Bite My Heart, But Don't Bite My Bread

2023-08-08 · essays

The problem with development efforts in third-world countries is that if they are genuinely serious, they often focus solely on the economic and possibly the social aspects, while completely neglecting the psychological aspect of the matter. This oversight is what often leads most of these efforts to end in failure or slow, unproductive progress at best.

Inhabitants of third-world countries are characterized by a psychological composition that has been shaped under difficult and oppressive living conditions. This composition is designed to help them alleviate the anxiety about the future and the daily instability they face due to economic and social hardships. Their psychology is nothing more than a set of negative defense mechanisms that assist them in getting through each day and reducing the stress that exceeds human endurance.

The adaptive mutation to this harsh reality distorts them as individuals on the path of adaptation. This leaves us facing a moving mass of psychological complexes, such as deficiency, regression, inferiority, and the disturbance of continuity (where they lose sensitivity to time as a whole and focus only on the present moment). It creates a self-perpetuating cycle that hinders any potential progress or economic development that could occur. Its purpose was solely to achieve equilibrium, regardless of its nature. Therefore, development and progress are difficult to achieve smoothly without relentless resistance from the core of their being. To them, the prospect of change is an unknown that triggers anxiety and turmoil, given their history of confronting such challenges.

Hence, it is challenging for development and progress to occur smoothly without determined resistance from the core of these individuals, for whom the idea of change seems more daunting than the prospect of death itself. Their motto is "Bite my heart, but don't bite my bread / عض قلبي ولا تعض رغيفي".