Talk:Inner child

Personal Experience
I have added a rather neutral set of paragraphs to this page. I hope they are not found offensive. The inner child work my family and I have accomplished have been the most life-changing experience to date (in 37 years) and I feel it is important for more information to be made available here. Please comment and edit. Cpswarrior 00:02, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your input, and especially for putting it up for debate. I hate to be the party-pooper here but I think that your contribution is neither NPOV nor encyclopedic and have therefore removed it.  As an alternative I would suggest publishing the material on a personal website.  Maikel 20:30, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

alice miller is the cousin of bert miller —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.219.220.116 (talk) 13:41, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Alice Miller?
Was Alice Miller the first to actually use the term (not the concept) of "inner child"? Maikel 20:39, 19 February 2006 (UTC)
 * What is the difference? Шизомби (talk) 20:41, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

The "pop" in psychology
I changed "psychology" to "pop psychology" as a distinction. The inner child is not a scientifically or medically inspired concept, it is rooted and best known in pop psychology movements. As it was previously written the article could confuse the reader to believe the "inner child" concept has a clinical application and origin. It does not. It is not a testable psychological theory. Mr Christopher 19:38, 20 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Good call. Maikel 21:25, 21 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Are any psychological theories testable? Subconsious? Id? Collectiove Unconscious? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.186.172.75 (talk) 12:22, 20 March 2007 (UTC).


 * I would hardly define Schema Therapy as "pop psychology". Just my two cents.--Dia^ (talk) 14:14, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

The Linked Article
The Guardian article that's linked at the bottom seems to be relevant only insofar as it contains the paragraph:


 * The Inner Child - with whom Steven Spielberg and George Lucas seem to enjoy an almost indecent rapport - is a concept lifted straight from the pages of Dr Eric "I'm OK - You're OK" Berne. (As the author of such kipper-tie classics as Games People Play, Berne was also responsible for introducing the world to the idea of the Life Script.)

As this is superficial and largely incorrect (Eric Berne was not the author of I'm OK - You're OK) is there any reason for the link to be here?

Reading that book (and Games People Play), I'm struck by how badly misunderstood the concept is (after all, the aim seems to be to balance the Child, Parent and Adult, not to indulge the squalling Child) in society generally (just a casual comment).--Grangousier 09:45, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

Twelve-step mention
I "get" that the inner child idea gained popularity among people in recovery from addictions and related issues, and I wish I could offer an alternative formulation here, but cannot at the moment. I felt it was important to point out that it is not quite accurate to say that the "Twelve-Step Movement" considers the inner child important. Nowhere in the Alcoholics Anonymous or Al-Anon books is this concept mentioned. In fact, many 12-steppers are downright hostile to the idea. Also, I think it is not quite accurate to refer to a "Twelve-Step Movement", as it is not really any kind of cohesive "movement", that I can see, but a collection of various groups that have borrowed the 12 Steps from AA. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.37.250.8 (talk) 02:16, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

I agree. Infact that statement needs supprting with a reliable reference or removing. --Dakinijones (talk) 15:02, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Proper writing in first sentence?
"In popular psychology and analytical psychology, inner child is our childlike aspect". Is this written properly according to wp guidelines ("our aspect")? I don't even know where to find a wp help page that addresses this so I thought I'd just ask here 178.190.195.152 (talk) 16:54, 18 April 2013 (UTC)