Bovarism

bovarism

1. An imagined or unrealistic conception of oneself
2. (psychology) An anxiety to escape from a social or sentimental condition judged to be unsatisfactory, sometimes by building a fictitious personality

a conception of oneself as other than one is to the extent that one's general behavior is conditioned or dominated by the conception; especially

domination by such an idealized, glamorized, glorified, or otherwise unreal conception of oneself that it results in dramatic personal conflict (as in tragedy), in markedly unusual behavior (as in paranoia), or in great achievement.

in order to create that alternate conception of one self we need to recreate our image. A new way of dressing, new ideas of religion, new friends, etc..

Almost anything and everything that sets us apart, divides us from the old way we were is essential and anyone who knows the truth will become the enemy.

This of course is how what we call religion is often used in history. The definition of religion has shifted back and fourth over the centuries from how we perform our duty to both God and our fellow man to what we think about God. What we think about God is unmoored from the spirit of God as expressed by the life of Christ and the prophets and dipped or steeped in rituals and ceremonies.

"Today, Bovarism is understood to mean fleeing tedium and melancholy into an impossible world of dreams, but there is still no consensus over whether Emma deserves sympathy for trying to break free from the 19th-century bourgeois constraints or merits condemnation for going to any length to fulfill her desires." -- Alad Riding, "It's 'Bovary.' It's French. Don't Expect Harmony." New York Times, April 9, 1991

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