Unconscious Fear of Success
Posted by igootnick on May 16, 2008
Have the dynamics of your family affected you and influenced the way you relate to the world? If so, this blog may offer you insight into your self-defeating behaviors, and you may benefit from some of the self help techniques I will offer here.
For example, a particularly competitive parent or sibling, one who acts threatened by someone else’s achievements, could result in a child who has an unconscious fear of succeeding, despite his or her great potential. I once had a client who was an intelligent, hard-working and very accomplished man, but, in spite of this, he had low self-esteem. In working with him, I uncovered that in this man’s family his brother was always thought of as the “smart one” and he was the “hard-working one.” He had repressed memories of his parents recognizing his early reading and math skills as a child because his younger brother would sulk and withdraw from the family. “He falsely assumed that his brother’s unhappiness was a result of his early accomplishments, and that caused him to feel irrationally responsible and guilty. As a result of these hidden guilt feelings, and to protect his brother, he not only believed that he wasn’t smart, but for a period of time had [actually] forgotten how to do math.”
If you have any questions about this post, please ask and I will get back to you.
