Subpersonalities: The People Inside Us

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As you work your way through and establish who are the key players in your community, you’ll come to see they are each driven by fear, guilt, and shame… and as a result are actively seeking to protect themselves and the roles that they play. In other words, like all energy, they will do anything to survive, so unless they are offered a better paradigm, they will continue to resort to the survival mode. Graphic models of theoretical constructs (though you may wish to include these under the headings of the various areas of intellectual interest instead). These will help you express your thoughts visually, and this may be useful for purposes of clarification and visual communication. Some of these subpersonalities relate to pathological complexes, but most are self-identifications or self-images that develop consciously or unconsciously in the course of life. This means we have subpersonalities that relate to all the psychological ages we pass through – child, adolescent, young adult, etc. In other words, we have healthy subpersonalities as well as trauma-related subpersonalities. Finally, a continuing identification with either a role or a predominant function leads often, and almost inevitably, to a precarious life situation resulting sooner or later in a sense of loss, even despair, such as in the case of an athlete who grows old and loses his physical strength; an actress whose physical beauty is fading; a mother whose children have grown up and left her, or a student who has to leave school and face a new set of responsibilities. Such situations can produce serious and often very painful crises. They can be considered as more or less partial psychological “deaths.” No frantic clinging to the waning old “identity” can avail. The true solution can be only a “rebirth” that is, entering into a new and broader identification. This sometimes involves the whole personality and requires and leads to an awakening or “birth” into a new and higher state of being.

What follows is a list of the main subpersonalities, itemising the primary traits for each one. This is not a definitive list, but it does include the main antagonists. What you will see, the more closely you examine the subpersonalities, is that there are significant areas of overlap between them, which was explained in the prequel. Remember, the subpersonalities look for common interests and shared agendas, which is how the groupings within the community are formed. Include a heading for any area of vital intellectual interest in which you are trying to advance your own understanding—e.g., Education, Religion, Mathematics, Systems Theory, Ecology, etc. What is very important is that the role of a given part is not its essence, in other words, if, for example, an internal critic slates you for doing something, it is not everything that this part stands for. Your internal critic can also experience other emotions. Moreover, he can affect you in many other ways than this. In my therapeutic work with clients, I have often encountered that their "internal critic" is at some point very critical and demeaning, and when we get to know him better and listen to his fears and needs, he turns out that be an internal advisor. No longer does he need to criticize, but rather supports and gives positive remarks. Keeping a workbook as a technique of self-development also functions in other ways. It gives us an opportunity to express in a harmless way any powerful and disruptive emotions we may have bottled up inside us. If we can learn to ‘let off steam’ through writing, we will have a useful means of discharging tensions, and of becoming aware of what underlies them. Writing is also a useful exercise for developing the faculties of concentration, attention, and control of the will. It may help a person who is somewhat shy, and reluctant to express himself in a face-to-face setting, to explore certain aspects of himself more freely. To take this journey in the most effective way, it helps to understand the primary traits of the core members of your community of the self, enabling you to better navigate your way through this process.The type of workbook suggested here has as its purpose the recording of your inner life and its developments. Outer events may be recorded in as much as they are related to inner events (feelings, thoughts, observations), but the focus should be on the unfolding awareness of oneself and the world, and on the new meanings, values, and inter-relationships one is able to discover. Why keeping a workbook? Readers of the following essays and lectures by Roberto Assagioli will note some redundancy and repetition of some ideas and practices in these essays. The reason for this is that we felt it was important to present Assagioli’s original essays and lectures unedited, so that the authenticity of the material is assured. However these essays and lectures were presented at different times and locations to different types of audiences: some were public lectures, some were published articles, and some were recorded conversations or interviews. It seems that the different energies and qualities of the seven psychological functions are found in each subpersonality, giving it ‘flesh and bones’ and a directing purpose. Hence, each subpersonality is a miniature personality with access to the same qualities as are found in the general personality. The directing purpose of each subpersonality will typically be a strong desire (e.g. love or ambition) which will dominate when one performs a particular role. In Assagioli’s words (p. 57): ‘A subpersonality is formed by the accumulation of traits organised around a role.’ This is a modification of ‘The Evening Review”. It consists of reviewing your day from the point of view of the three main personality aspects: your body, your feelings, and your mind.

c. What others believe that we are: these are projected images that have been internalised as part of our relationships with prominent others. When you examine your day, do it as much as possible as the detached objective observer calmly and clearly registering each phase of what has happened. Then move on to the next phase without excitement, without becoming elated at a success or depressed or unhappy about a failure. The aim is a calm registering in consciousness of the meaning and patterns of the day, rather than a reliving of it.

Thelma

In addition to written material, one can make drawings and other visual aids a part of the workbook. These may be of various kinds. In one category are images — which may come to you in the form of dreams, fantasies, or visualizations. In another category are diagrams, more abstract symbols, or visual aids which we can use to express our ideas in graphic form. This is useful in developing dear concepts and in communicating these concepts to others. A final category is what one might call ‘spontaneous drawing’. This should be done when we are in a relaxed state of mind and when our attention is fixed on something else—as when we are doodling. I have a mind but I am not my mind. My mind is a valuable tool of discovery and expression, but it is not the essence of my being. Its contents are constantly changing as it embraces new ideas, knowledge, and experience. Sometimes it refuses to obey me. Therefore, it cannot be me, my self. It is an organ of knowledge in regard to both the outer and the inner worlds, but it is not my self. I have a mind, but I am not my mind.