Richard Schwartz started developing this therapeutic model back in the 1980's after working with clients who were bulimic and anorexic. By working with them and their extreme coping mechanisms, he discovered 'parts', sub-personalities, that existed that were influencing their behaviour and compulsions. His first major discovery of this was with a client who would cut herself. He spent one particular session with his client, arguing and trying to force the part of her that was cutting herself to stop. They managed to get this part to agree only to have his client come back the next session with her face slashed. In a fit of despair, he said aloud that he gave up, only to have this part of her reveal that it didn't event want to cut itself, and this opened the door towards a dialogue of what it actually wanted to release and unburden, and for her to actually start healing and integrating herself.
From Casswiki about Little 'I's':
The model itself, aligns with Gurdjieff's concept of the Many I's. Although Schwartz's approach to these 'I's'/parts is different.
Generally, there are three main types of parts as described by IFS - Managers, Firefighters and Exiles.
Managers are the parts of one's self that needs to be 'on top of things'. Always in control of situations, one's self, heading off potential problems or issues. The inner critic, for example, could be seen as a Manager. In a misguided attempt to protect a person, it uses criticisms and negative self-talk in order to convince a person to do or not do something in order to avoid feelings of failure, rejection, etc.
Firefighters are parts that step in to 'soothe' and put out fires, again, in a misguided attempt to regulate one's self and protect from Managers punitive measures to control or when exiles start coming to the surface. This could be seen in the form of addictions, or compulsive habits or behaviours that rely on short term relief to escape from immediate pain or suffering without taking into account long-term consequences.
Exiles are the parts of ones self that hold onto the trauma's of the past that were never fully experienced or unburdened. They are usually quite young, and Managers and Firefighters spend a lot of time preventing exiles from coming to the surface through distraction and control because of the overwhelming nature of the hurts.
All three kinds work at odds with one another, creating seemingly endless patterns of suffering and programmed responses. A manager is constantly trying to keep exiles at bay, and when an exile bubbles to the surface, bringing with it the suppressed and repressed hurts and trauma's of the past, this can cause firefighters to immediately activate to try and medicate those hurts and pains away, which causes another manager to become harsh towards the firefighter for going back to self-destructive habits, which is reminiscent of unresolved hurts and trauma's, activating yet another exile. This type of polarization of parts is akin to a house divided and fractured, causing chaos
According to Schwartz, all of these parts are necessary and valuable to the healthy functioning of a human being as they make up the inner ecology of one's psyche or soul, but as sub-personalities, become stuck and frozen in time because at some point in a person's past, the Self, the Real I, experienced events that were so traumatizing, that a part stepped in to 'take on' the extreme beliefs and emotions that were formed from these past events. Through his work, he found that attachments or objects then glob onto these parts, distorting and influencing these parts further, which in turn influence the person. So when a part is activated, it's using a narrow and outdated belief system from the past to superimpose itself in the present.
In his book Internal Family Systems Therapy he uses the analogy of a company. Every person has their role to play within the system and there is harmony and balance when parts find their essential roles and work together instead of against one another. His style of therapy essentially is about learning to reconnect with the Self, one's essence, by teaching clients how to un-blend (not identify) with these parts so that instead of parts acting for the whole, they can be witnessed, understood and negotiated with so they can be unburdened of their extreme beliefs and emotions and eventually integrated or transformed.
Here as an interview with Andrew Hubermann about it, including working with some of Hubermann's parts to see what the process is like.
From Casswiki about Little 'I's':
The model itself, aligns with Gurdjieff's concept of the Many I's. Although Schwartz's approach to these 'I's'/parts is different.
Generally, there are three main types of parts as described by IFS - Managers, Firefighters and Exiles.
Managers are the parts of one's self that needs to be 'on top of things'. Always in control of situations, one's self, heading off potential problems or issues. The inner critic, for example, could be seen as a Manager. In a misguided attempt to protect a person, it uses criticisms and negative self-talk in order to convince a person to do or not do something in order to avoid feelings of failure, rejection, etc.
Firefighters are parts that step in to 'soothe' and put out fires, again, in a misguided attempt to regulate one's self and protect from Managers punitive measures to control or when exiles start coming to the surface. This could be seen in the form of addictions, or compulsive habits or behaviours that rely on short term relief to escape from immediate pain or suffering without taking into account long-term consequences.
Exiles are the parts of ones self that hold onto the trauma's of the past that were never fully experienced or unburdened. They are usually quite young, and Managers and Firefighters spend a lot of time preventing exiles from coming to the surface through distraction and control because of the overwhelming nature of the hurts.
All three kinds work at odds with one another, creating seemingly endless patterns of suffering and programmed responses. A manager is constantly trying to keep exiles at bay, and when an exile bubbles to the surface, bringing with it the suppressed and repressed hurts and trauma's of the past, this can cause firefighters to immediately activate to try and medicate those hurts and pains away, which causes another manager to become harsh towards the firefighter for going back to self-destructive habits, which is reminiscent of unresolved hurts and trauma's, activating yet another exile. This type of polarization of parts is akin to a house divided and fractured, causing chaos
According to Schwartz, all of these parts are necessary and valuable to the healthy functioning of a human being as they make up the inner ecology of one's psyche or soul, but as sub-personalities, become stuck and frozen in time because at some point in a person's past, the Self, the Real I, experienced events that were so traumatizing, that a part stepped in to 'take on' the extreme beliefs and emotions that were formed from these past events. Through his work, he found that attachments or objects then glob onto these parts, distorting and influencing these parts further, which in turn influence the person. So when a part is activated, it's using a narrow and outdated belief system from the past to superimpose itself in the present.
In his book Internal Family Systems Therapy he uses the analogy of a company. Every person has their role to play within the system and there is harmony and balance when parts find their essential roles and work together instead of against one another. His style of therapy essentially is about learning to reconnect with the Self, one's essence, by teaching clients how to un-blend (not identify) with these parts so that instead of parts acting for the whole, they can be witnessed, understood and negotiated with so they can be unburdened of their extreme beliefs and emotions and eventually integrated or transformed.
Here as an interview with Andrew Hubermann about it, including working with some of Hubermann's parts to see what the process is like.
