How Does Transactional Analysis Reward its Practitioners (2)

Abstract: Practitioners of Transactional Analysis are aware about the meaning of Personalisation in the TA Context and also about the origins of the word ego as is used in Transactional Analysis. This blog goes to explain these two ideas.

1. Understanding Personalisation: Personalisation ordinarily means making some aspect of a person, looks, dress or fashion; object, thing, device or equipment; incident, event or happening; activity, programme or advertisement; and similar many other attractive to others. Personalisation is at the core of human activity. It is also widely used in advertising, marketing and sales. The newspaper industry survives by making some local, regional, national and international events or news significant by swinging the views of people to one person, issue or event. Thus personalisation results in drawing attention and rewarding recognition. Personalisation also means believing that events, statements or remarks relate to oneself (Tilney T. Dictionary of Transactional Analysis). A parent saying something like this to a visitor: "we have to work hard and pay attention to small details if we have to prosper in life" is taken up by a child in the house to mean: "I have to work hard and pay attention to small details if I have to do well and prosper in my life". Personalisation also generates reading meaning into statements. A mother telling a child this: "you are too young to have a drink" - when she finds her child curiously looking at its father sipping a drink, may be taken by the child to mean: "I can have a drink when I am grown up", thus giving itself a licence to drink later in life. 

TA Practitioners understand that every individual's self perception of value, worth, dignity, self-esteem and motivation is generated by the process of personalisation at some time in the person's life. They also know that every person has equal potential for these endowments in a beneficial way. TA practitioners are also aware that personalisation is a every day occurrence and that it points to controls shifting to Child control. Wife saying this to husband: "See how you are holding the cup" means "be careful the tea may spill". If the tea spills the husband may say this: "I am a careless. I will be careful next time". However if the wife had said: "The tea may spill. Hold the cup upright" may not have evoked the self statement. 

TA Practitioners are aware that the life scripts control progress of human life and affect one's capacity to be in charge of it. Script beliefs are at the core of script activation. Script beliefs are installed early in life and reinforced by events in growing years. Personalisation is one of the contributing factors in installing self statements about one's value, worth, dignity and self-esteem. This awareness helps them to remain free of moving to script control.

2. I, Self and Me: We use statements such as: I think; I feel; My view; My opinion; According to me; In retrospect my behaviour was inappropriate; Ultimately I myself had to do it; We use the words I, self and me interchangeably. William James (1842-1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist. He is regarded as the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. He is believed by many to be one of the most influential philosophers from the US. He is also labelled as being the "Father of American Psychology". (Excerpt from Wikipedia)

An unpublished essay by Eric Berne titled "the Ego" (Berne E. "The Ego" extracted from the Berne Archives) traces the evolution of the term ego from earliest times to his own times. He relies on the contribution of William James. William James defines what the 'pure ego' is.  (Jamesian Theory of Self in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James). A part of that section is quoted here to elaborate the concepts of I, Self and Me. Quote "William James' theory of self divided a person's mental picture of self into two categories: the "Me" and the "I". The "Me" can be thought of as a separate object or individual a person refers to when describing their personal experiences; While the "I" is the self that knows who they are and what they have done in their life. Both concepts are depicted in the statement, "I know it was me who ate the cookie." He called the "Me" part of self the "empirical me" and the "I" part "the pure Ego". For James, the "I" part of self was the thinking self, which could not be further divided. He linked this part of the self to the soul of a person, or what is now thought of as the mind. Educational theorists have been inspired in various ways by Jame's theory of self, and have developed various applications of these theories to curricular and pedagogical theory and practice. James further divided the "Me" part of self into 'the material self', 'the social self' and 'the spiritual self'."Unquote. It is this 'Pure Ego' that has been used by Sigmund Freud to theorise his personality theory and later by Paul Federn and Eric Berne. (Berne E. - An essay titled 'The Ego' from https://calisphere.org/item/b4b30659-6ee7-4e04-89ce-69b698e32d93/). I would gladly share a typed pdf of this essay on request by mail. 

This is a blog by:

Ajit Karve

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ajitpkarve@gmail.com

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