Though there may be many ego-characters generated from being so lost and wounded, the following pages will depict a few that show up regularly in a Heart-drama: the Outcast/Burdened, the Worker/Addict, Colonizer/Android, and the Destroyer/Shopkeeper.

Not Good Enough

If life experiences were good enough, and we didn’t live in an Upside-down traumatized and traumatizing world, the Inspired Self would be the state of our psyche much of the time, and we would be resistant to WITHERing. Though obviously challenged by difficult moments, since no life is without Pain, we would not be so readily defined by it. Equally true, no human life is without Self-deception, but we would be more flexibly integrating what we know. We would be more aware of the behaviors we take toward resolution of a problem. We would feel better in our overall state of being. And would be more capable of self-correction.

In the WITHERed condition, since our Inspiration is largely lost, the splintered inner psyche constructs damaged actors to manage our challenges. They figure a way to just get by, to put one foot in front of the other. But beneath the surface there’s an overabundance of emotional turmoil (which we resist and deny). Unconsciously in the deepest circuits, you have answered the essential questions: Is the world a safe and loving place? Am I worthy, capable of living purposefully? The answers born of trauma: This world is wanting (or worse) and/or I’m unlovable or otherwise less than (or worse).

As our fractured psyche attempts to find a path in the Upside-down, survival energies surge into congruent jobs, titles, situations, and tasks. Our roles in the society are mirrors for entities inside us (they are revealed Inside-out). They reflect our subpersonalities, fragmented characters whose images are reflected on our tablets and phone screens. They can injure us and others by their presence.