Friday, August 28, 2009

Cabbage Head Complex

I've noticed that people, in general, don't like to think negative things about themselves. And, amongst those people, I notice that some like to deflect away criticism (valid or invalid) which has been targeted at them, by saying and/or believing that it's actually criticism against some other feature of theirs. Usually, the other feature which the criticism is directed against is some feature which isn't entirely their fault, or would reflect shallowness on the person giving the criticism. For example, if you were to break up with your boyfriend and cite issues with him being an alcoholic with a borderline abusive personality, and he were to believe at all the reasons you gave him were false and the real reason you were dumping him was because he was overweight, then he would be exhibiting the kind of behaviour I'm talking about.
Occasionally, someone will latch onto a specific feature of theirs and attribute all criticisms and negative opinions people have of them to that one specific feature (or create a feature if there isn't an obvious one available) . I call this a "Cabbage Head Complex," named after a recurring character from Kids in the Hall. The basic premise behind this character is that he is rude, obnoxious, dishonest, misogynist, and also has a cabbage for a head; he'll talk to women and they'll all be repulsed by him for the former four reasons, but he inevitably blames all rejection on his cabbage head, because doing so would imply that they are rejecting him for a shallow reason, and thus they are to blame and not him.

1 comment:

  1. Interesting blog, and I'm glad you explained the name and added a video clip! :) What made you write this blog?

    ReplyDelete