Four subpersonalities live inside each of us, this author believes. By understanding who they are and how they interact, we can, as the title suggests, gain insight into who we are, how we go wrong, and what we can do about it.

Find out who these subpersonalities are, and how they affect us:

The strategist is a cognitive specialist. The strategist’s job is to get things done as quickly and accurately as possible. The strategist lives in the “objective domain,” so named because he or she pursues end goals (“objectives”) and prizes objectivity. The strategist is the subpersonality that guides the scientist, the lawyer, and the business executive.

The citizen is the subpersonality that enters into relationship with other people, the physical objects people create, and the natural world. The citizen is our social self, and also our civic self. It lives at the interface between self and “other.” It is the aspect of ourselves that engages the world.

The seeker is the part of us that is preoccupied with probing the mystery of our existence. The seeker goes searching for sunken treasure in the ocean of the self, and emerges with the gold of meaning.

These three selves are like children in a family; sometimes they quarrel, sometimes they get along. Our challenge as “parents” is to honor them equally. When we play favorites, that creates dysfunction-and because these three subpersonalities are a “fractal,” a pattern that applies at different levels of organization, this same dysfunctionality shows up not only in ourselves, but also in our interpersonal organizations, our organizations, and even our broader culture.

What can we do about this? This is where the fourth subpersonality comes in: The sage. The sage integrates the three other selves into an inclusive, higher-level whole; the strategist, the citizen, and the seeker are honored equally equally. The sage is like a parent who loves and manages these three “siblings” fairly and lovingly.

By operating from the perspective of the sage, we can overcome many of the dysfunctions that arise when the strategist, the citizen, and the seeker interact disharmoniously. We can do so in our inner lives, and also in our interpersonal relations and the organizations we are involved with. And, who knows, maybe even in our broader culture, too!

Adapted from Out of the Labyrinth: Who We Are, How We Go Wrong, and What We Can Do About It, by Carl Frankel (Monkfish Book Publishing, 2004).

For more information, go to Carl Frankel’s website: Out of the Labyrinth.