The Parts
In this project, I invited my parts to write songs to each other in hopes of cultivating compassion and cooperation.
Each song is written from the point of view of the "apparently normal part" (ANP) or one or more of the "emotional parts" (EPs.) Because I feel my EPs to be so strongly tied to particular trauma responses, and for the purposes of this creative exercise, I named the EPs Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn, and Collapse.
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Part of my exploration of these parts included sorting through childhood pictures and choosing pictures to represent each part, as well as identifying different characteristics and different values statements for each part. As I conducted this exploration, I was more concerned about making choices that felt right and true for me, and less concerned about fitting into any particular definitions.
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Meet the parts:
The first song, Promise, is an overture from the ANP to the EPs, inviting the EPs to participate in the Dialogue and promising to be a better listener and to treat the parts with more openness and less resistance. I then turned my attention to the EPs and listened for an answer, doing my best to voice that answer with as little interference as possible. The second song, Promise Answered, is an angry and mistrustful reply from Fight, speaking on behalf of all the EPS. The full conversation is nine songs. The final song Keep comes from a more integrated voice, which happened organically. Subsequent to this project, I have continued to write songs exploring these parts and may present them at a later time.