A review by reduck
No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model by Richard C. Schwartz

2.0

Liked:
I appreciate that IFS takes the RAINN method and starts with non or de identification instead of ending there. I personally have found this approach enables greater curiosity and compassion for the burdened/hurt part/idea. Like RAINN, I appreciate that IFS takes the next step, one that CBT often doesn’t, of not just understanding a burdened or no longer appropriate thought process but also working on healing it.

Not a fan of:
The tendency of theorists, this one included, to think once their system theory shows promise it should be applied to a wide range of social and physical systems. I didn’t find the attempt to liken parts work to particle physics much more than a brainstormed idea. The IFS approach overall seems to still be based on anecdotal evidence with little scientific evidence. No science quality evidence is provided that there are actually multiple versions of ourself in our subconscious that have their own form of sentience. And of course I could have gone without the spiritualism. I may go back to one of his earlier works as this one has so much meta IFS content I started skipping through pages. Then toward the end I can’t help but think the IFS approach to self anti racism work really could have used its own book length treatment.