"Eternal Children": Peter Pan Syndrome

Term puer aeternus Carl Gustav Jung introduced one of thearchetypes: not wishing to grow up a child. This kind of archetype is inherent in a kind of inescapable infantilism: it stubbornly does not want to assume the responsibility that is characteristic of adult age.

In various scientific studies, "eternal children" can be denoted by other terms. So, the name "Peter Pan syndrome" gave this archetype to the psychologist Dan Kylie in his book "Men who never grew up" (1983).

However, he was not the first to notice that "eternal children"have much in common with Peter Pan: two years earlier, Maria-Louise von Franz, in her book The Problem puer aeternus, led this literary hero as an example of an "eternal boy." Another example of an archetype among literary heroes - A little prince. Of real historical personalities, the "eternal boy" was Mozart.

In recent years, "eternal children" are increasingly designated by the English-speaking term "Kidalt". This word was formed by merging the beast(child) and adult (adult), thus, it can be translated as "adult child". Kidalts are adults who retain their childhood and youthful hobbies.

For the first time the word "kiddalt" was used in the newspaper The New York Times in 1985. They described men age 30 and older, keen on cartoons, computer games, fantasy and gadgets - Usually useless, but at the same time beautiful and often expensive.

Psychologists believe Peter Pan syndrome relatively soft, superficial form of escapism - escape from reality in the world of illusions. Infantilism kidaltov does not cover all spheres of life, it manifests itself only in certain directions and represents a kind of psychological detente.

It is not necessary to confuse the infantilism of the Kidals with mental infantilism (infantilism). Mental infantilism This is the child's mental immaturity, which is expressed in the delay in the formation of the personality. In this case, the behavior of the child does not meet the age requirements for him.

Kidalts are not infantils in the full sense of the word. Although they are sometimes called "eternal children", ineveryday life you hardly define at first sight that your new acquaintance is fond of cartoons or comic books. Typically, the cadets are men of about 30 years of age or older, middle-class, mostly office workers, with medium or high IQ, single.

Of course, giving a typical portrait of a kidalt, wewe do not claim that the syndrome of Peter Pan is affected only by men aged 30 years and older who have all the characteristics described above. Exposed to him are men of other ages, and women. Simply 30 is a kind of critical age, followed by a real maturation, which many "eternal children" want to delay.

The syndrome of Peter Pan and the syndrome, it is not very correct to call it: it is not a disease, but psychological feature, which under certain conditions can become a problem - or it may not become. If a person is capable of daily lifetake on the role of an adult and the accompanying responsibility, there is nothing terrible in the hobbies that many seem childish. While he does not spend the last money on the Iron Man's figure, instead of paying for an apartment, there's nothing to worry about.

However, some "eternal children" remain childrenpractically in all spheres of life. They are constantly bored, they are looking for new impressions and thrills, they often change jobs and do not know how to build strong relationships (both friendly and amorous), ignoring ("ostrich politics") is considered the best way to solve problems. In a word - "this is such music, such a pancake, eternal youth." In this case, in life, you need to change something.

Many "eternal children" cause envy, because not everyone can keep a part of childhood in the soul, growing up. The main thing is to clearly understand when the manifestations of childhood are appropriate, and not be like Peter Pan, who did not want to become an adult.