I find it problematic and concerning to imply that it is “normal” for an adult to not desire to be nurtured or cared for. I highly doubt this is the case.
I think it is normal for an adult to be comforted certainly. But I think that adults are adults and children are children and they should behave differently. You shouldn't have your wife nurture and care for you in the same way your mother would. Wanting to be loved and comforted is human and applicable to anyone at any age. But if you go so far as to seek out partners so you can recreate the feeling of being a child, then it's a bit different.
I'm not saying OP is doing that to be clear. I'm not a psychologist, and so I can't say for sure. I'm just speaking to a wider phenomenon.
There has been no attempt to confirm causation here, merely a gesture at a phenomenon that sounds like it could happen because it appeals to our arbitrary conceptions of masculinity, independence, and adulthood.
I think expecting objective scientific evidence over something as subjective as a "type" is a bit much. How would one even go about proving causation in something as as complex as an emotion?
Since we don't understand the brain as a whole system, I admit we can't "prove causation" of anything yet. But we can attempt to understand it by analyzing what we can observe. Ancient astrologists couldn't discover the physical laws that govern how stars are created by observing them. But they did learn how the stars moved across the sky and had great predictive power when it came to their paths hundreds of years in the future. Even if all of their explanations were bunk, they were still able to etch out some understanding while science had yet to catch up.
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I think it is normal for an adult to be comforted certainly. But I think that adults are adults and children are children and they should behave differently. You shouldn't have your wife nurture and care for you in the same way your mother would. Wanting to be loved and comforted is human and applicable to anyone at any age. But if you go so far as to seek out partners so you can recreate the feeling of being a child, then it's a bit different.
I'm not saying OP is doing that to be clear. I'm not a psychologist, and so I can't say for sure. I'm just speaking to a wider phenomenon.
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I think expecting objective scientific evidence over something as subjective as a "type" is a bit much. How would one even go about proving causation in something as as complex as an emotion?
Since we don't understand the brain as a whole system, I admit we can't "prove causation" of anything yet. But we can attempt to understand it by analyzing what we can observe. Ancient astrologists couldn't discover the physical laws that govern how stars are created by observing them. But they did learn how the stars moved across the sky and had great predictive power when it came to their paths hundreds of years in the future. Even if all of their explanations were bunk, they were still able to etch out some understanding while science had yet to catch up.