How Early Childhood Emotional Patterns Still Control You

Summary

Jung On Purpose Podcast by CreativeMind
Episode: How Early Childhood Emotional Patterns Still Control You
Date: May 11, 2026
Hosts: Debra Maldonado & Dr. Rob Maldonado, PhD

---

Episode Overview

This episode dives into how emotional patterns established from birth to age four continue to shape us in adulthood—often unconsciously. Drawing on Jungian psychology, Eastern spirituality, and social neuroscience, Debra and Dr. Rob discuss early childhood development with a focus on emotions: how they emerge, become encoded, and influence our lifelong personality and behavior patterns. The hosts emphasize that while these formative imprints are powerful, they can be transformed through conscious “inner work.”

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Primacy of Emotions in Early Development (00:44 – 05:09)

• Emotions precede cognition: "From very early on, from the get go, pretty much from day one, we're ready to experience the world through our emotions, not cognitively. Cognition kicks in later." — Dr. Rob (02:13)
• Evolutionary and physiological grounding: Emotional brain structures develop earlier for bonding and survival. The neocortex (responsible for reasoning) develops more slowly and gradually over the years.
• Prenatal emotional influence: Babies in the womb can be affected by the mother's emotional state through chemical transmission; these experiences shape the fetus, although research is ongoing.

2. Birth to Age 2: Emotional Imprinting and Survival (05:09 – 10:49)

• Raw emotional experience: Early years are defined by sensations and feelings, not words—babies respond to care, nourishment, and love (or lack thereof) at a somatic, nonverbal level.
• Attachment and the sensitive period: If babies do not receive sufficient attention or love, it becomes difficult to "catch up" emotionally later ("The brain finds it difficult to catch up later if it doesn't receive it in this early stage." — Dr. Rob, 06:55)
• Not just mothers: Other loving caregivers (grandparents, nannies, teachers) can provide crucial emotional support.
• Duality and necessity of all emotions: Experiencing the entire range of emotions (comfort, discomfort, joy, anxiety) prepares the brain for real-world complexity. "It's not about protecting us and shielding us from emotion, but it's about exposing us to these powerful emotions so that our brain kind of gets the code." — Dr. Rob (09:56)

3. The Role of the Personal Unconscious (10:49 – 12:17)

• Deep imprinting: Early feelings—without language or conscious recall—are stored in the personal unconscious and may drive adult behavior irrationally: "That's why when we react, sometimes irrationally, to something where it feels life threatening, but it's not. It comes from that deep first initial two years..." — Deborah (12:24)

4. Ages 2–4: Emergence of Ego and Agency (12:24 – 16:30)

• Formation of “I” and agency: The sense of self as separate from the world begins to form ("...the individual self is beginning to form. Not fully formed, but beginning to form." — Deborah, 13:14).
• Power assertion: Toddlers test their agency—e.g., saying “no,” defying adults, or acting out to elicit clear responses.
  • Memorable moment: The "terrible twos" are a sign of ego and self-will, not just misbehavior.
• Temperament: Variability in children (“easy” vs. “difficult” babies) is rooted in genetics and epigenetics, but environment is essential for activating potential capacities.

5. Environment, Stimulation & The Electronic Age (16:30 – 18:48)

• The danger of screens: Overuse of electronics can inhibit social, emotional, and physical development: "If we're not learning how to, how to enact a social interaction...our brain, which is designed for social interaction, is not going to receive the environmental stimulus to develop those skills." — Dr. Rob (17:23)
• Importance of play and real interaction: Emotional intelligence and social skills arise from real-world practice, not virtual activities.

6. Structure, Discipline, and Emotional Development (19:59 – 21:14)

• Value of boundaries: Children need structure, not total freedom, to feel safe—time-outs or limits can help foster a sense of security, despite initial resistance ("Children want structure even though they might resist it..." — Dr. Rob, 20:15).

7. Moving From Feeling to Naming: Emotional Expression (21:14 – 25:30)

• Learning to name and express: Ages 2–4 mark the beginning of connecting emotions to language ("2 to 4 is about naming and expressing." — Deborah, 21:14).
• Action as expression: Toddlers act out feelings before they can describe them—frustration with a toy, for example, is demonstrated via behavior, not discussed verbally.

8. Long-Term Impact & Jungian “Inner Work” (25:30 – 28:20)

• Permanent influence: These foundational emotional patterns persist unless there's intentional exploration and transformation—Jungian “inner work” aims to access and change deep imprints.
• Limitations of surface solutions: Traditional cognitive or behavioral approaches may not access the roots of these patterns: "The foundational pattern is emotional and it's inscripted in this intuitive emotional..." — Dr. Rob (27:59).

9. On Emotional Immaturity and Growth (28:20 – 30:43)

• Universal emotional immaturity: All adults have some “emotionally immature” patterns rooted in childhood; the key isn’t to blame, but to do the work of integration and individuation.
• Freedom through wholeness: Healing is about becoming present to all emotions—without needing to fix or avoid them—so they no longer unconsciously control us.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “There is no transformation without emotion.” — Deborah (00:44)
• “We need the whole range of emotions… it's not about shielding us from emotion, but exposing us to these powerful emotions so that our brain gets the code.” — Dr. Rob (09:56)
• “Early experiences, even from day one, are the foundation of personality.” — Dr. Rob (15:06)
• “Emotional intelligence... is really built through social interaction. If the stimulus is not there in the environment, we don’t get to develop those skills.” — Dr. Rob (18:09)
• “Children want structure even though they might resist it… it gives them a sense of security.” — Dr. Rob (20:15)
• “These early experiences with emotion form the foundation of our personality that will stay with us for the rest of our lives unless we actively do inner work.” — Dr. Rob (25:30)
• “We’re all emotionally immature on some level because it’s not a diagnosis, it’s actually how we are. Unless we evolve from it… we are going to react to life in an immature way.” — Deborah (28:20)

---

Timestamps for Major Segments

• 00:44 – Introduction: Focus on the importance of emotions in personal growth.
• 02:13 – Earliest emotional development; bonding and brain physiology.
• 05:09 – Prenatal emotional exposure and pure feeling states in infants.
• 06:36 – Sensitive periods, attachment, and the role of caregivers.
• 09:56 – The necessity of experiencing all emotions; duality in development.
• 12:24 – Transition from felt experience to ego formation (age 2–4).
• 14:56 – Temperament, genetics, environment, and “enriched environments.”
• 16:30 – Impact of screens/electronics on social-emotional development.
• 19:59 – Discipline, time-outs, and the need for structure.
• 21:14 – Naming and expressing emotion; connection with language.
• 25:30 – The enduring impact of early emotional imprints and the Jungian approach to healing.
• 28:20 – Emotional immaturity in adulthood and individuation as a solution.
• 30:43 – Tease for next episode: 4–9 year development and the emergence of persona.

---

Summary Tone

The episode blends deep psychological insights with practical, compassionate guidance. While Debra and Dr. Rob convey expertise in Jungian psychology, they speak in an accessible, encouraging manner. They emphasize understanding over blame, and invite listeners to view emotional struggles as universal—and ultimately, as opportunities for self-knowledge and growth.

---

Next Episode Preview

• Deeper focus on ages 4–9: The role of play, self-image, and formation of the persona within the Jungian framework.

---

For further exploration or to comment, visit CreativeMind’s website or engage with the hosts on their social platforms.

Transcript

[Deborah Maldonado]

FOREIGN

[Podcast Announcer]

welcome to Jung on purpose with CreativeMind hosted by Deborah and Dr. Rob Maldonado, creators of the NeuroMindra coaching method based on Jungian psychology, non dual spirituality and social neuroscience. Join us each week as we explore personal growth for purpose seekers and the incredible inner journey of becoming your true self. Let's get started.

[Deborah Maldonado]

FOREIGN

[Podcast Announcer]

hello everyone.

[Deborah Maldonado]

Welcome back to Young on Purpose. I am Deborah Maldonado.

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

I'm Dr. Rob. Welcome to the program and we're going

[Deborah Maldonado]

to continue our series on early childhood development. And today in the next episode, we'll be talking about emotions. This will be a two parter, maybe more, because we know that emotions are such a a big part of personal growth and transformation. So today we'll talk about birth to 4 years old and how emotions impact us at those young ages. Those of you who are parents, very interesting to listen to. And those of you who are dealing with childhood stuff, this may help you make a lot of sense working. I have coaches or therapists that are working with people with childhood early childhood issues that we can go to, but we always approach it with a coaching model with that caveat. Before we begin though, I do ask that you do us a favor. Select subscribe on the channel if you're watching us on YouTube or if you're listening to us on any of the podcast services, please make sure you subscribe. And if you like our videos and make a comment, we'd love to see those too. That helps us reach more people and get this information out to more people too. So Rob, I asked to this, I found emotions so fascinating and when we talk about any type of personal development, there's so much about emotion. And Jung even said that there's no transformation without emotion. So I thought it would be really cool to kind of drill down and get really granular in that early life experience of emotions, which is a lot of times where people are trying to process their life and understand their patterns.

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

Yeah. Before I answer that, I wanted to give a shout out to all the people that attended our live event in Denver last week, which was amazing. Thank you so much. And you guys are the best. Of course we attract or the, the work attracts the best people in the world. Yes. So emotion. One of the things that really struck me early on when I was a student and, and, and I started to delve into this idea of early childhood development. How does the brain develop this ability to emote, to feel, to have emotions, was from very early on, from the get go, pretty much from day one, we're ready to experience the world through our emotions, not cognitively. Cognition kicks in later.

[Deborah Maldonado]

Is that because the brain is developing or what's the reasoning for? Or we evolved to not let that come on yet, come online yet?

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

Yeah, probably all of the above, because we need our emotions to bond first of all, whereas we don't really need our logical reasoning to connect to other people. That kicks in later. But also that the brain structures that process emotion as we know it, they're a lot older and so they're deeper brain structures that physiologically probably the fetus needs to develop early on. And so when we're born, we're ready to go. Whereas the. The neocortex is continuing to grow as we grow and our heads actually grow, so there's more space to grow.

[Deborah Maldonado]

Oh, that's true.

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

All the neurons and stuff.

[Deborah Maldonado]

So what about, like, prenatal? Is there any research around, like, emotions? Prenatal, where in the womb the baby learns, like certain children that are. The pregnant mother is anxious or the pregnant mother went through some kind of trauma or separation or, you know, financial stress and how that affects the emotional life of the child. Would you say that there is a component like they're not. They don't just, you know, begin when the birth happens, like it's when the base. The baby develops in the womb?

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

Yeah, well, of course, the baby in the womb is connected directly to the mother through the umbilical cord and. And is receiving pretty much all the neuros.

[Deborah Maldonado]

All the stuff.

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

Yeah, all the hormones and neurotransmitters that the mother needs to experience all those emotions and, and therefore the baby, I'm sure, feels it to some extent, although that's hypothetical, at least from at the time I was studying. They might have done more research now and understand more about that. But. Yeah, but in general, of course, we. We can kind of understand that whatever the mother's feeling, the baby's going to be part of that experience as well.

[Deborah Maldonado]

And if the baby doesn't have the cognitive. The infant in the womb doesn't have the cognitive rationale. It's just pure feeling, just like it is the first two years of life. The research shows that it's the first two years that there really is not a lot of cognitive processing happening. Well, yeah, the emotion.

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

There's a lot of cognitive architecture being built though, at that time, like really rapid brain growth in the neocortex.

[Deborah Maldonado]

And so they're developing language, but they're not able to speak. It's. Is that what it is?

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

Yes. Early on, the baby's Brain is listening more than anything. It's observing, it's paying attention. And while they're paying attention, of course, the, the neurons are exploding in the brain and just going crazy, creating all kinds of connections with each. The neurons are creating all kinds of connections, more than is needed, actually. And so there's this proliferation of neuron kind of networks that are going to come in handy later on. But at this stage, it's primarily the emotional experience that is leading the process of engaging with the world so that the baby feels the world, senses the care, the love, the attention that it's

[Deborah Maldonado]

received or lack of.

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

Or lack, lack of. And it is considered a sensitive period of this early period because if the child doesn't get what they need as far as nourishment, attention, love, attachment, yes,

[Deborah Maldonado]

bonding with the mother or parent, the,

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

the brain finds it difficult to catch up later if it doesn't receive it in this early stage.

[Deborah Maldonado]

You know, I, when you, I first met you and you worked with children on the spectrum of autism and neurodivergent, I guess the term is now. But you had mentioned that there's certain state milestones and if the child misses them, such as speaking, that it's hard to catch up later. So it's these, these stages are so critical for us. And so, but we, we also think, you know, in our Jungian way, we're not the ego. So we're, These are the way the ego develops. Right. The, the sense of eye, this mind, body. So we're going to go on later to show that this doesn't doom you. So those of you thinking my mother abandoned me, left me at the fire, you know, gave me up for adoption, all those things, or was never loving to me, you're not doomed for life either, but you have an understanding of what is happening.

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

So yeah, yeah, the research, and the research that I'm talking about is like really severe deficits, you know, where, where babies are abandoned and, you know, nobody holds them and nobody cradles them, those kind of things. Those kind of.

[Deborah Maldonado]

But usually we have someone in our life. So if our mother wasn't around, the grandmother was there. When I talked to clients, I asked them who was the loving figure in your life? And they would always say, like my grandmother or my aunt or even my nanny was really warm and she kind of balanced it out. So I always feel like we're always provided with that in some form. Maybe it's a teacher, you know, the kindergarten teacher who gives you love for the first time.

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

Yeah, those. Or sibling, those deficit studies what they showed me was how the high fidelity of the system, how attuned it is to what is it is receiving from the environment. It's like taking notes on everything.

[Deborah Maldonado]

And you see the baby, like they're just like not knowing what's going on, but they do know what's going on. We were at a restaurant yesterday and I said, look at that baby. It was probably like three months old and it was looking around, taking everything in and smiling. And you just know, like it's absorbing

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

and gathering it's work in the room. Absolutely.

[Deborah Maldonado]

So. So with birth to two, they don't know how to label an emotion yet. Like they don't have that ability to give it a name. So they don't feel I am sad or I'm afraid. They just have this felt sense of them.

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

That's right.

[Deborah Maldonado]

And a feeling of something's wrong, but they don't know what it is. And, and it's a survival technique, It's a survival system for them. Because if we don't feel safe, we are stay on alert. I mean, it's like any animal, like would, would be worried a little bit if their mother leaves the pack to go, you know, gather food for the young, you know, and then you're with your siblings in the cave by yourself. I'm sure there was some element of that. And then the mother, then the mother comes back and then there's this warmth again.

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

Yes. And my sense is that we need the whole range of emotions.

[Deborah Maldonado]

Yeah.

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

In other words, it's not about protecting us and shielding us from emotion, but it's about exposing us to these powerful emotions so that our brain kind of gets the code. Right. What kind of world am I going to experience and how can I be ready for that? And so a lot of it is transmitted from the mother. Right. Or the caregiver. The caregiver's emotional state is transmitted to the child through facial gestures, through touch, through just the energy. Right. That the presence has. And those are imprinted in the child early on. And of course, from our perspective, from the Jungian perspective, they are imprinted in the personal unconscious, meaning that most of us don't remember those experiences yet they're deeply ingrained in our sight.

[Deborah Maldonado]

So biologically, if we think about it, if we're meant to feel all the range of emotions. So this idea that you're going to have the perfect child cushioned from any negativity is actually not helpful for the child. And so like not being there to feed them, being uncomfortable in the diaper, being Hungry, like all these feelings. Am I going to get fed? Those are all developing these parts of our brain and emotional life. And I remember reading Freud, the pleasure principle. And what I thought was fascinating was the game of peekaboo that we all play. Almost like we. We even play these games with children to develop those things. And it's not even. It's just something everyone does. And why do we play their game? Because they smile when you play it. Well, he said it's because it's. He used the term the joyful return. So when the. When the. Hide your face and then you come back, the baby feels even happier if you just stayed just there all the time. So there was like a kind of withdrawal of the love and then pulling it back, and there's that joy that. So it stimulates joy in the child and how to feel joy. And so we can't feel joy without the opposite emotion. So it's almost like we're here in the early life to kind of feel the duality, right. Of the. Of the emotions and the duality of life, and we're starting to find sense in it. But if everything was laid out to us and we never felt anything bad, I thought we'd be prepared for the world.

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

That's a good example. Yeah, exactly. But we need to be prepared for the world.

[Podcast Announcer]

And so this imprint, like you said,

[Deborah Maldonado]

is in the early. The personal unconscious. We don't have words for it yet. And we're just. That's why when we react, sometimes irrationally, to something where it feels life threatening, but it's not. It comes from that deep first initial two years where we didn't have words for it. And then we're trying to piece together why I feel afraid. So let's go to 2 to 4, which I think is. This is fascinating from a Jungian perspective, is 2 to 4 is when the ego is born. Really, really comes online. So before that, I think you had mentioned in other. In other podcasts and other teachings that the child feels one with everything. Pretty much, they feel like the world is. They are the world. They're like. They're part of the world. They're very connected to everything. And then at 2, it's like the individual self is beginning to form. Not fully formed, but beginning to form.

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

Yeah. That sense of I. That sense of agency that I, through this body, can take action and change the world around me. Manipulate objects, you know, that throwing of the toy and having somebody pick it up and return it to you.

[Deborah Maldonado]

Because, like, power is a power test. Right. Do I have the power to get someone to do something for me. Is that what it is?

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

Yeah, it has an element of that. And, and that's agency, meaning that you start to feel your oats, that you can do things, you can affect the environment. You're not just a passive bystander waiting for things to come to you or people to bring you things. You can start to act upon your environment directly.

[Deborah Maldonado]

And so that starts with learning to. I mean it happens younger, like one or one years old is when start to potty train and learn to control a little bit of our bodily functions. And we can eat. You know, we were control of our food now cuz we could start eating on our own. So we're not just fed like, you know, like a blob. So it's like, it's not like a cutoff and starts, it's like a gradation. We like those kind of things prepare us for that ego to come online. And they seem so basic, but they are like, I can go to the bathroom by myself, I can choose what I eat. I can shut my mouth now and not have the broccoli that my mother's trying to feed me. So. And then that's where they call it the terrible twos. A lot because of that, they start to say no a lot. I remember my nieces and nephews younger, like when they were 2, they were like, do you want to do this? No. Do you want to do this? No. I was like, do you say, do you say yes to anything? No. What is that about? What is that about?

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

Yeah. Parents will tell you there are easy babies and there are difficult babies.

[Deborah Maldonado]

I think that was a difficult one.

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

Yeah. And some babies are just kind of there and they're comfortable and they just go along with whatever's happening. And others are always resisting, wanting to do their own thing, complaining, et cetera. That's the beginning of temperament. And we can we start to get the picture that these early experiences, even from day one, are the foundation of personality. And of course we, we're born already with these, a lot of the, these tendencies and traits in it that they're innate in us genetically and epigenetically. And therefore we're building upon something that's already built in. But still the environment is important because the environment is what stimulates the growth or lack of growth in these particular areas. So we might have the genes for brilliance and genius, but if the environment doesn't stimulate those genes to turn on and it doesn't stimulate the brain to wire itself for genius, Then that genius is not expressed. So these are called the enriched environments in clinical or experimental psychology. Enriched environments, meaning where there's a lot of stimulation or potential stimulation that is aimed at growth. These are super important.

[Deborah Maldonado]

Now, as a psychologist, child psychologist, I have to ask this question. We go to restaurants all the time. We see toddlers 2 to 4 on their iPads, constantly on electronics. Is that, does that itself. It's not a conducive to development because in the age 2 to 4, it says that it's active. The emotions come visible through action. So if child is just like in their head or playing a game, they're not really acting in the world like playing and, and, and playing, you know, moving their body and being defiant or running away. They're, they're just kind of like numbing themselves to the electronic. And I know a lot of parents are against it, which is great or limited electronic time, but it, I would think that children that kind of feedback from the environment because they're not really in the environment. They're in like a. Their own little world. What do you think?

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

Yeah, there's actually new research coming out about this. And I mean, if you think about what is our human nature about, it's very social. We're social creatures. And if we're not learning how to, how to enact a social interaction with another kid or another adult, we're not doing our jobs. In essence, our brain, which is designed for social interaction, is not going to receive the environmental stimulus to develop those skills. And so I imagine these kids that spend a lot of time on screens will not have the social acuity that most of us grew up with where we're at.

[Deborah Maldonado]

Social intelligence, like would you say?

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

Yeah, emotional intelligence. This is what?

[Deborah Maldonado]

Well, social. I was thinking intelligence. Well, emotional intelligence around being social. Yeah.

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

Because, well, if you think about social interactions, it's all about emotion. Right. It's kind of, is this a friendly person? Is this a bully? Is this somebody I can negotiate with? We do that intuitively and we're really good at it. As human beings, we have the wetware, which is the brain structure to do that. But if the stimulus is not there in the environment, then we don't get to develop those skills. And whatever we don't use, we lose.

[Podcast Announcer]

You've spent years building success and achieving what others would only imagine. But yet something deeper is calling. A desire for work that's meaningful, transformative, and rooted in who you really are. At CreativeMind, we train professionals to guide others through real psychological transformation using Jung and principle Eastern spirituality and social neuroscience. No cliches, no surface level tools, just depth, structure and purpose. Our ICF accredited Jungian Life Coach training program provides a profound professional training in small cohorts that includes personal transformation with a dedicated coach and powerful tools to help you guide others in a deep, lasting transformation. Step into that next chapter of your personal and professional evolution. Join us by visiting creativemindlife.com and speak to an admission specialist today. That's creativemindlife.com.

[Deborah Maldonado]

And so what do you think about 2 to 4 when they get in trouble and the parent says time out. What is your position on that? I know controversy, like, you know, telling the kid what you standing up for yourself is wrong. Is that, does that impact the child psychologically?

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

Everything impacts the child psychologically. But the children want structure even though they might resist it. Right. It might be their nature to resist it, but they want and need structure because it starts to give them a sense of security. That. Right. I'm just a kid if, if they're letting me do whatever I want. Oh my God, this is a dangerous situation.

[Deborah Maldonado]

Paint on the walls and the parents just like, isn't she cute? I'll just paint the wall over or making a mess of the living room. And it's like, sure, you know, it's

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

she's a child or hit other kids or oh yeah. Kind of stuff. If that's not. If there are no consequences for those things, then the child starts to get a little anxious. Even though they might appear to be enjoying it or having a great time, but the anxiety is a little bit deeper. Right. That oh my God, there are no guardrails here and I'm free to do whatever I want. That's kind of a warning sign.

[Deborah Maldonado]

So two up until two, it's really about safety and regulating your emotion and figuring out those balance between joy and pain and good and bad and pleasure and pain. And 2 to 4 is about naming and expressing. So we start to, as a toddler, try to express ourselves and name things and understand the world where language is just start. Even though we're speaking probably in full sentences, it's connecting that emotion with the language. It's like starting to build the building blocks of their.

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

That's right. So a kid that feels insecure might play the role of a rescuer. They're starting to kind of their mind, their psyche is starting to try to balance that insecurity out through action.

[Deborah Maldonado]

And so it's very active. This, this, it's very about acting out and being in action. And that's why I think the electronics inhibit that ability to. You're not taking action in the world. Maybe you're taking action on a screen with imaginary characters, but I don't know if that helps. When you're not interacting with fake people, you're interacting with real people with real emotions and real consequences to your actions and to form. That is very, very important.

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

Yeah. You mentioned parents that limit screen time, but my sense is those are very few. Most parents assume that technology is good for the kid. You know, it's just like it's good for them.

[Deborah Maldonado]

They don't have to. It keeps the kid entertained, especially if they're busy and they're working and they're. They're, you know.

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

Yeah.

[Deborah Maldonado]

Busy professional. And they're like, oh, the kid needs constant attention at that age. Give them a iPad and let them play their game or listen to music or watch videos. And it also watch the Disney movie 40.

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

Yeah, it appears that they're learning, right. Because they're looking at the screen just like a person working on a computer, essentially. So the parents assume, well, they're learning, right? They're, they're interacting and they're learning how to press the keys and all that stuff, which they, they assume will prepare them for school and for work. But that's, that's a simplified understanding of what this technology is. We, we have to consider that the technology, especially social media, there, there are psychologists kind of advising the companies on how to get us addicted to social media. And therefore that's what the baby or the, the child is learning is. They're getting addicted to this. These screens, but not necessarily for the purposes of learning or developing social skills.

[Deborah Maldonado]

And social skills are really important, especially if someone's an only child or you don't live, you don't have children around for them to play with. And I think we are getting isolated that way because parents are busy and do we have time for a play date and all those things? So, so very interesting. So birth to two. We're just emotional beings learning our emotions. And again, we have a whole range of emotions that we're born with or our psyche is, has the ability to feel. So we're not receiving emotions from our family, like they're not implanting emotions in us. Like your mother didn't create fear in you, or your mother didn't create anxiety in you. You had anxiety and it just stimulated it. But it, but they were all there. And it's also good to have all emotions, not just, just the nice ones and happy ones. You want to have a Balance so you could see the distinction and navigate life. And then the second phase, two to four, is where we start to take action, learn that we have a little agency. And so our emotional life starts to come on in more of an active way of acting out or saying no or trying to do something. I mean, I see kids 2 to 4 get very frustrated when they can't do something. You know, they're trying to play with a toy and it's not working and they just throw it and they're just mad. That's. They don't know how to say, I feel frustrated or I feel insecure or I feel incapable or incompetent. They just are still emotional at that point, but they're starting to see this little sense of I that is very personal now. Their, their actions are connected to their identity a little bit.

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

And here's the important piece for all of us to understand that these early experiences with emotion form the foundation of our personality that will stay with us for the rest of our lives unless we act actively, do inner work, the exploration of the personal unconscious, and make changes if we want to. If you're happy and you're saying, you know, I. My emotional life is perfect, I create the kind of relationships that I want. I'm happy with my life always or in general, I don't need to do any. Any personal work, great. But most of us, let's say our, our emotional life training early on was not ideal as life always throws us a curveball. And so it's a good idea to be able to access those deeper layers of the unconscious mind so that we can alter them or make changes in a conscious way now. And this ability, from our perspective, really, in Western psychology anyway, only can be done through the Jungian model. No other psychology really goes that deep to where we can alter them or really make deep changes. There are behavior modification models where, you know, you try to kind of augment or create alternatives to create boundaries or

[Deborah Maldonado]

speak up and you're right, or attachment

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

theories where you try to change your emotional attachment patterns. Those are good. But what we've seen, the power of this depth psychology, the Jungian depth psychology, where you're really able to transform those deep imprints. For example, when if somebody didn't get the sense that it's a safe world for me that I can be comfortable in and it's got my back, I'm going to be supported because of those early experiences. Let's say that the mother wasn't being, wasn't able for some reason to attend to the baby in a proper way. Perhaps the child got the message that this is an unsafe world that's not going to fulfill my needs. That that imprint is laid down unconsciously so that the person doesn't.

[Deborah Maldonado]

It doesn't have words to it either. Right. We're saying, but early on, it's not like you can say I'm safe in the world and use cognitive models to change that.

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

The cognitive models in that situation would only stay on the surface and would only kick in once the anxiety of I'm not safe would kick in and therefore it wouldn't really change the foundational pattern. The foundational pattern is emotional and it's inscripted in this intuitive emotional.

[Deborah Maldonado]

So recently, one last thing I'll say before we go. Recently, maybe a month or two ago, Oprah had this woman on or this couple. People with that are like letting go of their parents or cutting off contact with their parents because they're emotionally immature. The emotionally immature parent. You know, and Jungian terms, the way we look at it is first of all, we're all emotionally immature on some level because it's not a diagnosis, it's actually how we are. Unless we evolve from it and we do the inner work, we are going to react to life in an immature way. Under four, that's what you're saying. And so if you feel that way, I think the antidote to that is asking yourself where am I? Being emotionally immature, where am I? And not to blame yourself and not to get your parent off the hook, whatever they did. But Jungian work helps us ask the question. Well, it's in me too. If I'm having this experience with this other person, that there's a corresponding element in me. And that's the only way we can really be free. Instead of building walls against people that are toxic or mean or narcissists, all that stuff like let me build a wall around these people. The real power comes from standing in the presence of anyone and not being afraid. And the only way we can do that is to come to terms with our own these deep, immature, very young formed emotions that are core to us. And, and we do that through the process of individuation. Like you said, it's not about just, it's not about pounding pillows and scream, primal screaming and all those things. It's about really bringing on that cognitive awareness, the pure awareness beyond just thinking through it, but having like a more awareness beyond the ego. So these emotions that are formed, these immature kind of reactive patterns, our ego, but we're not the ego. And we're going to go into that in the next episode where we're going to talk about really the ego really truly forming 4 to 9 and what happens there and then how the Jungian model can really help you. But yeah, we're all kind of emotionally immature. We should all accept it and sort of project it and then ask ourselves how can we be more in touch with all the range of our emotions without falling apart, without needing to fix them, without needing to compensate or run from them? I mean, that's really. We don't want emotions to have that much power over us like it did in those early years.

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

Yeah. And one last thing about the four to six stage of development. Play is really the key.

[Deborah Maldonado]

We're going to do that in the next episode. Yes. So, yeah, we're going to get into play and we'll also get into the self image that starts to form from 6 to 9 and the Persona. So juicy topics coming up. We will see you next week. I hope you enjoy this. Please comment or like our video or send us a note. Tell us what you liked, what you want to know more of. We'd love to hear. And stay tuned for our next episode next week.

[Dr. Rob Maldonado]

See you soon.

[Deborah Maldonado]

Take care.

[Podcast Announcer]

Thank you for joining us for Jung on Purpose with Deborah Maldonado and Dr. Rob Maldonado of Creative Mind. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast before you leave and join us each week.

[Deborah Maldonado]

We'll see you soon.