The Ultimate Gratifier

All of us are searching for the “ultimate gratifier” – that person that will fulfill our every wish and desire; the thing that fills us with Total Purpose.

In Freudian psychology, this usually represents the subconscious needs we didn’t get fulfilled from our opposite-sex parent. Whether this is true or not is debatable, but what isn’t debatable is that our lives are spent either searching for this ultimate gratifier, or subconsciously attempting to manipulate others to provide the missing needs.

When people attempt to transfer these needs to another person, it starts off well. But when that person doesn’t live up to our expectations – turns out not to be the Ultimate Gratifier - we get pissed.

For some people these days this Ultimate Gratifier is Obama. They are projecting onto him “hope” or “inspiration” or whatever else they have missing from their lives. So what is almost as scary as these people willing to vote for someone without experience is that these same people will be severely pissed when he doesn’t live up to expectations (if he became President).

No matter how much people are in love at the beginning of a relationship, if it is going to last a full four years, it needs to have realistic expectations; it can’t last on idealist projections and empty promises. And those relationships that try to last on idealistic expectations usually end up in the most bitter of divorces.

Update: I am not the only one applying psychological principles to candidates. Michael Weiss applies Gestalt Theory on the why McCain is doing well: McCain the Gestalt Candidate