The inner critic is the negative, repetitive, and often automatic internal dialogue that sabotages, judges, or minimizes a person from within. It is not synonymous with moral conscience: while conscience guides toward values, the inner critic attacks personal worth. Its most damaging feature is that it sounds so familiar that the person confuses it with the "truth" about themselves.
Concept origin
Richard Firestone (1997) developed Voice Theory from psychoanalysis, describing how we internalize early parental criticisms as part of our internal narrative. IFS (Internal Family Systems, Schwartz) treats the critical voice as a "protector part" that learned to attack first to avoid external rejection.
Therapeutic approach
Externalizing the inner critic — writing it in second person ("you're not good enough for this") and then responding to it as a compassionate friend would — creates cognitive distance. Acceptance therapy and ACT defusion reduce the power of the voice without needing to silence it.
Related concepts
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