Embracing Our Selves: Voice Dialogue Manual

We develop a personality made up of our primary selves that is, in effect, a defense against vulnerability.

Every disowned self demands a certain amount of energy to keep it unconscious. Too many disowned selves, or too powerful a disowned self, will drain the psycho-physiological battery and eventually the system will go into an exhaustion mode. This can ultimately lead to a serious breakdown on either a physical or psychological level. Thus, getting to

Until Henry has an awareness separate from his inner perfectionist father, his relationship to his own son is doomed to perpetual conflict as the father pattern drives his son, “the slob,” into deeper and deeper withdrawal and fantasy, or active rebellion. In this way, the son will live out more and more of Henry’s unconscious self. Let us go back

The only question is, as with all energy patterns, who is doing the pleasing? Is there a real choice made by an aware ego? Or is the pleasing an automatic, unconscious response to the world?

life. If this energy is not incorporated into our own lives, we will most definitely draw someone into our orbit (a husband, a child, an employer) who will carry this energy for us.

The compulsive accumulation of wealth is, to a great extent, an attempt to allay the anxieties and fears of the vulnerable child. This and the need to control others are always inextricably interwoven with the fears and vulnerability of the child.

What is the tack in our lives that creates so much anger in us? It is the ability, or inability, to say yes and no. If we live life on our terms, saying yes and no appropriately, then we tend to have less occasion to be angry.

Once the reality of the child has been established, journal writing becomes an excellent tool for working with it. Prior to making this connection, the question will be: Who is doing the writing? If an aware ego has not separated from the protector/controller, then the protector/controller itself may be doing the writing. Dialoguing with the inner

totality as