Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed. . . . But this cannot be seen, only believed and ‘understood’ by a peculiar gift.
Thomas Merton, OCSO (1915-1968) Trappist monk
author of The Seven Storey Mountain
and Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander
“If people could see themselves and each other and know the presence of both ours and others’ internal protectors that are operating, we would have a lot more compassion and respect for each other. If we could access the self with an X-ray vision and see past the protectors of our enemy, we would be able to have a level of connection with that person beyond the pain that drives them.”
Richard C. Schwartz, Ph.D. Creator of the therapeutic model
Internal Family Systems [IFS].
And author of No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma,
and Restoring Wholeness with The Internal Family Systems Model
