Good Girl Syndrome! How to Cure It in Adults! Spiritual

 Good Girl Syndrome! How to Cure It in Adults! Spiritual

“Good Child Syndrome” – How Adults Can Heal It

From a spiritual perspective, addressing Good Child Syndrome and learning how to heal as an adult may require accepting it as a challenging trial.

First, before discussing how to heal Good Child Syndrome in adulthood, it is important to understand why this syndrome tends to appear in the first place.

Before that, it is essential to grasp the fundamental spiritual perspective.

In this blog, we have often discussed soul growth. Just as the growth of knowledge comes from each individual awareness, the growth of the heart, or spiritual development, also comes from each small awareness within the heart.

When one’s spiritual level increases, one’s presence in a spiritual sense becomes stronger, the ability to nurture and enrich the hearts of others grows, and the more awareness one has, the broader one’s perspective on life becomes. This is not a difficult concept; it is simply the process of becoming an adult in a spiritual sense.

When one’s spiritual level is low, their spiritual presence is weak, and they tend to prioritize satisfying their own heart over nurturing the hearts of others. With fewer awarenesses of the heart, their perspective on things tends to be narrower in a spiritual sense. This is not a difficult concept—it simply reflects being a child spiritually.

Although it cannot be stated as absolute, if a person’s individual awarenesses of the heart are weak before reaching adulthood, and they have not grown spiritually, this low spiritual level can make Good Child Syndrome more likely to appear.

In Japan, education tends to place high value only on each piece of knowledge, rather than on spiritual growth. As a result, the strength of each awareness of the heart—which constitutes spiritual growth—is often weak, and people with low spiritual levels are more likely to emerge.

“Good Child Syndrome,” “How to Cure Adults,” and its causes, “Spiritual”

Understanding the causes of Good Child Syndrome from a spiritual perspective may also reveal how to overcome it and become a mature adult.

In soul growth, the growth of the heart, and in the growth of spiritual level, each individual awareness from the heart is an absolute law in nature—there is no other method.

Conversely, society has created conditions that weaken each individual awareness of the heart.

In Japan, following defeat in the Pacific War, one cause of sending people to war was thought to lie in education, leading to the emergence of societal beliefs that it was undesirable to provide children with spiritual values.

At the same time, student movements arose that opposed the U.S.-Japan security arrangements, and among peers, there were those who valued each awareness of the heart.

However, radical communists engaged in violence, hijackings, and other acts, showing that even student movements could manifest undesirable societal outcomes.

During the Showa era, Japanese education still tended to place high value only on individual pieces of knowledge. Yet, dramas and moral stories that emphasized the value of each awareness of the heart were popular.

Children also tended to play actively outside, and through interactions with society, they often experienced events that awakened their heart’s awarenesses.

As crimes against children became more common, adults began keeping their distance, reducing opportunities for children to develop awareness through adult guidance.

Moreover, Japanese education employed a method called Kyōsatsu-jutsu, which likened a child’s brain to a blank sheet of paper and emphasized how neatly information could be “printed” onto it, evaluating performance with numerical scores.

This method was effective in training obedience, useful for military purposes, but it tended to weaken a child’s ability to think independently and act proactively.

“Good Child Syndrome,” “How to Cure Adults,” and the Method: “Spirituality”

Good Child Syndrome and ways to overcome it from a spiritual perspective can be approached in several ways.

Before discussing specific methods, it is important to consider one’s own sense of presence.

Psychologist Sigmund Freud suggested that even when a person eats, sleeps, or relieves themselves, there is always some degree of pleasure involved. Humans naturally seek pleasure, a concept he called the pleasure principle.

In extreme terms, one could even say that sense of presence = pleasure. When a person feels happiness, they simultaneously experience a strong sense of presence and pleasure.

When a person cannot feel their own presence, it is not only the absence of presence that matters. The body and mind influence each other, and this lack can create stress as a response to a perceived threat to life.

Stress responses place the individual in a state where they must either fight or flee, both of which require energy and stimulate both physical and mental energy.

When a person’s spiritual level is low, their existential power is weak, stress appears more easily, and passive or defensive tendencies emerge.

There is a story from Kyushu about a teacher who successfully restored a disrupted classroom. When first assigned, the teacher tried to have each child introduce themselves. However, each child was too conscious of the others’ eyes and no one could speak.

The teacher then changed tactics: one child was brought to the front, and each student shared the positive qualities of that child.

This approach allowed the child at the front to discover previously unnoticed qualities about themselves, while also feeling a sense of pleasure and presence.

In another activity, the teacher allowed students to move freely during a particular lesson, letting those who did not understand receive guidance directly from those who did. This not only restored the classroom environment but also strengthened bonds among the students and improved their academic performance.

For Good Child Syndrome, low spiritual level can cause defensive, negative-focused awareness. By intentionally seeking out the good qualities in others, a sense of pleasure arises, and each new awareness contributes to raising one’s spiritual level.

Engaging with various myths is also recommended, as they symbolize mental energy and help generate new awarenesses of the heart.

In Terumitsu Yokoyama’s manga Shiki, for example, there are many moments of insight that can significantly elevate spiritual level.

Creative activities, such as pottery or knitting, are also valuable, allowing individuals to express themselves and reveal inner qualities.

Finally, it is important to recognize that Good Child Syndrome is not merely an individual problem—it is a phenomenon created by society. Understanding this is a crucial first step.