Aug 3
The Ghosts We Feed is a personal essay drawing on Fairbairnian object relations, Winnicott’s writing on internal and external object-relating, Fraiberg, Adelson, and Shapiro’s metaphor of “ghosts in the nursery,” attachment theory, and Circle of Security. It explores how early relational failures become internalized expectations of rejection and unworthiness, how defensive patterns formed to preserve attachment can persist into adulthood, and how healing may involve recognizing those internal ghosts without continuing to organize one’s life around them.