Splits in the Soul

Thoughts

I read "Splits in the Soul" by Franz Ruppert and through discussions in therapy, the idea really resonated with me. In short, he describes the "soul" more like the psyche or subconscious mind and a split is a traumatic event that causes a survival part and a trauma part to break away from the healthy part. It makes sense to me that sometimes a person is thinking and acting within a survival part or healthy part or trauma part. Through a lot of work and different therapeutic techniques, I realised that we function in these different parts at different times and they are active in our daily lives. The survival part will 'kick in' to prevent access to the trauma part or as a form of protection like a trigger. The healthy part might ensure that you engage in self-care or ask for help when needed. The trauma part describes some of the behaviours that we might not understand, like repeating past mistakes.

I created this to show what I imagine my own 'soul' looks like with the green living tree of the healthy part. I had hope then, the leaves or seed flying away from the tree is supposed to represent that healthy part growing. The desolate and chaotic wasteland of trauma is in red with rips and tears causing rifts and dark issues. The carefully constructed organisation of survival of pushing on, pushing the trauma part away from the healthy so it has a chance to recover. I am proud to say this one is no longer in my collection and is hanging in my therapist's office.