The Pig Parent is a reality in everyone’s life. However, the extent to which this reality is perceived and understood by people varies greatly. The Pig Parent can be, in one person’s consciousness, simply a dark, evil, looming influence, settling over the mind like a suffocating blanket which turns everything dismal without warning. Or, to another, the Pig Parent is a nagging, insistent voice. To some, the Pig Parent appears as a rational sounding, sedate and moderate, occasional statement which undercuts every important effort in a person’s life. The Pig can operate in the form of nightmares and daydreams, physical pains or white-hot flashes of fear.
No matter what particular form the Pig Parent takes, it is essential to its survival and effectiveness that it not be challenged by the victim of its abuse. That is to say, the Pig Parent continues to operate because the person is willing to countenance it and to accept it as a valid part of the world. Thus the recognition that it is an arbitrary set of messages that has been internalized is crucial. As long as it is listened to, believed and followed, the Pig Parent has power.
To eliminate Pig Parent’s power, it is essential in therapy that the following several steps are consecutively followed:
First, locate the Pig Parent. What form does it take? What are its specific statements? What feelings does it prey on? Guilt? Shame? Fear? Low Self-esteem?
Second, how does the person remove his own support of the Pig Parent, so that it returns to its external form; an oppressive influence which needs to be struggled against.
Third, what specific techniques are effective to counteract the Pig Parent’s influence?
“The Pig Parent” (Claude Steiner), TAJ