The false self in Christian contexts: a Winnicottian perspective.

Parker, Stephen ; Davis, Edward

The concept of the false self has captured the imagination of popular Christian authors for decades (e.g., Benner, 2004; Eldredge, 2001; Finley, 1978/2003; Manning, 1994; Merton, 1961). Although such discussions often have psychological overtones, they do not tend to revolve around an explicitly psychological theory of the false self, such as the one offered by object relations theorist D. W. Winnicott (1896-1974). Using Winnicott's theory, this article seeks to deepen the popular-Christian discussion of the false self by providing a sustained psychological frame. Further, it seeks to extend the psychological discussion of the false self to an exploration of how Christian contexts (e.g., churches) may contribute to the false self's manifestations and maintenance. We aim to help Christian counselors and pastors understand the false self from a psychological standpoint, particularly its origins, manifestations, and maintaining factors. We also hope to provide practical suggestions for undermining and reducing Christians' false-self expressions while fostering and increasing their true-self expressions.

Winnicott's Theory of the False Self

Winnicott (1960a/1965) sets his theory of the false self within a developmental context--a context which acknowledges the false self's counterpoint, the true self, as well. According to Winnicott, the emergence of either aspect of the self is directly related to the quality and consistency of a person's early caregiving environment.

The True Self as Counterpoint

During his career, Winnicott wrote a good deal on the nature and development of the true self (Winnicott,1954/1958, 1955/1958, 1956/1958, 1959/1965, 1960a/1965, 1963a/1965, 1964/1986), usually discussing it as a counterpoint to the false self. In fact, he once asserted: "There is but little point in formulating a True Self idea except for the purpose of trying to understand the False Self, because it does no more than collect together the details of the experience of aliveness" (Winnicott, 1960a/1965, p. 148). For Winnicott, the true self begins in the "motility" (i.e., the spontaneous motor movements) of the infant, which the primary caregiver ideally responds to (1956/1958). Winnicott argued that early personality development occurs within the context of a mother-infant "unit" that only later separates into two recognizable individuals (1952/1958).

During this early period, the mother plays a key role in her child's development, optimally through providing what Winnicott called good-enough mothering (i.e., being attuned to and appropriately meeting the child's needs). According to Winnicott (1960b/1965), what constitutes good-enough mothering varies according to where the child is in his/her developmental progression "from absolute dependence, through relative dependence, to independence" (p. 42). Over the course of this progression, good-enough mothering facilitates the child's growth toward a healthy sense of self, as separate from yet related to its environment and its caregivers. In other words, children are aware of and develop a sense of their own interior life while becoming aware of and developing a shared life in connection with others around them.

During early infancy, good-enough mothering ideally involves a primary maternal preoccupation in which the mother is temporarily consumed with fulfilling her baby's spontaneously-arising needs (Winnicott, 1956/1958). Ideally the infant is able to experience a generally undisrupted sense of "going on being" (Winnicott, 1956/1958, p. 303), as his or her spontaneous gestures are reliably sensed and responded to. To facilitate this optimal socioemotional milieu, the mother needs to create a holding environment where the infant unconsciously feels safe, loved, and nurtured (Winnicott, 1960b/1965). In turn, the baby will develop an overall sense of security, belonging, and personal importance, laying the foundation for healthy personality development.

Winnicott's assertion is that through the consistent provision of good-enough mothering, the child's nascent true self is gradually strengthened. For Winnicott (1960a/1965, 1971), this consolidation of the true self occurs chiefly via "play" (i.e., spontaneous, creative self-expression). In fact, Winnicott (1960a/1965) explained:

   At the earliest stage the True Self is
   the theoretical position from which
   come the spontaneous gesture and
   the personal idea. The spontaneous
   gesture is the True Self in action.
   Only the True Self can be creative
   and only the True Self can feel real.
   (p. 148)

For him it is through creative self-expression that the child develops not only his or her creative abilities but also the ability to feel as if he or she exists (Winnicott, 1960a/1965, 1971). As Burns Smith (1999) summarized, the true self serves as the wellspring of the child's "creativity, aliveness, and sense of reality" (p. 9). Also, of note, this deep core of the self has both a sacred and incommunicable quality to it (Winnicott, 1963a/1965).

In infancy and toddlerhood, for the child's true self to emerge, not only do his or her creative, spontaneous gestures need to be recognized and responded to, but the child's aggressive gestures need to be sensed and survived as well. More specifically, the child needs to gradually learn that his or her feelings of subjective omnipotence are really an illusion--caregivers are able to "survive" his or her destructive impulses. As that realization occurs, the illusion of subjective omnipotence is gradually relinquished and ego differentiation transpires. Ideally, if provided an environment that is adequately responsive and reliable, the true self comes to dominate the personality and express itself freely (Winnicott, 1960a/1965, 1960b/1965; cf. Mitchell & Black, 1995).

Here it is important to note that for Winnicott (1960a/1965, 1960b/1965, 1971), "holding" is a metaphor which describes not only the mother's physical handling of her child but also her ability to foster and protect a psychical environment (i.e., a psychological, social, and emotional atmosphere) that enables her infant to develop optimally. In particular, the mother must implicitly convince her infant that its presence, needs, and excretions are recognized, attended to, and treated as important. Through adequate holding, the infant sees him- or herself through the eyes of the mother, as in a mirror. Ideally, it is through this mirroring that the infant becomes able to see him- or herself as valued--as a self whose spontaneous gestures are recognized, responded to, and allowed a place (Winnicott, 1967/1971; cf. Schore, 2003).

The Origins and Development of the False Self

However, problems can occur if the child's early environment is not good-enough--that is, is deficient in terms of the quality and quantity of responsive caregiving that the infant receives. Winnicott argued that in the midst of such caregiving experiences, the child's sense of self becomes split, leading to the development of a protective layer of personality which he called the false self. In short, Winnicott (1960a/1965) believed that the false self has its origins in failures of the early caregiving environment, and it emerges as a defensive response to such failures.

According to Winnicott (1949/1958, 1960a/1965, 1963e/1989), there are several specific factors that influence the development of the false self, including: (1) the frequency, severity, and duration of these caregiving deficiencies; (2) the infant's reactions to said deficiencies; (3) and the infant's innate capacities to tolerate delay. Acknowledging the infant's contribution to the development of the false self, Winnicott did not assert that specific manifestations of the false self emanated from specific caregiving deficiencies, such as maternal depression. Though he recognized various ways that the child's caregiving environment could be not good-enough (e.g., recurrent unresponsiveness or late responsiveness to the infant's gestures, repeated substitution of the caregiver's gestures for the infant's), Winnicott (1960a/1965, 1960b/1965) cited caregiver inconsistency as potentially the most deleterious.

The Function and Character of the False Self

According to Winnicott (1960a/1965), the chief purpose of the false self is to preserve and protect the true self. Much of the time, the false self does this by complying with environmental demands so as to maximize need gratification. Other times, it manifests in troubling forms such as psychosis or in more socially-acceptable forms such as intellectualism. Perhaps most benignly, it manifests in ways reminiscent of Jung's (1928/1953) persona, as a polite and well-mannered social mask that ensures people do not wear their emotions on their sleeve (Winnicott, 1960a/1965).

Unfortunately, utilizing the false self to defend against environmental failures comes at a cost. One of the highest costs of false-self utilization is the cost of feeling unreal. Here Winnicott (1954/1958) provided the following cost-benefit analysis:

   The development of a false self is one
   of the most successful defence organizations
   designed for the protection
   of the true self's core, and its existence
   results in the sense of futility....
   [W]hile the individual's operational
   centre is in the false self there is a
   sense of futility, and in practice we
   find the change to the feeling that life
   is worth while coming at the moment
   of shift of the operational centre from
   the false to the true self..

      From this one can formulate a fundamental
   principle of existence: that
   which proceeds from the true self
   feels real ([and] later good) whatever
   its nature, [and] however aggressive;
   that which happens in the individual
   as a reaction to environmental
   impingement feels unreal, futile
   ([and] later bad), however sensually
   satisfactory [at the time]. (p. 292)

According to Winnicott (1960a/1965), during situations of not good-enough holding, the infant recognizes that in order to existentially "survive," his or her spontaneous (i.e., authentic) gestures must be supplanted by the compliant (i.e., inauthentic) gestures that the environment seems to "require." Winnicott (1960a/1965) referred to any instance that necessitates such substitute gestures as involving an environmental impingement.

For example, a preoccupied caregiver might force her infant to nurse according to the caregiver's busy schedule, even when the infant desires to take a break from feeding. Here the substitution of the caregiver's pressing agenda for the infant's temporary disinterest involves an environmental impingement. Winnicottian theory would suggest that this impingement would cause the infant's true self to withdraw and his or her false self to emerge, so as to comply with the feeding demand. As is evident with this example, impingement requires the infant to react to environmental demands, thus disrupting his/her "continuity of being" (Winnicott, 1960b/1965, p. 54), stifling his/her true self, and suspending his/her freedom to engage in spontaneous gestures (Winnicott, 1960a/1965).

Interestingly, Winnicott (1959/1965) described how the false self might manifest in an infant who has a strong intellectual capacity. Because such an infant is well endowed intellectually, his or her response to a not good-enough environment might commonly come via a precocious use of the mind. More specifically, the mind may take over the holding function of the mother, housing the false self and hiding the true self, deceiving relationship partners and disassociating the intellect from psychosomatic experience (Winnicott, 1949/1958, 1955/1958, 1960a/1965).

A Continuum of the False Self

Of note, Winnicott (1960a/1965) acknowledged that every person has a false self, and the false self dominates each person's personality to a greater or lesser degree. In other words, he recognized that each individual's personality was characterized by "a low or a high degree of the False Self defence[,] ranging from the healthy polite aspect of the self to the truly split-off compliant False Self which is mistaken for the whole [person]" (Winnicott, 1960a/1965, p. 150). In another place, Winnicott (1964/1986) noted: "in some form or other or to some degree each of us is divided in this way, into a true self and a false self" (p. 65). Basically, people vary as to how much the false self pervades their personality and thus imbues their self-expression (Winnicott, 1960a/1965).

At the adaptive end of the false-self continuum are people with healthy ego capacities. Such persons usually act out of the true self but show appropriate utilization of the false self (e.g., they are polite and socially mannered and do not wear their emotions on their sleeve). Conversely, at the pathological end of the false-self continuum are people with impaired ego capacities. Such individuals always or almost always act out of the false self, perhaps even in therapy. In fact, they keep their true self so reliably hidden that they could be described as having a "False Self personality" (Winnicott, 1960a/1965, p. 150). Most people lie somewhere in between these two extremes and generally continue to operate out of the false self until they find a good-enough holding environment to facilitate the emergence of their dormant true self. They may find this type of environment in certain types of relationships or contexts, or they may only find this type of environment with specific relationship partners.

It is also necessary to point out that this idea of a false-self continuum suggests that there is a dynamic interplay between the false self and the true self. True to his psychoanalytic roots, Winnicott (1960a/1965) described both the false self and the true self as having positive and negative qualities. In other words, it would be easy to assume that the Winnicottian false self is entirely "bad," while the Winnicottian true self is entirely "good." However, such an understanding is not only overly simplistic, but it is fundamentally inconsistent with Winnicott's theory of the false self.

Although there are clearly aspects of the false self that are pathological, it has some positive qualities as well. For example, not only does it protect the true self from annihilation, but it also enables the person to function socially in an appropriate, mannered way. In contrast, though there are obviously aspects of the true self that are adaptive, it has some negative qualities too. For instance, it cannot survive constant exposure to "living in the world" (1963d/1965, p. 225; cf. 1963a/1965). In short, the psychodynamics of the false self and the true self demand a nuanced appreciation of both entities.

Manifestations and Maintenance of the False Self in Christian Contexts

Before turning our attention more directly to the presence of the false self in Christian contexts, it is important to make a distinction between the development of the false self and its maintenance. As stated previously, Winnicott (1960a/1965) argued that the false self develops within the context of one's early caregiving environment. More specifically, the origins of the false self lie in a person's early-childhood interactions with his or her caregivers.

Consequently, according to Winnicott, later social influences and experiences do not contribute directly to the development of a person's false self per se, but they might contribute to its manifestation and maintenance. Perhaps such a possibility is most likely in situations that are reminiscent of previous environmental failures (impingements). Importantly, more recent theorists (e.g., see Masterson, 2005; Masterson & Lieberman, 2004) have expressed disagreement with Winnicott's assertion that the false self is fully developed early in life. Instead, they have argued that it develops well beyond childhood, maybe even across the entire life course. These theorists raise the possibility that later social influences and experiences may indeed contribute to the development of the false self, in addition to contributing to its manifestation and maintenance. However, such a possibility departs from a Winnicottian view of the false self and therefore will not be explored in this article. Instead, using a Winnicottian frame, we will discuss how the false self might manifest and be maintained in Christian contexts (e.g., churches), largely depending on the contributions of various environmental and/or intrapsychic factors.

Manifestations of the False Self in Christian Contexts

Compliance. One way the false self may manifest in Christian contexts is in the form of excessive compliance. For example, a congregant may never be able to say "no" to pastors or church leaders, or they may never be able to assert themselves or question anything. Or, perhaps they compulsively comply with certain religious rules, always presenting a socially-acceptable front (Winnicott, 1960a/1965).

Reactivity. The false self might also manifest in Christian contexts as congregants react to impingements on their sense of going-on-being. For instance, such impingements could take the form of imposed perfectionism, legalism, or triumphalism, each of which mandates the suppression of any discussions of human weakness or suffering. In the face of these impingements, some congregants may react defensively by being rebellious or combative, thus protecting their true self from annihilation (Winnicott, 1960a/1965).

Deadness. Another way the false self can manifest in Christian contexts is in the form of an internal sense of deadness. For example, a congregant might not experience any aliveness or joy in Christian work or fellowship, but they could tend to "put on a face" to mask the deadness they feel inside. In fact, to overcompensate, they might use busyness as a cover, incessantly involving themselves in a flurry of church activities.

Over-intellectualized faith. The false self could manifest in Christian contexts as an over-intellectualized faith as well. For instance, a congregant who has a high intellectual capacity might have a false self that is seated in the intellect (Winnicott, 1960a/1965). This false self might manifest in the congregant's habitual self-expressions, including those in Christian contexts. He or she may tend to substitute an over-emphasis on doctrine for a vital, ongoing relationship with God and other Christians.

Impinging God images. Finally, one last way the false self might manifest in Christian contexts is in the form of impinging God images (i.e., the mental representations that underlie a person's emotional experience of God; Moriarty & Hoffman, 2007). For example, at an emotional and largely nonconscious and nonverbal level, a congregant might experience God as exacting, demanding perfection. Or, he or she may experience God as hostile, uncaring, or preoccupied. Regardless of the type of impinging God image that the congregant experiences, he or she will presumably use the false self to interact with God and others in Christian contexts, in order to protect the true self from impingement.

General conclusion. In general, it can be concluded that if the false self dominates a Christian individual's personality, then it will likely manifest recurrently in his or her self-expressions in Christian contexts as well, reliably keeping the true self hidden. Further, if the false self dominates a Christian's personality, then it will likely manifest recurrently in his or her self-expressions in emotional relationship with God. In this latter case, it is important to realize that the Christian may have impinging God images, even though their God concepts (i.e., their doctrinal understandings of God) are biblically consistent, reflecting an orthodox theology (Moriarty & Hoffman, 2007).

Maintenance of the False Self in Christian Contexts

As in all contexts, the maintenance of the false self in Christian contexts is the result of some type(s) of environmental deficiency; that is, it is the result of the environment's failure to provide good-enough holding. The factors that contribute to such failure may lie in the Christian's environment (e.g., local church family), in the person's intrapsychic resources (e.g., God images, object images), and/or in the collusion between the two (e.g., via reciprocal reinforcement).

Environmental contributions. There are several ways that a Christian's local church family might contribute to the maintenance of the false self and thus impinge on the emergence of the true self. One possible form this may take is a congregational culture which is characterized by a general failure to recognize, become attuned with, and respond empathically to the spontaneous gestures of its congregants. For example, a congregation might not give enough space for congregants to experience and express the emotional and bodily dimensions of the Christian faith, instead overemphasizing the cognitive dimensions. Or, it might not foster the spontaneous expression of congregants' gifts, talents, and abilities, possibly because of impinging congregational norms or programming needs. Finally, it might not allow for congregants' empowerment and assertive self-expression, perhaps due to a hierarchical church culture.

A Christian's local church family may also help maintain the false self via various means by which the church's gestures or needs are substituted for the spontaneous gestures of its congregants. For instance, a church member may feel a calling to a certain ministry with which his or her local congregation is not yet involved. Instead of being encouraged to minister in this new domain, the congregant is instead asked to serve in one of the existing ministry programs, despite the fact that it might not hold any particular interest or sense of calling for the congregant. Here the church's needs and programming demands are substituted for the congregant's gifts, callings, and passions. Of note, it is not that the church's existing programs are unimportant or do not need workers. The point here is that when a congregant's spontaneous gestures are displaced by the congregation's, the expression of the true self is impeded to a certain extent.

Winnicott (1963c/1965) himself thought that churches could encourage the false self when they offer foreclosed answers to questions of morality. Stated differently, the moral stances of the church might implicitly demand congregant foreclosure, forbidding critical examination. Rather than allowing individuals to come to their own conclusions regarding morality, the church's impinging culture may instead necessitate the use of the false self. Winnicott believed that such foreclosure was especially problematic in the case of youths. That is, if children in religious contexts are told too quickly what they may or may not do, then they may never develop intrinsic reasons for why they should or should not behave in a certain way. Similarly, one might think of congregations as impinging on the development of the true self when there is not enough space for congregants to think for themselves. When congregants must dogmatically comply with the prescribed doctrine of their church, their ability to express themselves freely is severely hindered, making vital emotional connection with God and other congregants difficult at best.

Yet another way that local congregations may contribute to the maintenance of the false self is when they implicitly espouse a perfectionistic Christian spirituality or worldview. In this case, the message that is conveyed to church members subtly or not so subtly is: Human failures and frailties are unacceptable among the redeemed. Perfectionism of character and behavior is not only championed as possible, but it is put forth as expected. Therefore, any thought or deed that lacks a pure and just motive is forbidden, along with any negative feeling or any selfish impulse. Thus, only the compliant false self is expressed in the person's prayers, verbalizations, and other behaviors. With its longings to be open, honest, and vulnerable, the true self must remain hidden behind a mask of pretense, conformity, perfectionism, or legalism (cf. Gruber, 1995; Johnson & Burroughs, 2000; Mebane & Ridley, 1988).

As with normal human development, when a Christian's church does not feel safe and supportive, the false self will emerge in ways that are designed to adapt to environmental impingements and protect the true self from annihilation. The believer may come to feel that his or her deepest sins, struggles, and longings must be denied, so as to survive external requirements for perfection, triumph, and self-sufficiency. Here the false self will presumably manifest and be maintained, to the detriment of authentic community and spiritual expression. A sense of deadness, isolation, and emptiness will fester, but this too must be masked by pretense of aliveness (Winnicott, 1960a/1965).

Intrapsychic contributions. Intrapsychic factors may also contribute to the maintenance of the false self in Christian contexts. The two most likely mechanisms for this type of contribution are believers' object images and God images, both of which grow out of a person's developmental history (Lang, 1994; Parker, 1999; Rizutto, 1979). First of all, a Christian's maladaptive images of others may cause them to experience other Christians as impinging, even if such a perception is not factually accurate. For instance, a believer might perceive his or her pastor as neglectful, not because the pastor is neglectful per se, but perhaps because of an internalized object image. Or, other Christians may be experienced as only caring about a certain congregational agenda, such as evangelism or social justice. Essentially, the recurrent evocation of impinging object images will help maintain the false self, since it will require the false self's repeated utilization to cope.

Second, a believer's maladaptive images of God might cause them to experience God as impinging, if mainly at a nonconscious, bodily and emotional level (Moriarty & Hoffman, 2007). For example, a Christian may have a God image which causes them to experience God as a relentless taskmaster, again perhaps due to an internalized object image (Parker, 1999). Here again the repeated evocation of impinging God images will help maintain the false self, because it will require the false self in order to survive interacting with this figure.

Whenever a believer's relationship with God is experienced as unable to hold the person and his or her feelings (especially negative ones), there is a great likelihood that the person will use their false self in order to cope. For instance, if God is experienced as unable to receive one's aggression, hatred, or other kinds of sinfulness, then the person may recurrently present a false self which complies with this God. Or, if God is perceived as requiring only strength and perfection, as not accepting human weakness or failure, then even in prayer the believer might only express an acceptable false self, hiding self-aspects that are thought to be unacceptable. In Winnicottian terms, such an image of God seems to require the substitution of "hyper-spiritual" gestures for the more honest, but obviously more imperfect, gestures of the true self. Similarly, if there is the perception that God is not sufficiently present or interested in one's unique personal development, or perhaps interested only in an agenda that does not include one's true self, then a false self will manifest to interact with this image of God.

In short, there are a variety of potentially impinging forms that object and God images might take, thus contributing to the maintenance of the false self. Perhaps most commonly, God and/or other Christians might be experienced as unattuned, unresponsive (or conditionally responsive), preoccupied, erratic, or rejecting. Or, they may simply seem unable to contain both the good and the bad. Any of these impinging object or God images may contribute to the maintenance of the false self via intrapsychic mechanisms.

Colluding environmental and intrapsychic forces. It is important to note that oftentimes, environmental and intrapsychic forces can collude with one another and thereby help maintain the false self. For example, a congregation might collude with its congregants' false selves by providing a church culture that thrives on busy programming. Or, church leaders could model false-self behavior by never being able to say "no" (and by implicitly requiring this of their congregants). Yet another possibility is that churches can collude with congregants who have an intellectualized false self by overemphasizing the cognitive dimensions of the faith, at the expense (or perhaps even total exclusion) of emotional and bodily dimensions.

On the flip side, congregants might be drawn to certain Christian contexts which reinforce their false self. For instance, they could be attracted to congregations which reward their intellectualism, dogmatism, perfectionism, or workaholism. In such environments, intrapsychic tendencies and congregational culture will feed off each other, maintaining the congregant's false self and reliably suppressing their true self.

Clinical and Pastoral-Care Implications

In the section which follows, we will consider some clinical and pastoral-care implications of these ideas. We aim not only to provide recommendations for how to recognize and undermine the false self in work with Christians, but we also offer suggestions for how to affirm and nurture the true self in such work.

Undermining the False Self in Christian Contexts

Recognizing the false selfs manifestations and maintaining factors. The best way for clinicians, pastors, and the people they serve to undermine the false self is to develop the ability to recognize its manifestations and maintaining factors, including those that are described above. For clinicians, recognizing the false self's manifestations and maintaining factors can help facilitate case conceptualization, treatment planning, and strategic intervention. For pastoral-care workers, it can facilitate accurate discernment, congregational decision-making, and strategic ministry. For congregants themselves, it can facilitate decreased collusion with environmental forces that might evoke or maintain their false self.

Undermining the need for the false self. For Winnicott (1960a/1965), the chief way to combat the false self is by creating an environmental atmosphere characterized by safety, nurturance, responsiveness, and consistency. In other words, he argued that since the false self came into being because of not good-enough holding (i.e., environmental failures in caregiving), therefore it is undermined by the provision of good-enough holding. For Winnicott, therapy was a relational space where this type of repair could occur. Specifically, he described the potential for the therapist to provide a special kind of holding environment that was missed early on in life, with this relational experience fostering a repair of the psyche. Such an environment provides a safe place for the true self to come out of hiding, enabling the steady relinquishment of the false self.

Winnicott (1960a/1965) saw such clinical work as very taxing on the therapist. Consequently, he recommended that therapists refrain from taking on more than one or two of these types of cases at a time. Winnicott was also clear that therapists might find it extremely difficult to breach the defensive armor of the false self, perhaps ending up actually doing therapy with the false self for years. Given such comments, it is remarkable that more than once, Winnicott noted the recovery from early failures in caregiving could indeed be accomplished "apart from organized psychotherapy, for instance, in friendship.. .[or] in cultural experiences, including for some those that are called religious" (Winnicott, 1961/1986, p. 106; cf. Winnicott, 1954/1958, 1963b/1965). This acknowledgment points to the possibility that Christian congregations can become environments for the undermining of the false self.

In addition to helping Christian clients and congregants develop relationships that erode the need for the false self, pastoral-care providers and clinicians might also help undermine the false self in other ways. Within a psychoanalytic framing, such ministry or intervention must occur within the context of the therapeutic relationship, but more realistically, they all can be adapted toward the same end outside of this context, even by those who do not have a psychoanalytic bent. For instance, pastors and other pastoral-care workers can help their congregants learn how to identify and interrupt the patterns of false-self behaviors noted above. They can also help their congregants identify the costs (and benefits) of false-self behavior, exploring perhaps more adaptive ways of behaving and relating. Finally, they can help their congregants discover more about their God images and thereby begin the process of learning how to interact with God in a more healthy and rewarding manner. Recent research on implicit relational representations and emotional information processing seems especially promising in helping to inform this process (see Noffke & Hall, 2007).

One specific way that pastors and counselors might help undermine the false self of the people they work with is to highlight applicable scriptural analogies. For instance, they could talk with congregants and clients about the comments Jesus made on being outwardly righteous but inwardly destitute, perhaps illustrative of the false self (Matt. 23:27-28; cf. Matt 15:7-9, on serving God with one's lips but not one's heart). They could also discuss Paul's comments on living by the flesh rather than by the Spirit (Romans 8:4) or on living under law as opposed to under grace (Galatians, chap. 3-5). Exploring these passages may help congregants and clients become better equipped to recognize the costs, manifestations, and maintaining factors of their false self, thereby fostering the type of awareness and motivation that can undermine the false self.

Lastly, as stated previously, congregations that have an inordinate amount of programming can often overwork their congregants and potentially collude with the false self. Congregants who have a pronounced false self may be the easiest targets for over-tasking, because of the overly compliant nature of the false self. Pastors, therapists, and congregants themselves should therefore be alert to the potential for the false self to compulsively comply with all the requests made upon it, to the detriment of the true self and to the impediment of authentic relating. Paradoxically, the way to preserve the true self in such cases is actually to decrease one's congregational activities. Although people withdraw from active Christian service for a variety of reasons, Winnicott (1960a/1965) would help us recognize that at times, congregants may feel as if the only way to preserve their true self from annihilation is to do less for the congregation.

Nurturing the emergence of the true self.

Efforts to nurture the emergence of the true self must of necessity accompany efforts to undermine the false self. Otherwise, the true self will remain in hiding, requiring the continued use of the false self.

One way that pastors and pastoral-care workers can nurture the true self is to allow for the spontaneous gestures of congregants. For instance, as already suggested pastoral leaders can look for ways to honor and implement the gifts, callings, and talents of their congregants. Although there is a clear need for pastoral leadership to discern the appropriateness and timeliness of congregational programs, there also needs to be a place for openness to the Spirit's leadership into new areas and forms of ministry (i.e., areas and forms in which the congregation may not currently be engaged). Ideally, the Spirit will move upon the heart of specific congregants, inspiring works of ministry through spontaneous gestures that are consonant with both who that congregant is at their core and what the Spirit is calling the church to at that time.

A second way that pastors, congregations, and therapists can nurture the true self is to promote an integrated spirituality. An integrated spirituality would be one in which emotional, bodily, and cognitive dimensions are involved in one's worship of, service to, and relationship with God. Often, certain congregations or theologies encourage various kinds of splitting among their congregants, in the sense that they overemphasize one dimension to the neglect (or outright exclusion) of the others. Similarly, an integrated spirituality would embrace not only a theology of triumph and resurrection but also a theology of suffering and lament as well (Brueggemann, 1986; Shabad, Wright, Strawn, & Yangarber-Hicks, 2009).

The notion of an integrated spirituality would further extend to the nurturance of holistic, integrated images of God. For example, we have already noted that believers can have an image of God in which God is only interested in or able to contain their good self-aspects (but not their bad). We have also discussed God images which do not allow for human imperfections and frailties but instead insist on perfection and triumph. Similarly, congregations and their congregants might need to counter one-dimensional God images with complex and multi-dimensional ones that are more reflective of God's fullness and personhood. To illustrate, the image of God as nurturing mother can be found throughout Scripture, alongside pictures of God as loving father (e.g., Psalm 131; Isaiah 49:14-16; Luke 15; Galatians 4:21-31). As it relates to this article, such multi-dimensional imagery is important in two ways. First, the conjunction of such images allows for a more holistic understanding of God's nature (e.g., as embracing both feminine/nurturing elements and masculine/idealizing elements). Second, it allows for an exploration of how God might mother a believer in much the same ways that Winnicott (1956/1958, 1960a/1965, 1960b/1965) described (cf. Coe, 2000).

As with the undermining of the false self, a practical way of promoting a more integrated spirituality with Christians is the use of scriptural passages that encourage a movement toward more authentic living. For instance, Jesus' description of the indwelling Holy Spirit manifesting in the life of a believer is strikingly similar to Winnicott's description of the true self. Speaking of the Holy Spirit (John 7:39), Jesus said: "He who believes in Me [who cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Me] as the Scripture has said, 'From his innermost being shall flow [continuously] springs and rivers of living water'" (John 7:38, Amplified Bible). Similarly, Winnicott (1960a/1965) depicted a person's true self as the source of vitality that flows out from deep within and ideally emerges as a continuous stream of creative, life-giving self-expression (cf. Burns Smith, 1999; Mitchell & Black, 1995). Furthermore, similarly to how Paul discussed the importance of being continuously filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18), Winnicott's true self must maintain a vital facilitating connection with its relational environment in order for it to be expressed. Otherwise, it remains hidden behind a false self, dormant in pregnant potentiality (Winnicott, 1960a/1965; Mitchell & Black, 1995).

Another way the true self can be nurtured is when congregations serve the function of providing environmental "management." For certain manifestations of the false self, Winnicott (1960a/1965; cf. 1961/1986) noted that a period of management was needed before any sort of analytic therapy might proceed. He used this term "management" to describe a host of supportive interventions that might provide temporary holding to individuals who failed to experience adequate holding earlier in life. In other words, for him, management referred to a supportive environment which helped facilitate the emergence of stunted capacities for self-care and self-containment.

We should note again at this point that "holding" is an extended metaphor for Winnicott (1961/1986). For him, chief among the places where people might experience holding later in life is therapy. However, Winnicott also recognized organized religion among the social environments that could continue or extend the early holding function of the mother. In other words, from a Winnicottian perspective, churches might be able to compensate for early caregiving failures, providing good-enough holding environments that will support adaptive ego repair and development. Winnicott also thought that certain kinds of friendships could serve this purpose.

One possibility then in the nurturing of the true self is to think of the congregation as providing a certain kind of management or holding. Here the congregation can provide places for good-enough holding to occur, such as small groups or prayer groups. It can also facilitate such holding by emphasizing the importance of close relationships and community. Even more specifically, it can promote this holding by encouraging vulnerable sharing, perhaps through relational avenues like mentoring or accountability relationships. Pastors, therapists, and congregations should note that in any given congregation, there may only be a few individuals who can offer the kind of relationship that Winnicott described as nurturing of the true self. Similarly, there may be certain congregations that are especially good nurturers of the true self. In either case, special congregants or special congregations, maintaining appropriate self-care boundaries will be important, considering the heavy emotional toll that comes along with efforts to undermine the false self and nurture the true self (Winnicott, 1960a/1965).

In addition to resources within the congregation, we note that therapy can be a way in which the true self is nurtured. For instance, a believer might find a safe place within the context of Christian counseling--a context that is ideally experienced as a holding environment where the true self may emerge and flourish. If the true self is adequately fostered and attended to in this context, then it may become strong enough to manifest in other contexts as well, including good-enough Christian contexts. Similarly, one might find counseling that focuses on God-image-related concerns helpful in undermining the power by which maladaptive God images help maintain false-self patterns (Parker, 1996, 1999).

Finally, we note that it also is important to remember that manifestations of the false self occur on a continuum; that is, there are greater and lesser degrees of its presence. To facilitate the emergence and strengthening of the true self, a congregation or counselor need not be perfect; a good-enough congregation or counselor will do. Such congregations and counselors will occasionally fail but will prove reliable overall, thus reflecting a God who is steadfast in both the good and the bad times.

Conclusion

This article has explored the phenomenon of the false self in Christian contexts. It has examined some of its manifestations, as well as some of its maintaining factors. Further, we have offered suggestions on how the false self might be undermined and the true self unfettered. Hopefully, our reflections will help clinicians, pastors, and congregants themselves toward both these ends.

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Stephen Parker (Ph.D. in Theology and Personality Studies, Emory University) is Professor in the School of Psychology and Counseling, Regent University. His research interests include models of spiritual/religious development and the interface of theology and personality theory.

Edward "Ward" B. Davis (M.A. in Clinical Psychology, Regent University, 2007) is an adjunct professor in the Regent School of Undergraduate Studies and a doctoral candidate in the Regent Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology (Psy.D.). Ward's interests include the psychology of religion/spirituality, relational psychoanalysis, personality psychology, God image, narrative identity, attachment, and neuroscience.

Correspondence regarding this article should be sent to Stephen Parker, Ph.D., School of Psychology and Counseling, Regent University, 1000 Regent University Drive, Virginia Beach, VA 23464; steppar@regent.edu.

Stephen Parker

Edward Davis

Regent University