Continuing on with the series on the Parts of the psyche seen through the lens of Internal Family Systems Theory, here is the entry on the Teenager. The Teen is routinely misunderstood, if not maligned, by adults and parents, who themselves have not come to terms with who and what the teenager is in themselves. This rejection leads to the teenager’s dynamic self turning chaotic, because it is left with no other option for self-expression. This is not to say that the Teen’s nature, and the teenager stage of development, doesn’t encode an unstable relationship between order and chaos, belonging and autonomy. It does, as Dan Siegel (Brainstorm) makes clear. But whether there is a relatively elegant maturing through this stage, and an integration of the Teen Part in later years, depends a lot on how accepting parents are (externally and internally).
Regarding IFS and depression, there are some of these IFS articles which poke at it, but in a few months I will do a summary of “depressed parts” to bring it all together.
May your Springs be coming with some relief from Winter’s severity, and reminding your various parts about the inevitable relatedness of dark and light.
(If you need an IFS refresher, the previous articles are here: Protectors, Exiles, the Infant/Divine Child, the Young Adult, the Adult, the Self, and World Events. And for the deep dive into IFS’s progenitor, Dick Schwartz: No Bad Parts, and the clinical manual, Internal Family Systems Therapy)
