Wendy Syndrome: People Who Need The Approval Of Others

We have already talked in another article about the characteristics of Peter Pan Syndrome. Behind someone who suffers from this syndrome, there is always a person taking care of them.

Wendy Syndrome

That person is Wendy, and has an urgent need to satisfy others, especially if it is her partner or her children..

Examples of Wendy syndrome They would be the father or mother who practically does their child’s homework, who wakes them up every morning so that they do not arrive late for school even if they are old enough to do it alone, who always seeks to make life easy for those around them or also the housewife who takes on all the responsibilities at home so that the husband and children don’t have to; or a member of a couple who assumes all the duties and makes the decisions and also justifies his or her partner’s informality to others.

Characteristics of Wendy Syndrome

To make it clearer, let’s look at the characteristics of a person with Wendy Syndrome:

  • She always seeks to please those around her.
  • Insists on doing things and taking responsibility for the other person.
  • Continually ask for forgiveness for everything you have not done or have not known how to do even when the responsibility is not yours.
  • He becomes depressed due to lack of attention and depends on social acceptance.

Security need

So far this description can remind us of our mothers and fathers and the reader may think that it is not negative since all this seems something beautiful and altruisticbut Wendy does not do this for genuine pleasure, but rather this set of behaviors is done out of fear of rejectionby the need to feel accepted and supported and by the fear that no one will love him. What, in short, leads them to be exaggeratedly servile towards others is a need for security.

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emotional dependency

Another negative aspect of this behavioral disorder is that those who suffer from Wendy Syndrome have difficulty controlling their own course in life, so they focus on trying to control the lives of other people. A Wendy mother is also likely to have a child with Peter Pan Syndrome.

Those who suffer from this syndrome hardly recognize that this is their reality and their diagnosis, although it is It is an unestablished clinical entityis done because people come to the consultation feeling “burned out”, oversaturated or overwhelmed. Those who suffer from this syndrome go to the specialist of their own volition.

As in PPS, the origin of the syndrome is often found in the family past of the sufferer, in which the person felt isolated and unprotected, so in adulthood they compensate for the lack of direction and protection by assuming the role of the absent parents or the ones he wished he had. And unlike PPS, Wendy Syndrome affects women more than menthis may be due to cultural and educational factors.