“To be happy, you have to make peace with your past,
M. Peer
love the present, and feel so excited about the future.”
Introduction
The „Inner Child“ is a metaphor used in various contexts – art, philosophy, psychology, religion, spirituality, etc. In psychology and psychotherapy „Inner Child” is a concept representing the unconscious aspects of the personality which emerged back in childhood or which were inherited from previous generations.
Sigmund Freud (1856 –1939) – an Austrian neurologist and psychologist, founder of psychoanalysis – was the first to outline the concept of the “Inner Child”. Freud distinguished between three elements of the psyche: Id, Ego and Superego (Freud,1923). Id is an integral part of the unconscious (New lectures 31, Freud, 1933 – quoted by Rosenbaum, 2003). Id is the part of the personality guided by instincts and drives in order to satisfy or satiate the person’s desires and needs; the Ego is an integral part of the conscious which develops as a response to the requirements of reality; the Superego is the part of the personality which internalises the values and morality of society (Freud,1923). Id, Ego, and Superego play an important role in human behaviour; they help the person understand their conscious and unconscious motivations (Erwin, 2016).
Even though the hypothesis of Sigmund Freud about the Id has been criticised, some contemporary psychologists and psychotherapists relate the meaning of Id with the meaning of the term “Inner child” (Stahl, 2021).
The Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Karl Jung (1875-1961) – Sigmund Freud’s student and founder of analytical psychology, accepts Freud’s hypothesis about the unconscious and expands it. Jung suggests that the unconscious has two aspects: personal unconscious and collective unconscious.
Personal unconscious holds the thoughts and feelings of the individual which were conscious initially but which are later forgotten or suppressed. These memories and experiences are not accessible to the conscious mind but have a certain influence over the personality and behaviour (Jung, 1969). An important characteristic of the personal unconscious is the existence of complexes – these are collections of images of situations which were experienced with a lot of emotion, which were traumatic and were incompatible with the ordinary attitude of consciousness (Jung, 1934). Each complex has elements not only from the personal unconscious but also from the collective unconscious (Sharf, 2012).
Collective unconscious does not derive from personal experience and is not a personal acquisition but is inborn and constitutes a common psychic substrate of a suprapersonal nature which is present in every one of us; it derives from the inherited capacity for psychological functioning (from the inherited brain structure) (Jung, 1969). The collective unconscious contains the whole spiritual legacy of human evolution which is reborn in the brain structure of every individual (Jung, 1966 – quoted by Hartman & Zimberof, 2013, 31).
Jung uses the term „archetype“ to designate these inherited universal thought-forms or mental images of experience systems which are the contents of the collective unconscious. “The archetype does not proceed from physical facts, but describes how the psyche experiences the physical fact, and in so doing the psyche often behaves so autocratically that it denies tangible reality or makes statements that fly in the face of it” (Jung, 1969, 154). „Archetypes are pathways from the collective unconscious to the conscious, which may lead to an action” (Sharf, 2012, 89).
Jung identified several archetypes, such as anima/animus, shadow, child, persona, Self (Jung, 1921; 1966; 1969). Jung’s idea about the archetype of „child“ is used by Jungian psychotherapy when working with the Inner child.
More recently, it has become clear that the Inner Child needs healing with psychotherapeutic practices with the seriousness this concept requires (Price, 1996).
The Wounded Inner Child
Trauma is “any disturbing experience that results in significant fear, helplessness, dissociation, confusion, or other disruptive feelings intense enough to have a long-lasting negative effect on a person’s attitudes, behaviour, and other aspects of functioning” (VandenBos, G., 2015, 1104). “Trauma results from an event, series of events, or a set of circumstances an individual experiences as physically or emotionally harmful or threatening, which may have lasting adverse effects on the individual’s functioning and mental, physical, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being” (SAMHSA, 2023, VII). In psychology, trauma refers to a psycho-biological “wound” resulting from a variety of psychological, biological, social and other factors of the environment (Nijenhuis & Van Der Hart, 2011).
The most traumatic experience for a person is not necessarily the most traumatic event they ever went through – big T trauma, for example, physical, emotional or sexual abuse, parental loss, or loss of a significant person, life-threatening pediatric conditions, a life-threatening accident, natural disasters, etc. The most traumatic experience for a person could be “tiny trauma” – experience where the person does not know or does not understand exactly what is wrong. This is a state of being where “nothing feels quite right” (Arroll, 2023). A child might experience tiny traumas due to: a lack of harmonious relationships with the parents/family members, friends and peers which erode the child’s feeling of belongingness and endanger the feeling of safety; a lifestyle which fails to satisfy basic needs for food, shelter, clothing, etc.
Adverse childhood experiences are potentially traumatic events that occur within the first 18 years of life; they can include experiences of violence, abuse, or neglect, as well as aspects of a child’s environment that undermine their sense of safety and stability, such as parental separation or substance use problems within the household (SAMHSA, 2023, VII). Psychological research shows that exposure to early life adversity increases the risk of mental and physical health issues which manifest during childhood or adolescence and continue to have a destructive impact on the adult person (Colich et al., 2020). It has also been established that stress in childhood due to exposure to traumatic events might lead to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, substance abuse, suicidal attempts and depressive disorders (Flower et al., 2013).
Childhood trauma is “the mental result of one sudden, external blow or a series of blows, rendering the young person temporarily helpless and breaking past ordinary coping and defensive operations” (Terr, 2003, 323). Traumatic experiences might be impersonal (natural disasters, accidents), personal (chronic health conditions, life-threatening pediatric conditions, etc.) or intrapersonal (abuse, loss of a significant person, etc.). Some traumas can impact the fundamental ability of the child to form a secure basis of primary attachment, while others instead disrupt already established, significant, and secure caregiving relationships (Tishelman & Geffner, 2011).
The Inner Child is an archetype which has a diversity of images. The Wounded Inner Child is the archetypal image of a person who has been though childhood trauma or a sequence of traumas which continue to work on a subconscious level and influence a person’s reactions to other people or to situations they find themselves in. The Wounded Inner Child is not the wounded personality of a child, it is a vulnerable part or aspect of personality which excruciatingly requires healing, compassion and acceptance; it incorporates the deepest lack of security of the person as well as part of the self-confidence which has been wounded and is unstable (Stahl, 2021).
Childhood trauma might result from almost everything which damages the feeling of safety for the child. This is why it is unique for each individual, the way it is experienced is unique and it has unique repercussions on the person’s development. Despite this, some terms are still able to describe the diversity of mental states of the Wounded Inner Child, for example:
– Abandoned child or orphaned child is an archetypal image of a child who carries the abandonment wound due to a lack of attention, understanding, and some form of abandonment by one or both parents or other significant individuals. This archetypal image is at the basis of abandonment issues which might manifest as anxiety or lack of trust in relationships, or as a strong fear of abandonment by the significant other or other important people in the person’s life. Abandonment issues may be considered linked to mood disorder, borderline personality disorder, dependent personality disorder, etc.
– Hopeless child is an image of a child who has acquired hurt self-confidence (due to chronic health conditions, chronic illness, life-threatening paediatric conditions, special health-care needs) or trust wound (due to traumatic experiences within the family or with close ones). This archetypal image is at the basis of inferiority complex – a feeling of being useless, lack of self-confidence, negative self-image, lack of trust in yourself and your abilities. The person lacks motivation and never expects anything good, they always expect failure, they give up on their dreams easily and believe that they don’t have control over their future; they quickly lose hope, they try to escape reality, they self-isolate and are not able to constructively cope with challenges and difficulties. A person with inferiority complex might suffer from mental health issues such as mood disorder, depression and anxiety disorders, substance use disorder, eating disorders, etc.
– Guilt child is an archetypal image of a child who has a condemnation or self-condemnation wound due to emotional, physical, sexual abuse or abuse due to exposure to inappropriate demands which are unachievable for such a young person. When parents or significant adults judge or blame the child, the child starts believing that they are not good enough and the child feels deep shame for who they are. This archetypal image is at the basis of the guilt complex which manifests with a feeling of guilt, fear of making mistakes, lack of self-confidence in making the right decisions. The fear and anxiety make the person even more indecisive in certain situations and cause them to be highly self-critical. This vicious cycle they are in, leads them to exhaustion. The guilt complex may cause suicidal thoughts, long-term psychological harm, such as depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem.
In addition to the psychological wounds and childhood traumas, “the individual brings certain strengths and knowledge into adulthood that can be considered as a contribution of the inner child” (Weston, 2009 – quoted by Sjöblom, 2020). The Inner Child of personality also has a bright aspect – the Sunny Child which is a positive attitude to life and a zest for positive action (Tomuschat, 2016 – quoted by Stahl, 2021). The adult can easily become conscious of this bright aspect as soon as they start psychotherapeutic work with the Inner Child which is the first step to healing (Stahl, 2021).
