Transactional Analysis (TA) models used in CENT

Copyright (c) Dr Jim Byrne, 2010

One of the earliest signs of the blossoming of Cognitive Emotive Narrative Therapy (CENT) was the integration of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy(REBT) with Transactional Analysis (TA), back in 1999.  It seemed obvious to me at times that only the TA model could help the client to see where their unreasonable demands were coming from.  Let me explain:

Transactional Analysis was developed by Dr Eric Berne in the 1950s.  The outstanding features of TA were that it was quick and efficient.  It was also anti-elitist, and it expressed psychological terms and concepts in easy-to-understand, everyday language.  Instead of lengthy and frequent sessions of psychoanalysis, Berne helped his clients to see that they were either:

(1) Operating from an unhelpful part of their personality; or:

(2) Playing dysfunctional ‘psychological games' based on not-OK positions: (e.g. "I'm not-OK"; or "You're not-OK"; etc).

Berne described three core aspects of the human personality, which he labelled with the common tags of: Parent, Adult and Child "ego states".  (He capitalized Parent, Adult and Child ego states to distinguish them from an actual parent, an individual adult person, and/or a real child).

When a person is in their Child ego state, they are assumed to be thinking, feeling and acting just like they once did when they were a child.

When a person is in their Parent ego state, they are said to be thinking, feeling and acting just like a parent figure they once related to: such as mother, father, granny, an early school teacher, etc.

And when an individual is in the present moment, thinking (relatively) rationally and logically, and weighing up the pros and cons of their present situation, they are said to be in their Adult ego state. 

Those three basic ego states are described in more detail in the following video clip by Theramin Trees:

What did you learn from this video clip?  About yourself?  About some other people in your life?  Perhaps you are too high on Controlling Parent yourself; or perhaps you are high on Child, and get bossed around by people who are high on Controlling Parent.

The aim of TA is to help you to get your Adult ego state in the Executive Position in your personality, controlling your decisions when to operate from Parent and when to operate from Child.

~~~ 

The Parent ego state has two sub-divisions: the Nurturing Parent ego state, and the ControllingParent ego state.  Both of these states has a positive and a negative side.  Nurturing Parent ego state can be helpful to others, but it can also come on as the 'smother mother' or the over-solicitous dad.  The Controlling Parent ego state is needed in parenting, in setting reasonable boundaries for children.  However, it can be overused in adult relationships, where it shows up as domination and lack of democratic sharing.

The Child ego state also has two subdivisions: the Natural (or Free) Child ego state, and the Adapted/RebelliousChild ego state.  Again, both of these states have a good and bad side.  The Free Child ego state is the source of play and creativity; but it is also capable of engendering risky behaviours which threaten the survival of the individual.  And the Adapted/Rebellious Child ego state has the positive tendency to be pro-social and cooperative, and the negative tendency to be too conformist and weak in relation to bullies.

In this video clip, the narrator says that the Adult ego state is not split.  But in CENT we argue that the Adult ego state is as split as the Parent and Child.  For example, the Good Adult ego state might design a new approach to bridge building, and make bridges safer for public use; while the Bad Adult ego state might spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to break into the Bank of England to steal all the gold bullion stored there.  Both states might be equally logical and effective in their strategic thinking, but one is immoral and the other is moral.  (More below).

# Counselling and therapy all over the world.

# What is CENT counselling?

~~~

Here is some further description of the three basic ego states of Transactional Analysis, applied to transactions in work situations.  This video clip shows a range of non-viable Parent>Child encounters; plus the ideal Adult-to-Adult option.

What did you learn from this video clip?  Which ego state do you "occupy" most or much of the time?  Is this working for you?  Do you over-use Parent or Child ego state?  How can you get you Adult ego state into the 'executive position' in your personality most of the time? 

Further down this page, I will present a set of recommendations for ways in which you can strengthen your Adult ego state, and get it more and more into the executive position, so you can manage your life more autonomously, democratically, and enjoyably!

This is how the PAC model looks so far:

Figure 1 - A simple structural model:

The most effective place for and two individuals to operate from is Adult-to-Adult.  An exception would be in the case of a young child, or a person in need of comfort, when it might be more effective to operate from Nurturing Parent ego state to their Child ego state.  Another exception would be a case of health and safety, or supervision, when it would be appropriate for the person in the leadership role to operate from Controlling Parent to the Adapted Child ego state of the led individual.  (This all assumes that these ego states can only operate from a ‘good place'.  However, we will see later that there is a good and bad side to each of these ego states, and so it is important to outlaw Nurturing and Controlling behaviours (and Adult behaviors!) from the bad side of a person attempting to lead others).

~~~

For a more detailed description of the work of Dr Eric Berne in developing his theory of Transactional Analysis, please check out some of the web pages available on the Internet, such as EricBerne.com, Internet-of-the mind.com, ChangingMinds.org, and others, such as Businessballs.com[1].  Or read Berne (1968), or Stewart and Joines (1987) - (For titles of books, see end of this page). Or take a look at some Rusland Diploma assignment questions and answers on TA, produced by Jim Byrne in 2002.

# Counselling and therapy all over the world.

# What is CENT counselling?

[1] www dot ericberne dot com/transactional_analysis_description dot htm; and/or here: www dot internet-of-the-mind dot com/ego_states.html#TA.; and/or here: http://changingminds dot org/explanations/behaviors/ta.htm

~~~

If you value the content of this website, then please donate to the cause of keeping these pages updated and maintained on a regular basis:

If you like the content of this page, why not share it with your social networks? Click the button that follows:

 

 Thank you! :-)

~~~

Dr Eric Berne talks about the six ways we interact and structure our time 

What did you learn from this video clip?  Do you aim for intimacy or rituals?  Do you play games with the people in your life?  The aim of TA psychotherapy is to help people to develop the capacity for intimacy.  Intimacy is game-free interaction, in which there is no con, no gimmick, and no pay-off.

The quickest and easiest way to get out of playing psychological games with others is to operate from the life position which says 'I'm OK (or acceptable to myself), and You're OK (or acceptable to me), exaclty the (imperfect) way we both happen to be right now.  (More below - when we talk about the OK Corral).

If you can learn to operate from intimacy with the people in your life, you can have a much happier and healthier life than if you play psychological games.

TA in CENT counselling 

This is a brief overview of the elements of TA that we teach in CENT counselling:

(1) It is important for each client to ‘grow their Adult ego state'; to shrink their Controlling Parent; and to shrink their Adapted/Rebellious Child ego states.

(2) That one of the best ways to grow the Adult ego state is to learn the core rational beliefs of REBT.  Another is to study Critical Thinking skills (e.g. Bowell and Kemp, 2003)*.

(3) It is important to ‘filter' the Nurturing Parent ego state through the Adult ego state, and to keep the Adult ego state in the ‘executive position' at all times.

(4) It is important to ‘play' (or engage in recreational relating), from Natural (or Free) Child ego state, but again this should be ‘filtered' through the Adult ego state, which should monitor the appropriacy/riskiness of particular acts of play.

(5) It's important to operate from a life position that I'm OK (or acceptable to myself), and You're OK (or acceptable to me), exactly the way we both are at the moment - even if we both could benefit from some improvements in our behaviour.  (See the OK Corral below).

(6) In keeping with the concept of the "innate Good and Bad wolf" aspect of each individual, which is central to CENT, we also teach that the TA model should be subdivided as follows, between the ‘good side' and the ‘bad side' of each of the five ego states:

Figure 2 - The good and bad sides of each ego state

Every ego state, including Nurturing Parent and Adult, can be operated from the good or bad side of the individual, with good or bad motives, and with good or bad consequences.  There is an objective case that can be made that each of us has to learn how to become a ‘good citizen', a ‘good character', in order to facilitate the smooth running of our family, local community and work environment.

# Counselling and therapy all over the world.

# What is CENT counselling?

The other aspect of the TA model that we use in CENT is the OK-corral, which has four ‘life positions', as follows:

Figure 3 - The OK-corral showing the four life positions

Of the four positions that an individual can adopt towards themselves and others, only that shown in box 1 is emotionally healthy.  That is the "I'm OK - You're OK" life position, which leads to good human relations. 

All of the others lead to poor human relations outcomes. 

Box 2 can lead to exploiting and abusing others, or being angry or dismissive towards them. 

Box 3 can result in the individual becoming a ‘door mat' for others, by being too passive and compliant. 

And box 4 is a dark, nihilistic place which is likely to be found among sociopaths and suicides and very angry, self-loathing depressives.

~~~

Learning how to operate from the I'm OK- You're OK position is the quickest and easiest way to avoid engaging in 'psychological games'.  Games are a nasty form of interaction which are played on the Drama Triangle, which involves three players, or two players playing three roles.  Those roles are Victim, Persecutor and Rescuer.  The drama triangle is explored in the following brief, and very simple, basic, video clip:

What did you learn from this video clip?  Are you now aware of the dangers of the drama triangle?   

In CENT, we teach at least two aspects of TA - the ego state model and the OK-corral - by the use of educational pamphlets and handouts, and follow-up discussion.  We also use the chair approach developed in Impact Therapy, where we use three chairs to represent the Parent, Adult and Child, and teach the client to reflect on this question: "Which chair am I on right now, and how can I get back to the Adult chair?" 

And we teach the "I'm OK - You're OK" position, by getting the client involved in enactive exercises with others to unlearn their "habitual box" and to learn how to get into and stay in Box 1, above.  (See Chapter 3 of Dr Byrne's book: Supreme Self Confidence).

# Counselling and therapy all over the world.

# What is CENT counselling?

Scripts and stories 

We also teach our clients they they "live inside of stories" about who they are, where they are, who the other players are, and how life will or must proceed. This has a lot in common with the TA concept of 'script decisions'.  Just as in CENT, in TA scripts are seen as decisions made in early childhood about who I am, what my life is like, and how my life is going to unfold.  These scripts or stories are stored below the level of conscious awareness - as part of the 'adaptive unconscious' - which effectively puts them in the driving seat of our lives.  Elements of the script come from parental injunctions, and some from observational learning, or modelling ourselves on people inside and outside the family home.  Those social learning elements interact with innate, genetic elements of drives, urges and predilections.

Parents not only give us injunctions to follow, but they also tend to make attributions regarding who they see us as being, who they think we are, how they think we will grow and develop.  Those attributions act like forms of hypnotic suggestion to us, in shaping our own self concept.  Parents can also discount our concerns, our actions or our attributes.  We tend to be able to integrate only those things which our parents allow - and to dump those aspects of our thinking, feeling, behaving that they discount.

~~~

If you like the content of this page, why not share it with your social networks? Click the button that follows:

 

 Thank you! :-)

~~~

~~~

More on our ego states (An extract from the popular e-book on CENT)

Towards the end of his life, Freud had begun to emphasize the ego over the id, and to begin to look at divisions and conflicts within the ego.  The language of Berne's TA[1] argues that individuals have three major subdivisions within their ego, and these are called the Parent ego state; the Child ego state; and the Adult ego state[60].  This is how this is normally represented graphically:

 

Figure 4: The basic functional model of Transactional Analysis - the Ego State Model

Our Parent ego-state (P) is said to comprise behaviours, thoughts and feelings that we copied from parents or parent figures: (Stewart and Joines, 1987; page 12).  To reproduce them later in life, we must have ‘internalized them', by modelling them from some parent figure in our past history.  Furthermore, the Parent ego-state has two sub-divisions: the Nurturing Parent (NP) and the Controlling Parent (CP) ego states: (Stewart and Joines; page 21).  An example of a Nurturing Parent behaviour would be providing comfort.  And an example of a Controlling Parent behaviour would be setting boundaries, or denying permission to do something.  A further complication of the Parent ego-state is that both the Nurturing Parent and the Controlling Parent have a positive and a negative side, in line with my model in Figure 9.11, above, showing the good (G) and bad (B) sides of the child and the parent.  Coding these states would then be GNP, BNP, GCP, BCP. 

Our Child ego-state is said to consist of behaviours, thoughts and feelings replayed from our own individual childhood.  We memorize everything that we experienced as a child, in largely inaccessible stores.  The Child ego-state is also split into two sub-divisions: the Adapted/Rebellious Child (AC/RC), on the one hand, and the Free or Natural Child (FC or NC), on the other.  Very often as children we may adapt to the demands of our parents; and adapt; and adapt; and then suddenly rebel.  This is an illustration of the functioning of the Adapted/Rebellious Child ego state.  An example of the Free or Natural Child ego state would be expressing excitement about a trip to the zoo; or expressing curiosity about worms in damp ground.  And again, both the Adapted Child and the Free Child ego-states have good (G) and bad (B) aspects, in line with Figure 9.11 above.  These states could then be coded as follows: GFC, BFC, GAC, BAC, GRC, BRC.

# Counselling and therapy all over the world.

# What is CENT counselling?

Our Adult ego state (A) consists of behaviours, thoughts and feelings which are "direct responses to the here-and-now".[2]  The Adult ego-state is often seen as the ‘computing power' of the brain/mind; the rational and reasoning aspect of the individual, relatively free of strong emotional colouration.  The early precursor of the Adult ego-state in the growing child is called the Little Professor (LP)[3], which is the part of the child that keeps asking the parent "Why is the sky blue?";  "Why can't I fly?"; and so on.  And again, the Adult ego state has its good (G) and bad (B) sides.  The Adult ego-state can be applied to planning a new town on a drawing board; or planning to rob a bank.  Both activities require logic, reason, critical thinking faculties, planning skills, etc.  The codes here would be: GA, BA, GLP, BLP.

Let us now link this PAC model back to the intersecting circles model of the mother and child:

 

Figure 5: How the ten elements of the PAC model - (4 Ps, 4Cs, 2 As) - emerge within the dialectical ego space between the mother and child

This is not too difficult to understand.  When mother operates from her ‘Nurturing Parent' ego state, we (her children) may - depending upon how we interpret the experience - internalize a sense of being loved, and of loving the one who does the loving.  Our response may be to ‘adapt' to mother.

As we become more mobile, mother may operate from ‘Controlling Parent' ego state, to protect us from harm, for example.  And we may internalize a (subjective, interpretative) sense of being mistreated, because she has frustrated us.  In this case, we may respond by ‘rebelling'.

# Counselling and therapy all over the world.

# What is CENT counselling?

Logically, the possibilities are as follows:

1. When mother behaves in what a group of her peers would agree is a good way, baby may respond by classifying her behaviour as either good or bad.  And he/she (baby) may adapt from his/her good or bad side; or he/she (baby) may rebel from his/her good or bad side.

2. When mother behaves in what a group of her peers would agree is a bad way, baby may respond by classifying her behaviour as either good or bad.  And he/she may adapt from his/her good or bad side; or he/she may rebel from his/her good or bad side.

3. To clarify: baby can interpret mother's behaviour as good or bad: regardless of whether or not it is good or bad. And baby can - but does not have to - (perversely) respond with rebellion against Good Nurturing Parent and with adaptation towards Bad Controlling Parent.

Internalized representations of others

Of course, mother is not restricted to operating from Nurturing Parent or Controlling Parent with her baby.  She can also operate from Good or Bad Adult ego state; and Good or Bad Child ego state.  When mother plays kindly with baby, she may be operating from a mixture of Good Nurturing Parent and Good Free Child.

When I talk about "internalized representations of good and bad aspects of significant others" in the future, I will be clearly referring to Good and/or Bad Nurturing Parent (GNP and/or BNP); Good and/or Bad Controlling Parent (GCP and/or BCP); Good and/or Bad Adapted Child (GAC and/or BAC); Good and/or Bad Rebellious Child (GRC and/or BRC); Good and/or Bad Adult (GA and/or BA); and Good and or Bad Little Professor (GLP and/or BLP).

---

[1]Berne, E. (1968) Games People Play: the psychology of human relationships.  London: Penguin Books.  And also:

Stewart, I. and Joines, V. (1987) TA Today: A new introduction to Transactional Analysis.  Nottingham and Chapel Hill: Lifespace Publishing.

[2]Stewart and Joines (1987); page 12

[3]Stewart and Joines (1987); page 31.

HOMEPAGE

THE HAPPINESS BLOG

SITE DESCRIPTION

~~~