Freud saw pity, conscientiousness, and cleanliness as ego-driven narcissism—an inability to outgrow the Oedipus complex. Our obsessional neurosis, fixated on childhood perfection, halts maturity.
Even kindness can mask cowardice, hiding behind humility instead of forging a unique path.
This connects to Nietzsche’s slave morality, where empathy becomes a shield, not a strength. Over-obsessing, even in kindness, stunts self-becoming.
The perspective shift is to embrace courage, confront the “self,” and carve an authentic identity, rather than clinging to infantile fantasies of perfection or discovering the innate self.