Hi Alice
I think of it as the child that is inside us that stopped becoming or growing because of what was done to or not done for the child.
Childhood requires someone to be there as a loving guide but when you only receive rage ,hate,anger,abuse, degradation,humiliation,indifference,ect.. all of these experiences not only stop the growth of the relationship you have with yourself but also poisons the relationship you have with yourself because it creates a reality of worthlessness (you believe that you are not good enough).
Abusive parents use their children by repeating the abuse that was inflicted on them as children against their own children to make the horrors of their own childhood normal so it goes from one generation to the next.
Often the parent will chose one child to abuse and may not abuse the other and this is to avoid having two people witness the same evil so they may than expose the parent.
Abusive parents are very calculating because they know what they do is wrong.
Later many of these survivors of abuse will find someone else to abuse them as adults because they believe this is normal and what they deserve.
Go back into the past (your mind) and find that little boy and give that boy the love he deserved, focus on the child abuse.
