Re:Inspiration!: cross genre themes
[quote=”Sidhecafe”]
Struggles to be individual I think can be associated with alienation/marginalization since to be an individual is to recognize what makes one different form the surrounding community which then in intensifying degrees can lead to marginalization and then alienation.
Yes I think you’re right. It’s a potentially obvious process and outcome! Unless one learns to accept oneself fully during the process then the act of ‘becoming’ ultimately leads, not only to a sense of difference, but possibly alienation. If one does not learn to love oneself as part of the process of individuation – perhaps [i]love[/i] is too strong a word,[i] tolerate [/i]maybe! – then trouble lies in store because the sense of ‘self’, if fragile will be knocked about by self doubt. One must allow one’s self to be less than perfect.
This is what happened with T E Lawrence (see my last post) who ends his chapter on himself with the cryptic sentence ” Indeed, the truth was I did not like the ‘myself’ I could see and hear.” He spent the rest of his life hating himself because he had not lived up to the standards he had set himself. (OK there are other psychological factors – like family origins and his illigitimacy – at work here but his sense of his betraying the arabic peoples whose fight for freedom he belived in so much ultimately led to his breakdown).
There is of course a connection in this thread with religion, which used to take care of these matters. We seem to be heading into the ‘Mind / /Body problem’: and what I ask myself is whether ones sense of self has an inate, or immanent, facet – a soul – mmm
I’ll think more on this!
Excellent posts! Now I have something sensible to think about for today! And I will get back to you on GITS!