By Monty De La Torre
This fourth part on the metaphysics of parts, will, I hope, yield two general conclusions: 1) further elucidation of our knowledge of the human person, and 2) that such knowledge will lead to greater acceptance of Internal Family Systems (IFS) in Catholic circles, and greater confidence for those IFS practitioners.
Here are the previous three parts in this series:
The Metaphysics of Parts, Part I: The Soul, the Faculties, and the Senses
Intellect, Knowledge, Judgement, Reasoning, and Parts: The Metaphysics of Parts, Part II
Of Passions and Parts: The Metaphysics of Parts, Part III
According to St. Thomas, a human being is composed of matter and form. I have discussed his view in a prior reflection, so I will not rehash the details here. Given the hylomorphic account of the human person, which argues that a human being is a single substance of a rational nature, the idea of parts existing as standalone substances is metaphysically implausible.
Accidents are existentially contingent upon substances. However, the capacity for parts talk is a proper or necessary accident of the soul. Parts do not constitute the soul itself; instead, being human is synonymous with possessing this specific power or capacity. Thus, without that specific power, i.e., without parts talk, we no longer exist as rational animals.
This has to do with the nature of the powers that specifically make us human, i.e., intellect and will. I noted in Part I the following:
“Through the external and internal senses, our experience of life, including the trauma we suffer, gets recorded onto the body and soul. Aquinas noted that ‘…whatever is received into something is received according to the condition of the recipient.’ Because we are rational animals, we receive the world in a personal way.
I believe this accounts for the phenomenological experience of parts as other persons or subpersonalities. My eight-year-old exile part acts like a real person because the experience that he speaks from was taken from my experience at that age. The internal senses allow for this experiential data to be received and collected for future use.”
It is the reception of reality through the use of such powers as our external and internal senses, and the agent and passive intellect, which allow, in principle, the very discursive and rational dialogues that we engage in with our parts.
With this in mind, then, the term “part” is used to describe the personification of the collective experiences of life at some particular age. A part simply is the recorded life experience at a particular place and time in our life.
That experience is the experience of a human being, thus our ability to engage with that experience in a personal way and vice versa, for that experience to engage with us. Although, strictly speaking, parts do not have intentionality, but they do have teleology.
This is one of the amazing aspects of the rational soul. In some sense, our past can speak to us in the present and affect us in good or bad ways. The entire project of IFS is to acknowledge and dialogue with our parts. As a friend put it, “It’s as if you’re having a conversation with your memory.” Below I want to address some questions that may help us arrive at a better understanding of the existence of parts. I hope my answers will generate further questions and answers on this dense topic.
Questions
When do parts begin to exist in actuality?
The mere capacity or potency for parts development has been there from the beginning of our existence. We begin to exist with all the potencies that an individual is capable of. Since an aspect of parts is constituted by the collective experience of the human person, then parts begin to exist, in actuality, once we begin to experience reality around us. This is easier to understand if taken from the age of reason. It becomes more complicated to pinpoint before that. Is it a stretch to argue that parts become actualized from the moment of conception? I do not know.
What about parts and emotions?
Our emotions are caused by some kind of stimulus. This can be outside of ourselves or from within viz-a-viz a thought, memory, etc. Strictly speaking, parts do not have emotions because they are an accident. Instead, as a sub-personality, they function as a kind of conduit of emotion. In other words, we express our emotions through parts talk, even though, there is no actual person other than us conveying that information.
So, when describing a part as having a particular feeling, I contend that a description is being given of a current or past feeling. For example, a part of you that is experiencing anxiety is triggered by something in the present due to some overwhelming emotional experience from the past. Either, you are having the emotion in the present or remembering an emotion you had in the past.
What is the Self?
According to Schwartz, the Self is: “The seat of consciousness, which is characterized by qualities such as perspective, presence…” and “The core of a person that contains leadership qualities such as compassion, perspective, curiosity, and confidence…”
What else could this “core” or “seat of consciousness” be other than the rational soul? The qualities mentioned are potencies of the soul – we have the potency for perspective, curiosity, compassion, etc. Some of these potencies are specifically virtues and some are the consequences of that virtue in action.
Dr. Peter Martin helpfully notes that there are levels of resembling God. What else could Self/Self-Leadership be than being in the likeness of the Trinity endowed with grace? This would entail both positive and negative emotions in harmony with the soul.
What does it mean to be blended?
When a person becomes blended, a part of them has taken over the Self either in part or entirely. Typically, this has a negative consequence since that part is acting in the extreme, albeit with good intentions. Thus, the individual is motivated to act from the negative influence of the part in question.
As I alluded to in Part III, the problem with the typical understanding of blending in IFS is that Self or Self-Leadership is mostly (only?) spoken of in terms of positive emotions, specifically the 8Cs. I believe this is a mistake. All our emotions, as powers of the soul, are intrinsically good!
Therefore, blending, if taken in a purely negative sense, is best understood as a disorientation of our affective and rational life, and Self-Leadership or Self-Energy is best understood as our affective and rational life fully aligned and in participation and cooperation with God’s grace.
Unburdening or removing constraints frees us to pursue virtue. The new positive role or identity that a part can play was a potency that was there all along yet unable to be actualized due to the burden.
What if I am making it up?
This is an initial skeptical response to IFS. Ironically, the answer is in the question. If the skeptic knew that they were making it up, they would not be asking in the first place! Someone could fabricate an entire IFS experience, but at that point, they never started the session to begin with. Unaccustomed to such vulnerable introspection, a person’s defenses immediately kick in.
What about my conscience? Is that a part?
Following Edward Feser,
“Conscience is just the intellect’s determination of how to act in light of its knowledge of general moral principles, whether applied consciously or just as a matter of habit.
For example, when you judge, of the suggestion that you should take some money from the tip jar, ‘No, that would be wrong,’ that is your conscience speaking. That is to say – to put it less colorfully – that is your intellect judging that a certain act does not conform to the demands of morality.
It is comparable to what your intellect does when, in light of your knowledge of logic, it judges, of the idea of a round square, ‘That is ridiculous’; or when, in light of your knowledge of causality, it judges, of a sound you hear, ‘That’s probably somebody knocking on the door’; or when, in light of your knowledge of the way the physical world works, it judges, of a cup you see falling to the ground, ‘That’s gravity in action.’ There is in that respect nothing terribly remarkable about conscience. It’s just the intellect applying what it knows about right and wrong to a concrete situation.”
I think Feser’s description of conscience brings up an important distinction: there is the operation or an act of the intellect itself from that same act under the influence of something else. In other words, the distinction allows for a separation from the two that allows each to have its proper operation.
So, you can have an act of the intellect qua conscience or qua part. Although, it does seem highly plausible that parts can have a negative influence on our conscience. However, I do not see a problem with an act of conscience being expressed through a part. The distinction would still stand between the two.
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Thank you to Dr. De La Torre for this series. Dr. Peter will return from his writing sabbatical in two weeks.
Online workshop for Catholic formators new to IFS
If you're a Catholic therapist, coach, spiritual director, priest or other formator who professionally accompanies others, and you are interested in learning more about Internal Family Systems, take advantage of our upcoming free workshop. Catholic Parts Work in Human Formation will be held on June 10, 2026 from 8:00 PM to 9:30 PM Eastern time. Details are in this downloadable PDF. Registration is free, but required.
Catholic formators' in-person retreat in Bloomington, Indiana
Consider joining us for our 2026 retreat, an opportunity for formators (therapists, coaches, spiritual directors, priests, any Catholic who accompanies others in formation) to make a leap forward in your human formation work.
This retreat focuses on you finding and loving you in more of your parts, including parts you have not yet encountered – your exiles – and for those parts you have met, but who your manager parts frequently forget. And, we focus on how your parts can help you “be with” others in formation in ways that lead to healing and flourishing.
We'll be meeting August 10-13, 2026, in Bloomington, Indiana, at the lovely Mother of the Redeemer Retreat Center. Get the details in our flyer or on our landing page. You do not need to be a member of the Formation for Formators community, our online community of Catholic formators, to go on retreat.
Conversation hours with Dr. Peter
Twice each week, Dr. Peter is available to anyone interested in discussing content from these semi-monthly reflections, the Interior Integration for Catholics podcast, or the Scripture for Your Inner Outcasts podcast. He is also happy to answer questions about human formation and parts and systems thinking. Call him on his cell (317.567.9594) during conversation hours, which are every Tuesday and Thursday from 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM Eastern time. If he happens to be in another call at the time, just leave a voicemail, and he will call you back. Please note that he cannot provide clinical services during these calls.
Scripture for Your Inner Outcasts
In today's episode of Scripture for Your Inner Outcasts, Dr. Peter reflects on how our incorrect God images can lead to a misunderstanding of the Good Shepherd. You can also check out yesterday’s episode from the Fourth Sunday of Easter as Dr. Peter and Dr. Gerry discuss how Jesus is especially our exiles Good Shepherd. Scripture for Your Inner Outcasts, to our knowledge, is the only podcast specifically for parts of us who are exiled and who feel alone, bringing light, love, and hope to our exiled parts. Check it out every day on our landing page or wherever you get your podcasts and share it with those you think it might help.
Learn more about the Resilient Catholics Community
Are you interested in learning more about the Resilient Catholics Community?
If so, join Dr. Peter, Bridget Adams and David Saunders for a live information meeting. Learn how to apply for the St. Mary Magdalene cohort, which opens June 1, and ask any questions you may have about the application process and community membership. Join us on Tuesday evening, May 26 from 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM Eastern time. Here is the link to register.
We will also put the recording of that meeting up on our RCC landing page, where you can more details, including this 19-minute experiential exercise to help you discern about applying to the RCC. Also check out testimonials from RCC members who share their own experiences.