Transactional Analysis: Ego States

• Transactional Analysis identifies three ego states: Parent, Adult, and Child.
• These states represent different patterns of behavior, thoughts, and feelings.
• People can shift between these states, exhibiting changes in expression, vocabulary, gestures, posture, and bodily functions.

Early Observations

• Berne observed that people seem to change before your eyes, showing simultaneous changes in expression, vocabulary, and body functions.
• These changes can be observed in everyday situations.

The Discovery of the Ego States

• Berne's work was inspired by observing a patient who sometimes acted like a lawyer and sometimes like a little boy.
• This led to the identification of the 'adult' and 'child' states.
• A third state, the 'parent', was later identified.
• These states are apparent in manner, appearance, and gestures.
• A woman's varying behaviors during a session illustrated the three distinct personalities: a feeling-dominated child, a self-righteous parent, and a reasoning adult.

The Parent Ego State

• The Parent ego state contains recordings of unquestioned external events perceived in early childhood (roughly the first five years).
• These recordings come from the example and pronouncements of the child's own parents or parent substitutes.
• The Parent state houses everything a child sees and hears their parents do and say.
• Hostility between parents, admonitions, rules, and laws are all recorded in the Parent.
• Positive experiences and pronouncements are also recorded.
• These recordings are taken in "straight" without editing due to the child's dependency and inability to modify them.
• The recordings are permanent and available for replay throughout life.
• Parental dictates are an indispensable aid to survival.
• The inconsistent behaviors are also recorded creating confusion which the child defends against by turning off the recording.
• The Parent state can contain conflicting material leading to repression and fragmentation.
• Parent data appears in current living in the "how-to" category.
• Television programs can become a source of Parent data.
• External situations where children feel dependent also contribute to the Parent state.

The Child Ego State

• The Child ego state records internal events, the responses of the little person to what they see and hear.
• These reactions are primarily feelings since the child lacks vocabulary.
• The child is small, dependent and inept.
• There are infinite demands on the child.
• The civilizing process creates frustration and negative feelings.
• ‘I'm not OK’ is a common self-estimate.
• This feeling is permanent and cannot be erased.
• Childhood experiences can be replayed in current transactions.
• When a person is dominated by feelings, their 'Child' is said to be in command.
• The Child also contains creativity, curiosity, the urge to explore, and pristine feelings of first discoveries.
• An example of childhood feelings towards parents made by a seven-year-old was "Daddy, when I have an OK Daddy and an ok Mama, how come I'm not OK?"

Development of Ego States Over Time

• By the time a child leaves home for school, the Parent and Child states are largely formed.
• Parental influence continues to reinforce these states.
• It is difficult to imagine an emotion not felt in its most intense form by age five.

The Adult Ego State

• Around ten months old, a remarkable thing begins to happen to the child.
• The Adult ego state begins to develop as the child starts to experience the power of locomotion which grants motility and freedom.
• The Adult develops a 'thought concept' of life based on data gathering and data processing, differentiating itself from the Parent and Child.
• The Adult state is fragile and can be 'knocked out' by Parent commands and Child fears.
• The Adult transforms stimuli into pieces of information, processing and filing it.
• The Adult begins to distinguish life as taught (Parent), as felt (Child), and as figured out by themselves.
• The Adult is a data-processing computer that makes decisions after considering information from the Parent, Child, and gathered data.
• The Adult examines Parent data for truth and applicability and Child data for appropriateness.
• The goal is not to eliminate the Parent and Child, but to be able to examine them freely.
• Secure youngsters find that most Parent data are reliable.
• If parental directives are grounded in reality, the child will come to realize integrity.
• The verification of Parent data does not erase the NOT OK recordings in the Child.
• The Adult updates Parent data to determine what is valid and Child data to determine which feelings may be expressed safely.
• Probability estimating is another function of the Adult which is slow in developing.
• The Adult estimates probabilities.

Functioning of the Ego States

• Under stress, the Adult can be impaired, leading to inappropriate emotions.
• The boundaries between Parent, Adult, and Child are fragile.
• Incoming signals that recreate childhood situations can be overwhelming.
• A traumatic neurosis signal hits the Parent and the Child at the same time it hits the Adult.
• The Child responds with a NOT OK feeling, leading to regression.
• Catering to the helpless Child delays the process of restoring the Adult to the executive function.
• The ongoing work of the Adult involves checking out old data and refiling it for future use.
• Creativity is born from curiosity in the Child and the Adult.
• The Child provides the "want to" (motivation), and the Adult provides the "how to" (skill).
• A youngster has more time to be creative if he is not wasting time in futile decision making for which he has inadequate data.
• Conflict uses a great deal of computer time.
• An extremely time-consuming conflict is produced when what parents say is true does not seem to be true to the Adult.
• One example of what can happen when there is conflict between perceived or taught prejudice against cops is described.
• This is called contamination of the Adult.