Ego Boundaries

M. Scott Peck, author of the book The Road Less Traveled, introduced me to the concept of "Ego Boundaries".

Peck talks about the euphoria or rush of falling-in-love in terms of ego boundaries. He also briefly observes that some people are in love with the euphoria and not the person. They fall-in-love with the act of falling-in-love and discard their beloved and launch themselves at another as soon as the rush starts to fade.

Peck's book starts slowly. The first eighty pages talks about child development. The infant's concept of self includes "Mommy" and "Daddy". Crying results in one of those two rushing to comfort the child. From an operating level, Mommy and Daddy are identical to the child's right and left arm.

When the child turns two, he starts to hear the word "No" applied to his wants. His "left arm" refuses to move the way it has been commanded. Then he hears "No" from his "right arm". Anger ensues just like an adult would be angry if his right arm were amputated without his permission. With the anger are feelings of powerlessness and fear. The child went from being 400 pounds to weighing 25 pounds. He went from being able to reach into a freezer, pull out a tub of ice cream and scoop it out to not even being able to reach the door of the freezer.

The "terrible twos" occur as the child's ego boundaries shrink to the limits of what is contained within his skin. It is horrifying to the child.

When the child first falls-in-love, he finds his missing piece. The other completes him. He is no longer one bit of protoplasm being whirled-and-whelmed by the cosmos...he is now TWO. He regresses to the (unwarranted) feelings of infinite power that he had on his second birthday. The anger and bitterness and spite and desire to hurt-and-punish that occurs at the end of the relationship are replays of the terrible-twos.

WOKE melt-downs

One comment from an employee at Meta responding to the tapering of DEI policies sums up the problem:

• "This change is unacceptable on all levels."

Do you notice anything unusual about this comment?

It does not identify WHO finds this change unacceptable. It does not say "I cannot accept this change for a multitude of reasons". That would be the most precise, adult-like statement. We can only speak for what goes on inside of our own heads. It is called "owning your statements".

The speaker does not say "Lesbians cannot accept this change." or "LGBT+ people cannot accept this change".

The speaker presumes to be voicing some universal standard (which of course, does not exist). It is like the big-mouthed shrimp at the bar who gets his entire squad involved in a brawl at the bar. The shrimp feels unbeatable because he is standing behind Wilder who is 6'-8" tall, weighs 280 pounds and was the Iowa State MMA champ.

THAT is why the Left is melting down. They regressed to the level of two-year-old toddlers and are disputing the resizing of their ego boundaries to be limited to what is within their skin.

Perhaps that should be a warning. Never mollycoddle a malcontent lest you have to deal with the emotional tantrums of a two-year-old in somebody who can cause adult-level destruction.