Episode 004 - Introduction to SASB, part 2 - Touring the SASB model
🎙️ Episode Overview:
In this follow-up episode, Ken and Eliza expand on SASB’s clinical uses—how the model helps therapists decode interpersonal dynamics, understand self-treatment, and identify where clients are “stuck.” They explore how SASB integrates with IRT’s focus on love, loyalty, and change.
🧩 Major Themes and Discussion Points:
From Description to Application
SASB is more than a taxonomy—it’s a practical guide for recognizing repeating relational patterns. By plotting interactions on the model, therapists can see how behaviors mirror (“copy”) early relationship templates.The Copy Process
Central to both IRT and SASB, the “copy process” describes how people recreate patterns from early attachments in current relationships and in self-treatment.
Identification: Treating others as one was treated.
Introjection: Treating oneself as one was treated.
Recapitulation: Being in the same position as in past relationships
These processes describe and help explain why people repeat painful dynamics even when they wish to change.
Mapping the Inner World
The “introject” surface of SASB represents how individuals treat themselves—whether they are self-loving and self-accepting or self-attacking and self-punitive. Recognizing these patterns helps link external relationships to internal dialogue.Complementarity and Antithesis
Complementarity describes how interpersonal patterns pull for matching behaviors (e.g., control elicits submission). Therapists use “antithesis” or “antidote” responses—unexpected, healthy reactions -- technically the opposite of the complementary position —to disrupt these cycles and model new ways of relating.Rigidity, Context, and Health
The goal is in part to engage in more affiliative and reciprocal ways, and also to increase flexibility and context sensitivity. SASB helps identify when patterns are hostile, extreme, rigid, repetitive, or context-inappropriate—markers of maladaptation.Integration with IRT Formulation
Ken and Eliza connect SASB back to IRT’s conceptual frame: red (regressively loyal, maladaptive) and green (collaborative, reality-based, growth-oriented) modes. SASB provides the behavioral precision to describe those modes in action—showing where “red” and “green” patterns each play out in daily life.
💡 Key Takeaways:
SASB operationalizes the interpersonal logic of IRT.
The copy process is a language to capture how early attachment experiences repeat in adulthood.
Change involves recognizing old patterns and practicing new, antithetical responses.
Health involves a baseline of friendliness, coupled with behavioral flexibility that attends to context.
📚 Next Episode:
Ken and Eliza preview a deeper dive into SASB’s applications in therapy—how to identify patterns, interpret the “copy process,” and understand the logic behind rigid interpersonal cycles.
⏰ Timestamps/Notes:
(2:35) Overview of the positions of SASB, starting with cluster 2 (“I’m ok and you’re ok”)
(5:09) Cluster 3 - love
(8:39) Cluster 4 - protect/teach
(13:08) Cluster 5 - control
(19:17) Cluster 6 - blame
(30:29) Cluster 7 - attack
(38:59) Cluster 8 - ignore
(47:14) Cluster 1 - emancipate
📓 References:
Benjamin, L. S. (2018). Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy for Anger, Anxiety and Depression: It’s about broken hearts, not broken brains. American Psychological Association (APA).
Critchfield, K. L., & Benjamin, L. S. (2024). Structural analysis of social behavior: A primer for clinical use. American Psychological Association (APA).