Dear Jack:

I know those voices- the Abusive Inner Critic is one term. Freud Superego is another term. Your superego then takes after your brothers. their voices internalized in part of your psyche, or physically speaking, certain neurological pathways in your brain repeat their words. This is a common thing, and I wish it wasn’t so for you. I am in the process of quieting my own and… patiently, sometimes with excruciating patience on my part, it is working. Here is an idea: you can create a “good brother” in your mind, create an image of a man in your mind, maybe Carl Jung’s face, since you’ve been fascinated with him, or some kind man’s face and incorporate him in your psyche. Then every time you hear your brothers’ voice, call on this man you created and let him talk to you. Call him to protect you from them.

This is something we can do as humans. We can interfere with the superego/ the internal critic we are stuck with through no fault of our own and replace it with a CREATED loving superego/ internal critic instead. If you and I were lucky we would have had such loving parent figure in our childhood, but since we did not, we can CREATE our own.

Why not create? Creating a character does not have to be the priviledge of a movie script writer or otherwise fiction story writer- YOU and I can do it!

anita