Situation · Family and friends
“My mother calls me selfish whenever I do something for myself”
What could be going on
Uses guilt to get compliance: Fits if the label is meant to change what you do.
Labelling: Check whether one choice is summed up as your whole character.
Enmeshment: Could be family closeness where any self-interest feels like betrayal.
Self-sacrifice schema: Check whether you've absorbed the idea that your needs come last.
Introjection: Fits if the word 'selfish' now sounds in your own head.
Questions to carry
- What had I chosen to do for myself the last time she called me selfish?
- Hearing the word selfish, whose voice do I hear it in?
Also said as
- my mum says I'm selfish for taking a holiday
- I'm called selfish for having my own plans
- parent says I only think about myself
- why does my mother say I'm selfish
- mother calls me selfish
- my mum says I'm self-centred for having my own life