If neurotic Fours do not commit suicide, they will probably try to
free themselves from their crushing self-hatred in another way.
Their movement to Two is a metaphor for their desire to escape
from themselves by becoming dependent on someone who will pro
vide the love and understanding they have missed.
Although they are usually withdrawn from people, average, and
particularly unhealthy, Fours have always wanted and needed people, and their move to Two is an ironic, unintended acknowledg
ment of this. Fours are drawn to Two because they need to overcome
their alienation from themselves and others by finding someone
who will love them. By so doing, unhealthy Fours hope that they
will, in time, be able to love themselves and actualize the good that
is in them. Unfortunately, however, neurotic Fours are almost com
pletely incapable of entering into and sustaining a genuine relation
ship with anyone. They are too emotionally disturbed and self-
contemptuous to function, much less to be able to truly love any
one else.
Instead, when neurotic Fours go to Two they may well have some
sort of nervous breakdown, indirectly coercing someone to take
care of them, but not necessarily the beloved of their imaginations.
Eliciting pity from others substitutes for being loved. They may
also be without financial resources, and therefore expect to live off
someone else in what is little more than a parasitic existence and an
extension of the feeling of exemption which we have already seen.
Furthermore, since they are broken down, deteriorated Fours also
feel exempt from having any expectations placed on them, even the
expectation that they get well.
Ironically, Fours at Two will likely begin to hate the very person
they have become dependent upon, since their dependency is a
constant reminder of their defects and lack of self-esteem. Conflicts
will escalate as Fours alternate between intense feelings of aggres
sion toward themselves and aggression toward the other. Others
will no doubt also be infuriated with deteriorated Fours because
many of their problems were either caused or greatly exacerbated by
their own actions. They have brought much upon themselves, and
now, others feel, it is they who are being forced to help undo what
Fours have so perversely done to themselves.
Deteriorated Fours cannot escape the fact that it is futile to at
tempt to find themselves through someone else, since they still
hate themselves. They will therefore probably destroy the very re
lationship they so desperately depend on. The prognosis for deteri
orated Fours is bleak indeed: if they do not receive adequate
professional help, they may well eventually go mad, commit sui
cide, or both.