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Inner and Outer Marginalization

Inner and outer marginalization are connected

Marginalization means something is moved from the center to the periphery. Processwork understands marginalization as both an inner and an outer process. Both must be addressed if genuine change is to occur. What happens at the edges of a culture or organization is also happening at the edges of each individual psyche within it. The two cannot be fully separated.

Awareness of inner and outer marginalization is a key to inner and outer change

We project the qualities which we marginalized in ourselves onto other people or social groups, which we then marginalize. Develop developing a working relationship between the inner marginal and the part that is being marginalized is a crucial tool for our inner development and the ability to facilitate inner and outer complexes.

The less inner marginalization we have, the less likely, we are to marginalize others and to project these experiences onto other people in groups. Becoming aware of and working on the inner marginalization process and all the experiences we marginalized in ourselves lessens inner marginalization, making us less likely to marginalize others. Being aware of our experiences of marginalization makes us sensitive to other people‘s pain.

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Inner and Outer Marginalization

Outer Marginalization

What societies, cultures and families devalue and push to the margins


Certain aspects of our life and personal history give us the experience of centrality — being part of the mainstream, carrying social rank. Others give us the experience of marginalization: belonging to minority or marginalized groups, lacking rank in a given system. Cultures prefer and support certain qualities, behaviors, and values while marginalizing others. In much of western culture, introversion is marginalized. In many eastern cultures, standing out from the community is marginalized. When your personality traits match what the culture values, you feel accepted. When they don't, you may begin to marginalize those traits in yourself.

Inner Marginalization

What we learn to devalue and push to the margins in ourselves


Inner marginalization is an everyday event. We value and support certain parts of ourselves while suppressing others. A woman who identifies as courageous may marginalize her fear; a man who identifies as strong may marginalize his tenderness. These personal edges are connected to social oppression through the process of internalized oppression. When we experience outer marginalization, we internalize the oppressor. The outer voice that puts us in the margins becomes an inner one as well. Everyone suffers from social oppression in this sense. And everyone can become more conscious of it and, therefore, less likely to project it outward onto others.

By Maraya Karena, Dipl. PW

Maraya Karena is a Process Work Diplomate, Counselor and Consciousness Researcher based in Portland, Oregon.
“My passion is to study consciousness itself. To develop tools and models that support us to navigate everyday life. To make the reality we share more reflective of who and what we truly are. To find the pulsing, living heart of this life journey. And to engage with it fully and completely. I explore poetry, dance, embodiment, sex, social issues, futurism, philosophy, mysticism, joy and agony all to learn a little bit more about what is really going on and how we can most authentically express ourselves.”

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