'Transactional analysis is a theory of personality and a systematic
psychotherapy for personal growth and personal change'.
psychotherapy ego-state model. Most basic of all is the ego-state model. An ego-state is a set of related behaviors, thoughts and feelings. It is a way in which we manifest a part of our personality at a given time If I am behaving, thinking and feeling in response to what is going on around me here and now, using all the resources available to me as a grown-up person, I am said to be in my Adult ego-state. At times, I may behave, think and feel in ways which are a copy of one of my parents, or of others who were parent-figures for me. When I do so, I am said to be in my Parent ego-state. Sometimes I may return to ways of behaving, thinking and feeling which I used when I was a child. Then I am said to be in my Child egostate. (PAC model life-script When we use the ego-state model to understand various aspects of personality, we are said to be employing structural analysis structural analysis Contractual method Open communication etude de cas: Jane is driving her car along a road crowded with traffic. Second by second, she is observing the position and speed of other vehicles around her. She is looking out for road signs. She controls her own car in response to what is going on round about her, here and now. Jane is in her Adult ego-stale. Just then, another driver passes Jane and cuts in sharply in front of her. For a fraction of a second, Jane feels scared that the two cars will crash. She flashes a glance at her driving mirror, sees the road behind is clear and slows slightly so that the crash is avoided. All the time, she has stayed in her Adult ego-state. He r feeling of scare was an appropriate response to the here-and-now danger, helping her body react more quickly in order to avoid a collision. Now, with the other driver vanishing up the road ahead, Jane shakes her head and purses her lips in disapproval. Turning to her passenger, she 12 The Ego-Slate Model says: 'Drivers like that ought not to be allowed on the road!' At this moment Jane has moved into her Parent ego-state. When she was little, she had often sat beside her father as her drove his car and watched him as he showed his disapproval of other drivers' errors by shaking his head and pursing his lips in just this way. A minute or two later, Jane pulls off the road at her office. Looking at her watch, she sees that because of the heavy traffic, she is late for an important meeting with her boss. He r heart sinks and for a moment she feels panic-stricken. Now Jane has shifted into her Child ego-state. She has contacted old memories of arriving at school late and feeling scared of the punishment she imagined she might get from her schoolteacher. He r feeling of panic is a response to these old memories, not to anything that is likely to happen in her grown-up situation. At this instant, Jane is not consciously aware that she is re-playing her childhood. If you were to ask her 'Does this situation remind you of anything in your childhood?' she might then bring that old schoolroom scene back to conscious memory. Alternatively, she might have buried those painful recollections so thoroughly that she would not be able to remember them immediately. She might have to take longer, even perhaps go into therapy, if she wanted to bring those deeper memories
back into consciousness.
As she now re-experiences her childhood feelings and thoughts, Jane also shows some behaviors which she first showed all these years ago as a schoolgirl. He r heart races. She lifts her hand to beside her mouth, and widens her eyes. From close up, you would be able to see that she has broken out into a light sweat. Then after a moment or two, Jane thinks to herself: 'Wait a minute! What am I getting scared of? My boss is a reasonable woman. She'll understand why I'm late. Anyway, we can make up the lost time by taking a bit off the coffee break.' Jane is back in her Adult ego-state. Her passenger sees her relax and take her hand away from her mouth. Jane's lace breaks into a smile, and she laughs. He r laugh is the laugh of the grown-up woman she is. It sounds quite different from the nervous giggle of a scared child. Eric Berne defined an ego-state as a consistent pattern of feeling and experience directly related to a corresponding consistent pattern of behavior. Eric Berne listed four ways of recognizing ego-states. He called them: Behavioral diagnosis Social diagnosis Historical diagnosis Phenomenological diagnosis. Berne's energy theory?