CLAUDE STEINER

It is little wonder that most people who get into emotional difficulties are loath to consult a psychotherapist. We do not want to hear that the trouble is to be found entirely within us and that, at the same time, we have no control or understanding of our difficulties. We do not want to hear these things about ourselves not because we are “resistant to change” or “unmotivated” for psychotherapy, but because they are not true, because they insult our intelligence, and because they rob us of our power to control our lives and destinies.

The building blocks of the theory of transactional analysis (TA) are three observable forms of ego function: the Parent, the Adult, and the Child. They may seem to resemble three basic psychoanalytic concepts—the superego, the ego, and the id—but they are, in fact, quite different

The Child ego state tends to be fleeting in grownups because of a general societal injunction against “childish behavior.” However, Child ego states can be observed in situations which are structured to permit childlike behavior, such as sports events, parties, and revivals.

In the Child ego state, a person tends to use short words and expletives like “golly,” “wow,” “gee,” and “nice,” delivered in a high-pitched voice. He adopts stances characteristic of children: a downward tilt of the head, upturned eyes, feet apart or pigeon-toed. When sitting, the person may balance on the edge of the chair, fidgeting, rocking, or slouching. Jumping, clapping, laughing expansively, or crying are all part of the repertoire of the Child ego state.

The Adult ego state is essentially a computer, an impassionate organ of the personality, which gathers and processes data and makes predictions. The Adult gathers data about the world through the senses, processes them according to a logical program, and makes predictions when necessary. Its perception is diagrammatic. While the Child perceives in color, in space, and from one point of view at a time, the Adult may perceive in black and white, often in two dimensions, and from several points of view at the same time. In the Adult ego state, a person is temporarily detached from her own affective and other internal processess, a condition indispensable for the proper observation and prediction of external reality.

the Adult is not only rational but it is also without emotion.

it appears that the Adult grows gradually during childhood as a consequence of the interaction between the person and the external world

The Parent is essentially made up of behavior copied from parents or authority figures. It is taken whole, without modification. A person in the Parent ego state is a play-back of a video tape recording of his parent or whoever was or is in place of his parents.

These internal messages have been observed by other theorists such as Ellis1 and Freud.2 Ellis speaks of “catastrophic expectations” and Freud speaks of the “primitive, harsh superego.” Wyckoff has named this Parent ego state which is the enemy of the natural Child, the Pig Parent.3

Alternation between ego states depends on the permeability of the ego state boundaries. Permeability is an important variable in psychotherapy. Low permeability leads to exclusion of appropriate ego states. Exclusions of the Parent, Adult, and Child ego states are all problematic since they preclude the use of ego states that, in a given situation, may be more useful and advantageous than the excluding ego state.