Power asymmetry
Within the INR Model framework, power asymmetry refers to a situation in which one party has more interpretive or influential power than the other.
This asymmetry arises when insights into behavior are used without reciprocity or relational responsibility.
Deepening
When someone applies the INR Model, it provides insight into:
Inner Needs
Narrative
Protective behavior
– Reaction
This insight creates influence. Not because the model grants power, but because understanding always has relational impact.
Power asymmetry arises when:
Interpretations are presented as objective truth
– The other person is not given the space to correct meaning
Behavior is interpreted without dialogue
In that moment, the model shifts from a framework of explanation to an instrument of influence.
The party with the model then gains control over the meaning-making, while the other is reduced to an object of analysis.
Within INR, this is problematic because it undermines the autonomy and connectedness that the model is specifically designed to protect.
Relationship to INR
Power asymmetry is a key risk that the INR Model ethical framework explicitly seeks to prevent.
Because INR focuses on meaning and protection, the model can only be applied carefully when:
Relational interpretation is shared
– Autonomy remains intact
– Understanding is not a means of control
Once power imbalances arise:
– Is narrative strengthened rather than investigated
Is protection activated
Does the model lose its explanatory integrity
Therefore, preventing power asymmetry is not a moral consideration, but a structural prerequisite for the consistent application of the INR Model.