Inner Child

Inner child is a concept used in popular psychology and Analytical psychology. It points to the whole of our childlike aspect; including, what we learned and experienced, good and bad, as children, before puberty. The inner child denotes a semi-independent entity subordinate to the waking conscious mind.

The inner child is the best known lower third of a comprehensive model of the human psyche called the Three Selves.

The term has manifold therapeutic applications in counseling and holistic health settings primarily. John Bradshaw, a U.S. educator, pop psychology and self-help movement leader, famously used "inner child" to point to unresolved childhood experiences and the lingering dysfunctional effects of childhood dysfunction. In this way "inner child" refers to all of the sum of mental-emotional memories stored in the sub-conscious from conception thru pre-puberty.

The Twelve-step program recovery movement considers healing the inner child to be one of the essential stages in recovery from addiction, abuse, trauma, or post-traumatic stress disorder. In the 1970s, the inner child concept emerged alongside the clinical concept of codependency (first called Adult Children of Alcoholics Syndrome.). These topics remain very active today as any Google search can prove.