Freedom From Your Inner Critic

We all know the story of the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. We all know of the ego-id-superego theory of Sigmund Freud. But in Dr. Jay Earley’s book Freedom From Your Inner Critic, he introduces us to another entity; the creature in us whose only goal is to criticize.

The book has solutions to low self-esteem and hypercritical self-assessment, broken down into manageable steps. He stresses getting to know the critic, and learning the critic’s goal. What does the critic want? What is it trying to protect you from? Has it accomplished anything? He further identifies seven types of inner critic, ranging from the taskmaster to the underminer.

The final chapters deal with the addiction to perfection, and the role of gender in self-criticism. At the end of the book is a glossary with the definitions of the terms used in this book.