Mar 26, 2017
to wound others with our own wounds
Our natural tendency is to wound others with our own wounds. (244)
A self-absorbed person has had an emotionally insecure parent who used the child to satisfy his or her own needs and longings, so that the child had to behave in a particular way to gain parental approval. The child therefore interpreted parental "love" as playing out this role. (245)
Either is not free to know the whole story of their true life, so a false "self" is projected restlessly and with much denial of reality. Anger, discontentment, envy, insecurity, aggressions, and a tendency to feel shame of guilt are the consequences. (245)
James M. Houston, The Heart's Desire: Satisfying the Hunger of the Heart, Regent College Publishing, 1996