The Introject Decathexis (Id) Protocol

The EMDR therapy and dissociative disorder (DD) literatures have established that ego state interventions can be both helpful and frequently necessary to achieve stabilization/containment, adaptive resolution of traumatic experience, and integration of treatment gains. Work with persecutory ego states, such as those patterned after outside perpetrators (i.e., introjects), tends to focus on orienting them to present realities, persuade them to stand down’ or reconsider/realign how they protect, and helping other states feel less afraid of them. However, many of these interventions also present conceptual and/or practical issues that can make it difficult to achieve or maintain treatment gains with some clients who present with more complex trauma and DDs. This chapter will begin with a discussion of the development of perpetrator introjects, as well as their function within and impacts upon a self-system. Existing approaches to working with perpetrator introjects and similar states will be examined. The focus will then pivot to elaborate the Id Protocol, a novel, yet effective, integrative EMDR therapy approach developed by the author, which permanently ‘unbinds’ perpetrator introjects from the traumatic material in which they are seemingly, inexorably bound. The protocol will be illustrated through a case example, which will provide further context for the treatment frame and necessary preparatory tasks and precautions for its safe use.