In historical Diagnosis, we ask questions about how the person was as a child. We ask about the person’s parents and parent figures. This lets us double check on our impressions of the person’s functional ego states. It also lets us know about ego state structure

1. Historical
diagnosis

2. Prepared By
Manu Melwin Joy
Research Scholar
School of Management Studies
CUSAT, Kerala, India.
Phone – 9744551114
Mail – manu_melwinjoy@yahoo.com
Kindly restrict the use of slides for personal purpose.
Please seek permission to reproduce the same in public
forms and presentations.

3. Historical Diagnosis
• In historical Diagnosis, we ask
questions about how the person
was as a child.
• We ask about the person’s
parents and parent figures.
• This lets us double check on our
impressions of the person’s
functional ego states.
• It also lets us know about ego
state structure.

4. Historical Diagnosis
Historical analysis deals with
both process and content.

5. Historical Diagnosis
• I might see you in a group,
hunching forward with a
frown on your face.
• Your hand is up covering
your eyes.
• I hear you say “ I am
confused. I cant think.”
• Behaviorally, I judge you to
be in Adapted Child.

6. Historical Diagnosis
• For historical diagnosis, I might ask
you “ How did you feel as a child
when somebody asked you to
think”.
• Or perhaps might say “ To me, you
look like a six year old now. Do you
connect with anything in your
childhood?”.
• You might recall “ Yes, Dad used to
badger me to read books, then
laugh because I couldn’t get all
words right. So I used to play stupid
just to spite him.”

7. Historical Diagnosis
• At another moment, you may be
leaning back in your chair.
• Tilting your head back, you look
down your nose at your neighbor.
• You tell her “What you have just
said isn’t right. Here’s how things
really are..”
• Perhaps, she cower down,
hunches her shoulders and raises
her eyebrows in Adapted Child
style.

8. Historical Diagnosis
• Now I have both behavioral and
social clues that you are in
Controlling Parent.
• For a historical Check, I might ask “
Will you freeze your position for a
second? Did either of your parents
sit like that when they were telling
you how things were?”.
• Maybe you burst out laughing and
reply “ Yeah, Its dad again.”

9. Historical Diagnosis
• Your report thus give me a double
check on my behavioral diagnosis.
• Seeing you showing the set of
behaviors which I think fit with your
Adapted Child ego state, I have
confirmed that your internal
experience is a replay of the way you
responded to parental pressures in
your childhood.
• As you show parental clues
behaviorally, your report to me that
you are copying the behaviors of one
of your own parents.

10. Activity
• Look back at the list of behavioral
clues you have drawn out for
yourself.
• Use historical diagnosis to check
the clues for each ego states.
• As you go through the CP and NP
clues, find if you recall what
parent or parent figure you are
copying with each behavior. What
are the copied thoughts and
feelings which accompany the
behaviors?

11. Activity
• For Adapted Child and
Free Child clues, recall
situations in your
childhood when you
behaved in that same way.
• How old were you? What
were you thinking and
feeling at these times?

12. Activity
• For Adult, check that behavior you
have listed are not a replay of your
childhood nor a parental behavior
you have swallowed whole.
• You may find that you want now to
shift some of your behavioral clues
to a different column.
• For instance, some of the clues you
first listed for Adult may turn out
to fit better in Adapted Child.

13. Thank You

14. Other TA topics available on slideshare
1. Strokes - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/strokes-24081607.
2. Games People Play - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/psychological-
games-people-play.
3. Structural Analysis - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/the-ego-state-model.
4. What is TA? - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/what-ta-is
5. Cycles of Development - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/cycles-of-
developement-pamela-levin-transactional-analysis.
6. Stages of Cure - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/stages-of-cure.
7. Transactions - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/transactions-33677298.
8. Time Structuring - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/time-structuring.
9. Life Position - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/life-position.
10. Autonomy - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/autonomy-33690557.
11. Structural Pathology - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/structural-pathology.
12. Game Analysis - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/game-analysis-33725636.
13. Integrated Adult - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/integrated-adult.
14. Stroke Economy - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/stroke-economy-
33826702.