Narcissism
This term describes the healthy developmental process in which a parent reflects the child’s internal world back to them.
Mirroring
Pathological caretakers tend to feel safer focusing on this rather than their own feelings.
Other people’s feelings
Winnicott’s “False Self” forms primarily to protect the child from losing this.
The attachment relationship
Cozolino claims that a well-timed interpretation works like this precise surgical instrument.
A scalpel
Alice Miller describes her therapeutic stance as acting on behalf of this “figure” inside the adult client.
The inner child
According to Cozolino, narcissism develops when this process is reversed during childhood.
Reversal of the mirroring process
Cozolino describes caretaking as an early-life strategy for managing caregivers’ emotions under this type of attachment environment.
Insecure or emotionally deprived attachment
Cozolino uses metaphors like facades or “unfinished interiors” to illustrate individuals’ lack of connection to this core psychological domain.
Their inner emotional life / authentic self
Interpretations often cause a client to pause, shift posture, or change tone because they momentarily disrupt this.
Their defensive system
Miller believed clients suffer from “double amnesia”: forgetting their feelings and forgetting that they did this because it was necessary for this purpose.
To survive the parent’s emotional demands
Cozolino says narcissistic children become attuned not to their own emotions, but to __________.
The parent’s emotional states / needs
Individuals who grow up in emotionally unstable environments often develop a hyperfocus on this, monitoring it constantly to maintain relational safety.
Other people’s emotional states / the moods of others
According to Cozolino, the false self is built through chronic inhibition of personal feelings in order to maintain this with caregivers.
Connection / attachment
A correct interpretation activates both cortical and subcortical networks, helping transform implicit memories into this form of memory.
Explicit (autobiographical) memory
Miller’s method focuses on decoding the client’s present-day self-criticism, shame, and internal rules as clues to this early relationship environment.
Early attachment relationships
This Winnicott concept describes the version of self that forms when a child must suppress their true emotional experiences to serve the parent’s needs.
The False Self
Pathological caretaking serves as both a bonding strategy and a form of ________ regulation.
Affect regulation
Children who develop false selves often appear “mature beyond their years” because they excel at doing this for others.
Regulating others’ emotions
Cozolino notes that interpretations encourage clients to observe their internal reactions with curiosity rather than fear.
This stance is known clinically as what?
Nonjudgmental observation
Miller says gifted children adapt by molding themselves to their parents’ emotions.
This term describes their compulsive need to regulate others.
Compulsive compliance / codependency
Cozolino argues that narcissism is not actually self-love, but a defense against this core internal experience.
Core emptiness or shame
Cozolino says pathological caretakers often choose partners with intense emotional needs because it protects them from facing this frightening internal state.
Their own emotions
Cozolino argues that the false self is built from implicit memory networks shaped before the development of autobiographical awareness.
This makes the false self difficult to change because these memories are stored in this type of neural system.
Implicit memory systems
Cozolino compares the integration triggered by interpretation to this mindfulness-related process in which awareness expands to include more of one’s internal experience.
The amygdala
Miller’s archaeological approach relies on interpreting implicit emotional reactions as evidence of early caregiving experiences stored not as narrative memory, but in this form of memory.
Implicit memory