IASC™

The construct of “self-capacities” involves the notion that successful adult functioning is partly due to the extent to which the individual is able to accomplish three tasks:

1. Maintain a sense of personal identity and self-awareness that is relatively stable across affects, situations, and interactions with other people.
2. Control and tolerate strong (especially negative) affect without resorting to avoidance strategies such as dissociation, substance abuse, or external tension-reducing behaviors.
3. Form and maintain meaningful relationships with other people who are not disturbed by inappropriate projections, inordinate fear of abandonment, or activities that intentionally or inadvertently challenge or subvert normal “self-other” connections. 

(Kohut, 1977; McCann, & Pearlman, 1990), as modified by Briere (1997b) and reflected in the items of the IASC.

Even if insufficient self-capacities are not the specific targets of psychodynamic, cognitive, or behavioral treatment, they can intrude on the conduct of almost any therapeutic endeavor. Knowledge of which clients are more likely to experience problems can decrease the likelihood that the clinician will be “blind-sided” by the sudden intrusion of, for example, abandonment fears or idealization-devaluation dynamics during treatment. Most importantly, however, altered or reduced self-capacities are a common element of more severe psychological disturbance and are frequently found in clients who were abused, neglected, or otherwise maltreated as children.  A test of self-capacities would indicate the quantitative extent to which the client experiences each of the individual components of what is generally termed “Borderline Personality Disorder,” such as identity confusion or diffusion, affect dysregulation and intolerance, and impaired or chaotic relations with others.