'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?