Can Parts Psychology Save Humanity? (3 min read)

In the 1960’s, psychologist Marshall Rosenberg developed Nonviolet Communication—a special dialogue for resolving difficult conflicts. Since then, Nonviolent Communication has spread throughout the world, with classes available worldwide.

As much as this practice has caught on in niche circles, people who embrace conflict resolution are still in the worldwide minority.

Another paradigm that might drive a widespread understanding of interpersonal conflict is gathering momentum—parts psychology. Often attributed to Carl Jung for its inception, it proposes that we act and react in our daily life from different parts of our psyche. One of the latest iterations of this type of psychology is Internal Family Systems.

A common example of acting out of different parts of ourselves is procrastination. A part of us really wants to finish a task, and another part is pushing the task away.

What does this have to do with conflict resolution? Just like there are parts of us that might disagree within our mind, a part inside ourselves might disagree with a part inside someone else.

If we are able to identify that it’s only parts of us that are in conflict, we open up to the possibility that there is more to us as people that we can agree on. (See this Middle Ground conversation as an example).

So what can we do?

We can observe which part of us we are reacting out of day-to-day, and how some parts might be in conflict.

We can also look for the way parts show up in other people. If we find we dislike someone, we can ask: “What other side might they have to them?”

Finally, it’s worthwhile to note that every part of us feels like it has a reason to be there. If we can understand those reasons, we can understand each other a lot better.