Background

Your Introjects (Inner Voices) are NOT YOU!

Uploaded 11/19/2022, approx. 3 minute read

So, it's an attribution error. It's an attribution error. It's when you mistakenly identify your introjects with yourself. You think your inner voices are your voices. You think these internal objects are part of you. They are you. They constitute who you are.

But that is, of course, an error, a kind of attribution error. The internal objects, the introjects, the voices that populate your inner world, they are not you. They are not a part of your core identity. They just appear to you to be so.

But that's a mistake. Consider, for example, automatic negative thoughts and this is what we treat in cognitive behavior therapy. Automatic negative thoughts are such voices and they appear to you to be egodystonic. Egodystonic means you. These voices appear to be you. You talking to yourself. You reminding yourself how ugly you are, what a failure you are in case of a bad object or how perfect you are and what a genius you are in case of grandiosity and other cognitive distortions.

These are all voices negative and positive automatic thoughts. They emanate. They come from introjects.


Mommy told you that you are ugly. A very important teacher told you that you're a genius.

But these voices are not you. They populate your world. They're inside your mind. They interact with you. They are triggered by circumstances and environments and other people and events in your life. But they are not your identity. They are not your core.

If we were to strip away all these voices, if we had a magic wand or some kind of electronic device, a Faraday cage for introjects and we were to scream them out, silence them, block them, reverse them like some kind of noise negating device. If we were to do this, if we were to silence the inner tumult, this constant stream of consciousness dialogue that goes on in your mind, you would still be you. It would change nothing about who you are. It may affect your behaviors.

Silencing the introjects does have an effect on your behavior, does have an effect on your choices, on your decisions, including mate selection, does have an effect on compulsions, such as repetition compulsion, but it doesn't have an effect on who you are.

What you do, how you act, what you choose, what you decide, this is not who you are. Your self, if it exists, does these things, but these things are not yourself.

The introjects interfere in the interface between you and reality. They are kind of adjuncts or auxiliaries to the ego. They interface with reality on your behalf.

You can have an introject that tells you you're behaving like a slut, stop it. You can have another introject that tells you this is wrong to do this. Our conscience is such an internal object. It is an assemblage or a compendium of introjects inside your mind, but this is not who you are.


And so we have therapies, different modalities, such as cognitive behavior therapy, schema therapy, Gestalt therapy, even to some extent transactional analysis, other types of therapy.

These therapies silence these introjects. They remove them even to some extent.

And once these echoes of meaningful others in your mind are silenced, once it all goes quiet, there's a single voice that is still speaking. One voice is left standing. One introject survives the onslaught of treatment. And that voice is you. That's your core identity. That's your authentic self.

In the description, I post a link to another video about changing your inner dialogue. Good luck with that. You can do it partly on your own and partly in the appropriate therapy. It doesn't even take long.

Your introjects are in your way. Very often they are negative. Together, many of them constitute a bad object. Many of these voices tell you that you're unworthy, unlovable, inadequate, a failure, a loser, evil, or whatever.

You need to get rid of these introjects. Other introjects mislead you in the opposite way. The grandiose.

You need to get rid of these introjects. You need to listen to one sound only in the desert of your soul. And that sound is the sound of your inner God, your authentic self.

If you enjoyed this article, you might like the following:

Resist When Narcissist Triggers You Inner Voices (Death, God, Life Introjects)

Narcissists possess three primary internal voices: the death voice, the God voice, and the life voice, all of which are not authentic but rather introjects from their early caregivers. When a person becomes involved with a narcissist, these voices can be implanted in their mind, leading to a struggle between the narcissist's negative influences and the individual's authentic voice. The death voice instills feelings of worthlessness and inadequacy, while the God voice promotes grandiosity and magical thinking, both of which can trigger unhealthy responses in the individual. To combat these influences, it is essential to identify and strengthen one's own authentic voice, fostering self-love and resilience against the narcissist's damaging narratives.


Why You Can't STOP Watching Narcissism Videos

Many individuals become obsessed with watching videos about narcissism as a way to cope with the trauma of narcissistic abuse, leading to compulsive behavior similar to addiction. This obsession serves various psychological functions, such as providing a sense of understanding and structure to chaotic experiences, and allowing victims to connect with others who share similar experiences. The repetitive consumption of this content can act as a form of self-soothing, helping to alleviate anxiety and restore a sense of control in a disordered world. Ultimately, the desire for validation and empowerment drives individuals to seek out and engage with this content, regardless of its accuracy or scientific basis.


Narcissist's Internal Family System: Parts in Conflict

The internal family system (IFS) model posits that individuals, particularly those with trauma or personality disorders, possess multiple self-states or parts that interact like members of a family, each with distinct roles and functions. These parts include managers, firefighters, and exiles, which work to protect the individual from emotional pain and trauma, but can also lead to internal conflict and dysfunction when not properly coordinated by a central self. The IFS framework emphasizes the importance of accessing and nurturing the self to achieve harmony among the parts, while recognizing that individuals with severe personality disorders may lack a cohesive self, complicating the therapeutic process. Ultimately, the model highlights the dynamic interplay between internal and external influences on mental health, suggesting that healing requires understanding and integrating these complex internal relationships.


How Narcissist Invades Your Mind (Introject, Imago, Internal Object)

Internal objects, or introjects, are complex amalgams of representations of external figures, emotions, memories, and cognitions that individuals create to reduce anxiety, particularly in early childhood. Narcissists exploit this process by inducing anxiety in their victims, compelling them to form internal representations of the narcissist, which often become aggressive and self-destructive. While early childhood introjects are often confused with the authentic self, later life introjects are recognized as external and alien, leading to a struggle for self-identity and self-worth. Ultimately, the interplay between introjection and empathy highlights the relational nature of human experience, where internal representations shape our interactions with others and ourselves.


Why Narcissists Can’t Think Straight (Constructs, Introjects, Memories, Defenses)

Professor Sam Vaknin discusses the complex inner workings of a narcissist's mind, focusing on constructs and introjects. Constructs are stable methods of organizing internal data to make sense of the world, while introjects are internal voices of meaningful others. In a narcissist, these constructs and introjects work together to maintain a false internal environment that conforms to their self-perception and prevents dissonance and anxiety. This manipulation of reality and memories serves to protect the narcissist from realizing that something is wrong with them.


Narcissist's Projection, Projective Identification and Victim's Introjective Identification

In this video, Professor Sam Vaknin discusses the concept of projective identification in narcissism. He explains that the narcissist's false self is grandiose and to maintain this self-image, the narcissist must ignore or deny certain emotions, thoughts, traits, impulses, behaviors, and qualities that contradict this self-perception. The narcissist then projects these onto other people, attributing positive or negative traits to them. Projective identification involves forcing the target of the projection to conform to the contents of the projection, forcing someone to actually become someone else, forcing someone to behave in ways prescribed by the narcissist. The narcissist uses projection and projective identification to manipulate inner objects, to force inner constructs, inner representations, inner avatars to behave in certain ways.


The Intimate Partner as a Persecutory Object: Love is a Battlefield

The persecutory object is a tormenting, devaluing, and sadistic inner voice that informs patients with certain personality disorders that they are bad, worthless, weak, immoral, and generally a disappointment. Patients project this voice onto their intimate partners, who become the outer embodiment of the internal construct. This defense mechanism is known as projective identification. The patient tries to force the partner to behave in ways that support their view of them as a persecutory object. The patient then rebels against their externalized persecutory object, punishing their partner in myriad ways, leading to a sick dynamic that is unfortunately very common.


Competitive Victimhood: Dark Triad ADHD Activists ( Literature Review)

Meaningful public discourse has been undermined by victimhood movements and identity politics, leading to a culture of fear where individuals are hesitant to express dissenting opinions. Many social activists are characterized as having dark triad personality traits, which include narcissism and psychopathy, allowing them to manipulate the narrative of victimhood for personal gain. This competitive victimhood has become a pervasive phenomenon, where individuals vie for recognition as the "greatest victim," often justifying immoral actions in the name of justice. The rise of victimhood as a dominant identity has resulted in a societal shift where moral accountability is diminished, and those claiming victim status feel entitled to act without reproach. This situation poses a significant threat to social cohesion and could lead to severe societal consequences if left unchallenged.


How Narcissist Abuses Your Love, Rejects It ( Borderlines, Codependents, People Pleasers, Too)

Bad object internalization is a common factor in various personality disorders, leading individuals to internalize negative messages from significant figures in their lives, primarily parental figures. This internalized bad object creates a harsh inner critic that distorts self-perception, making individuals feel unworthy of love and leading to a cycle of self-sabotage and abusive relationships. As adults, these individuals often choose partners who reinforce their negative beliefs, resulting in a pattern of rejection and emotional pain. The duality of feeling both victimized and self-blaming creates a complex psychological landscape, where they struggle with anxiety, trust issues, and an inability to accept love or reciprocate it.


Self-states, Unmet Needs in Narcissists, Borderlines

The self is a unique internal object that maintains constant communication with other internal objects, providing order and structure within the psyche, while other internal objects have limited and intermittent communication. Self-states are fragments of the self that arise in response to unmet needs, and they become activated during stress or emotional turmoil, reflecting the individual's coping strategies. When needs are satisfied, these self-states can merge back into the integrated self, but when needs remain unmet, they persist as separate entities, leading to fragmentation and identity disturbance. The dynamics of self-states involve complex interactions with internal objects, often resulting in conflict and emotional turmoil, particularly in individuals with personality disorders.

Transcripts Copyright © Sam Vaknin 2010-2024, under license to William DeGraaf
Website Copyright © William DeGraaf 2022-2024
Get it on Google Play
Privacy policy