Games People Play

Each transaction has two parts: a stimulus and a response. Individual transactions are also usually part of a sequence.

It should be noted that ego states are real and observable, not hypothetical like the ego, id, and superego of psychoanalysis. It should also be noted that we all have three ego states and that we energize different ones depending on what is appropriate to the time and circumstances.

Once an ego state is recognized, it is more easily recognized again, and this conceptualization gives us a way to describe transactions between ego states within the individual or between different people.

Networks which represent the internalization of the people who raised us, as we experienced them, Berne named Parent. When in Parent we think, feel, and act like one of our parents or like someone who took their place.

Ego states which deal with the here and now in a nonemotional way are called Adult. When in Adult, we appraise reality objectively and make fact-based decisions, while making sure that Child or Parent emotions or ideas do not contaminate the process.

Berne labeled networks that develop early in life as Child ego states. When we activate one of these, we act like the child we once were.

It has been shown, for example, that very young children need physical strokes to remain alive, although actual physical strokes become less necessary as we learn to exchange verbal and nonverbal ones.

One of the strengths of Bernean game analysis is that it links people’s internal experiences with their interpersonal behaviors, the psychological and the social, both in the moment and over time.

Berne defined strokes as the recognition one person gives another, as essential for physical and psychological health.