A New Language for an Old Wisdom: A Depth Psychologist's Look at "No Bad Parts"

When therapists discover Internal Family Systems, they often feel they've found something revolutionary. But readers familiar with Carl Jung and James Hillman might experience something different: recognition. For any student of depth psychology, reading Dr. Richard Schwartz's "No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model" feels at once startlingly familiar and cleverly repackaged. While the book has been widely hailed as a breakthrough approach to psychotherapy, its core principles are a modern translation of ideas that have been central to depth psychology for over a century.

Schwartz's Internal Family Systems (IFS) model proposes that the psyche is not a monolithic entity but is naturally multiple, composed of various "parts." These parts are subpersonalities—an inner cast of characters like the "Inner Critic," the "Perfectionist," or the "Angry Protector"—each with its own beliefs, feelings, and agenda. The therapeutic goal is not to silence or vanquish any of these parts, but to connect with them from a core of calm, compassionate consciousness that Schwartz terms the "Self."

If this sounds familiar, it's because it is. The lineage traces directly back to the foundational concepts of depth psychology.

Parts as Archetypes, Self as the Self

Long before IFS, Carl Jung established that the psyche is a dynamic interplay of autonomous energies, which he termed archetypes. These universal, primordial patterns—the Warrior, the Orphan, the Inner Child, the Critic (Senex)—are not personal quirks but are the very architecture of the human soul. Schwartz's "parts" are, in essence, personalized manifestations of these archetypes.

Consider a client's "Perfectionist" part that drives them to overwork and self-criticism. In Jungian terms, this might be understood as the Senex archetype—the wise elder that becomes tyrannical when disconnected from other archetypal energies. Both frameworks recognize this as an autonomous psychological force with its own agenda, not simply a "bad habit" to be eliminated. The contribution of IFS is not the discovery of this inner multiplicity, but rather the creation of a systematic, accessible language to engage with it.

This archetypal foundation becomes even clearer when we examine the IFS concept of the "Self"—that core of undamaged wisdom, compassion, and courage. This is a direct parallel to the Jungian Self. For Jung, the Self is the central organizing principle of the psyche, the totality of our being that strives for wholeness. The process of individuation is the lifelong journey of bringing the ego into a right relationship with the Self. IFS provides a practical, step-by-step methodology for achieving precisely this: helping the ego (the "you" that is listening) to step back so that the Self can lead the inner system.

Echoes of Hillman: Honoring the Image

The ethos of IFS owes an equally significant debt to the work of James Hillman and Archetypal Psychology. Hillman's famous injunction to "stick to the image" was a radical call to honor the psyche's expressions on their own terms, without immediately trying to analyze, pathologize, or fix them. He argued for a "polytheistic psychology" that respects the autonomy and inherent purpose of our inner multiplicity.

The IFS protocol of unblending from a part, getting to know its story, and witnessing its reality without judgment is a perfect embodiment of Hillman's philosophy. When an IFS practitioner asks, "Where do you feel that part in your body? What does it look like? What is it afraid of?", they are engaging in what Hillman called "soul-making"—giving the autonomous unconscious permission to speak in its native language of image and metaphor.

Compare Hillman's approach to a client's anger: rather than asking "Why are you angry?" (which seeks rational explanation), he might ask "What does your anger look like? If it were a god, which one would it be?" Similarly, IFS asks: "How old does this angry part seem? What does it need you to know?" Both approaches treat psychological phenomena not as symptoms to be cured, but as autonomous beings with their own intelligence and purpose.

What IFS Adds to the Ancient Wisdom

This recognition of IFS's depth psychology roots doesn't diminish its value—quite the opposite. Schwartz's brilliance lies in what he's added to these foundational insights. Where traditional depth psychology often remained in the realm of theory and required extensive training to apply, IFS has created several practical innovations:

Systematic Methodology: Jung's individuation process, while profound, could feel mystical and hard to navigate. IFS offers concrete steps: identify the part, unblend from it, get curious about it, and develop a relationship from Self-leadership.

Trauma Integration: While Jung acknowledged trauma, IFS explicitly incorporates modern trauma research, particularly the understanding of how protective parts develop in response to early wounds.

Accessibility: Hillman's archetypal psychology, despite its wisdom, remained largely in academic circles. IFS has made these insights available to both therapists without extensive depth psychology training and to individuals seeking self-understanding.

Family Systems Integration: By drawing from family therapy traditions, IFS recognizes how our internal parts mirror and respond to external relationship dynamics—an insight that complements but wasn't emphasized in classical depth psychology.

A Brilliant Translation for a New Era

Where does the true value of "No Bad Parts" lie? It's not in the discovery of new psychological territory. Rather, Schwartz's achievement is that of a master synthesizer and clinician. He has successfully taken the profound, and often philosophically dense, insights of Jung and Hillman and translated them into an accessible, repeatable, and teachable therapeutic modality.

He has created a pragmatic framework that allows both therapists and laypeople to engage directly with the archetypal forces of the psyche without needing extensive background in mythology or philosophy. He has systematized the dialogue with our inner figures, making the path to the Self less of a mystical art and more of a learnable skill.

What This Recognition Means

Understanding IFS's depth psychology lineage offers several important implications. For therapists, it suggests that IFS isn't just another technique but part of a rich tradition of working with psychological multiplicity. For individuals exploring IFS, it opens doorways to a vast library of complementary wisdom about the soul's journey toward wholeness.

Perhaps most importantly, this recognition affirms what depth psychologists have always known: the psyche is manifold, it seeks wholeness, and healing comes not from waging war upon ourselves, but from listening with courage and compassion to the chorus of voices within. In IFS, these ancient insights have found a contemporary voice—one that speaks the language our modern world can understand and apply.

For readers discovering either IFS or depth psychology for the first time, the message is hopeful: you are not broken, and your inner complexity is not a flaw to be fixed but a symphony to be conducted with wisdom and care.