Imagine you’ve just been through a tiring day and ended it with a deep sleep. Before going to bed, you set your intention to wake up early the next day, ready to return to work and complete the rest of the day’s tasks.
Time passes and morning arrives. The sound of your alarm clock ringing from your bedside wakes you up, and you instinctively turn it off.
And here you are, lying in a still-comfortable position. On one hand, you know you should get up and get ready for work, but on the other, a feeling of weakness and laziness holds you back. After all, the fatigue from the previous day’s work still looms, and you feel the need for more rest.
Your inner self is in conflict. On the one hand, your logic knows that if you continue sleeping, you’ll be late waking up and starting your activities, while on the other, you also know that you still need to rest.
The illustration of internal conflict above symbolizes the phenomenon of two Parts fighting for their interests within us. One Part who realizes the importance of waking up and working on time wants to get up and get to work immediately, but there is another Part who disagrees because they feel they still need to rest.
Parts & Ilustration of An Organization
Imagine ourselves as a company consisting of various divisions, each with its own duties and responsibilities.
We can see that, although symbolized by one company as a whole, the company’s performance is largely determined by the performance of each division within it.
There are two factors that contribute to the company’s optimal performance:
- Each division carries out its duties effectively, in accordance with its functions and assignments.
- Each division within the company communicates well and respects one another.
Problems can arise in a company if the divisions within it do not carry out their functions effectively or if they conflict with each other and do not respect one another.
The illustration we discussed at the beginning of this article symbolizes conflicting parts that cannot respect one another. Two parts want to carry out their respective tasks—which they perceive as good—simultaneously, leaving us “caught” in the middle of their activities.
Imagine a company with two divisions performing their duties simultaneously, but their tasks contradict each other and influence each other, negatively impacting the company’s performance.
Connecting the illustration of company divisions to the way parts work within us, here are several illustrations that illustrate problems within a person and the underlying conditions of the parts:
| Ilustration | Parts Condition | Sample of Issues |
|---|---|---|
| Troubled division | Parts that have been injured or traumatized | Emotional reactions that have negative impacts |
| Divisions that carry out tasks that do not match their expertise | Parts that are active at times and places that are not in accordance with their function | Misbehaving, unable to display the ideal performance that should be |
| Divisions in conflict, disrespecting each other | Conflicting parts, wanting to be active simultaneously at one time | Feelings of conflict, feeling “squeezed”, feeling anxious as if there is an inner conflict |
Parts and Behavioral Response
From a Parts Therapy perspective, our self-awareness system consists of Parts, each with its own specific function and purpose within us.
Behind every physical condition, feeling, thought, and behavior we display, there are always specific Parts actively underlying those physical conditions, feelings, thoughts, and behavior. If the active Parts are healthy, then our physical condition, emotional responses, thoughts, and behavior will also be healthy.
The term I often apply to the existence of Parts is that they are like a “mode of operation” within ourselves. Different modes of operation within us will result in different physical conditions, feelings, thoughts, and behaviors that we display accordingly.
Simply put, try to remember a time when you were deeply focused and serious about something, whatever it was. This focused and serious mode you were experiencing represents the presence of the Parts that operated that state or ability to focus.
In the midst of that focused state, your best friend called, and you responded and laughed with them enthusiastically on the phone. Are you currently in the focused and serious mode mentioned earlier? Of course not. This time, you’ll be in a more fluid, relaxed, and even playful mode. This relaxed mode also symbolizes the presence of the Parts within you that are essentially operating in this relaxed state.
The different Parts that actively operate within us, the different actions and behaviors we display due to their activity.
In our daily lives, there are two possible ways in which Parts are active as our operating modes:
First, we realize a situation requires us to respond to it in a certain mode or attitude.
For example, as illustrated above, when we’re focused and a close friend calls, we access that mode, which activates the Part representing that mode and allows us to behave accordingly.
We likely encounter this quite frequently in our daily lives. We recognize a situation that requires a specific mode, and we switch to that mode to effectively respond. The more the function of the Part or mode we operate matches the situation and the easier it is to access, the more effectively we can respond to the situation.
Second, certain parts within us are activated due to a stimulus, we then respond/behave according to the parts that are active.
This is the opposite of the first possibility. This time, what happens is that specific Parts are activated by specific stimuli, whether external or internal. The activation of these Parts then influences our condition and behavior, transforming our operating mode according to the characteristics of those activated Parts.
An example of this can be seen in workers who are focused on completing their work, so focused that they don’t even joke around with each other. However, everything changes when they hear the break bell. The stimulus immediately shifts the active Part, from the “Focused” Part to the “Relaxed” and “Resting” Part, joking around with each other.
Emotional issues triggered by specific stimuli are an example of this phenomenon. For example, those who experience phobias of specific objects or situations, such as my client with a phobia of cats, experience this. When she’s busy and sees a cat nearby, whatever Part is active immediately switches to the Part that fears cats, and she loses control. In other words, the cat becomes a stimulus that activates a certain Part, which—unfortunately—contains problems in the cat. When that Part is activated, the cat’s response to the ongoing stimulus is also reactive.
As humans, we live by responding to stimuli. If the Parts or modes that are active in responding to a stimulus are healthy and appropriate, then our response to that stimulus will be positive. However, if the activated Parts are problematic, then our response will also be problematic.
