may say to cut yourself some slack and try harder tomorrow. Having opposing thoughts in the same system causes internal tension, which Schwartz calls “polarized parts”. The goal of IFS is to find emotional balance to makes the parts less useful and to bring out the core self.
During Schwartz’s time at the University of Illinois at Chicago he saw that in dysfunctional families, people were trapped in unconscious patterns of behavior that created conflict and in order to resolve such conflict the unconscious patterns must be made conscious. Otherwise, there would not likely be much change in the family dynamics. “I began conceiving of the mind as an inner family and experimenting with techniques I had used as a family therapist.” (Schwartz https://www.selfleadership.org/about-internal-family-systems.html). He started to focus on what clients often described “competing inner voices” (Guise 2015). He saw that an individual’s psyche is much like a family unit with different members playing different roles (or “parts”). As our personality develops, parts create interactions amongst themselves. Each part has its own ideas, memories, interests, etc. As Schwartz tracked the relationships between the inner voices he found ...