{{original research, date=February 2020
The Phaeton complex is a psychological condition described by
Maryse Choisy
Maryse Choisy (1903–1979) was a French philosophical writer, journalist and founder of the journal ''Psyché''.
Biography
Born in Saint-Jean-de-Luz on 1 February 1903, she was brought up by her rich aunts in a historical castle in the Basque c ...
as a "painful combination of thoughts and emotions caused by the absence, loss, coldness, or traumatizing behavior of one or both parents, resulting in frustration and aggression".
The theory was devised by
Lucille Iremonger
Lucille d'Oyen Iremonger, née Parks, (June 1915 – January 1989) was a Jamaican writer and politician, active in the United Kingdom.
Iremonger was born to Ivy Lucille (Joseph) Parks and Basil Oscar Parks (1882–1947) in Kingston, Jamaic ...
, who in 1970 studied the 24 British prime ministers who held office from 1809 to 1940, and found that 62% of these men had lost one or both parents by age 15, compared to a national average of 10-15% in those times. Hugh Berrington expanded on the theory in 1974, finding sufferers of the Phaeton complex to be less sociable, flexible or tolerant, instead being ambitious, vain, sensitive, lonely and shy. Micha Popper, though, disputes that an unhappy childhood always leads to obsessive urges, citing Winston Churchill as an example where childhood unhappiness had positive results.
The name derives from the Greek myth of Phaeton, a child of the sun god, who demands to drive his father's chariot and in doing so, falls to earth and scorches the Sahara Desert.
Examples
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician of the Conservative Party who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeasem ...
, UK prime minister 1937–40, having lost his mother by age six, is said to have displayed 'all the characteristics of the damaged Phaeton - immature, sensitive, cold, secretive and depressed' when in office, according to Harry Davis.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Zulfikar (or Zulfiqar) Ali Bhutto ( ur, , sd, ذوالفقار علي ڀٽو; 5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979), also known as Quaid-e-Awam ("the People's Leader"), was a Pakistani barrister, politician and statesman who served as the four ...
is described by Shamim Ahmad as a neglected child, 'having a sense of insecurity that drove him to prove himself worthy'.
In a discussion of the Phaeton complex, Tom McTague lists
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...
, Theresa May, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair as examples of ambitious, isolated, detached politicians who suffered a 'deprivation of love' in childhood. Tom McTague, ''Boris Johnson meets his destiny'', The Atlantic, 22 July 2019