I was watching Freaks and Geeks for the first time recently while I was also reading the book “How to overcome your childhood” by The School of Life. I wasn’t thinking of correlating the two in any way, but when I stumbled upon the chapter “The Golden Child Syndrome“, I couldn’t but correlate the two because it made perfect sense. It was a happy coincidence which I will use to explain one of the most revolutionary things personally, I’ve read in my entire life.
The show as a whole is great with thoughtful characters, funny moments and an all rounded fantastic cast. But I’m not here to explain the show, I’m more interested in the motives of the main character. Lindsay Weir is a straight A student who decides she is too good for her own good and decides to take her life into her own hands and be everything she once thought never to be. This is proven throughout the show through her various actions, but I’m interested more on the motive than the outcome.
The Golden Child Syndrome is a syndrome where a child is expected to be extraordinary at everything, not make mistakes, and essentially be “perfect”. But from the child’s perspective, the child is unable to sense any resources or talent within itself to honor the hopes of those it loves and depends on, the child grows up with a latent sense of fraudulence – and a consistent fear that it will be unmasked. This leads the child in a constant loop of reaching for bigger goals never really being satisfied with any achievements, yet striving for more. Even when the people who saw the child as perfect is satisfied or long gone, the child keeps trying to impress, without knowing for who.
Personally, me and Lindsay Weir are on the same boat. We both are the Golden child in our parent’s eye, we both feel un-satisfied with our achievements and we both are on the verge of a breakdown. She has hers at the start of the show and the entire show revolves around that. I had mine this year, which led to a lot of questioning regarding my personal identity. I didn’t know who I was apart from the achievements I’d gathered. I was a painting painted by other artists, and wanted to figure out who I really was. It made me want to do everything I wasn’t. Everything I once looked over started seeming like the possible me. This can be tragic in one’s eye, but it was eye opening for me. The understanding that I am not bound by the expectations set by my parents is a constant one, but one I’m glad I got to know of.
