Functional Model Of Personality In Transactional Analysis (E. Bern)

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Transactional analysis is one of the analytical directions of psychotherapy, for which Eric Berne is to thank. The essence of this method of psychotherapy lies in the fact that work and contact is carried out simultaneously with three structural parts of the personality - the Parent, the Adult and the Child. Thus, the psychotherapist has the opportunity to work through the child's experience, parental attitudes and actual experiences of each client. This, in turn, fundamentally changes the personality of the client, making it more mature and strong, able to cope with difficulties, without a strong expenditure of internal resources.

The advantage of transactional analysis for the client is the simplicity of the theoretical basis. In the works of Eric Berne, it is said that the concept of transactional analysis is so intuitive that it will be understandable even to an eight-year-old child.

For the psychotherapist, on the other hand, transactional analysis is a method that allows you to work with most requests - from relationships and personal growth to psychosomatics and even some psychiatric diagnoses.

In professional sources, transactional analysis operates with such concepts as the ego state, introject, prohibitions, prescriptions and script.

The ego state is that state of the personality that manifests itself in the behavior, thoughts and feelings of the individual at the moment. This is precisely a complex state.

The introject is the experience of another person, which is important for the individual, built into the structure of the personality.

Bans, permits, and prescriptions are verbal and non-verbal messages about how an individual must behave in order to survive (socially and physically) in their environment.

A scenario is a system of prohibitions, prescriptions, permissions, introjected experience and decisions made that shape the behavior of an individual in society, his choice, and the course of thinking.

Personality structure

In understanding the structure of personality, transactional analysis operates with two basic models - structural and functional.

The first model is a complex system of integrated experiences from different age experiences of both the patient himself and his significant others. But further it will not be about her.

The functional is the basic model, which is actually explained to the client if necessary. The structure looks like three circles, each of which contains one of the structural elements of the personality - the ego state. It is very important to understand that all three ego states exist in parallel and are activated at different periods of time.

The interaction of different ego states is possible both within the boundaries of one personality (for example, intrapersonal conflicts between the ego state of the Parent and the Child), and between individuals. For example, an authoritarian spouse and an adaptive spouse communicate at the parent-child level. And successful business partners, on equal terms, contact with their Adult ego states.

By itself, understanding the structure of the personality of transactional analysis allows you to successfully build communications at different levels, analyze transactions between people or within one person, as well as successfully build psychotherapeutic interventions and achieve a therapeutic result.

So, the functional model of personality can be reduced to the existence of three ego states inside a person and his psyche:

1. Parent (he can be Controlling and Caring);
2. Adult (autonomous ego state);
3. Child (he can be Adaptive, Free and Rebellious).

Parent's ego state

All people, without exception, have experience of communicating with a senior authoritative person. Such people integrate into our psyche under the guise of significant others. The experience gained from communicating with these people forms the state of the Parent. Depending on what messages and in what form we received from the verbal and non-verbal perception of significant others, the structure of the Parent can take the form of an equivalent coexistence of the Controlling and Caring Parent, or it can prevail in the form of one or the other.

If we define the Parental ego-state, then it is the experience of significant others integrated into the personality, in the form of prescriptions, prohibitions and permissions. A person receives these messages throughout his life, but those integrated messages that were received in childhood influence the behavior most strongly.

The images and experiences of significant others, an integrated psyche, is called an introject. There will be as many such introjects in our personality as there are people who are important and authoritative for us during our life.

If we talk about the structural parts of the Parental ego state, then it is worth noting their significance and benefits. The difference between a Controlling Parent (CR) and a Nurturing Parent (CR) lies in the form of the message that was presented as an attempt to keep things safe.

For example, the inner monologue of the Controlling Parent regarding the work done might sound like this: “You did everything wrong, the quality of the work is disgusting. You are worthless, you need to redo. would manifest itself in this way: "Now let's think about how we could improve this part of the work. Here the work is done very well, but here you can still think about it. You put in a lot of effort and you can rest so that you can start working with renewed vigor. " In both cases, we are talking about how to improve the work done and eliminate shortcomings. However, if the person has a very developed internal Controlling Parent, internal destructive criticism will be activated. On the one hand, such people are usually very good employees and bosses, they are perfectionists and know how to do their job well. On the other hand, they never have a sense of a job well done and a sufficient result, neither in relation to themselves, nor in relation to other people. This threatens with a decrease in motivation and a deterioration in results.

If the experience of communicating with significant people consisted in receiving love and care, internal criticism will be constructively aimed at achieving the best result.

Psychotherapy for the Parental Ego State is about balancing the inner “must” feelings of the inner experience of humiliation and the expectation of inevitable punishment for completed or unfulfilled tasks.

Ego-state of an Adult

The adult part is that part of the personality that is capable of realizing as objectively as possible really here and now And making decisions on the basis of the situation that has developed at the moment, Taking into account past experience, well, not relying on it completely.

In this part, there is an inner harmony between what a person can, what he is capable of, and what he really needs.

The inner adult is formed when a person is free to gain experience and make decisions, when he has the ability to analyze and compare facts. This part of the personality, of course, does not function independently. Without the interest and emotionality of the Child and no reasonable control from the Parent, the Adult is a dry and pragmatic logician, a kind of inner clerk.

Activation of the Adult ego state allows you to accelerate adaptation to non-standard life situations, not to fall into acute emotional experiences and to calculate the situation in advance.

The adult manifests itself in a confident body posture, mobile but straight, in open gestures, free eye contact and calm intonations. Verbally Adult sounds well-reasoned and considered, calmly laconic.

The adult ego state looks very appropriate and measured, just like a person with a strong Inner Adult.

However, even such a constructive ego-state, when dominated by the personality, can do a disservice. For example, in a relationship. Dry, logical and unemotional, it can cause confusion where a response is expected of emotions or certain criticism (for example, in parent-child relationships).

Adult State psychotherapy is about balancing the three ego states and creating an inner resolution for emotional response.

This state is usually formed in the contact between the experience acquired in Childhood and Parental attitudes - this is the model that can develop with the suppression of emotional reactions and the education of rational thinking at an early age.

The ego state of the Child

The brightest and most creative is the Inner Child. Like previous ego states, the Child is an integrated experience. The difference between the Child and the Parent lies in the fact that it is not someone else's experience that is integrated into the structure of the Child's personality (parental prescriptions like "Don't cry, you are not a girl"), but the individual's own childhood experience. In every person, in his Childhood state of the ego, there is a child of specific ages in emotionally significant situations. And at certain moments of life, in such situations at least in some way, a person “falls through” into that childhood state that was formed once.

In the structure of the Inner Child, there are three ego states:

1. Free Child.
2. Rebellious Child.
3. Adaptive Child.

The Free Child is a creative part of the personality, able to follow their desires, express their feelings, declare their needs and do it over and over again. In this state, the individual is a happy, albeit not constructive person. This ego state develops in people whose creativity has not been suppressed and who have encouraged healthy egoism.

The Rebellious Child is the result of a conflict between a real-life Controlling parent or his introject, and the needs, desires, and emotions of the individual. When suppression is a long and intractable process, certain types of personality can enter a state of rebellion. Then the behavior of the Inner Child becomes the opposite of what the external or introjected Parent dictates.

The next component of the Child is the Adaptive Child. It is formed when the rebellion is dangerous and the person chooses not to fight suppression, but to obey it. This state is rather passive, devoid of energy. In it, a person chooses the safest form of coexistence with an aggressive reality for his personality.

The child's verbal manifestations are all kinds of emotional responses, protest, or the identification of actual desires. Non-verbally, the child shows demonstrativeness and freedom of emotions.

The psychotherapy of the child's ego state allows the formation of the Free child and the healing of the traumatized Adaptive and Rebellious Child, allowing the person to rationally assess reality, and not fall into a stupor or rebellion. Also, in the psychotherapy of the Child's state, it is necessary to form a healthy dialogue between the Parent and the Child, in this case the Adult is the buffer.

This is how the personality structure looks in transactional analysis. The goal of psychotherapy in this method is to create a healthy balance between all three ego states and to eliminate the consequences of those experiences that were traumatic.