In another thread, I said this:

I remember our family going to Disney World, and we're standing in line for Space Mountain. The whole family kept talking on and on about how I'm just not going to be able to handle it. I'm going to lose it. I'll freak out. That ticked me off! Well, as it turned out, I handled it just fine. Didn't utter a squeak.

Had my eyes closed the whole time, but still....

A few minutes later it brought to my mind something a past husband, now deceased, had told me. Lloyd's father used to tell him he was a screw-up and would never amount to anything. Dad didn't mean it. He was hoping that this would make Lloyd mad, produce a reaction of "well, I'll show HIM" and then Lloyd would get out there and do something spectacular just to prove Dad wrong. It backfired. Lloyd spent his entire (4 days shy of) 48 years of life thinking he was a screw-up and would never amount to anything.

It makes me wonder if the put-downs and negative prophecies I've heard were meant the same way. All those "you're not going to be able to do it right, you'll mess it up" messages--were they supposed to make me mad so I would be double sure I do it, and to hell with those people who told me I couldn't?

Have others experienced this as well?

Has society in general figured out by now that it doesn't work?