Healing the Child Within: Discovery and Recovery for Adult Children of Dysfunctional Families (Recovery Classics Edition)
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Reviews for Healing the Child Within
23 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book is a must read, I wholeheartedly recommend it!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fantastic book! Clear and very helpful for anyone wanting to understand how to get the healing they deserve and the life they want.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Essential for dealing with childhood / parent issues like neglect, abandonment, etc. Was so important in my recovery journey, famous to recovery programs for it's incredible helpfulness!
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I wasn't terribly impressed with this book, but it did give me some food for thought. It's very compact, written concisely, and in a dry, non-engaging style. It was written 20 years ago and feels kind of dated.
2 people found this helpful
Book preview
Healing the Child Within - Charles Whitfield
Introduction
IN 1986 I WROTE this book as a kind of educational aid and bibliotherapy
for my patients. I based its simple healing content on what I had observed for years among my patients, most of whom were adults who had been traumatized as children, and what I had learned up until then from reading the clinical and scientific literature on the subject. At that time I did not intend this book for the general public, and did not anticipate that it would sell over a million copies—or that it would be translated into over ten other languages worldwide (see page 150).
That nearly all of the original content and principles in this book have held up to the later, and now current, clinical scientific and research findings is remarkable, but not surprising. Over the last twenty years these findings have verified the detrimental effects of growing up in a traumatic and hurtful family. Of all these painful effects, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which I discuss in Chapter 7, may be one of the most common and disabling disorders that befall adult children of trauma.
Validation
As has been shown by my ten years of research and reading of over 330 scientific studies that were conducted on well over 230,000 people world-wide, such trauma may also result in numerous other hurtful effects that manifest in other ways, including any one or more of the common so called mental disorders—from depression, to addictions, to schizophrenia—plus an array of physical disorders.
Also called trauma spectrum disorders,
these illnesses show a strong link with having a history of repeated childhood trauma. Furthermore, contrary to current psychiatric lore, the evidence for these illnesses being due to a genetically transmitted disorder of brain chemistry is weak. Indeed, if and when any brain abnormalities are found in research studies on them, these abnormalities are likely a mechanism for the disorder, with the repeated childhood and later trauma being the cause of both mechanism and disorder.1
Since 1986 we have learned several more important things. Most families across the world are dysfunctional in that they don’t provide and support the healthy needs of their children. What results is an interruption in the otherwise normal and healthy neurological and psychological growth and development of the child from birth to adulthood. In order to survive, the traumatized child’s Real Self (True Self or Child Within) goes into hiding deep within the unconscious part of its psyche. What emerges is a false self or ego which tries to run the show of our life, but is unable to succeed because it is simply a defense mechanism against pain and not real. Its motives are based more on needing to be right and in control.
The Meaning of Healing the Child Within and the ACoA Movement
This approach to healing that I describe in this book has also been validated by the countless people who have recovered by using its principles. I summarize six of its main meanings as follows.
Awakening by us and our clinicians that there is more to recovery than simply don’t drink
(or don’t use drugs, or don’t try to control another’s use) and go to meetings. Many have tried that, and while improved, were still hurting. Many transferred their addiction to food, money, sex, work, unhealthy relationships or another self-destructive, compulsive behavior. Many also found that the psychiatric drugs they were given did not work well and had bothersome or toxic effects.1, 2
Discovery and Identification of our Real Self (Child Within) and our spirituality. For many, the old-style conventional organized religions often encountered by recovering people is giving way to a more expansive, universal, experiential, life- and growth-giving spirituality.
Validation of our experience of growing up in a dysfunctional family. Many of us grew up in an alcoholic family, and others grew up in other kinds of dysfunction.
Permission to do the healing work of recovery. In a departure from the usual mental health model of having some sort of mental disorder or psychopathology,
this approach reframes our suffering from the old view of being bad, sick, crazy or stupid to having a normal reaction to an abnormal childhood situation.1, 2
Structure for the specifics of what to do to accomplish the healing process. I describe these specifics in this book and in more detail in A Gift to Myself and My Recovery.3, 4
Recovery from our confusion, suffering and lack of purpose, meaning and fulfillment in life.3
While re-reading this book in preparation for this update, I corrected a few typos and some out-of-date terms and sentences, but I did not have to change the basic text and message of healing. I have also provided a new and up-to-date reference section and added an index to make it more reader-friendly.
Patience and Persistence
Recovery from the effects of trauma and growing up in a dysfunctional family and world takes patience and persistence. We are naturally impatient to reach the end without delay, and skip the hard work of healing. An important part of successful recovery is learning to accurately name what happened for us and the components of our inner life as they come up for us, including our various feelings, and learning to tolerate emotional pain without trying to medicate it away.
One of the most profound principles of healing is embodied in the phrase one day at a time.
Although healing takes a long time, by using this admonition our outlook can shift immediately, making the journey not only more tolerable, but meaningful, and anchoring us in the present moment. As we grieve our buried pain and work through our core recovery issues, with patience we will slowly release our past unresolved internal conflicts. We gradually discover that our future is a destination not yet determined. Our life is in the present, which is where we can eventually find peace.
Charles L. Whitfield, M.D.
Atlanta, Georgia–2006
1 Whitfield, C.L.: The Truth about Depression: Choices for Healing. Health Communications, Deerfield Beach, Florida, 2003
2 Whitfield, C.L.: The Truth about Mental Illness: Choices for Healing. Health Communications, Deerfield Beach, Florida, 2004
3 Whitfield, C.L.: My Recovery: A Personal Plan for Healing. Health Communications, Deerfield Beach, Florida, 2003
4 Whitfield, C.L.: A Gift to Myself: A Personal Workbook and Guide to the Healing My Child Within. Health Communications, Deerfield Beach, Florida, 1990
CHAPTER 1
Discovering Our Child Within
THE CONCEPT OF THE CHILD Within has been a part of our world culture for at least two thousand years. Carl Jung called it the Divine Child
and Emmet Fox called it the Wonder Child.
Psychotherapists Alice Miller and Donald Winnicott refer to it as the true self.
Many in the field of alcoholism and other chemical dependence call it the inner child.
The Child Within refers to that part of each of us which is ultimately alive, energetic, creative and fulfilled; it is our Real Self—who we truly are.
With our parents’ unknowing help and society’s assistance, most of us deny our Inner Child. When this Child Within is not nurtured or allowed freedom of expression, a false or co-dependent self emerges. We begin to live our lives from a victim stance, and experience difficulties in resolving emotional traumas. The gradual accumulation of unfinished mental and emotional business can lead to chronic anxiety, fear, confusion, emptiness and unhappiness.
Denial of the Child Within and the subsequent emergence of a false self or negative ego are particularly common among children and adults who grew up in troubled families, such as those where chronic physical or mental illness, rigidity, coldness or lack of nurturing were common.
Yet, there is a way out. There is a way to discover and to heal our Child Within and to break free of the bondage and suffering from relying on our false self. That is what this book is about.
Will This Book Help Me?
Not everyone was mistreated or abused as a child. No one really knows how many people grow up with a healthy amount and quality of love, guidance and other nurturing. I estimate perhaps 5 to 20%. This means that from 80 to 95% of people did not receive the love, guidance and other nurturing necessary to form consistently healthy relationships, and to feel good about themselves and about what they do (Satir 1972; Felitti et al 1998).
While not easy to determine whether you lean toward being more healthy or less healthy in relationships with self and others, you may find it helpful to answer some of the following questions.
I call it the Recovery Potential Survey
because it reflects not only our woundedness, but also the potential that we have to grow and to realize an alive, adventurous and happy life.