Thank you. I just bought the book. Thank you for writing this - this is exactly what I was looking for - but didn’t even know it had a name. So appreciative. Telling your story helps people like me understand my own. Funny how stories translate knowledge in a way that theory simply cannot.
It often feels like it is those who are adopted who talk about this feeling of being unwanted but what about the children who grow up with birth parents and yet who still feel unwanted or like they are not supposed to be here or have to somehow fight to feel worthy or like they have to "earn love".
I wondered the same thing. I think it’s the same archetype - the orphan archetype, and it can be embodied whether even if you’re not actually a child without a family. Im very new to jungian theory by I do know parenting is more than just the physical embodiment of humans - and many kids can and do go through tremendous abandonment and abuse by their biological parents. I suspect there are variations in the messaging. Someone who doesn’t know their biological parents may always hold out for hope of what could have been - perhaps overly idealizing their biological parents. I’ve read this from a few adoption stories/biographies. A child who grew up in an abusive household may have a push-pull dynamic. Loving their parent but still knowing their capacity for harm. Of course nothing is black and white and each story is different. But the overarching theme of the orphan archetype is the same.
Thank you.
I just bought the book. Thank you for writing this - this is exactly what I was looking for - but didn’t even know it had a name. So appreciative. Telling your story helps people like me understand my own. Funny how stories translate knowledge in a way that theory simply cannot.
It often feels like it is those who are adopted who talk about this feeling of being unwanted but what about the children who grow up with birth parents and yet who still feel unwanted or like they are not supposed to be here or have to somehow fight to feel worthy or like they have to "earn love".
I wondered the same thing. I think it’s the same archetype - the orphan archetype, and it can be embodied whether even if you’re not actually a child without a family. Im very new to jungian theory by I do know parenting is more than just the physical embodiment of humans - and many kids can and do go through tremendous abandonment and abuse by their biological parents. I suspect there are variations in the messaging. Someone who doesn’t know their biological parents may always hold out for hope of what could have been - perhaps overly idealizing their biological parents. I’ve read this from a few adoption stories/biographies. A child who grew up in an abusive household may have a push-pull dynamic. Loving their parent but still knowing their capacity for harm. Of course nothing is black and white and each story is different. But the overarching theme of the orphan archetype is the same.
Thanks for this. Very timely after reading an article in Therapy Today 04/24 volume 35 Defeating the Death mother by Julia Vaughan Smith