51. Demotivational Process – The Little Match Girl

The essence of the demotivational process can most simply be illustrated by one of Hans Christian Andersen’s tales, “The little match girl” (Motivational Work, Part 1: Values and Theory, pages 492 – 495). It is a poetic way to describe the essence of the process that drains a person of his life energy.

The loss of life force manifests itself as more and more destructive behavior. It is common among drug addicts, criminals, and psychiatric patients. Finally, it can end with the death of the person. Motivational Work teaches how you can turn around the damaging process.

The Fairy Tale

Selling Matches

It’s New Year’s Eve, and evening is approaching. The weather’s getting colder, and it has started to snow. A poor little girl walks along the street, her head uncovered and her feet bare. She’d had some wooden slippers earlier in the day but lost them when she scuffled across the street to avoid being hit by a horse and carriage.

No Matches Sold by The Little Matchgirl

In an old apron, she has some matches, which she has tried to sell during the day, but no one has bought any. Along, she creeps, all alone, looking through the windows of houses into warm, candlelit rooms. The street smells of all the delicious food on dining room tables.

Afraid of Going Home

She sat in the corner of two houses and curled up to keep out the cold. The girl did this because she did not dare go home as she had not sold any matches, and her father would strike her. Besides, it is just as cold at home. They have no fuel and the wind whistles through the roof. She starts to think how warm a match would make her. She draws one against a wall, and how it blazes in a warm, bright flame!

Burnt Out Matches

As bright and warm as a large iron stove, thus, she stretches out her feet to warm them too, but the flame goes out, and she is left holding the remains of the burnt-out match. Then, the girl lights another, and she sees in front of her a magnificent Christmas tree with thousands of lights burning on its branches. Instantly, she reaches out her hands, but the match goes out, and the tree lights become stars in heaven. As the girl looks, one falls, a long trail of fire forming behind it.

Falling Star

“Someone has just died!” she says to herself. Her Grandmother once told her that a soul ascends to God when a star falls. She lights another match, and in its light, she sees her Grandmother looking radiant and mild.

The Littel Match Girl sees her Grandmother

She begs her Grandmother to take her when the match stops burning. Then, she lights the whole bundle of matches in her eagerness, and her Grandmother becomes even more radiant. The Grandmother lifts the little girl in her arm, and they fly high, so very high, to a place that knows no cold or hunger.

Frozen to Death

In the morning, the girl is found frozen to death. She has a smile on her face, and a bundle of burnt matches is in her hand.

Discussion

This moving little story is also a metaphor for the process that drains a person of life energy. The Little Match Girl loses her shoes, her matches remain unsold, she dares not go home, and she starts to light the matches. They give off temporary warmth, but eventually, she continues to lose body heat. The Little Match Girl makes it even harder to venture home by using the matches herself. Her life is draining away at an ever-faster rate.

The Nature of the Demotivational Process

This is the nature of the demotivational process. The individual receives life energy for the moment, but it is not enough to keep his life energy or ‘heat’ (if we think about the girl’s story). He becomes increasingly drained of life energy, and the less he has, the more desperate he becomes.

If the demotivational process continues, even someone who started manifestly motivated will become latently motivated. Once this happens, his destructive transmutation will increase since he already has so much demotivation. He will light match after match.

All the More Alone

His actions leave him all the more alone in the same way as The Little Match Girl, burning her matches and making it more difficult for her to return home. The closer the individual comes to the end of his life, the louder his call for help, in the form of destructive contact rebuses, will be. And like the girl burning all her matches, he reaches maximum destructiveness just before his death. If the demotivational process cannot be stopped, the individual will die, just as death eventually comes to The Little Match Girl.

The Paradox of Destructiveness

This paradox about destructiveness can be hard to understand. If the individual is injured, instead of seeking help, he aggravates his situation by harming himself or others. This paradox can make certain individuals’ behavior incomprehensible to a manifestly motivated person, who might attribute it to brain damage or other physiological problems.

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