Recently, I have been fascinated with the concept of mental duality. I gradually realized that it helps explain how our minds work. Today, I will talk about the mental logic of the inner child.
The strange reactions in our minds
Sometimes, we don’t know why our minds react the way they do. A typical example is mental conflict. For example, even if we want to accomplish something valuable, our minds want to be lazy. Even if we wish, our minds rebel against it.
That is a strange phenomenon because our minds are denying ourselves. It looks like nonsense. If we deny our desires ourselves, why do we need to have them?
It is as if we have two minds inside us. One mind is our consciousness. It wishes to achieve something. However, we have another mind. That interferes with our wishes and makes us stagnate.
How to deal with the inner child
A typical example is the inner child. It is a concept that indicates an individual’s childlike aspect. Those immature children inside us disturb our adult minds. Perhaps you know it.
In other words, they imply that the inner child is selfish, unruly, unlistening, and unforgivable. On the other hand, they think we are adults. There is nothing inferior to those children. We are right. Those inner children are wrong. We should control them.
I used to use that concept because it fits our subjectivity. However, after solving my mental problems, I began to feel it was different from my objective sense and had its limitations.
Subjectively treating our inner problems often confuses us because it is hard to recognize them. They run away when we chase them. They disturb us when we ignore them or concentrate on our wishes. Although they say we need to accept those inner children, we cannot understand their motives as long as we treat them subjectively. It just looks like a hindrance.
In such a case, the concept of mental duality might help us. Today, I will explain why and the mental logic behind the inner child. That might allow us to solve our inner problems.
The concept of mental duality
I will introduce the concept of mental duality again, although I recently talked about it many times.
Mental duality is the concept that we have at least two aspects of values.
We could have several of the following four senses based on our personalities: competition, sociality, empathy, and logic. Their relationships are as shown in the following image:
The two senses inside us
For example, if we are people with empathy and creativity, we have two aspects of our senses: empathy and logic.
Although they are irrelevant and contradictory, those two aspects allow us to solve our problems flexibly. Empathy gives us the ability to solve problems by using our imagination or emotion. On the other hand, logical sense enables us to solve troubles rationally, even if we have fewer resources.
In other words, it is natural for us to have at least two contradictory aspects.
When we reach a limit on one side, we switch to the other naturally. That allows us to solve problems with another approach.
That is the purpose of our mental duality.
The inner child’s mental system
That concept teaches us about the inner child’s mental work and how to solve its problems.
The inner child is the two aspects of our senses.
If we are heading in the direction that suits our nature, we can switch our two aspects naturally. They help us progress in our lives and cause no trouble. For example, if we are empathic and creative, our natural way of life would be heading toward independence.
In such a case, empathy and logical sense will help us. Empathy gives us the capacity for long-term self-reliance. Logical sense realizes our freedom. In other words, the inner children are willing to cooperate with us.
However, on the other hand, if we are going in the wrong direction, such as trying to show sociality or win by competition, our two aspects interfere with us because they are our essentials. Although we want to use them, we have to conceal them to show sociality or competitive minds.
In this case, empathy and logical sense disturb us. Empathy makes us dislike causing trouble for others. Logical sense lets us want to ignore the rules and do things freely. They are childish from the perspective of adults who try to be patient with sociality and competition.
That is the objective behavior of the inner child.
The problem on the adult side
We tend to believe that we are adults and are right if we face the inner child subjectively.
However, if we look at the mental work objectively, we find that such a recognition is wrong because we are heading in the wrong direction. In other words, the adult side is the source of the problem.
Perhaps that is why caring about the inner child doesn’t usually solve the mental problem. Although it is easy to understand subjectivity, it makes it harder to spot mistakes on our part. The inner child is not the source of the problem.
In other words, we don’t have to care about those inner children. Focusing on our personalities and direction in life solves the root problem.
The concept of mental duality tells us how to deal with the problems caused by our inner children.
Conclusion
That is the mental logic behind the inner child.
The inner child is the two aspects of our senses. If we head in the direction that suits our nature, they will help us progress and cause no trouble.
That might allow us to solve our mental problems.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope to see you in the next one.
