Giving you the break you never had (or “When Alex Cross came across the Golem and the Pygmalion Effects”)

   What might you be thinking about yourself when your father has abandoned your mother, the last one is a drug addict who cannot cater even for herself, and you’re only a thirteen-year-old teenage girl? Obviously, things don’t seem shiny to you. It is very probable that you’ll be watching the world through a set of looking glasses shaded with gloom.

   One such girl is Ava in James Patterson’s Alex Cross series. In his novel ‘Cross My Heart’ -which is number 21 of the series by the way- Ava breaks your heart. She’s been helpless throughout the thirteen years of her short life. She’s not capable of opening herself up to receive the love she needs so much. 

   Fortunately, there’s Alex Cross, a detective with the homicide unit in Washington D.C., who’s opened up the doors to his family for her. But no matter how hard he tries to cheer her up, to make her feel she’s capable of anything worthwhile she might think of, they end up in a dead-end. Ava can’t get out of the perilous loop she’s been thrown into in her first thirteen years of her life. The only thing she’s familiar with is rejection, misery and everyone telling or showing her that she’s not capable of anything.

   This is the Golem Effect at its extreme. It’s a psychological phenomenon that you’re already familiar with. You may have witnessed it occurring in classrooms, in the workplace, in your family, probably everywhere human interaction is involved. But what is this Golem Effect? It’s been found that whenever we place lower expectations upon individuals, this has a certain negative effect on their performance as well as how they perceive themselves. It’s all about a negative self-fulfilling prophecy. For example, research did show that employees or students who were treated -arbitrarily- with low expectations did perform worse that those who were in the high-expectancy tier.

   The Golem Effect was named after the golem, a clay creature that was given life with its sole purpose to protect the Jews of Prague, the capital of the current Czech Republic in central Europe. Eventually, it had to be destroyed because it had run out of control.

   The exact opposite of the Golem Effect is the Pygmalion Effect. This is the positive self-fulfilling prophecy and it has been studied more extensively than its negative counterpart. It was named after Pygmalion who -according to the ancient Greek mythology- was a sculptor who fell in love with his statue. His love was so desperate that he asked the gods to give life to her. He saw in a cold, lifeless piece of marble something more, something that could become a true marvel. The gods -Aphrodite in particular- made his wish come true, and one day when Pygmalion returned to his home he stopped in his tracks, his mouth gaping, his breath leaving him for good. All this due to Galatea, the statue that became his wife.  

   But let's go back to Alex Cross' world. Ava and the kids like her, have -more than anyone else- the need for a constant and steady support. They have to be kept close to Pygmalion and as far away as possible from the Golem. And this should probably apply to adults who never had the chance to steer away from the detrimental effects of the Golem when they were young. And why not apply this to a society in general as well? History has taught us that entire nations can do wonders when they’re encouraged to do so and even more so when they're portrayed with a shining light around them.

   So why not give everyone the break they need? Remember to make use of the Pygmalion effect as much as you can and avoid the Golem effect like nothing else. Keep in mind that such kind of behavior is highly contagious, but let's keep this stuff for another article. 

   Had Alex Cross’ stalking psychotic enemy not messed up with his personal life, I’m sure he would have succeeded with Ava one hundred percent.

   P.S.: Remember to check out Chris Dellian's new short story 'The Halo Trap'!