WHO AM I?
We typically consider ourselves to be of one piece, and when
we don’t behave like we usually think that we do, we say,” I wasn’t myself when
I did that.” Well if we were not ourselves, then who were we? Did someone slip
into our body and take over? One way to
look at this is to imagine that we are formed of a committee of different
selves that each of which may show up as “us” in different times and
circumstances. For instance, when we are interacting with our children, it
brings forth our parent self. When we are reacting to criticism from someone,
it may bring out our own Inner Critic or some kind of defender. Depending upon
the situation, one or another of our inner cast of characters will be drawn
upon to respond.
Looked at from this
perspective, what constitutes mental health is 1) that we are aware of our
inner bit part actors, 2) we can have some influence over them, and 3) they can
work together harmoniously. So in this model, when we feel conflicted we have a
conflict going on between two or more of our inner parts. We are going to
continue to discuss this way of looking at our personality for some time now
and see what insights we might draw from this model to understand and work with
ourselves more skillfully. For those who find this idea fascinating you might
want to read some of Dr. Richard Schwartz’s books on Inner Family Systems.
Some of the bit parts
I will be introducing in subsequent talks are:
AWAKENED ONE:
One who
can step back from the drama and make clear
choices as to what to do
DEFENDERS:
Angry
One, Placator, Nice Girl, Nice Boy
CONTROLLERS:
Inner
Critic, Perfectionist, Pusher, Control Freak
SPACE CADETS:
Procrastinators, Addicts, Avoiders
-Robert Cornell
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