Ego states
Manifested in all persons are three different “ego states”: first, the child within the person, a regressive relic of the individual’s archaic past, hence an aspect of his or her “archaeopsyche”; second, the external parental agency (parent), whom the person has incorporated through identification, the “exteropsyche”; third, the grown-up, mature, reasonable “data-processing” adult self, the “neopsyche.” Each of these aspects of the person perceives reality differently: the child part is perceived pre-logically and distortedly; the parent part, judgmentally; the adult part, comprehensively on the basis of past experience. The three states are constantly operating in response to the needs of the person and the kinds of pastimes and games that he or she is indulging at the time.