"Indigo" children?
NYT: Are They Here to Save the World?
I have met some blue-hued children. They were desperately ill, on ventilators, in a Peds ICU. But “Indigo Children” breathe normally. They are called “Indigo” because a psychic discovered their “blue aura,” as reported (with earnestly straight face) in the NYT. (Does “balanced reporting” mean that you give equal time to facts and to magic?)
These children are said to have traits that some might call “hyperactive,” and others call “undisciplined.” But the article quotes some true believers. They state that “Indigo Children” represent an advance in human evolution, and will bring peace to earth. Are there any studies of these children? No, say the psychiatrists. It is a fantasy, a fairy tale. It tells us something about the parents – their needs, their wishes. How does it affect the kids?
The psychiatrist at Follow Me Here observes:
At 11D, a commenter reports:
Update: see Liz's excellent post, and her comment below. So, the kids risk a narcissistic blow, from their inability to manage school or discipline; their developing egos then might take another hit, in the opposite direction, from the idealizing, magical fantasies of the parents...
I have met some blue-hued children. They were desperately ill, on ventilators, in a Peds ICU. But “Indigo Children” breathe normally. They are called “Indigo” because a psychic discovered their “blue aura,” as reported (with earnestly straight face) in the NYT. (Does “balanced reporting” mean that you give equal time to facts and to magic?)
These children are said to have traits that some might call “hyperactive,” and others call “undisciplined.” But the article quotes some true believers. They state that “Indigo Children” represent an advance in human evolution, and will bring peace to earth. Are there any studies of these children? No, say the psychiatrists. It is a fantasy, a fairy tale. It tells us something about the parents – their needs, their wishes. How does it affect the kids?
The psychiatrist at Follow Me Here observes:
I have treated ADHD for a long time in my psychiatric practice but have been appalled by its burgeoning and unsystematic, laughably faddish overdiagnosis. It is now a wastebasket diagnosis...If you choose to delve further, be sure to bring your Field Guide. You may also wish to consult the Museum of Hoaxes and the Skeptic’s Dictionary.
While I have no affinity for diagnosis by aura, I think Carroll and Tober may be overcompensating for the overpathologizing with an equally silly lionization of the 'ADHD child'. On the other hand, I do think that some children come to be seen as having attention deficit disorder in the classroom because the stultifying curriculum does not hold their interest and they are all over the map seeking stimulation. In my children's school system, the townwide parent interest group for gifted and talented children is full of the parents of children with different, and often difficult, learning styles, and it is no accident.
At 11D, a commenter reports:
…now, after all these years, I finally have a diagnosis for my son: he's not a smart but annoying child who won't stop yakking. He's an indigo! There's only one problem: he spends the majority of his mental energies scheming for more television and snacks, not thinking about environmental issues. Maybe his aura is Snickers colored?
Update: see Liz's excellent post, and her comment below. So, the kids risk a narcissistic blow, from their inability to manage school or discipline; their developing egos then might take another hit, in the opposite direction, from the idealizing, magical fantasies of the parents...
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10 Comments:
Liz here, from I Speak of Dreams. I've a long post on the indigo delusion, including links to posts by parents of autistic children .
Here's what Chris Locke said, in his post Mood Indigo:
By laying these harebrained expectations on kids, the New Agers are building a whole generation of narcissists. I don't mean stuck-up egotists. We're talking about Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), in which the child never develops a genuine sense of self because he or she is too busy attempting to live out the fantasies of a delusional and psychologically abusive parent. This requirement to embody by proxy the parent's own grandiose "spiritual" dreams of power and glory almost invariably results in lasting damage to the child -- and often to the people that child will come into contact with as an adult.
What an empty century we must be living in if people cannot simply love their children for what they are and must invent fantasies.
These children are said to have traits that some might call “hyperactive,” and others call “undisciplined.” But the article quotes some true believers. They state that “Indigo Children” represent an advance in human evolution, and will bring peace to earth
That's really quite interesting. During one of my...hmmm, to describe it best....one of my more inspired bouts of mania and ever-present paranoia, I came to the conclusion that people with bipolar disorder were the next stage in human evolution, that the discomforts of our mania were simply growing pains as we lurched forward in evolution past the milestones of acceptable behaviour to where we as the Brave New World should be.
And then they upped my medication.
Interesting. Maybe I should share my meds.
Joel (et al.) –
I’m not sure that the “emptiness” of our (current) century is well reflected, as you imply, by parents’ failures to fully accept and unconditionally love their children. It strikes me that the parents’ reactions (“inventing fantasies”) to their children’s behaviors is more a reflection of how full our century is - of unrealistic social demands made upon ill-equipped parents. Ill-equipped in various ways, including how to be effective in the face of their children’s “problems,” or in the face of (largely internalized) social expectations of “good parenting.”
My guess is that the parents at issue here are at a loss with their own children and rather than accept their own negative self-assessments (i.e. their internal little voice of “I’m a lousy parent”) they cover up with such fantasies. (BTW, I don’t mean to imply that such parents should accept such self-assessments, but that they should (or at least could) notice them and deal powerfully with them. This might create a space for themselves of growth and development as parents, which would then benefit their children and the community at large.)
P.S. - Not that your view is incompatible with the above, just that you sounded more judgmental of the parents than I would like (at least, you sounded that way in my head <giggle>). As I see it, the problem is a systemic one, including children with real physiological and psychological dysfunction, parents with unrealistic expectations (mostly of themselves), societal “norms” that shift too much responsibility to the parents, a general culture of illness, and a clear nutritional imbalance between low-glycemic index carbohydrates vs. good ol’ Merikan beef! (Okay, I made the last one up…)
Wow. I ranted about this topic just a few days ago myself, here. I am happy to see I wasn't completely off the mark, in the opinion of people who know more than I do about this sort of thing!
Is the color of the eyes determine which child is Indigo or not? How about super intelligence? Watch this child Adora Svitak (published author at age seven, internationally as well, a book of 296 pages) www.adorasvitak.com to see for yourself.
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Carl Jung once wrote about a jar of pebbles. He said that if you knew the exact weight and measurements of all the pebbles in the jar you could compute a statistically average stone, and yet there might not be a single pebble in the jar that meets that average. Even if they could, I doubt any of the pebbles would want to morph into that statistical average.
The point Jung was getting at, of course, was that there is no normal, and yet we act as though there is. We have so narrowed the highway called normal that we have begun medicating people who can’t seem to navigate within its narrow boundaries. We look at statistical averages and Bell curves as though they were the holy grail, and if you are 1, or, God forbid, 2 standard deviations outside that curve we do everything to drag you back in.
We are in the middle of a massive traffic jam because we built our highway without enough lanes to accommodate the traffic. How do we go about widening highway normal? We accept differences, and we accept ourselves. Acceptance means non-judgment. If you happen to be a dweller within the Bell curve then stay there. It’s the you that you have created. But, if you get the urge every now and then to go off-road there are plenty of vehicles today to traverse the terrain.
If the world is squeezing you onto highway normal when you are an off-road kind of person, then, as you know, a four-door sedan cannot corral a four-wheeler coursing through the Sierra Nevada unless you allow yourself to be corralled. So, when our culture tries to medicate you so you’ll fit into highway normal, resist. You are already perfect. Accept that and accept me.
Bill Marshall
It ALL comes down to this: if you think "indigo children" is a load of crap, good for you, if, on the other hand, you still believe in "add", you belong in a mental institution. Seriously.
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