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KMID : 0385320060170010058
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Journal of Korean Psychoanalytic Society
2006 Volume.17 No. 1 p.58 ~ p.70
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Peter Pan Syndrome：Inability to Mourn
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Kim Hae-Nam
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Abstract
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The Peter Pan syndrome is not a medically-accepted term. The author thinks it refers to the social phenomena of increasing infantilization of young people in the modern, post-industrial society. The Peter Pan syndrome refers to the ’Kid-Adult’ who refuses to grow up. These young people can not let go of their dream of having a happier childhood and want to remain as a loving child forever. They are unable to mourn their lost childhood, which causes their mental development to stop at the childhood state. Therefore, it is common for them to show irresponsibility, egocentricity, lack of empathy, inability to differentiate fantasy and reality and identity confusion. The reason for this phenomenon seems to be related to the social problem of increasing competitiveness in twentieth century’s capitalism. In addition to this, their oral-dependent wishes were gratified excessively by their parents who spent hard times during the war. Psychologically, they couldn’t mourn what they have lost. There are many losses in everyone’s life. And people’s psychic apparatus develop through the mourning of what they lose. In the novel, Peter Pan and Wendy, Peter Pan denies the inevitable loss of childhood and can’t seem to let go of what he has lost. So he can’t develop the capacity to use symbolization and fantasy. As a result his psyche ceases to develop and remains in its childhood state. On the contrary, Wendy creates the fantasy of Peter Pan and Neverland, which allows her to deal with the experience of childhood loss and repair the damage to her feminine narcissism. And she’s able to grow up to become an adult with a happier childhood memory.
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KEYWORD
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Peter pan syndrome, Mourning, Fantasy and symbolization
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