Ego States in Transactional Analysis:

Transactional Analysis, as formulated by Dr. Eric Berne, is a key

theory in the field of psychotherapy. Transactional Analysis (TA) is
a very simple and easily comprehensible method of understanding human
behavior. Central to this theory is the concept of a "transaction."
In the words of Dr. Berne:

"The unit of social intercourse is called a transaction. If two or

more people encounter each other... sooner or later one of them will
speak, or give some other indication of acknowledging the presence of
the others. This is called transactional stimulus. Another person
will then say or do something which is in some way related to the
stimulus, and that is called the transactional response."

TA also involves the identification of what are called "ego states"

behind each and every transaction. Berne defined an ego state as "a
consistent pattern of feeling and experience directly related to a
corresponding consistent pattern of behavior." Dr. Berne identified
three ego states:

1. Parent (taught concept)

2. Child (felt concept)
3. Adult (learned concept)
It should be carefully noted that the descriptions of these ego
states do NOT necessarily correspond to their common definitions as
used the English language.

The following are detailed descriptions of the three ego states:

Parent:

The parent represents a massive collection of recordings in the brain

of external events experienced or perceived in approximately the
first five years of life. Since the majority of the external events
experienced by a child are actions of the parent, this ego state is
appropriately called Parent. Note that events perceived by the child
from individuals who are NOT parents (but who are often in parent-
like roles) are also recorded in the Parent.

Typical behaviors include:

• Advise, train, feed, coach, and protect (also called Nurturing

P - the mother's role)
• Scold, criticize. punish, and lay down rules (also called
Critical P - the father's role)

It is worth noting that, while recording these events, the young

child has no way to filter the data; the events are recorded without
question and without analysis. One can consider that these events are
imposed on the child.

Child:

In contrast to the Parent, the Child represents the recordings in the

brain of internal events associated with external events the child
perceives. In other words, stored in the Child are the emotions or
feelings which accompanied external events. Like the Parent,

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recordings in the Child occur from childbirth all the way up to the
age of approximately 5 years old.

Typical behaviors include:

• The innate, spontaneous, uninhibited nature, like having fun,

being inquisitive, crying, demanding, being impulsive, curious,
shy, fantasizing, called the Free Child or FC
• The response to the forces from outside and includes obedience,
sulking, manipulating, aggression, rebelliousness, with
feelings of guilt and anxiety, called the Adaptive Child or AC

Adult:

Close to one year of age, a child begins to exhibit gross motor

activity. The child learns that he or she can control a cup from
which to drink, that he or she can grab a toy. In social settings,
the child can play hide-and-seek. This is the beginning of the Adult
in the small child.

Adult data grows out of the child's ability to see what is different
than what he or she observed (Parent) or felt (Child). In other
words, the Adult allows the young person to evaluate and validate
Child and Parental data. Berne describes the Adult as being
"principally concerned with transforming stimuli into pieces of
information, and processing and filing that information on the basis
of previous experience."

The three states can be used to understand and analyze human

behavior. This concept has been discussed extensively in Dr. Berne’s
popular book: Games People Play.

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