Motives and Cues, Reasons and Passions

Internal Family Systems thinking as a key to Character-in-Action

[ETA 20th Dec 2023: Where IFS terminology has evolved, I’ve tweaked a few in this post, to use those which make most sense for creative writing.]

One of the fastest-growing styles of psychotherapy is Internal Family Systems. IFS is a gentle, powerful and extremely effective therapy, but I’m increasingly interested in it as a writer. I’ve started exploring it as way of developing what makes your characters tick and therefore how they act and interact - which of course is what powers story and plot. And on Wednesday night, in a West End theatre, I saw it in action.

What is IFS, and why might it be useful for writers? IFS was born of Dr Richard Schwartz’s experience of patients saying things like, ‘Part of me wants to do X, but another part of me just dreads it and does Y’ - whether the two parts are arguing over spending time with friends or time alone, or over whether or not to self-harm. Family therapists work with the systems of interaction that operate within a family; Schwartz began to see how the different parts of a single person’s psyche formed an equivalent system internally: cooperating, protecting, bickering, fighting, blocking, managing and firefighting to keep the psyche safe. This is a more detailed breakdown of the basics, and the Pixar moving Inside Out is also based on this idea.

Crucially, in IFS all parts are treated as having a benign intent - they want to protect the psyche’s damaged and fearful parts - and the system as a whole, centred on the underlying Self, is treated as wise in knowing what it needs. But since as most parts were formed in childhood and adolescence, their fears and responses are often outdated or unhelpful. And they may not be able to believe and trust that the Self does in fact know what is right for the person, will always be able to recognise it, and can cope with what life hurls at it. So some parts are constantly, exhaustingly, on the alert, and often in conflict with each other.

So why is this useful for writers? I happen to have a nice, fresh example, because last night I went to see the West End transfer of the National Theatre’s The Motive and the Cue, by Jack Thorne.