A New Way of Thinking
In the past, some alters were called “persecutors” or persecutory alters. This is now an outdated term. We now prefer to call these alters “perpetrator-imitating parts,” which is something of a mouthful. The newer way of viewing these alters is as protectors and this reflects a huge change in the way we understand these parts.
What These Alters Are Trying to Do
It can be confusing to hear parts that may talk harshly to you or threaten you referred to as protector parts. So why do we call them this? These are alters who are attempting to help you but in a misguided way that you do not experience as helpful. They are trying to keep you from bringing down more abuse or harm upon yourself from an abuser.
Why These Alters Sound Like Your Abusers
The problem is, these parts typically only have one role model and that is the abuser. In some instances, there may be multiple abusers, so these protector parts may have more than one role model but even so this is extremely limited and obviously not good role models. The only way these protector alters that imitate your abuser know how to be is how they’ve seen the abuser act. So they may threaten you with the same threats that your abuser used; the intent, however, is to be helpful rather than harmful.
The Video Series
Now, I’ve had people object that there’s no way their perpetrator-imitating alter is trying to be helpful. These parts can say some really awful things that don’t sound helpful at all! Each of the videos in this series will focus on ways these parts may be trying to help. I’ll be posting the videos in this series on the next several Fridays.