- The Never-Told Story -
A
relatively "new" phenomenon - at least at this time - in contemporary
urban societies, are people who adopt a barefoot lifestyle. This doesn’t mean
that it’s new at all: it’s only NATURAL and, in our environment - as I pointed
out in a previous article -, it coexisted with wearing footwear - of any kind -
until the 1970s, then disappearing summarily and “mysteriously” on a social
scale, even as a countercultural manifestation - that is, of disagreement with established
order, as it was among the hippies.
What
exactly happened? So far I’ve not been able to explain it precisely, but it
certainly has to do with IDEOLOGY - social construction - which, being
internalized by the individual, becomes part of his psychology, influencing
since then his feelings and emotions.
“I feel
like a child with new shoes" is an expression that denotes a definite
sense of self-confidence and power, while the opposite situation, having them worn
out or not having them, causes in the majority of the "urbanized" people
a feeling of vulnerability and helplessness, to the extent that in prisons and
similar institutions, such as some schools still in the 60s, it was used as
humiliating punishment.
But both an
emotional complex and the other are learned. In classical psychoanalytic
terminology, it would be the first a (positive) FETISHISM, in which the
presence or possession of an object - in this case, footwear - translates into
pleasure, while its absence or loss results in the effect opposite or negative:
displeasure, shame, grief. A scheme that matches that of addiction.
This
unconscious subjective process also generates rationalizations - giving the
appearance of rational to what it’s not - like the one I heard in a public
Internet site, when a customer commented to the person in charge: “It’s said
that walking barefoot damages the leg joints.” (!)
And what
about the purely objective side of this practice? Well, you can live and live together
barefoot if you wish, doing the usual domestic and social activities, only with
greater comfort, among other advantages. It is a matter of preference, an
alternative way of organizing one's own life that has nothing extraordinary or
scandalous in itself, but that some especially apprehensive or decidedly
neurotic people, strive to present it as antisocial.
It’s the
case of numerous American commercial establishments that display a sticker with
the legend: “NO SHIRT - NO SHOES - NO SERVICE” (Here managers don't usually get
that far, although there’s no shortage of those who with almost religious zeal would
like to force everyone to wear shoes as not to feel ashamed or disturbed
themselves, a clear projection of their discomfort on others.)
Psychology
cannot only contribute to solving historical-social riddles such as this
strange, sudden and widespread phobia at bare feet: it’s also a valuable tool
available to the individual to preserve the FREEDOM to decide on their own life
in this and many others aspects: it is only a matter of (knowing) APPLYING IT.
Fernando Acosta Reyes
(@ferstarey) is founder of the Investigative Society of the Strange
(SIDLE), professional musician and student of social behavior.
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