Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy (19->26) - Chapter Three

Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy (19->26) - Chapter Three

I will now talk about pages 19-26. In this chapter, Dr. Berne talks about the function of the personality.

First, without going into too much detail, I wanted to discuss the general theory of structure and function (that I am familiar with).

Let’s start with something relatively simple. What is the structure and function of a cat?

Structure

A cat has parts: bones, skin, fur, eyes, a brain, and so on

A cat has a shape: two legs in front, two legs in back, etc.

Function

A cat does certain things: reproduces, meows, plays

A cat performs a function: catches mice, keeps company, lives

In this way, the concept of a cat can be explained. These are the various "causes" that makes a cat a cat. This analysis of a cat has been inspired by Aristotle's view of causality.

Aristotle talks about four different causes:

Material cause

Formal cause

Efficient cause

Final cause

The cause that most people are familiar with is efficient cause. That's where one thing directly brings about the existent of the other thing in a direct "cause and effect" relationship.

This is misleading however, for the cause of the personality is not simply one antecedent "event." What causes the personality can be said to be its various structural elements as well as its functions.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have already discussed the basic structure of the personality but here's a brief synopsis:

Structure

exteropsyche (or Parent)

neopsyche (or Adult)

archaeopsyche (or Child)

These "psychic organs" are in relationship with each other in a myriad of ways.

These different parts can inhibit or allow each other to function the way they are meant to. (This will be discussed further in the chapter on psychopathology.)

The diagram is drawn such that the Parent is at the top, the Adult is in the middle and the Child is on the bottom. Ideally the model of the personality would have three or even four dimensions to it, but as Dr. Berne says, "there are sufficiently thought-provoking features in the two dimensions" (47).

Ideally, the Adult would mediate between the Child and the Parent aspects so as to keep the person in tune with reality. Psychic energy inhabits these organs sometimes simultaneously so different parts can be active at the same time.

Often times the Child will overtake the Adult and the result would be something like a tantrum in the case of the natural Child having executive power, or coyness in the case of the adapted Child having executive power.

If the Parent overtakes the Adult, then the result would be scorn or a judgmental attitude.

Dr. Berne further subdivides the Parent, Adult and Child ...but he doesn't get into that until the last part of the book.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

It is still quite a mystery to me how these parts serve us, but they are each responsible for different tasks in a human's life. I think it would be helpful to imagine the role that actual parents, adults and children play in the world.

What are the functions of actual human beings?

Humans can create, reproduce, interact with one another, think, feel, love...

What are the functions of parents?

One reason why parents exist is because without parents, there would be no children, and then the human population would cease. Parents guide their children toward becoming adults, but once children become adults, it seems as though the parent's function is less obvious. In a sense, parents serve as a store of wisdom that both adults and children can benefit from. So the parent's function actually does continue on past the point of merely raising children.

What are the functions of "adults"?

The function of adults seems more complex to me. Their function is less obvious than that of the parent. What is the function of a mature human being? Berne described in Games People Play some ways in which the Adult (ego state) finds pleasure: "skiing, flying, sailing, and other mobile sports" (27). From this I can argue that one of the purposes of adults is to enjoy the fruits of life. One needs to learn from their parental figures (or whomever) before one can partake in certain complex activities as "adults." Children can have fun too of course, but it's possible that a new type of fun becomes available once a child grows into an adult. This is the fun that comes from learning and applying new complex things. "Adults" are also responsible for their actions, and relationships with other people. The function of an adult is to make proper judgments concerning the outside world.

It may be tempting to say that parents and children are the only two types of people and that's where this analogy falls short. The Adult (ego state) seems to be innate within every personality and even as children people have what is known to Dr. Berne as "The Professor", an Adult component to the Child ego state. This becomes the intuition in actual adults.

The adult is defined as a "fully mature person." One can imagine such a person to be one who is able to fulfill their own needs, however Berne recommends that "mature" and "immature" be erased from one's "clinical vocabulary" due to the negative connotations that these words have developed.

What are the functions of children?

This to me is the most complex. Berne writes in Games People Play that "in the Child ego state reside intuition, creativity, and spontaneous drive and enjoyment" (27). In order for people to exist, they must at one time take the form of a child. The function of children seems to take many varieties depending on what angle. To parents, the child's function may be to cooperate or be obedient. Another function is to provide "charm, pleasure, and creativity" to the family life (GPP 26). Ultimately, it seems that the function of a child is to be just that, a child. This may not seem like a profound statement, but many people like to think of function as instrumental rather than intrinsic. The purpose of a rock may be to break a window, but another purpose of a rock may be just to exist ...as a rock. It seems impossible to know the final purpose of anything, for our lifespans are limited and everything exists in various layers of context.

                                                      ~-~-~-~-~-~

I'm imagining that Dr. Berne talks more about this in A Layman's Guide to Psychotherapy. This chapter mostly consists of function in terms of ego state activity itself and not "the larger picture." I just wanted to talk about the general idea of function in order to help myself understand the more specific features of ego states.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Personalities are similar to other bodily systems in that they "react to stimuli." Each psychic organ reacts in a different way.

Adult (ego state)

"The neopsyche is principally concerned with transforming stimuli into pieces of information, and processing and filing that information on the basis of previous experience" (19).

Child (ego state)

"The archaeopsyche tends to react more abruptly, on the basis of pre-logical thinking and poorly differentiated or distorted perceptions" (19).

Parent (ego state)

"The exteropsyche is judgmental in an imitative way, and seeks to enforce sets of borrowed standards" (19).

                                                ~-~-~-~-~

According to these descriptions, it seems as if the Adult is the most valuable part of the psyche, however Berne states in Games People Play that "each of them, Parent, Adult, and Child, is entitled to equal respect and has its legitimate place in a full and productive life" (28).

I would like to know more about how the Parent and Child contribute to the personality. So far in reading, it seems they only tend to cause trouble, interrupting the natural flow of life... I will talk about "exclusion" in a later post, but it seems important to say that when there is only one aspect of the personality dominating, there tends to be trouble, even if it is the Adult that always has executive power. A person loses the capacity to experience certain enjoyments.

------------------------------------------------------------

One of the most hard to understand concepts for me is cathexis, or psychic energy. It seems to basically mean awareness. In the example that Dr. Berne provides, Mrs. Tettar repeatedly asks the therapist for advice concerning problems in her life about the maid and other various things. The therapist informs her that while her Adult may be seeking information, her Child is trying to manipulate the therapist. (See "Why Don't You - Yes But" in Games People Play for more information on this type of manipulation) The therapist works with her on this problem (in unidentified ways so far) and she gradually regains her composure, and pleasant demeanor. Then as she is leaving, she returns briefly back to her former state of whining before coming to and saying "There I go again!"

Her cathexis transferred between her Child and her Adult several times in the course of this interaction. Her Child was cathected when she was whining and it "flowed" back into her Adult, rather abruptly, when she realized that she was whining again.

There is another concept that Berne uses: executive power. In Berne's words, "[...] the ego state which is cathected in a certain way will have executive power" (21 [italics added]). It seems that the ego state with the most "cathexis" has executive power, but it could be a different property than "amount"...like "strength" of cathexis or "presence." I'm not sure.

So, there are different ego states and they are all connected in complex relationships. They relate to one another in the manner that suits their functions. The Parent will be judgmental or nurturing toward the Child and Adult (although I'm having trouble understand how it is nurturing). The Adult will be analytical toward the Child and Parent. The Child will adapt or be spontaneous toward the Parent and Adult.

Depending on which ego state has the higher cathexis, it will determine which ego state has the executive power. Can two ego states be cathected at once? When Mrs. Tettar is whining, the Child has the executive power because her Child is seeking out advice just so her Child can reject it. Does she actually want the information though? Or is her awareness such that part of her wants the information and part of her wants to reject the therapist? Or does she not want the information at all?

Perhaps these questions will be answered upon further study...

The topic that Dr. Berne talks about next is ego boundaries. Given that there are separate ego states and awareness can inhabit all of them, it makes sense to ask the question: Where does one ego state end and another begin?

As Berne has said, the diagram for describing ego states may very well be three or four-dimensional. The ego state that I started off with, writing this entry, is different than the one I currently have...unless it's not and I've been cathected in my Adult ego state the whole time (I highly doubt it). I don’t really feel a distinction between “me's”, however.

Only on rare occasions, when, let’s say I'm playing video games and I get angry because someone else is cheating, then I might say something nasty and wonder afterward... "Who said that? It didn't feel like I did"

In Berne's terms, there is a boundary that people feel between what is their "real self" and their "not real self." Mrs. Tettar had a problem with compulsive cleaning and hand washing. She usually saw this as "not real self" because she was well aware of healthy cleanliness as opposed to obsessive cleanliness. This compulsive hand washing could be described as ego syntonic or ego dystonic, to use Berne's phrases.

When a person is aware of an obsession or compulsion of theirs, but it is seen as not part of their "real self," it can be said to be ego dystonic. If said person "believes" in their obsession, it can be said to be ego syntonic. Sometimes a person will not "believe" in their obsession but will compulsively do it anyway, in which case it is syntonic with the ego state that is seen as their "real self" and dystonic with the ego state that is seen as "not real self." Mrs. Tettar's "real self" was predominantly her Adult ego state, while her "not real self" was her Child ego state, so in that case her hand washing was Adult ego dystonic, and Child ego syntonic.

However in her "psychotic" state, she did see her compulsive hand washing as part of her "real self" because in that state, she was her Child and her Adult was decommissioned.

                                                ~-~-~-~-~

To highlight an example from my life, I feel as though my desire to smoke cigarettes is not part of my "real self." Intellectually I understand that smoking cigarettes causes cancer, emphysema, strokes, and a plethora of other things that I do not want in my life. I'm not going to say I completely do not want to smoke cigarettes and I am in a psychotic state right now where every time I light up a cigarette, it is my Child ego state doing so.  In fact it is just the opposite.

I feel as though I am well aware that each cigarette brings me closer and closer to an end I do not wish for myself. I do feel as though there is some "magical thinking" involved in this habit though or else I would quit and not in two months, but right this instant.

Perhaps this is an example of how my Child does have much influence over my life and I'm not fully aware of it. I feel a weird dynamic going on where my Child wants to keep smoking because its "fun." My Adult wants to keep smoking because if I quit, I'm afraid all sorts of feelings will come rising to the surface, like boredom and emptiness. My Parent is the only part of me that wants me to quit... and I'm not even sure if that's true.

It's possible that my Child always overtakes my Adult at some point in my thinking. In that way my smoking is Child ego syntonic and that is also my "real self." When I sincerely do not want to light up a cigarette and I do anyway, my Adult is my "real self" and my smoking is Adult ego dystonic. I do see myself as more of a representation of a Child ego state however, than an Adult ego state. I don't really think things through. I pursue impossible goals. I do random things in life that I often regret. What does this mean? Is it "okay" that I identify as the Child ego state. I would prefer if it were my Adult ego state governing my behaviors with forsight and wisdom, not my Child ego state governing with spontaneity and funniness.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Berne talks about different types of cathexis: free, unbound, and bound.

Bound cathexis means the ego state is in latent stage

Unbound cathexis means the ego state is exerting some type of influence on other ego states

Free cathexis means the person's awareness is actually exerting some type of influence.

To return to my smoking example, my Child may be exerting some type of influence on my Adult ego state, when I decide to smoke a cigarette, in which case my Child has unbound cathexis and this predominates while my free cathexis still resides in my Adult. In this case the Adult is still experienced as my "Self" but the Child has executive power because the unbound cathexis residing within my Child is stronger than the free cathexis residing in my Adult

If my Child is in a bound state, and I decide to smoke a cigarette, my decision will be an Adult decision (perhaps influenced by my Parent though). I will weigh the pros and cons and determine that although I may get cancer later, I will enjoy this cigarette now because I value immediate gratification over long term healthiness. While this isn't a healthy decision, it is based on Adult data-processing... but it raises the question... why would I choose to do something I know is wrong when I'm strictly acting from an analytical perspective. Perhaps my analysis of values is simply not fully thought out and if I were to complete the equation, I wouldn't smoke that cigarette... I'm not sure about this one.

In a psychotic state, I would enthusiastically light up a cigarette from my Child perspective, and feel as though it was "me" making that decision because my Child would have unbound cathexis as well as free cathexis. Later on I may look back and say "Why did I do that?" and feel bewildered over my poor decision as I did when I got angry at the cheater in the video game.

If I sincerely do intend to quit smoking, which I do, the problem seems to be how to strengthen the cathexis of my Adult so that I can overide my Child impulse to light up cigarettes.

Berne discusses three factors that affect a shift in ego state:
1) "the forces acting on each state"

2) "the permeability of the boundaries between ego states"

3) "the cathectic capacity of each ego state"

Berne does not yet reveal the techniques he uses to effect these changes but he does say something about them.

1) The active cathexis (unbound plus free) must be increased in the Adult. This seems like it requires a competent therapist to effect these changes. Can one increase one's own active cathexis by oneself or is therapy needed?

2) The boundary between the Adult and Child must be strengthened and clarified "so as to 'capture' this increased cathexis of the Adult" (25).

3) The "cathectic capacity" of the Child must be increased "both absolutely and relatively by the resolution of infantile conflicts, so that the Child would be less apt to become active at inopportune times in an unhealthy way" (25).

So far the techniques I've been employing which I learned from a former therapist are to focus on the task at hand and to detach from the outcome. Just being aware of what's going on in one's mind seems the first step toward liberation. Detaching from outcome helps me by staying in the moment and not concerning myself with things that are out of my control.

I still have a lot to learn in the application of structural analysis. The ability to distinguish good reasons from bad reasons, reality from fantasy, and even Adult from Child is not yet cultivated in my mind. In Berne's view, everyone with enough functioning brain tissue has the capacity to strengthen their Adult ego state. The task seems to be to get my neocortex operating as the predominant organ and not the archicortex. I may need help with this from a professional. I'm still trying to figure myself out.