Facilitating personal growth

The theory of multiple self-states postulates the coexistence of various discrete organizations of self, each with a particular perspective on reality and each prevailing in a specific intersubjective context. The present article suggests some applications of the theory to clinical psychoanalytic practice and focuses on the state of personal crisis. The approach presented here proposes that there is a total or partial destruction of a state of the self in a particular intersubjective context. It is also proposed that, in addition to traditional analytic work, there be exploration of the parameters of the damaged self-state and of the contexts in which this state is ascendant, and that the dialogue between the damaged self-state and other intact self-states be encouraged.