If you don't hurt yerself, or others because you're not mature, but you keep things in perspective and fun with that child-like view of the world, and aren't completely polly anna, then it ain't no thing to be The Pan.
hey there say, ekat... that "description" just sounds like a very spoiled and selfish child that has never been properly nutured... not a "complex" at all...
well, back to your question and the peter-pan-complex that those folks were directing as to your friend:
to me--yet, i was not viewing the total situation that caused this to surface, well: to me, i'd say the folks talking about your friend were (or they appear to be, by their 'spilling their inner-most commnent', JEALOUS of some kind of personal freedom that you friend has, as to enjoying life, or the things he does, etc...
meaning, he seems to NOT be letting the control of what folks 'judge' to be proper agendas, etc, control the path that he lives each day... and THEY don't like it...
you know your friend, and you know best as to what kind of guy he is...
it is the long run, that shows how and where the GOOD fruit of his life is growing and being harvested, and not the short-term, or what someone THINKS they see, by a few "occasional" glipses, at his life...
as to the peter-pan-complex, is there should be a definition, it seems to make more sense that it just means someone can't face the need to step into adulthood, due to being afraid they will LOSE themself, and who they are....
wow, hope between all of us, this will LAY BETTER and get settled...
wow....
how's it go:
judge not, least you be judge?
and judge fruit, not outer appearance... and, well, as i said,
it takes TIME for fruit to really show...
the verdict as to such a serious judgementas theirs, doesn't
seem warrented to "be in" yet...
Puer aeternus is Latin for eternal boy, used in mythology to designate a child-god who is forever young; psychologically it refers to an older man whose emotional life has remained at an adolescent level. The puer typically leads a provisional life, due to the fear of being caught in a situation from which it might not be possible to escape. He covets independence and freedom, chafes at boundaries and limits, and tends to find any restriction intolerable
I got a big ole streak of Peter Pan in me, for sure.
Perhaps they said Peter Pan complex (and I know plenty) when they meant the "Peter Principle".
That is - when someone is promoted to their level of incompetence. Or in Wiki words:
The Peter Principle states that "in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence", meaning that employees tend to be promoted until they reach a position in which they cannot work competently. It was formulated by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull in their 1969 book The Peter Principle, a humorous [1] treatise, which also introduced the "salutary science of hierarchiology."
Could be context too. In a ski area where it's all about having fun, it's all good. But maybe in a context of providing for children (in terms of resources and time) it may not work quite as well. Or playing versus going to work, it wouldn't be so good.
I certainly know folks who in the realm of playing are awesome! But I know I wouldn't want to deal with them in other aspects of life.
Ah, but who knows? Some people are gonna hate regardless.
Let us know!