6 Comments
User's avatar
Thomas del Vasto's avatar

I like the name “hand” for the instinctual center as opposed to “gut”. Makes more intuitive sense as the doer.

I also think you’re getting at a deeper issue with therapeutic frameworks in general which is that they don’t generally promote or at least are not good at creating a daily, integrated set of practices to lead to genuine change at a deep level.

Expand full comment
Tom Morgan's avatar

Excited to see you writing here!

Expand full comment
Erin Q.'s avatar

I am so grateful for this excellent post. I have a much clearer understanding of both IFS and Gurdjieff's framework now. Thank you!

Expand full comment
Bodhi's avatar

Look forward to learning more about Gurdjieff from you!

Expand full comment
Clueless But Learning's avatar

Really looking forward to reading all your work.

Expand full comment
Laura London's avatar

Hey, I practiced IFS for a long while, and eventually ended up practicing jungian therapy as a result - it opened doors to something beyond the personal unconscious for me.

I found it odd that Carl Jung and Swartz’s theories were so analogous, yet he seemed entirely unaware of the system that Carl Jung devised, having no real answer to the problem of when people did encounter archetypes (considered unburdened parts in the IFS framework)

I was wondering if you could illuminate something for me: do you know what were Schwartz intellectual influences? It seems to me he didn’t read much on psychological practices other than his own (not necessarily a bad thing) and just derived a system out of his own experience of working with patients and observing them

(To be clear, I think this is an extraordinary achievement, and highlights that there’s something fundamentally true about the distinct and multiple personality model)

Expand full comment