Behaviour diagnosis.

the image is “not true” because—in contrast to a static filing cabinet, where nothing changes without direct outside intervention—ego states are in fact much more dynamic than this. Neurocognitive research shows that memories are not neatly lined up alongside each other in archives, but that new memories influence old memories in many different

While Freud once thought that transference takes place on a “blank screen”, it is now known that it is usually a far more subtle phenomenon. A metaphor will help to clarify. A hunter is walking through the woods with the intention of killing a rabbit. Suddenly he thinks he spots one. He aims and shoots, but the bullet ricochets off a stone. The

The contextual diagnosis is a valuable addition in all cases.

The driving force of a growing child is the need to chart and measure the world into which he has been born. The development of the Child ego state continues all through a person’s life. Ego state theory in transactional analysis is a living, breathing, evolving set of ideas.

Phenomenological diagnosis.

However, upon closer inspection, even the simplest transaction is complex. There are almost always several ego states involved, on a social as well as psychological level (Figure 3.2). The social level is the level of content, the psychological level that of the relation.

The Parent is not the same as the superego, but an internalisation of authentic parental figures as well as larger systems in the outer world with their socialising influence.

Berne described the ego states Parent, Adult, and Child as observable behaviour. The ego states of transactional analysis are phenomenological realities, visible in direct interaction (Berne, 1961). Parent, Adult, and Child represent real people who currently exist or once existed, who have a name and an identity, a shoe size, and a phone number.