Cross-posted to the EA Forum.

Summary

The psychotherapy school Internal Family Systems (IFS) is popular among effective altruists and rationalists. Many view IFS as the only therapy school that recognizes that our psyche has multiple ‘parts’.
As an alternative perspective, we describe comparatively evidence-based therapy approaches that work with such ‘inner multiplicity’ in skillful ways:
- Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT), which incorporates insights from many disciplines, including neuroscience and evolutionary psychology.
- Schema Therapy (ST), which integrates concepts from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and psychodynamic approaches, among others.
- Chairwork, the oldest psychotherapy technique used for working with the minds’ multiple parts and which inspired IFS.
This post may be especially relevant for people interested in ‘internal multiplicity’ and those seeking therapy but who have had disappointing experiences with CBT and/or IFS or are otherwise put off by these approaches.

Epistemic status: Ewelina is a licensed therapist who works with CFT and ST (among others). She completed a four-year postgraduate training in CBT, and attended several CFT and ST workshops. She is currently taking part in an accredited CFT training.

Introduction

The psychotherapy school Internal Family Systems (IFS) is based on the idea that our minds have multiple parts. IFS therapy focuses on enabling these parts to “communicate” with each other so that inner conflicts can be resolved and reintegration can take place. For brevity’s sake, we won’t discuss IFS in detail here. We recommend this post for an in-depth introduction.

What is ‘inner multiplicity’?

By ‘multiple parts’ or ‘inner multiplicity’, we don’t mean to suggest that the human psyche comprises multiple conscious agents—though IFS sometimes comes close to suggesting that. By ‘parts’, we mean something like clusters of beliefs, emotions and motivations, characterized by a (somewhat) coherent voice or perspective. Many forms of self-criticism, for instance, could be described as a dominant part of oneself berating another part that feels inferior. Different parts can also get activated at different times. Most people behave and feel differently during a job interview than with their closest friends.^[1]

This idea is shared by many theorists of various schools, often using different te...

Therapy