Egogram

The Egogram is a bar graph showing the amount of energy within the ego structure of the person and how he/she re-distributes this energy within the different ego states at a given point in time.

Free Child (FC) stands for the intuition, creativity, freedom, curiosity, spontaneity, liveliness, pleasure, expressiveness, and so on. A person with a high score of FC has a spontaneous nature, freely expresses emotions, associated with healthy, high creative power and full of vitality. The Free Child is spontaneous, expressive, self-loving, and inherently hedonistic. It is the version of the child that has not yet been “trained” so-to-speak. It can be fun and carefree, but will also rebel, bully, throw temper tantrums, or go to whatever means necessary to get what it wants. Healthy individuals are able to express the positive qualities of their Natural child instead of stifling or ignoring it.

Adapted Child (AC) stands for the honesty, cooperation, perseverance, courage, politeness, and so on. A person with a high AC tends to be a so-called “honor student” personality, obedient, highly cooperative, passive, behaved well, constantly feeling out of the surroundings and striving to meet that expectation. The Adapted Child is the “trained” version of the child, who is adaptive, compliant, submissive, and obedient. The Adapted Child is who your parents disciplined you to be. The Adapted Child can believe it is inherently “bad” or “damaged” and must seek external validation to be “good.” Operating from this ego state can be helpful if you are taught to exhibit positive traits such as respect, patience, empathy, etc. However, operating from this ego state can be harmful if you are taught to thoughtlessly submit to authority figures or obey orders that are harmful to you or others.

When a child is verbally or physically punished by a parent, the child's response may be to become rebellious or aggressive. The Rebellious Child (RC) mode develops out of a pattern of repeated rebellious behavior in response to efforts to suppress his or her feelings and desires. The RC trait forms both in response to critical parents and also to overly intrusive nurturing parents. This trait can also emerge when inconsistent parenting causes confusion or a sense of uncertainty in the child. RC has a positive side characterized by independence and autonomy that makes for a strong personality capable of bearing up under extremely difficult circumstances and of exercising considerable personal strength. On the other hand, RC modes tend toward excessive behavior, and often rebel by expressing overt dissatisfaction - behavior that is often destructive to human relationships. Some TA psychologist considers RC as a distinct mode.

Nurturing Parent (NP) stands for the kindness, compassion, tolerance, acceptability, empathy etc. People with a high NP score tend to be in contact with people with a nice personality, kind, caring, warm, accepting, protective attitude. The Nurturing Parent is loving, kind, and comforting. A common example of young children who operate from their nurturing parent ego state can be seen when they swaddle dolls and sing them lullabies. Operating from the Nurturing Parent ego state can be detrimental if you begin caring for others at your own expense, or if you enable others to depend on you.

Critical Parent (CP) stands for the sense of justice, morality, sense of responsibility, conscience and so on. People with high CP scores have a strong sense of justice with a leadership character and tend to be in contact with people with a critical attitude. The Critical Parent is judgmental, harsh, condemning, and blaming. The critical parent can be the voice in your mind judging you for crying, and telling you to, “stop being so emotional!” If you are operating in your Critical Parent state, you may even display a sour face, creased eyebrows, and crossed arms, or other nonverbal cues your own parents displayed towards you as a child. The critical parent can be helpful in situations where you must determine the right course of action, or the standards of behavior to which you ought to hold yourself and others accountable.

Adult (A) represents the intelligence, reason, calmness, logic, judgment, reality orientation, emotional stability, and so on. People with a high A score are reasonable in judgment, are calm and confident, emphasize objective facts, and can also control their own emotions well. The Adult ego state lives in the “here and now,” and is realistic. It makes logical and rational decisions, and reacts with confidence, calm and attentiveness to the present. It tends to be objective when interpreting and analyzing a situation, and weighs strengths and weaknesses without prejudice. It is the state that allows you to reason and evaluate all stimuli impartially for future use.