Okay, I'll see your not having an inner child and raise you into questioning the wisdom of even recognizing, naming and allowing alters when the "core" personality is aware of them.

To me it just seems to be more division, dispersion of the person, where the goal should, IMO, be integration. It seems to divert healing of the one adult moving forward.

Look, I had a crappy childhood, but it's all me. I can be immature, rational, playful, spiteful, petulant, mute, funny, spontaneous, hyper-vigilant, overly sensitive, defensive, but it's all me. I see no value in calling all those aspects something other than me. It's not the child in me. It's me behaving like a child.

Does an inner child need nurturing? I say, it is the adult that needs nurturing. IMO it is not something that humans ever grow out of. Love, support, acceptance, compassion, these are innate rights of all humans.

We may need to learn how to accept these positive aspects of human interaction, but I do not think it is the child learning or re-attaining something that was lost, but the adult acquiring a new skill.