Of the Self, by the Self, and for the Self: An Intra-relational Perspective on Intra-psychic Attunement and Psychological Change

This article explores the concept of self-relatedness, integrating ideas drawn from attachment theory, developmental studies, object relations, and interpersonal neurobiology with a multiplicity model of self. I suggest that because self-regulation begins as a dyadic interpersonal process between child and attachment figure, the mind renders such regulatory abilities across the life span via an analogous, intra-relational dyad. This “internal attachment system,” comprising states representing our subjective experience and states reflecting on and appraising that experience coordinates its activity in ways that best regulate the individual’s affects, thoughts, perceptions, and behavior. Chronic trauma and neglect create patterns of intrapsychic relatedness that compromise connection, receptivity, adaptive engagement, and harmony among elements of the self system, thereby disrupting the mind’s development toward greater coherence and complexity (Siegel, 2007). This article will also discuss the clinical application of intra-relational principles with pervasively maltreated people using a method called Intra-relational (I-R) Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (Lamagna & Gleiser, 2007). Applying Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy’s use of dyadic affect regulation, the tracking of emergent somatic experience, and the processing positive effects associated with transformation to inner work with various internal parts of the self, I-R seeks to foster attunement and receptivity among previously dissociated parts of the individual. Creating intrapsychic safety provides an opening through which defensively excluded memories and associated emotions, thoughts, and impulses can be processed and integrated and increasingly coherent and complex forms of self-organization can be achieved.