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Rated: E · Interactive · Psychology · #2339469

Here I will talk about characters from films, cartoons and TV series and their psychology.

This choice: Itachi  •  Go Back...
Chapter #4

Itachi Uchiha, when pain becomes identity

    by: Winnie the Pooh Author IconMail Icon
In the seventies, the Austrian psychoanalyst Heinz Kohut published the first texts on the Psychology of the Self, introducing a new perspective on the development of identity: the way we form ourselves depends on the emotional responses we receive from those who take care of us.

Imagine growing up in an environment where you should feel safe, but the people you love distance themselves or betray you. According to Kohut, to develop a strong and stable Self, we need figures who reflect us, protect us and make us feel part of something.

From an early age, Itachi demonstrated extraordinary intelligence and talent. The Uchiha clan and the Leaf Village saw him as a prodigy, but instead of being welcomed and supported, he was burdened with immense expectations.

These expectations can be constructive but can become a burden too great to bear and it could lead to a fragmentation of one's identity. Itachi was no longer someone's son but a political tool, a weapon and a treasure to be shown.

Carrying such a burden did not give him the opportunity to be fragile, to have needs and, above all, did not give him the opportunity to be loved for who he is, but only for what he was able to provide.

Itachi embodies two great limits of modern culture: on the one hand, the idea that the value of a son depends exclusively on the results he is able to achieve; on the other hand, the belief that a man is defined not by his essence, but only by what he is able to offer.

"For the sake of peace, I will be the monster that the world will hate."
Itachi lived believing that the weight of the world was only on his shoulders, that no one could understand or help him. He chose to be hated to protect peace, giving up on himself.

But the true lesson of his story is that isolation and total sacrifice are not the only way.
What would have truly changed everything was not strength, but the possibility of being understood, of having someone to share his burden with.

When Sasuke discovers the truth, he finds himself without a clear identity:
"I lived only to take revenge on a man who actually loved me. Now who am I?"
Is a life lived to hate someone or to hate themselves something worth living for?

THE END.

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