Origins
Carl Jung is often referenced as the originator of the concept in his "Divine Child" archetype but contributed little else. Emmet Fox called it the "Wonder Child". Charles Whitfield dubbed it the "Child Within". The inner child broke into the mainstream primarily through Hugh Missildine, MD, "Your Inner Child of the Past" (1963); which has retained its usefulness; and, through, Transactional Analysis (circa 1965-1969) with its model of Child-Parent-Adult, which has retained less utility. John Bradshaw's use of the "wounded inner child" is a version of the inner child skewed towards topics germane to individual and group therapy settings. The origins of the inner child in Ho'oponopono are even more obscure and difficult to document.
The inner child is often characterized as a subpersonality. Virtually every talk therapy approach acknowledges and ascribes some meaning to the inner child, even if they use a different label. Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS) has expanded the concept considerably in recognizing that there isn't just one inner child subpersonality, but many. IFS points to wounded inner child subpersonalities calling them "exiles" because they tend to be excluded from waking thought in order to avoid-defend against the pain and trauma carried in those memories. IFS has a sophisticated method for gaining safe access to a person's exiles, witnessing the stories of their origins in childhood, and healing them.
Read more about this topic: Inner Child
Famous quotes containing the word origins:
“Lucretius
Sings his great theory of natural origins and of wise conduct; Plato
smiling carves dreams, bright cells
Of incorruptible wax to hive the Greek honey.”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)
“Compare the history of the novel to that of rock ‘n’ roll. Both started out a minority taste, became a mass taste, and then splintered into several subgenres. Both have been the typical cultural expressions of classes and epochs. Both started out aggressively fighting for their share of attention, novels attacking the drama, the tract, and the poem, rock attacking jazz and pop and rolling over classical music.”
—W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. “Material Differences,” Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)
“Grown onto every inch of plate, except
Where the hinges let it move, were living things,
Barnacles, mussels, water weeds—and one
Blue bit of polished glass, glued there by time:
The origins of art.”
—Howard Moss (b. 1922)