The Evolution of Parts-Work.

Comparisons between the Process Healing Method and Internal Family Systems.

In Psychology, there are many theories and models of the personality that categorize different aspects and Parts of our multifaceted personalities. For example, Dr. Sigmund Freud defined three parts – the Id, the Ego and the Superego. Dr. Carl Jung introduced the concept of the Inner Child along with ‘Archetypes’. Later, the psychologist Dr. Eric Berne developed a theory and model for therapy in the 1950s called Transactional Analysis which classifies three different ‘Ego States’: the Parent, Adult and Child. His book titled Games People Play explores how these different Ego States interact and illicit conscious and unconscious behavior between groups of people on a wide spectrum of maturity. Other theories and models from this period such as Gestalt Therapy (1940s) and Ego State Therapy (1950s) continue to be developed into the present day, introducing concepts such as the the Inner Critic, the Inner Parent etc. Later, in the 1990s, Schema Therapy was developed as an approach to treat personality disorders (where patients are said to switch modes, i.e. going into Vulnerable Child Mode or Detached Protector Mode).

Today, the label Parts-Work is a broadly applied to any therapeutic approach that involves and explores these different aspects, parts, modes and facets. However the term has increasingly become synonymous with the most well known of these approaches – Internal Family Systems Therapy (known as IFS). Founded by Dr. Richard Schwartz in the 1980s, IFS explores a multitude of Parts formed throughout our lifetimes that may or may not even be aware of each other. Dr. Schwartz categorizes these expanding number of Parts into three categories: Exiled Parts, Manager Parts and Firefighter Parts. His model of the personality grew out of working with people suffering from eating disorders; they would talk of how “one part of me wants to binge, the other part wants to skip eating altogether”. Notably, Dr. Schwartz also introduces the concept of the Self (with a capital S) to denote a person’s True Essence. It is “who we are” when we are free of being “blended” with a Part (or Parts – plural).

The Self is described as consisting of 7 core characteristics: Calm, Curious, Compassionate, Courageous, Connected, Confident, and Creative. Exiled Parts are essentially fragile, vulnerable Parts that carry “Burdens” often rooted in sadness. Manager Parts try to suppress these Burdens through the use of distractions and other tactics, managing painful emotions as best they can… However when they fail to do so adequately, a Firefighter Part will step in to “put out the fire” so to speak. The issue with Firefighters is that they do not care about the prized trophies on the mantelpiece, or the recently reupholstered furniture – they only care about hosing down the fire, no matter the collateral damage – i.e. dampening the emotional pain and hurt whatever the cost. To onlookers, these emergency measures often look irrational, such as engaging in impulsive risky behaviors or “numbing and dumbing” emotional and physical pain through the use or drugs and alcohol. In the IFS model, Manager and Firefighter Parts are said to play the role of a Protector despite their varying degrees of success. As such, none of the Parts are inherently viewed as “bad”, they are just doing their job; dealing with Exiled Parts and protecting the personality from greater Burdens. Healing takes place when, during a visualization practice, Burdens are given over to one of the following 4 elements.

Earth: Represents stability; it can take heavy burdens away.
Water: Symbolizes fluidity; it can wash away pain.
Air: Represents freedom; it can carry burdens up and away.
Fire: Symbolizes transformation; it can burn away what no longer serves

Once the Burden is released, Parts express a feeling of relief or lightness, resulting in greater harmony and integration with the rest of the Internal Family System. Fewer Burdens and healthier communication with Parts results in more time spent as Self, with greater embodiment of the 7 C’s.

What is notable about the therapeutic approaches listed above is that treatment is carried out at the conscious level. That is to say, treatment of Inner Pain is brought about through conscious dialogue, journalling (and in some practices, interaction via dance, music and art) with Inner Parts. Integration can be felt at the level of the body, somatically, as well as the mind and yet Parts are always guided to release their Pain/Burdens via conscious exploration or through direct discussion/interaction with Parts.

The Process Healing Method (the PHM) also explores issues through direct communication with Parts of the personality, however in contrast to asking Parts to do the job of releasing pain, the treatment process is carried out directly by what Dr. Flint initially called the Innerself. It is this Innerself (which was later termed The Subconscious) that neutralizes Hurt before integrating Parts into the Main Personality. For Dr. Flint, “who we are” (or rather, who we think we are) is rooted in the Main Personality rather than a philosophical Self per se. In his second PHM book, Healing Your Mind and Soul (2012), published six years after the first, Dr. Flint has taken the time to further explore the origin of The Subconscious and theorizes its place within both a spiritual context and a quantum dimension. It is not a requirement for either the patient or practitioner to agree with the ontological answers Dr. Flint provides. On a practical level, is useful to conceptualize The Subconscious as Dr. Flint initially defined it – a pervasive primitive process, (which starts shortly after conception) operating independently of Memory Systems and Parts – that is helpful to reducing pain.

Just as the Self in IFS, and the Innerself/Subconscious in the PHM, are similar sounding but unique to their own models; there are many other seemingly simple definitions, such as Pain, that are viewed through different lenses, and therefore carry different connotations. The term Burdens in IFS, has a storytelling flavor – it is not just the pain carried by Parts that needs to be brought into the light through creative and sometimes artistic therapy sessions; but the story that goes along with it, the redemption arc, themes of forgiveness, pardon and acceptance. In the PHM, Dr. Flint used the catch-all term Hurt, in bold text throughout his first book (Emotional Freedom, 1999), but as his “Problem-Solving” cognitive approach developed, Pain becomes comprised of Negative Emotion Memories formed in the context of History – along Timelines. Burdens are objects to be dropped, released or “given over”. Negative Emotion Memories are polarized structures to be made Neutral or changed to Positive. The reader may note the differences and overlap between these behavioral and cognitive approaches to Psychology.

Another notable difference in clinical terms between IFS and the PHM is that Dr. Richard Schwartz (affectionately known as Dick Schwartz) uses the term Parts synonymously with the term ‘Sub-Personalities’. Therefore, the ‘Alters’ present in Dissociative Identity Disorder, (DID – previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder), are seen to be Sub-Personalities on the extreme end of a wide spectrum of Parts. In Dr. Flint’s model, the term Sub-Personality is used as a very specific label given to the whole set of ‘Predispositions’ found in ‘Memory II’. [What exactly is a Predisposition? What is Memory II? Those are questions that will take us on too far a tangent for this article, but are fully explored in A Theory and Treatment of Your Personality, (2006)].  The important take-away is that (on the whole) Garry’s theoretical model grew from definitions of Parts based on how they form and when they developed via “Learning”, (e.g. collages and neurostructures growing in the fetus and learning all the way through life), rather than through the behaviors each different Part presented. In IFS, Dick’s frame of reference is role-based and situational – here is an Exiled part, there is a Manager Part. In the PHM, Garry provides a framework constructed from ‘Memories’ – here is an Amnesic Part, there is a Dissociated Part. One must be mindful of not conflating Parts in the PHM that sound similar to Parts in IFS – the ‘Protector-Controller’ Part is a good example of this. In Garry’s model, the Protector-Controller is a very specific Predisposition learned in the first 4 years of life. Here is a quote from Chapter 6 – Section 18 of A Theory and Treatment of Your Personality:

6-18 Exploring for answers — Discovering the Predispositions:

This section describes how I initially developed the structures to describe what Stone and Stone (1989) call the subpersonality. The subpersonality, as you will read, is described as a number of parts that serve as Predispositions, like habits. I found these habits or Predispositions in Memory II. They consistently add a flavor to our behavior. The Predispositions often come in pairs — one that is helpful and the other hurtful to our behavior, (for example, accepting-critical). The negative Predisposition can be a pervasive problem in our behavior. In addition, there is also the ProtectorController. This can be a single part or separate parts — the Protector and the Controller. The part or parts respond to protect us by modifying our behavior or by controlling our environment. Unfortunately, the ProtectorController is responding based on what they learned in the first 4 years and are overreacting or reacting inappropriately to the current situation. These are significant constructs that are often relevant when treating difficult issues.

In IFS, the course of a session begins with what is known as a ‘Trailhead’ – a sensation in the body, an intrusive thought or some other issue, beckons the patient/client to navigate through the story of the issue(s) at hand. Over the course of the session, Parts are made known, a rapport is formed and the Part is gently guided to release its Burden, to change tact or invited to change the role it is playing. In the PHM, the high levels of Hurt/pain (Negative Emotion Memories) associated to Parts that are created out of severe trauma, causes them to create ‘Barriers’ which limit or block treatment. Sometimes communication with these ‘Trauma Parts’ is highly problematic and requires a lot of probing with binary response (yes/no) questions or asking for cues.

Dr. Flint developed his model of the personality whilst working with patients suffering from all manners of trauma, as well as torture survivors whose personalities were severally fractured and fragmented, (including through ritualistic abuse). In cases such as these, Trauma Parts become compartmentalized and are often completely hidden to the conscious mind, therefore, no amount of direct conscious discussion with Parts will reveal them (hence the additional term ‘Amnesic Parts’). It was thanks to questioning and exploring with the aid of the patient’s Subconscious, (that is independent of Memory I, II and III and therefore has access to all active memories in the ‘Active Experience’) that Garry was able to map out Layered Memories, Stacked Parts and “large structures put in there on purpose by someone or some organization”. (Chapter 10 – Section 8 of A Theory and Treatment of Your Personality). [It is worth reading the Glossary section of this same book for concise, easy to find definitions for the new terms mentioned above. Curious readers will gain a better ability to distinguish between Amnesic Parts and Dissociative Parts or how Dr. Flint employs the label Ego States through his own words].

As eluded to above, in the PHM, memories can be in one of two states – Active or Dormant. Think of this like an On-Off switch for the relevant Memory Structure. The Memory Structure contains the Content Memories (the details of the experience in question) and the Emotion Memories (the emotions associated to the details of what was experienced). Notably, The Subconscious is only able to treat Activated Emotion Memories whether they are in the Conscious or Unconscious. [Note that the Unconscious is not the same as The Subconscious process and that the Unconscious is not a state of dormancy].

When a person’s senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell etc) register an experience that is similar in some way to what has already been learned in the past, this sensory experience will awaken dormant memories that are most similar in Content and Emotion to what is being registered. However, there are other Parts, (more appropriately labeled as Processes) that filter these now recently activated memories entering the Conscious and Unconscious mind. So as you can see, in the PHM, because the word Part refers to a Neural Structure, it is a term that is synonymous with Processes, Memory Structures as well as the more personified labels applied to Parts created from childhood through to adulthood. On the surface, both Dick and Garry will talk about helpful 7 year-old Parts that have aided both the therapist and patient during a therapy session, however beneath this superficial similarity, Dick believes that Parts are much closer to what the general public would consider genuine ‘real’ people, and are not to be treated as mere anthropomorphized terms and labels. Despite the PHM being written in academic, laboratory verbiage, Garry’s approach to applying new labels is paradoxically rooted in metaphors and symbolic constructs. In the PHM, there are “Treatment Teams” and “Committees” and differing “Neural Systems”. Dr. Flint mostly sticks to jargon from the academic literature, however in some cases his definitions are not those which are widely accepted in the fields of psychology or neuroscience and in one case, a term is used both as a verb and noun without further explanation – that of (the) Executive Function. Again, the curious reader can find a Glossary of New Concepts in Appendix IV of A Theory and Treatment of Your Personality.

[We will come back to this question of the validity of terms and labels towards the end of Section II].

Click here or on the link below to navigate to Section II