Self-States

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Self-states are distinct, often temporary, modes (or modules) of being that we experience — each with unique thinking, beliefs, emotions, behaviors. Psychoanalyst Philip Bromberg popularized the term to challenge the idea of a fixed, singular “self” and see it instead as a dynamic and varied, depending on the context. We can feel confident and outgoing in one situation, withdrawn and anxious in another, or experience different emotional responses to the same event. In psychotherapy, self-states help us with self-awareness, self-acceptance, and flexibility by understanding how we experience ourselves. The Multiple Self-States Model (MSSM) proposes that personality difficulties can arise from the existence of multiple, partially dissociated self-states. In psychoanalytical approaches they are named as multiple codes, in social cognitive approaches as self-states, in hypnotherapy as ego-states, in cognitive-behavioral approaches as schema-modes, and in systemic approaches as different parts, different sides or system elements.