Culture and Neurosis

What is the psychic effect of growing up in a competitive atheistic culture? Are there certain common forms of culturally induced neurosis that are mirrored in the individuals who grow up in a competitive society?  

Modern life is based on the principle of individual competition. People are expected to fight it out with each other, surpass each other and, even push each other out of the way if necessary. In a competitive economy there are always “winners” and “losers.” That means if you are fortunate enough to win the deal for your company, there are one or more people who in some way were hurt by that. At first glance this might not sound so bad, after all, those of us who grew up this way are used to it by now. But let’s think about the psychic results of competition. The result is that there is almost always hostile tension between people to some degree.

You will notice this tension especially between members of the same professional and occupational groups regardless of how nice and polite those people try to be towards each other. Competitiveness is prevalent in almost every aspect of the modern world: whether it’s about popularity, influence, attractiveness, intelligence – the rivalry that results from this makes it difficult for people to trust and rely on each other. The result is the isolation of the individual.

Son’s and fathers, mothers and daughters, one child against another, men against men, women against women: we need to understand how competition upsets the normal relations between people. Rabbi Shalom Arush teaches us the Torah ideal: When Aaron heard that his younger brother Moses was G-d’s pick to lead the Jewish people out of Egypt he was very happy for his brother and was willing to assist his brother in any way he could. Moses, we’re told, was reluctant to become the leader of Israel because he was so tuned in to the feelings of rejection that his brother might suffer. There is no room for sibling rivalry or any kind of rivalry in a culture that cultivates faith in its members. When people have emuna that what G-d does is for the best they are able to accept and be grateful for whatever role G-d assigns to them.

A modern competitive atheistic culture is a breeding ground for hostile tension between people. We are living in a generation of fear. People fear the hostile motives of others and fear the retaliation of others for their own hostility towards them. Another fear which is quite realistic is the fear of failure since the chances of failing in this culture are far greater than those of succeeding. This may be a failure in economic terms or it may be a loss of prestige. According to secular ideology success or failure is due to your own intrinsic ability or lack of it. If you are successful you have worth; if you don’t succeed you don’t have any worth. Even when you succeed, it’s a shaky foundation for self-esteem because you’re only as good as your last success.

Because these cultural factors lead people to feel frightened and insecure and alone, love is overvalued in our culture. Love carries the illusion that it can be the solution for all problems and people expect love to fulfill much more than it possibly can. In fact the big focus on love today is just a way of covering up the atheistic factors which create our exaggerated need for it. Most people today are seeking a great deal of affection and are having trouble finding it.

A person of our day who wants to emulate the Torah ideal of brotherly love, humility, selflessness, charity, tolerance and judging others favorably is caught in a dilemma if he is still attached to the need to use aggression and force to push people out of the way in order to ensure his success. In order to free himself from this dilemma he must choose between one and the other. If he seriously tries to do both he’ll be inhibited in both directions.

In order to live with joy and peace of mind it’s necessary to reject the atheistic philosophy that you can get whatever you want if you are just efficient and energetic enough. Torah observance offers people a way of coping with life without the neurotic conflicts that damage ones personality and make it impossible for people to sustain good feelings about themselves and others.