Basic trust must be maintained against perpetual feelings of loss.

Evidence

But, even under the most favourable circumstances, this stage seems to introduce psychic life (and become prototypical for) a sense of inner division and universal nostalgia for a paradise forfeited. It is against this powerful combination of a sense of having been deprived, of having been divided, and of having been abandoned that basic trust must maintain itself throughout life. — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 235

Categorization

• XREF: Stevens’s refusal to acknowledge his father’s death and his own lost love reads as an overinvestment of basic trust to fend off abandonment; echoes of an unprocessed paradise forfeited. — connects to: The genuine antithesis of basic trust is existential dread, not mere mistrust. — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 243; Supererogatory acts convert the conditions for trust’s emergence into maintenance; Necessary and good changes can still carry lasting loss and sorrow — , A Year of World Stories, 12256

Related

• The genuine antithesis of basic trust is existential dread, not mere mistrust. (similarity 0.83)
• Trust in another’s return brackets absence and blocks existential anxiety. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• The genuine antithesis of basic trust is existential dread, not mere mistrust. #expands (0.70) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 243
• Supererogatory acts convert the conditions for trust’s emergence into maintenance #expands (0.65)
• Necessary and good changes can still carry lasting loss and sorrow #expands (0.60) — , A Year of World Stories, 12256