Our Four Depths

OUR PSYCHIC STRUCTURE (FOUR DEPTHS)

For those who want a deeper dive into the conceptual framework that I use, read on. Not everyone cares about this stuff, but some do.

These Depths are always there and always active, even though we may not

Have conscious access.

The Surface (separation):

This is the depth most of us live most of the time. There is you and there is me and we are separate. There are objects in the world that are separate. I have Parts of me that argue. One Part wants this. Another worries about that. Yet we long for wholeness. Some of you may be aware of something called Parts Work. It has become popular recently, but has a long history. Something that used to be called Multiple Personality Disorder has been renamed Dissociated Identity Disorder. It was observed that some people changed dramatically in different circumstances. These 'identities' were unaware of each other. Then it became obvious that each of us shows a different side in different situations, but the difference is that these 'sides' are somewhat integrated. Psychologists realized that we are not one thing, but a collection of 'sub-personalities'. Hence the renaming to Dissociative Identity. It's a matter of degree. It was discovered that there are Hurt Parts that experienced something, usually at a young age, and another Part took on the role of protecting from that hurt to ever be experienced again. So, we have Hurt Parts and Protector Parts. (For a good introduction, see Richard Schwartz, "No Bad Parts".) There are also depths below that that many don't have much access to.  As long as the Parts are identified with, that we think that those parts are actually who I am, they will control our ways of being.

Fluid Process:

The second depth is one of felt images and felt senses. Many people only experience this depth during dreams. It is the interface to the unconscious. A lot of Jungian and embodiment methods work at this level. Once Parts are explored without trying to change them, they automatically soften. Then, this depth can be experienced and can be explored. This is where bodily sensations are more explicitly experienced. Muscular armoring that has habitually prevented the experience of emotions can be identified and worked with.  For example, sadness may be coming up from my chest and I feel a tightness in my throat as I “choke down” tears.

Presence and Absence:

This is the depth where our natural vitality lives.  Here, we have access to the essential qualities: strength, will, compassion, passion, and others. It is also the depth where deep-seated and often unconscious beliefs about some kind of “brokenness” exist. For example, “I’m fundamentally unlovable.” Or “I’m not strong enough.” It is these things that Parts and constellations of Parts are compensating for. But, what if nothing is broken? What if it is just that this natural vitality has been covered over and as long as we are identified with those strategies, we cannot access the native vitality that is our birth right?

Wholeness (non-separation):

At the deepest level, we are whole and separation is seen as “drops within the ocean”, or “cells within a body”. This depth is experienced as “transcendent experiences”, sometimes spontaneously (often in extreme situations), or in psychedelic journeys, or during meditation. People who experience this uniformly say that this is the true reality. Some, then chase after this experience, trying to achieve it over and over again through rituals or retreats. It fades because those habitual defenses and strategies (Parts) have not been addressed and integrated.