Inner Team

The Inner Team is a personality model created by Friedemann Schulz von Thun, who lives in Hamburg. The plurality of the human inner life or parts of the personality (Self) is presented using a metaphor of a team and a team leader. This is supposed to support the self-clarification process and by doing so set the foundation for a clear and authentic external communication. Human communication features an interpersonal and individual side.

Motivation

In the first two volumes of his seminal work Miteinander reden (engl. Talking to each other), Schulz von Thun deals with the topic of functioning communication. His work reveals that one of the most important requirements for clear communication is self-clarification. In 1998, Thun published Miteinander reden 3, which expands his theory of communication to the notion of the Inner Team. By introducing the model of the Inner Team, he wants to provide instructions for self-help.

The Inner Team is a modification of the Parts Party, a method from systemic family therapy, which was developed by Virginia Satir in the 1970s. Additionally, his model draws upon the interacting personality traits withing a human being that, amongst others, have been described by Margaret Paul and Erika J. Chopich.

See also

• Nonviolent Communication
• auxiliary ego
• Ego-state therapy
• Ego images after Eric Berne
• Four-sides model (differences in external communication)
• Autocommunication
• Dialogical self
• Voice Dialogue

Literature

• Friedemann Schulz von Thun: Miteinander reden 3 - Das 'innere Team' und situationsgerechte Kommunikation. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1998, ISBN 3499605457.
• Friedemann Schulz von Thun, Wibke Stegemann (Publisher): Das Innere Team in Aktion. Praktische Arbeit mit dem Modell. Rowohlt, Reinbek 2004, ISBN 3499616440.

External links

• 'Vom "zerstrittenen Haufen" zum "Inneren Team"' - Interview with Professor Schulz von Thun [1]