Malcolm Ocean's roamblog

June 19th, 2025

edited 2025-06-19 · open in Roam
  • questions for Dick Schwartz about the intersection of IFS and collective consciousness
    • in some sense, often a part really needs to be heard by the Self, but interpersonal conflict, sometimes it matters to someone to be heard by the other person... how do you see the relationship between those? if the one isn't always a substitute for the other?
    • you've mentioned that it's fractal—parts can have Selves, especially in folks with DID. presumably that extends upwards as well... so what do you see as Self on the group level? are you familiar with We-space practices like Circling?
      • obviously there are complex family dynamics with entrenched longstanding patterns like you see in IFS, but what about in new groups of people?
      • like there's an analogy made between parent-child and Self-part relationships, but obviously a group can be made of all adults or whatever
        • (and sometimes probably an adult gets into Self to relate to their own parent who is in a traumatized part-blended state)
    • applying the fractal up further, what do you feel you understand from your experience with IFS, about what's possible with large-scale governance or politics, that most people don't see? if you could convey one key idea to politicians or voters, what would it be? or if you could make one change to some law about how government operates?
    • (tried having Claude generate a simulated interview about this, but it feels to me it slightly misses the point)