LIFE
What Happened to the Real Me?
Why it’s so difficult to be yourself
From the age of zero, we’re encouraged to be someone else. We see mummy and daddy and try to be like them. We start speaking their language, copying their gestures, doing exactly as they say.
There are certain benefits in this.
Without the care of our parents (or another human), a young child has no chance of survival. So requires constant care until such an age when it can stand on its own two feet.
But what is this age?
Victor of Aveyron (1788–1828) was a feral boy found living in the forests of Aveyron in Southern France. By the time he was brought into ‘civilization’, Victor spoke no recognizable language, but could climb, cook, hunt, and forage with ease.
Doctors put his age at about 12, and by piecing together fragments of his life from sightings and rural gossip, ascertained that he had been in the wild since the age of four or five. Meaning, he had spent almost seven years living wild. Evidence that a human can survive alone from as early as five, if conditions allow.
