#68 - The Complexity of Our Inner Selves

By SG

As I think about the complex nature of mind and personality, I see a lot of truth in view of a diverse inner life which is illustrated by micro-voices, Jungian archetypes, and internal family systems. Some of these are more complex than others, but they all seem to support a similar concept of a complicated set of inner selves that arise to dominance for various reasons. At the same time there are some differences between the source, complexity, and goal of these concepts.

I noticed that a large part of the difference came from how these voices arise. Jung seems to believe that these voices are inherited from our collective unconscious, our social baggage that determines what a king, queen, father, mother, or any of a wide variety of archetypes behave like in either a dark or light manner. Internal family systems restricts the categories to be just that of a firefighter, manager, or exile and focused on the way these things arise as a result of a traumatic experience. This is more similar to micro-voices, which is also seeking synthesis within a nonjudgemental inner child engaging in the world with love and compassion.

Another difference would be that the internal family systems is more materialist or temporal in its focus, which makes sense from its therapeutic source. Jungian archetypes are much less so in the way that these archetypes are passed unconsciously through time and space. This is similar to the universal love focus of the micro-voice concept, which has some contradictory beliefs.

A less temporal focus is seen as a benefit within the concept of micro-voices, and a less self-centered mindset is also one that is associated with a healed aware self or ego. It is through painful and unloving moments in the past that this is engendered, as well as the perception of those moments. Akin to Buddhism, if one can love a difficult or painful moment for the lesson it provides then this is seen as moving toward a healed and aware inner child. If one can take these moments and still give love to others it would be a way to heal the world as well.

Many people move through life in such a manner to make it as pleasant and easy as possible. They do not engage as the Jungian hero or find joy in the challenge or lesson that life provides their inner child. If one lives fully in the temporal, this hedonistic attitude is not unlikely. Another consequence could be to push the responsibility for anything that occurs in life onto another. Instead of seeing the opportunity for personal growth, that could be dismissively avoided in favor of pushing growth and healing onto another person. That is outside of one’s own control and doesn’t improve personal reaction to situations that could present in one’s own life in the future.

These concepts are all goals to try to heal from trauma that occurred in the past. The archetypical model sees this as arising more from the relation that the personal id and ego have with the cultural super ego than from a more specific and individualized means. The integrated family systems model uses the more basic frameworks of an exile, firefighter, and manager to illustrate how the mind is seeking to protect itself from the repetition of a traumatic experience in the past. This is closer to how micro-voices function, but the healed aware self believes that all moments are either teaching experiences or experiences wherein joy can be found. As such, the goal is to love every moment with the understanding that it was chosen by the soul in some manner to provide a spiritual experience in this existence. Both this and Jungian archetypes have a greater acceptance of intergenerational trauma or past lives as a result.

While all three concepts have a love and understanding for the complexity of the human mind and the goal to live harmoniously, free from trauma of the past, they seek this from different perspectives. The primary differences I could see were the individual or collective source of complex internal personas and the material or spiritual dominance of both the healing and the painful experiences. There is also a question of whether the best way to find healing is to understand and accept that there is pain in the world and selfishly avoid this, or to love whatever experience life provides and move through the moment free of attachment.

• SG