growing up too fast.

I've wondered for a while about what it would take to not form the latency superego and post-ambivalent ties to culture (by this I mean that the person might regress from passionate love or personal success but not fall into criminality, neurosis, and shrink from work or family)

For many of my patients who have become addicts or criminals there is often a common childhood experience of growing up too fast and having to parent one's brothers or sisters.

The problem with becoming a parent too early is that when hardships are faced later in life, one's economy of libido is such that one only personal success, devotion, and love are important and there's not enough social narcissism from group identities. When ego ideal tensions are too high, the person might be able to consciously admit that he has "become a kid" and no longer cares about trying to pretend to be an adult. Often this requires drugs or alcohol to sustain.