The Child Self

Twenty-three years after Sylvia Plath took her own life at the age of 30, Ted Hughes, her husband, wrote to their 24-year-old son, Nicholas:

"....But not many people realise that it is, in fact, the suffering of the child inside them. Everybody tries to protect this vulnerable two three four five six seven eight year old inside, and to acquire skills and aptitudes for dealing with the situations that threaten to overwhelm it. So everybody develops a whole armour of secondary self, the artificially constructed being that deals with the outer world, and the crush of circumstances.

And when we meet people this is what we usually meet. And if this is the only part of them we meet we’re likely to get a rough time, and to end up making ‘no contact’. But when you develop a strong divining sense for the child behind that armour, and you make your dealings and negotiations only with that child, you find that everybody becomes, in a way, like your own child."

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/09/12/ted-hughes-inner-child-letter