Chapter 1: Introduction to Parts Work
Why Explore Inner Figures?
One powerful way to work with our psychology is to get to know our inner figures. We have countless characters who play roles in our daily lives, some more prominently than others, some more consciously than others. We are aware of and have a relationship with some of them. Other figures we may know about, but they may be challenging to acknowledge. And yet other figures we will never understand due to the nature of the unconscious.
The inner figures that are most challenging to accept and develop a relationship with reside in our “shadow,” where we keep the parts we want to consider “not me.” The shadow is where we hide our greedy, cruel, selfish, dark, and shameful parts from the world (and from ourselves until we make them conscious). The shadow also contains less shady, just “unknown” parts. If we don’t make these parts conscious, we are much more likely to project our shadows onto other people, the “other.” We see this often in the current world of divided politics. Another example of an inner shadow figure is, for instance, a man who has a part that has learned not to trust the feminine. The man may believe himself to be a feminist, someone who sees the importance of gender equality, but when he starts feeling close to, or dependent on, a woman, he begins to abuse her. Building a conscious relationship with these parts provides a way of working with them so that they don’t “take over” or we don’t become “possessed” by them as profoundly or often.
Relating to these figures is easier said than done. They often become thought of as “the problem” because these are the parts that commit the behaviors that cause the trouble (what brings clients to therapy) – drinking to excess, anxiety, being unfaithful in relationships, not being able to motivate oneself, dishonesty, depression, jealousy, neediness, aggressiveness, withdrawal, defensiveness, etc. However, these are often the parts that compensate, balance, or even “protect” other figures in the system. They also can often be parts of ourselves that got lost or stuck in the past during times of high emotion. What these figures miss is that it is no longer a life-or-death issue. For them, time has often stopped. The client has grown up and has many resources they did not have as a child when some of these protective figures showed up on the scene.
Clients often ask me how they can “get rid of” this part of themselves that seems to be the problem. Since we can’t eliminate any of these parts, I think the more helpful question becomes, “Why is this part here now, doing what it’s doing?”. The psyche (aka the soul) often speaks through symptoms. If we can bring the responsible parts into our awareness and work with them rather than against them, we have more capacity to watch them from an observing standpoint instead of acting out the roles. We will also have the capacity for inner harmony, which we may not have experienced previously.
Also, when protective and compensatory inner figures dominate the conversation, it can be challenging to connect to our many inner resources and guides to an internal world that connects us to the incredible world psyche (we’ll talk more about the Archetypal Imaginal further down the road). Nurturing Mothers, Compassionate Guides, Companions, Guardian Angels, Protective Guards, Assertive Warriors, and Wise Elders (not to mention the core of it all, the Sovereign Self) can be powerful archetypal allies when walking in the world of trauma or challenging situations. They can help us defuse, heal, or even change relationships with the “problematic” parts of ourselves, thereby reducing symptoms and creating more internal harmony.
We can find these archetypal inner patterns in myths, fairy tales, and stories. Like in dreams, we can learn much from adopting the view that all the figures can represent parts of our inner world. Consider this version of the “Sleeping Beauty”. A wicked fairy places a curse on the princess, causing her to fall into a deep sleep. To protect her, the king surrounds the castle with a wall of thorns and stations a dragon to guard it. The dragon is a formidable obstacle the prince must overcome to awaken Sleeping Beauty with a kiss. In a story like this, we can see the patterns of inner archetypal figures: a vulnerable exile, a dissociative curse, protectors (that sometimes continue to protect beyond when it is helpful), and figures with the knowledge and strength to remedy the situation (we will talk more about masculine and feminine archetypes as we go along, for those of you that are saying, “Why does the prince always have to save the princess?” :)
We may encounter challenging or adversarial figures as we explore our inner selves. As we develop relationships with them, we also discover a wealth of internal resources. Guides and allies play a crucial role in diffusing, healing, or transforming our relationships with the more challenging aspects of our inner selves, ultimately promoting greater inner harmony.
