Ego-state therapy

Ego-state therapy is a psychodynamic approach to treat various behavioural and cognitive problems within a person. It uses techniques that are common in group and family therapy, but with an individual patient, to resolve conflicts that manifest in a "family of self" within a single individual.

The concept of segmentation of personality has been around for many years, and that of ego states was highlighted by the psychoanalyst Paul Federn. The creation of ego-state therapy is attributed to John G. Watkins, an analysand of Edoardo Weiss who was himself analysed by Federn.

Distinct ego states—in the most rigorous sense—do not normally develop except in cases of multiple personality disorder. However, ego state therapy identifies and names facets of a patient's personality, e.g., the "frightened child" or "control freak". After the characteristics and function of each ego state are identified, the therapist uses various psychotherapeutic techniques (e.g. behavioral, cognitive, analytic, or humanistic therapies) to achieve a kind of integration or internal diplomacy. Ego state therapy may use hypnosis, but is not necessarily required to do so, employing conversational technique instead. Ego state therapy has sometimes been able to resolve complex psychodynamic problems relatively quickly.

In the development of the human personality, there are two processes that are essential: integration and differentiation. Through integration a person learns to put concepts together, like a shirt and a pair of trousers, to build more complex units known as clothes. By the person separates general concepts into specific meaning, such as the differences between a comfortable shirt and an uncomfortable shirt. Such differentiation allows humans to experience one set of behaviours in a different situation to another.

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