The Inner Critic - Flipbook - Page 13
W HAT
GIVES RISE TO THE
C RITIC ?
Psychologists agree that there are a number of potential sources that give rise to the critic. To discover
these we often need to take a look backwards and consider how we have been inuenced and shaped.
Caregivers
Sadly, the most obvious and dicult place to consider are the attitudes and beliefs that were directed
towards us by our parents and main caregivers which we assimilated as part of our own self-image.
As a parent of, and a daughter myself, I want to acknowledge at the outset how hard it is to get this
‘right’. For me, raising children is one of the hardest things we can do.
Other caregivers may include teachers, babysitters, grandparents, anybody who had care-giving
responsibility (and often, a position of authority) for us when we were younger. We’ve all heard stories
of teachers who have inuenced for good or ill their pupils!
The values and belief systems that we assimilated from our caregivers, were in turn those that they
absorbed from their caregivers. If a caregiver hasn’t done their own internal work to understand and
check this, the messaging will be perpetuated. And of course, it is additionally layered and coloured
with the life experience of the caregiver.
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