Diagram courtesy of Wikipedia
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Structural Analysis
Overview
Eric Berne's general idea is that the human personality is made up of basically three "ego states". An ego state governs our thoughts, feelings and behaviour. He used the three familiar words Child, Parent and Adult to label these states. The capital letters distinguish them from their common meanings, so that a Child is always an ego state, whether of a kid or an adult, and child always means a kid. If a person is in a Child or Parent state, this is always at least partly unconscious, i.e., he is not fully aware he is doing it at the time, even though there might be some awareness of it taking place. The Adult state is considered to be the fully conscious, rational one.
At any one time, an individual, whether a child or an adult, operates from one of these states. So in a particular situation an adult could be thinking, feeling and behaving like a child, when in a Child ego state. Similarly, a child could be thinking, feeling and behaving like an adult, when in an Adult ego state. In similar situations, the individual tends to unconsciously operate from a similar state.
These differing patterns of behaviour include noticeable changes in voice tone, words used, body posture, outlook on life, and so on, as if a completely different individual was internally directing all these outward aspects of the person. Common phrases noting this are, "I don't know what came over me," and "she's not herself right now."
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Structural Analysis overview
Parent/Adult/Child ego states
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