The Little King/IF: Seed

I was very happy to see today’s IF topic, I was going to post this anyway, but as soon as I saw ‘Seed’ I thought of this quote:

“Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man.”

Very appropriate with the words I had already typed, below. This quote is usually attributed to the Jesuits these days, but originally it seems to have come from Francis Xavier.

In psychotherapy the tendency of some mothers to ‘worship’ their male children simply because they are male is referred to as the Little King syndrome. Little kings  grow up into men with a sense of entltlement, a tendency towards superiority and arrogance and a belief that their female partners should also worship them. Of course there are degrees of ‘kinglyness’, but all such men are unfortunately very wounded - and frequently very angry with women (well, with their mothers, but the feelings tend to get generalised). The wounding and anger derives from the need to carry the weight of the mothers reflection of specialness - in order to be so special the child cannot be himself, an ordinary little boy, instead he is only allowed to behave according to his mother’s definition of specialness. His true self and real feelings are shamed and rejected. The wounding and consequent anger keeps the man himself isolated and unable to experience true intimacy and may also erupt into emotional or physical abuse.

I hadn’t thought about this for a long time, but when I drew this boy it instantly came to mind. Ink & digital colour.