The origins and nature of an inner persecutor is  unique to  the individual.  This post continues to examine  what may result when the primary caretakers  / parents of a child  reverse the roles, so that the child becomes responsible for the well being of the parent and therefore made to feel selfish and destructive if their  own needs ever  take primacy.  

Consider the almost  unbearable dilemma this places on the child. There is a lie that is ever perpetuated by all.  The fantasy is that the child can never have inconvenient needs while the caretakers may have incessant needs.  Nothing can alter the reality that even the most competent child is dependent and needy.   This developmental reality is a secret threat to the illusion that the child is forced to maintain. 

 “Caregiving” children are often wily survivors developing coping  skills prematurely and  in  their  child way,   trying over and over making sense of an experience that doesn’t make sense.  The inner persecutor is the internal guard/ judge, critic/ trickster/ ruler,  which keeps the child safe by keeping  the child  ever compliant  to  shape to the family constructs. Inner persecutors do not recognize change. Adults that are no longer compliant may still have,” inner negators,” trying to keep them safe from a danger that no longer exists.