Depression, especially, and to a lesser extent anxiety, are driven by a part of the human emotional system called the inner critic in the therapeutic approach called Internal Family Systems. In some ways the inner critic resembles what Freud called the superego that judges and scolds the neurotic individual for not living up to society’s ethics and the moral code he adopted from growing up in his particular family. There is a major difference, though. In IFS it is believed that the inner critic emerges during childhood to protect the wounded inner child from being exposed to things that will trigger its emotional pain. For example, if a child is physically awkward and clumsy and his classmates tease, badger, and bully him on the sports field, his inner critic will come up with reasons why he should avoid sports and athletic types who judge others on their athletic prowess. The problem with the inner critic is that it tends to go rogue and engage in overkill. This means that when it criticizes a person to keep him away from situations in which he may fail and feel bad about himself, its criticisms are so barbed, so hurtful, and so relentless as to convince the person he is pure garbage at his core. IFS has a variety of techniques to attenuate the power of the inner critic, which often work, but there are some clients with gargantuan inner critics that resist all attempts to defuse it and create the internal space needed for self-compassion. So what then? I have been working with a technique I borrowed from Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT). The basic idea is that the thinking of this hypertrophied e inner critic became extremely distorted and so it sculpts the client’s experiences in life to send him one, and only one, message and the message is that he is nothing and there is nothing he can do about it. An inner critic like this edits out every good deed, every accomplishment, every success, and everything that could justify a bit of healthy self-pride. It rewrites the client’s memories, casting a dark shadow upon them, and making them fodder for guilt and shame. When the client recognizes that his inner critic is essentially a projector in his head splicing the movie of his life into a ghastly and grotesque mockery, he can be receptive to accurate facts about what makes him good, worthy, acceptable, and lovable.
