While the dynamic can be a useful tool in growing through that pain or void, it is incumbent upon the skilled master to insure that their charge becomes aware of their own independent source of ever present unconditional love within their own heart. Otherwise, the person is forever condemned to search in their own darkness for an external source of love. As noted psychologist Alice Miller wrote: "The basic mechanism of sexual distortion is always the same: the danger of perversion arises when primal needs are abused or neglected, causing pain and anxiety that the child cannot integrate. The victim has no alternative but to circumvent these inner threats. Either they will avoid sexuality altogether, or they will live out their sexuality in a perverted manner. In the process, they are incapable of realizing that the perversion, i.e. degenerated need, is a defense reaction to avoid pain and deception. And the more the perversion finds legitimation as a natural need, the more our natural needs will be submerged. ...Love is life. It means being alive and caring for life. Life creates needs. To fulfill them is to fulfill love. Love sustains life. All a child wants is to be loved."
|