Need and Greed
I got to thinking about greed, need
and eating while reading a novel in which a psychologist character explains to a
patient, “Of course, you were greedy.
You were a child, you’re supposed to be greedy. Parents are there to fill your needs. That’s the whole point of parents.” Do you have
difficulty differentiating need and greed when it comes to food and other
things in life? Do you understand why that is?
According to the dictionary, greed
is excessive wanting, a wish for more than your share and what you deserve. Children,
especially very young ones, can’t possibly know what they deserve or require. When
we’re young, we’re a bundle of desires—for hugs, food, attention, comfort,
toys, help, and information. We want what we want and are run by our primitive
brain, lacking a more mature brain component to help us filter our desires.
As the psychologist in the novel
rightly insists, the whole point of parents is to be there to attend to our childhood
wants. Well, maybe not the whole point. The other important thing parents are
meant to do is help us see which wants are reasonable and which aren’t, when we
truly are being greedy, that is,
expecting or asking for too much. Unfortunately, there is no way of measuring
greed across the board—what’s just fine in one family, or even on one occasion
in one family, is too much in another. The job of parents is to guide us and teach
us wisdom about our wants and needs.
But this doesn...
Source: Normal Eating - Category: Eating Disorders Authors: eatnormalnow Source Type: blogs
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