Richard C. Schwartz

Richard C. Schwartz (born 14 September 1949) is a family therapist and author. In the 1980s, Schwartz developed an approach to individual psychotherapy that he named internal family systems (IFS). Quotes Introduction to Internal Family Systems (2001, 2023) Your emotions and thoughts … emanate from inner personalities I call parts of you. I’m suggesting that what seems like your explosive temper, for example, is more than a bundle of anger. If you were to focus on it and ask it questions, you might learn that it is a protective part of you that defends other vulnerable parts and is in conflict with the parts of you that want to please everyone. It might reveal to you that it has to stay this angry as long as you are so vulnerable and self-sacrificing. You might also learn that it has other feelings, such as fear and sadness, but that it feels as though it must stay in this role of being the angry one to protect you. If you asked it to, it could show you scenes of the point in your life when it was forced into its protective role. It might even show you an image or representation of itself, such as a dragon, volcano, or tough adolescent kid. Most importantly, it can tell you how you can help to release it so it is no longer stuck in this rageful role. With your help, it can change dramatically into a valuable quality so that you’re no longer plagued with a bad temper; instead, for example, you have an increased ability to assert yourself appropriately. Chapter 1: "The Internal Family Systems Model" Most clients had parts that didn't trust the leadership of their Self in the outside world. These parts jumped in to handle many kinds of external experiences because they believed they had to protect the system. They were like parentified children who don't trust that their parent is capable and, consquently, bravely take on responsibilities for the welfare of the family that are beyond their capacities. Chapter 2: "The Self" § "Self-Leadership" No Bad Parts (2021) When I asked these protective parts what they’d rather do if they trusted they didn’t have to protect, they often wanted to do something opposite of the role they were in. Inner critics wanted to become cheerleaders or sage advisors, extreme caretakers wanted to help set boundaries, rageful parts wanted to help with discerning who was safe. It seemed that not only were parts not what they seemed, but also they each had qualities and resources to bring to the client’s life that were not available while they were tied up in the protective roles. Chapter 1: "We're All Multiple" Parts carry extreme beliefs and emotions in or on their "bodies" that drive the way they feel and act. … [T]his is how parts describe themselves—that they have bodies[,] and that their bodies contain emotions and beliefs that came into them and don't belong to them. Often, they can tell you the exact traumatic moment these emotions and beliefs came into or attached to them[,] and they can tell you where they carry what seem to them to be these foreign objects in or on their bodies. Chapter 1: "We're All Multiple" External links Richard C. Schwartz Category:1949 births Category:Psychologists from the United States Category:Self-help writers from the United States Category:Harvard University faculty Category:University of Chicago faculty