I know of Freudian psychoanalysis. I know of any number of different branches of psychology that have a clinical slant to them. There's cognitive behavioral therapy. What are the core components of internal family systems? Yeah. So one basic assumption is that the mind isn't unitary, that actually we're all multiple personalities, not in the diagnostic sense.

But we all have these, what I call parts, other systems call sub-personalities, ego states, things like that. And that it's the natural state of the mind to be that way, that we're born with them because they're all very valuable and have qualities and resources to help us survive and thrive.

But trauma and what's called attachment injuries and the slings and arrows we suffer force these little naturally valuable parts into roles that can be destructive. Often they don't like it all. But because they're frozen often in time and during the trauma and they live as if it's still happening, they're in these protective roles that can be quite extreme and interfere in your life.

And yeah, so I just stumbled onto the phenomena of 40, now I think it's 41 years ago. And it's been, you know, amazing ride. So at the time were you already practicing as a clinical psychologist? I actually have a PhD in Maryland family therapy. So I was part of the movement in family therapy away from intrapsychic work.

There was a polarization and we thought we could reorganize families and heal all these symptoms just by doing that. We didn't have to muck around in the inner world. And I went to prove that. And this was about 1983, by getting a group of bulimic kids together and their families and tried to reorganize the families just the way the book said to and failed.

The kids didn't realize they'd been cured and they kept binging and purging. So out of frustration, I began asking why? And they started talking this language of parts. And they would say some version of when something happens, bad happens in my life. It triggers this critic who's calling me all kinds of names inside.

And that goes right to the heart of a part that feels empty and alone and worthless. And that's so distressing to feel that the binge part comes in and takes me out, takes me away from all that pain. But the critic comes in and attacks me for the binge.

And then the criticism goes right to the heart of that worthless part. So to me, as a family therapist, this sounded like what I'd been studying in external families, these circular sequences of interaction. And so I just got curious and just started to explore. Are these different parts that exist within each and all of us, are they represented by a clear and distinct voice from the other?

Or do people typically experience them as just the self, like my inner critic? You'll give us the other names and titles. Or is this happening typically below people's conscious awareness? Some of both. So most people are aware they're a critic and but other times you're not aware of these parts we call exiles that you've locked away because you didn't want to feel their feelings.

They're stuck in these bad trauma scenes. And to survive in your life, you had to push them away. And so with those parts, a lot of people aren't really consciously aware of them until these protector parts give space and open the door to the exiles.