What is the Role of a pathological critic?

Answer 1

http://www.gisnsw.org.au/self/Self-The-2.html

When we are feeling low or maybe vulnerable often an internal voice can come to the fore trying to erode our self-esteem and challenge some of our core beliefs about ourselves. The following extract from the book Self-Esteem (McKay & Fleming,1987) describes this voice as the "pathological critic". " The pathological critic is a term coined by psychologist Eugene Sagen to describe the negative inner voice that attacks and judges you. Almost everyone has a critical inner voice but people with low self-esteem tend to have a more vicious and vocal pathological critic". The critic blames you for things that go wrong. The critic compares you to others-to their achievements and abilities and finds you wanting. The critic sets impossible standards of perfection and then beats you up for the smallest mistake. The critic keeps an album of your failures but never once reminds you of your strengths or accomplishments. The critic has a script describing how you ought to live and screams that you are wrong and bad if your needs drive you to violate his rules. The critic tells you to be the best and if you aren't the best you are nothing. He calls you ;stupid, incompetent, ugly, selfish, weak, and makes you believe all of them are true. The critic reads your friends' minds and convinces you that they may be bored, turned off, disappointed or disgusted by you. The critic exaggerates your weaknesses by insisting that you "always say stupid things" or " always screw up a relationship or a job" or " never finish anything on time". The pathological critic is busy undermining your self-worth every day of your life. Yet his voice is so insidious, woven into the fabric of your thoughts that you never notice the devastating effects. The self attacks always seem reasonable and justified. The carping, judging inner voice seems natural, a familiar part of you but in truth, the critic is a kind of psychological jackal who with every attack weakens and breaks down any good feelings that you have about yourself. Although we refer to the critic as "he' for convenience, your voice may sound female. It could sound like your mother, your father, your own speaking voice. A loud ,voluble critic is enormously toxic. He is more poisonous to your psychological health than almost any trauma or loss. That's because grief and pain wash a way with time. But the critic is always with you-judging , blaming, finding fault. You have no defence against him. "There you go again" he says "being an idiot". And you automatically feel disgust as the critic says the word. Sometimes the critic uses images or pictures from the past to undermine your sense of worth. He shows a re-run of some awkward moment on a date, he pulls snapshots of a dressing down you got from your boss, images of a failed relationship, and scenes of the times you blew up at your kids. One of the strange things about the critic is that he often seems to have more control over your mind than you do. He will suddenly start to sound off, launching one attack after another or dragging you over and over through a painful scene. The critic has many weapons. Among the most effective are the values and rules of living that you grew up with. The critic has a away of turning your "shoulds" against you. He compares the way you are with the way you ought to be and judges you inadequate or wrong. He calls you stupid if the "A" you should have slips to the "B". He says " A marriage should last for ever" and calls you a failure after your divorce. He says "A real man supports his family" and calls you a loser when you are off work. He says "The kids come first" and calls you selfish when you crave to have some nights off. Although the critic seems to have a will of his own, his independence is really an illusion. The truth is that you are used to listening to him, so used to believing him, that you have not learned to turn him off. With practice, however, you can learn to analyse and refute what the critic says. You can turn him off before he has a chance to poison your feelings of self worth. (Sourced from the Illawarra Problem Gambling Treatment Manual) Sometimes you may need professional help to learn ways of doing this. Many community health services and counselling services have people who can help you "put the Pathological Critic back in his box!"

I'm just learning about this myself at the moment and this 'pathological critic' is most definitely the back bone behind Low Self-esteem. There are methods for dealing with the pathological critic- I found this work sheet-

http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/angie0/pathalogical.html

The book- Healing Fear by Dr. Edmund Bourne, PH.D. explains in more detail on how to counteract this.

Hope this helps.