The Cassandra Complex And The Marginalization Of The Feminine

The Kassandra complex stems from one of the most famous myths known from Homer’s Iliad. In it we are told that Apollo, the god of prediction, fascinated by the beauty of Cassandra, daughter of the kings of Troy, offered him something in exchange for his love.

What he promised her was the gift of prophecy. However, Cassandra did not want Apollo, so she accepted the gift but flatly refused to be with Apollo. This was devastated, but, above all, very angry.

Apollo retaliated by cursing Cassandra with predictions that no one would believe to be true, even if they were. In this way, the gift became a curse in which Cassandra suffered seeing how what the others rejected came true.

The feeling of undervaluation that is internalized

The Cassandra complex causes women to feel undervalued in various areas of their lives. In fact, they build their identity based on existing prejudices about them. Some of them claim that they are too weak, that they cry for everything, that they are always the victims …

But, in addition, there are also those who lie in phrases such as “the rice is going to pass”, “he has not known how to keep a man by his side” …

All this causes them to build an identity that is based on dependency, seeking approval from others, lack of self-esteem and a tendency to take responsibility for everything.

To a large extent, that happened to Cassandra, the one from the myth.

• She wanted others to approve her predictions, but only received rejection.
• She wanted to save her loved ones from any misfortune that she was aware of before, but they did not trust her, so she felt bad and her self-esteem was falling.

Thus, in the Cassandra complex there is always a tendency to prove one’s worth, because that is how it is thought that the respect and love of others will be earned. However, on the other side there is none of that, only rejection.

The Cassandra complex causes psychological changes

Due to all this feeling of undervaluation, women who suffer from this complex begin to experience very important psychological changes.

One of these changes has to do with perfectionism, as well as a quest to control everything. In its excess you can see its most pronounced deficiency.

• They obsess over  little things to show their mastery over.
• This denotes the lack of control they have when they do everything right to achieve that approval over which they have no power.

However, the most relevant thing is that their intuition is fading within them. Well, if others underestimate them, they also do it, but with themselves, with their feelings and emotions.

In this way, they stop listening to each other when their instinct tells them “this relationship does not suit you” or “you are suffering in vain.”

Doing this causes it to gradually wear, something not notice at first, until your body starts to show that something is not being done well: the pain will appear, fatigue, trouble sleeping … If it is painful external rejection, internal is even more terrible.

The marginalization of the feminine, the preponderance of the masculine

Casandra complex is a marginalization of the feminine, where a  women is not being taken seriously and where they are subject to man.

When Apollo feels rejected, he shows off his manhood to exercise his power over Cassandra. She doesn’t stand a chance. She suffers the consequences of male domination. Something that continues to happen after suffering the wrath of Apollo, as he will seek an approval and a trust that will always be denied him.

Many women suffer from this complex, since they are already born with it well internalized. That feeling of undervaluation is something that is assigned to them as soon as they are born.

There is still much to do against the marginalization of the feminine, with that “not taking into account” because women are still considered weak, emotional, too sensitive.

Whoever suffers from the Cassandra complex also feeds it. And it is that eliminating those assigned labels requires walking a very arduous and difficult path, full of steep slopes.

Illustrations courtesy of  Norvz Austria, David Talley, Greta Larosa.