The Enemy Within

Abstract

This article describes a dramatic and powerful division within the mind that exists, to varying degrees, in all people. Acknowledging this split, between self and antiself, is not only crucial to understanding human behavior in general; it is also fundamental to comprehending psychopathology. Early in life, children incorporate hurtful, rejecting, and hostile attitudes that were consciously or unconsciously directed toward them by their parents and other family members. When parents are the most traumatizing, children cease to identify with themselves; instead, they identify with the frightening parent and take on their critical, hostile, negative attitudes in the form of a self-critical, self-hating internal voice. In our initial investigations into the voice, my associates and I were shocked at the powerful outpourings of anger and vitriolic hatred that people expressed toward themselves and others when they verbalized their self-critical thoughts. I became acutely aware of the degree to which the voice undermines people’s ability to cope with life and restricts their satisfaction in personal relationships. Last, I describe Voice Therapy, a methodology that exposes and counteracts the dictates of the inner voice, and focus on the impact that this fragmentation has on the divisiveness within the individual and society.