Understanding Ego States

Understanding Ego States

The contents of this post are based on excerpts from *Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy (TAP) (ISBN 0 285 64776 8).

Ego States and Script constitute the two most important concepts of Transactional Analysis theory. An attempt is made to put forth what ego states are as the author understands them to be.

1. Ego States are the states of the 'Ego' of Freud's Super-ego, Ego, Id Model:

Berne writes in the preface to the TAP (pg.13) and I quote "the writer's concept of ego function is different from that of the majority of orthodox psychoanalysts, approaching more closely the viewpoints of Federn (1952) and his pupil Edoardo Weiss (1950)".  [Note: Speaking about orthodox psychoanalysis Berne writes (pg.12) this and I quote "Psychoanalysis and its cognates as used in this book are meant to refer to what is known as "orthodox" psychoanalysis, that is the resolution of infantile conflicts through the systematic use of free association, dealing with the phenomena of transference and resistance according to the principles of Freud.] 

2. Psychological reality is based on complete and discrete ego states: Berne writes in TAP (pg. 18) and I quote: "It is well-known to psychologists, ...... that complete ego states may be permanently retained. Federn is the one who first stressed on psychiatric grounds what Penfield later demonstrated in his remarkable neurosurgical experiments, that psychological reality is based on complete and discrete ego states".

3. Ego states are memories of one's mental and bodily ego: Berne writes in TAP (pg. 19) and I quote: "Weiss, Federn's chief exponent, has clarified and systematized Federn's ego psychology. Weiss describes an ego state as "the actually experienced reality of one's mental and bodily ego with the contents of the lived through period." In this connections Federn speaks of 'day-by-day ego states' ".

4. Ego states therefore are memories of impacting, lingering, difficult to forget experiences. Ego states have a bodily component. This is elaborated in the next item.

5. Wilder Penfield has these five things to say: 

1. The human brains retain memory of experiences. While we may 'forget' experiences the brain still has them recorded.
2. The brain records associated 'feelings' along with events. Both feelings and events stay locked together.
3. It is possible for a person to exist in two states simultaneously (one the present state of the experiencer and another the re-experienced state).
4. Hidden experiences when they are replayed are vivid and affect how we feel at the time of replaying.
5. There is a certain connection between mind and body i.e. the link is biological and psychological. As an example a psychological fear of spiders is associated with a biological feeling of nausea.

6. Psycholgical memories are constitutents of psychic entities. Berne writes this in an unpublished essay titled 'the ego' .......when the psyche is affected the mind is affected, when the brain is affected the body is affected.  This establishes a connection between ego state and mind. To say that ego states are states of the mind in as much as they are states of 'Freud's Bodily Ego', the 'Federn's Ego State'.

There is a bodily constitutent of an ego states. This is based on what is contained in item 3 above. 

7. Early Ego States are based on bodily experiences. Infants and very young children do not have capacity to think like adults. Their self concept is not thought out. It is bodily. This somatic component of early memories links activation of script with escalation of somatic ailments.

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The blogger, Ajit Karve can be reached at:

+91 9822024037 on WhatsApp - Please identify yourself. or by email at taforyouandme@gmail.com

Ajit Karve works out of Pune

He is a Psychotherapy Practitioner

a BTA in TA from ICTA Kochi