A Depth Psychological Response to IFS

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a therapeutic approach that understands the psyche as composed of parts—distinct inner roles, patterns, and emotional states that develop in response to life experience, especially stress or trauma. Rather than viewing these parts as symptoms to eliminate, IFS treats them as meaningful and protective. At the center of this model is the concept of Self: an innate capacity for calm, curiosity, and compassion that can relate to parts without being overwhelmed by them. Healing, in IFS, involves helping parts unburden extreme roles so the system can become more balanced and internally cooperative.

A depth psychological approach to parts work also recognizes inner multiplicity, but it frames these parts less as sub-personalities to be regulated and more as autonomous psychic figures that carry symbolic meaning. Drawing on archetypal, imaginal, and mythic traditions, depth psychology understands inner figures as expressions of soul—voices through which life, fate, and meaning speak. Rather than orienting toward internal harmony as a primary goal, depth work emphasizes relationship: listening to images, affects, dreams, and symptoms as communications that deserve engagement, even when they disrupt comfort or coherence.

Both approaches honor the reality of inner multiplicity and invite dialogue rather than suppression. Where they differ is in emphasis: IFS tends toward leadership, balance, and integration, while depth psychology leans toward meaning, image, and participation in the psyche’s ongoing conversation.

In Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, the Self is described through eight qualities: Calmness, Curiosity, Clarity, Compassion, Confidence, Courage, Creativity, and Connectedness. These “8 Cs” have become a widely shared shorthand for psychological health—a way of knowing when one is grounded, resourced, and able to relate to inner parts without reactivity.

They are, without question, clinically useful. They describe a state that many people have rarely known, especially those whose inner worlds have been shaped by trauma, neglect, or chronic stress. The language of Self offers relief from harsh inner criticism and introduces the possibility of inner leadership that is not punitive or shaming.

And yet—from a depth-psychological perspective—there is something important to question here.

If we listen through the ear of James Hillman, prominent Depth Psychologist, the 8 Cs begin to sound less like descriptions of the soul and more like a modern moral ideal: a vision of how the psyche ought to be.

Hillman would not dismiss the 8 Cs. But he would trouble them.

When Qualities Become Ideals

Hillman was deeply suspicious of any psychology that quietly turns therapy into self-improvement. He believed that when certain qualities are elevated as markers of psychological health—calmness over agitation, clarity over confusion, compassion over ambivalence—we risk misunderstanding the psyche’s deeper intentions.

From an archetypal point of view, the psyche is not oriented toward harmony. It is oriented toward meaning.

Sometimes meaning arrives through anxiety, obsession, grief, envy, rage, or despair. Sometimes the soul insists through disturbance rather than calm. In these moments, striving for the 8 Cs too quickly can become a subtle form of soul-avoidance—a way of smoothing over what wants to trouble us.

Hillman often reminded us: symptoms are not errors. They are expressions.

Self Versus Soul

IFS offers a central Self that is inherently good, calm, compassionate, and capable of leading the system wisely. Hillman would pause here. Not because multiplicity is wrong—but because he resisted the idea of a single, regulating center. For Hillman, the psyche is polytheistic by nature.

Where IFS asks: “Can you access Self right now?”
Hillman might ask: “Which figure has taken the stage?”

The task is not to govern the psyche from above, but to enter into relationship with what appears.

Soul Is Not a State to Reach

Hillman once suggested that therapy should not aim to make people well-adjusted, but well-ensouled.

The 8 Cs may describe a helpful stance.
But soul is not a stance.

Soul is a fate to be engaged.