Episode 002 - What is Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy (IRT), anyway?
🎙️ Episode Overview:
This episode serves as a didactic introduction to Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy (IRT)—its origins, philosophy, and key ideas. Dr. Ken Critchfield and Dr. Eliza Stucker-Rozovsky introduce IRT’s conceptual language and therapeutic aims, laying the groundwork for future episodes.
🧩 Major Themes and Discussion Points:
Foundations of IRT
Developed by Lorna Smith Benjamin at the University of Utah, IRT integrates attachment theory, biology of safety and threat, and lessons learned from early caregivers. It is a therapy for “broken hearts, not broken brains,” emphasizing relational wounds rather than pathology.The Nature of Change
Psychological symptoms are seen as adaptations, not defects. People are not broken—they are loyal to old relational rules learned in the context of love and survival. Change is difficult because those rules are deeply linked to attachment and identity: what feels safe may also be maladaptive.The “Red” and “Green” Selves
The core metaphor of IRT describes two broad modes of self-experience.
The Red Self (“regressive loyalist”) repeats maladaptive patterns learned from early caregivers, seeking safety through old rules.
The Green Self (“growth collaborator”) represents healthy adaptation, self-acceptance, compassion, and autonomy.
Therapy aims to help clients recognize red patterns and shift toward green functioning—using awareness and choice, especially under stress.
Understanding “Red” without Shame
The red part is not “bad”—it is a loyal attempt to maintain connection to important figures. Therapists should approach red patterns with compassion rather than confrontation to avoid reenacting early relational wounds. Red reflects “attachment gone awry”: misguided love that maintains loyalty to the past at the expense of present wellbeing.The Gift of Love (GOL)
Central to IRT is the idea that symptoms and maladaptive patterns are “gifts of love”—unconscious efforts to stay loyal to loved ones by copying or identifying with them. Examples include self-criticism echoing a parent’s voice or seeking abusive partners because abuse once meant closeness. The therapeutic goal is to “love differently”: finding new, healthy ways to honor love and attachment without repeating harm.Case Formulation in IRT
An IRT case formulation links symptoms or problems to current relationship patterns and to early attachment relationships that may have been internalized as “family in the head.” Therapy promotes awareness, differentiation, and new choices: recognizing red patterns, emotionally differentiating from old internalized figures, and practicing green ways of being.Therapeutic Process and Ethic
IRT is principles-based, not technique-bound. Therapists co-construct meaning with clients, exploring learning history rather than imposing theory. The approach invites deep empathy—seeing the logic in clients’ illogic and the love within their loyalty. Insight alone is not enough; practice and relational safety are key to change.
💡 Key Takeaways
IRT reframes psychopathology as “attachment loyalty gone wrong,” not pathology.
The Red and Green selves offer a powerful way to understand inner conflict.
The Gift of Love connects symptom patterns to love, loyalty, and early attachment.
Effective therapy helps clients “love differently”—maintaining connection while transforming how love is expressed.
📚 Next Episode
The hosts preview the next episode, which will explore Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB), the model that operationalizes red and green behaviorally.
⏰ Timestamps
(04:40) - Definition of ‘symptoms’ from an IRT point of view
(05:16) - Red and Green parts of the self
(08:30) - Goal of IRT - the adaptive self
(13:10) - SASB description of Green behaviors
(13:40) - SASB description of Red behaviors
(18:00) - Function of enacting Red
(19:10) - Love, protection, and approval
(20:49) - Reframing treatment resistance
(21:57) - GOL, defined
(26:35) - Introjection as copy process
(28:00) - Recapitulation as copy process
(34:20) - Case formulation components in IRT
📓 References
Benjamin, L.S. Interpersonal Diagnosis and Treatment of Personality Disorder. N.Y: Guilford Press. 1st edition, 1993; 2nd 1996; paperback 2003.
Benjamin, L. S. Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy (IRT): an integrative personality-based treatment for complex cases. New York: Guilford Press. (2003; paperback edition 2006)
Benjamin, L.S. (2018). Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy for Anger, Anxiety and Depression: It’s about Broken Hearts, Not Broken Brains. Washington, D. C.: American Psychological Association