that is: being fearful of, or outright rejecting, their own capacity for growth, individuation, and being in active service of something greater than themselves.
they are youthful and creative, but that energy is filtered through the lens of an indignant child.
indignant refers to anger or frustration over a perceived injustice.
the puella aeterna feels hyper-attuned to injustice: she knows what is wrong with the world, and believes that has has been especially victimized within it.
her unique suffering allows her to both (a) be perceived as fragile, and (b) believe that she knows more and better than everyone else trapped in the “system”.
her fragility gives her permission to deny her capacity to take true responsibility for her life and decisions.
when one’s capacity – and so autonomy? – is repressed, “a sense of inferiority and self-accusation naturally emerges”, further justifying the diminishment of one’s self and the perpetuation of maladaptive or destructive patterns.
to compensate for a self-diminishing life without taking ownership over her choices, puella may be ”abducted by the intoxicating realm of possibilities” where she can be the hero of her grandiose, hypothetical fantasies without ever having to overcome her perfectionism and procrastination to make them real.