The Adult ego state is the source of reason, logic, and unemotional evaluation. It forms the basis for decision making and predicting outcomes.
Only one ego state can be in control of our emotions or behavior at a time.
Berne observed that many emotional difficulties in individual clients result from problems involving their ego states. Some personality problems come about because a person cannot separate his or her ego states and switches from one to another erratically and uncontrollably. For example, a young mother begins—in a calm rational way—to describe the behavior of her nine-year-old son. She talks about his impertinent and disrespectful behavior, and, as she does, she becomes enraged, her face turns beet-red, and she yells at her therapist that someday she is going to give her boy a beating he'll never forget! Transactional analysis would try to show her that she tends to slip from her reasonable Adult state to the state of an angry Parent who demands complete respect and subservience. Berne called this structural problem of the personality confusion.
PERSONALITIES: Normal Personality, Confused, Excluded, Contaminated
Exclusion is another structural problem. An individual rigidly adheres to one ego state, locking out the other two. A Don Juan gives free expression to his Child, while his Adult and Parent states are suppressed. A workaholic, on the other hand, permits his Parent to block the expression of his Adult and Child ego states.
Contamination is a third personality problem. One ego state subverts another. A woman cannot commit herself fully to her chosen profession because her Child has undermined her sense of determination by persuading her that a wealthy knight in white armor will soon appear to relieve her of the need to exert herself.
WHAT TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS IS LIKE
Transactional analysis normally begins with "structural analysis" in which clients are taught how to distinguish ego states that may be confused, excluded, or contaminated. This phase of therapy is sometimes done on an individual basis and sometimes in a group workshop or classroom environment. Therapy then proceeds to transactional analysis proper, in which frustrating or painful forms of communication and unsatisfying life directions are discussed. Most commonly this is done in a group setting, since a group encourages a variety of different styles of communication.