Allie Beth Stuckey

But is it driving our subconscious?

Is it driving our behavior as adults?

Partly, but then also not.

It can't be completely that because we know we just also have a sin nature that was inherited from Adam that ultimately is responsible for the wrong things that we do.

Carl Jung was one of Freud's students, and he expanded on this idea of the inner child and what he called the divine child.

Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist who lived from 1875 to 1961.

He was hugely influential in the field of psychology, and he's best known for developing the concept of archetypes, so the kind of types that people can be.

And one of these archetypes is the divine child.

And in Jung's conception, it wasn't just the childhood trauma that affected you, but actually the concept that there was a pure self inside of you trying to become whole.

And if you read my first book, or if you're familiar with people...

like Glennon Doyle or even people like Rachel Hollis, they might not directly cite the psychological literature, but this idea of this divine pure self inside of you, this concept of basically having an inner goddess...

that if it weren't for the mean things people did or said to you, if it weren't for capitalism and the patriarchy and racism and all of these unfair systems, if it wasn't for mass advertising and unfair beauty standards, she would be perfect.

And your goal in life, your journey in life is to go back and find her and to release her from all of these unfair expectations and your childhood trauma.

And once you're able to do that, then you can manifest all of these different areas of success.

I'm not saying that's the fullness of what Jung taught, but we certainly see that narrative in so much of what women read and are taught today, this underlying assumption that if it weren't for all of these other factors, my inner self would be perfect and perfectly loved.

And if I can find her and find a way to perfectly love her and heal her, then I'll just be okay.

That is a secular new age idea.

It's not a biblical idea.

Jeremiah 17 tells us that our heart is actually desperately sick.

Who can understand it?