The identity of the rebel is commonly seen as a way to alter or improve the way someone is perceived within the social domain. Young people especially will dress or perhaps behave in ways that they imagine to be rebellious hoping it will be perceived as admirable among a targeted segment of their social sphere.

However, in the Story of the Soul, the Rebel is anti-social to the core. There is nothing cool or superficial about him.

The defining characteristic of the Rebel is his complete aversion for being manipulated and deceived. If he believes that there is even a slight possibility that he is being controlled by pleasure and pain, then he will choose to act as if it is true even if it turns his life situation into one of extreme poverty. This means that he will deny his desire for freedom and sentence himself to live in a slavery narrative. All of this just to deny his possible oppressor the satisfaction derived from the power of hidden control.

Once he has situated himself within this narrative, the Rebel then begins to audit his life with a fine-toothed comb, looking for every little way that he seeks pain relief, comfort and pleasure. After consciously identifying these behaviors, he can begin to fast from them. Eventually, he realizes that in order to be more effective in executing his aim, it’s necessary to not only fast from comfort but to also grasp and hold onto pain.

The Rebel concedes nothing to his possible manipulator. If he gets slapped on the cheek, he doesn’t seek appeasement. He doesn’t even attempt to defend himself with counter aggression as this gives the oppressor the satisfaction of knowing his actions are having an affect. Instead, he turns his other cheek in expectation for the next slap.

The Rebel is willing to negate his entire life for the chance to spite his possible oppressor for even a moment. Even in a dynamic of complete powerlessness, the Rebel seeks vengeance through counter-manipulation rather than appeasement.

With every instance of unjust pain the Rebel receives, he incrementally gains the moral high-ground on his possible oppressor. Within that power shift, he takes his revenge and imposes his own form of justice.

There is a line. As long as the line hasn’t been crossed, then it’s business as usual and you live your life. But when you recognize that the line has been crossed, complete attention and extreme escalation is called for. Peace time turns into a state of war. To deny this truth is to deny the heart, the soul, and the spirit of life.

The younger brother in the Parable of the Prodigal Son is the Rebel. He teams up with the Strong Man against the older brother. The Strong Man needs both brothers united with him in order to move forward in the story. The hatred between the two brothers divides the house and stalls the story.

The Son of Man sees the situation and intervenes in order to unite the older brother with his younger brother and move the story forward. This is not easy because the older brother sees the younger brother as someone who has aligned himself with sinners and who has become lost and dead. The Son of Man must gradually build trust with the older brother and lead him.

Self hatred in the human individual originates from the hatred between the two brothers. Shame in the human individual originates from the enemy shaming the older brother in order to keep him from uniting with his younger brother and moving the story forward.

Trying to resolve self hatred and shame within the human individual outside of the Story of the Soul is futile since the root cause, the origin story, is not being addressed directly. Because the Story of the Soul is hidden, secular therapy can only haphazardly poke around in biography and offer bandaids.

Secular therapy or counsel is only as effective in relation to how much it imitates the Story of the Soul. At its best, the therapist or counselor is a light version of the Strong Man, the Son of Man, and the Advocate. The patient is the older brother.