##### 🔑 Parts are not their burdens, roles, or strategies ###### A description is not an identity Having a label for a [[💡 Parts|Part]] is not the same as *knowing* or *understanding* them – it's just [[💡 Labeling (CBT)|💡 Labeling]]. [[💡 Parts|Parts]] are not their [[💡 Burdens 🪨|Burdens]], roles, or [[Protector Strategies 🛡️|Strategies]] but people who either have, are in, or do those things. We can even have [[🔑 Multiple Protectors can use the same strategy|🔑 multiple Protectors who use the same strategies]] in different ways and for different reasons, and [[🔑 multiple Exiles can carry the same Burden]]. > [!example] Examples... > The person who brings the mail to our home might be our "mail-carrier," but that's just a label we use in absence of knowing much else — it isn't *who* they are. To suggest otherwise would be like saying every mail-carrier in the world is the same person just because they have the same job. It’s sort of like how “Santa Claus” is actually billions of people all over the world. > > Likewise, we do not have *an* inner-critic. We have one (but likely multiple) [[💡 Protector Parts|Protector(s)]] who use [[🛡️ Criticizing]] to do their jobs. Labeling all [[🛡️ Criticizing]] as one "Inner-Critic" can make it *much* more difficult to recognize whether this is one or multiple [[💡 Parts|Parts]]. Parts, like people, come with *enormous* variety under their job description. > > Consider your best friend, or even just someone you've had regular contact with, and then imagine describing that person to someone who’s never met them. You've probably done this and heard other people do it, but when has such a description **ever** served as a perfect portrait of who that person is? People are complicated, and parts are people. [[🔑 Parts have Parts|🔑 Each Part has an unpredictable multidimensionality]] that can't be summarized in any description, so (just like us!) Labels can be useful ("The mailman came a few minutes ago,") but it would be a mistake to form our entire conception of them around any one thing. So when we talk about our "angry part," "overeating part," or "caretaking part," remember to hold those labels *very* lightly. Our [[💡 Parts|Parts]] are not their wounds, jobs, or behaviors any more than we are ours.[^1] As we get to know our parts, they begin to open up to us. We learn about who they are, not just what they do. ###### Related - [[✍️ On Maps and Models...]] - [[🔑 Words are concept containers]] - [[🔑 Protectors do not like their jobs, but are afraid to stop]] - [[🔑 All Parts can experience all emotions]] - [[🔑 Hold labels loosely]] [^1]: [[📖 ✅ IFS Online Circle]] Month 1: Overview of IFS & The Flow of the Model