It is said that the only person who can’t learn anything is the one who thinks he already knows everything. This is logical since knowing it all, they believe that they do not need to pay attention. Unsure where in our ego this shut-down process happens but it seems likely we may have an ‘authoritarian’ complex if and when it does.
It is likely our disdain for authority comes from having been ‘forced’ to obey and to believe what we are taught whether or not we agreed. It is a natural reaction for people to resist force. In the extreme however, part of the authoritarian psychology is that we are not to question authority. We must just accept what we are told and believe as they dictate. If not there are often consequences to various degrees.
Therefore it is ideal if parents, while asserting what the child needs to learn, are not too domineering but more like ‘suggests’ that the child ‘cooperate’. Then we wil