Ego-States – Theoretical
Introduction
"Ego-state" is not a new term in psychology. The term was introduced by Paul Federn, an early colleague of Freud's. You can read about Federn's work in the book, Ego Psychology and the Psychoses, edited by E. Weiss (1952).
The phenomenon that the term refers to, however, has gone by many names and was observed long before Federn. The earliest written report I'm aware of is by Paracelsus in the early 1500's.
Dual-personality; doppelganger; sub-personality; alter-personality; dissociative personality; psychological complex; and alter-ego are the major names I'm aware of besides ego-state that have been applied to this phenomenon. I began using the term ego-state because it seemed emotionally more neutral than the term "personality". I also studied and practiced the "Ego-State Therapy" model presented by John and Helen Watkins, and so adopted the term.
All the names point to a psychological phenomenon in which two or more personalities appear to be present and operating in the same body. The strength and autonomy of these personalities can fall anywhere on the spectrum from powerful and distinct to slight and negligible. These personalities are what I'm calling ego-states, no matter where they fall on the spectrum. What they all do share in common is that each is a center of consciousness, and so can be in conflict with the conscious self.
The following is a chapter taken from my manuscript, Soul-Centered Healing. In the book, there are four chapters on ego-states – five, if you count past lives – and this one is the first. I think it offers a good introduction to the phenomena of ego-states.
Chapter 11
Ego-States: The Inner Beings
The astral domain has certain unique properties, one of which is the principle that astrally or emotionally charged thoughts have a life of their own. At the astral energetic level, certain thoughts, either conscious or unconscious, may exist as distinct energy fields or thoughtforms with unique shapes, colors and characteristics. Some thoughts, especially those charged with emotional intensity, can have a separate identity apart from their creator. Certain thoughts may actually be charged with subtle energetic substance and exist (unconsciously) as thoughtforms in the energetic fields of their creators. These thoughtforms can frequently be seen by clairvoyant individuals who are very sensitive to higher energetic phenomena. - (Richard Gerber M.D., from Vibrational Medicine)
Ego-states are created for the purpose of protection and survival of the self. When a person cannot consciously tolerate what is happening in his or her present experience – physically, emotionally, or psychologically – the protective part of the mind will trigger the creation of an ego-state. A painful accident, a feeling of terror, or the deep hurt of rejection – all are examples of situations where a person’s consciousness may be overwhelmed, or so threatened, that the protective part reacts. When that happens, an ego-state is created to take over and handle the immediate situation until it is safe again for the self to resume consciousness. In psychology, as I’ve written about earlier, we call this dissociation.[i] I picture it like this.
Figure 1: Creation of an Ego-State
When an event occurs that is not painful or threatening (Event Y), the self remains conscious and aware throughout the experience. If, however, an event is too painful, hurtful or threatening (Event X), then the protective part reacts and triggers the creation of an ego-state to separate the pain or trauma from the conscious self.
By taking over consciousness, the ego-state separates the experience of pain, distress, or fear from the conscious self and “holds” or “manages” the consciousness, so to speak, until it is safe for the self to return. We might say that the self’s normal consciousness is temporarily suspended and the ego-state is the ‘stand-in’ for the conscious self, like a stunt double standing in for the actor.
Take for example a four-year-old child who is playing in her yard one day when the neighbor’s dog is incited and bites her. In the child’s shock and panic, a four-year-old ego-state is created who takes over and remains conscious until it is safe for the child to resume consciousness. Once the child is rescued from the situation, and the threat of pain and danger recedes, she begins to calm down. Somewhere in the process, she will also have begun a return to her normal awareness. When she does, there may be little conscious memory of what happened. Her instinctive reaction, in fact, will be to forget.
There may even be a complete dissociation of the experience where the child has no memory at all of what occurred. She may believe that she was attacked by a dog because people tell her so, and because she sees the evidence of the bite wounds on her arm, but consciously she has no memory of it. Either way, she is safe now and, unless reminded, in the following weeks and months, any memory or thought of it is likely to fade. Years later, if asked, she may not even remember that it happened.
The Unconscious or Psychic Dimension
This protection of the self from immediate pain and trauma through dissociation is the ego-state’s primary purpose and reason for being created. Ego-states are created in reaction to overwhelming pain, fear or threat. The problem, though, is that an ego-state, once created, does not dissolve or die, or just disappear, when the crisis or trauma has passed. Once the person resumes consciousness, the ego-state, as a conscious being or entity, moves to another level or dimension of consciousness, outside normal awareness, where it continues to live in its own conscious reality, separate from the conscious self. (See Figure 2.)
Figure 2: Ego-State Moves to the Unconscious
Once created, an ego-state continues to exist. When the pain or trauma that precipitated its creation has passed, and it is safe for the self to resume consciousness, the ego-state does not dissolve or disappear, but moves to the unconscious level.
It is not a physical reality or dimension that the ego-state moves to. Psychologists would call it the “unconscious.” Gerber calls it “the astral domain.” I think of it as a “psychic realm.” Whatever term we use, it is a nonphysical dimension of mind, outside time and space; a realm ruled by consciousness and thought, not matter. If you think it, or believe it, it is.
In this realm, an ego-state can be any age and take any form that is needed or will work at the time of the trauma. Most ego-states are in human form, for example, but not all. I have met ego-states presenting as animals or plants, or even as cartoon figures or a vaporous form.[ii] Each one, though, is conscious, intelligent and able to communicate.
While an ego-state’s reality is usually modeled on, or reflects, our three-dimensional world, it is a realm that does not obey the laws of physical reality. In this realm, a child can fit into a thimble, grow a new arm, or even fly. In this realm, monsters can be real, and a child can disappear into a Never-Never-Land to escape what is happening in the present. It is the ego-state’s consciousness and perception that matters here and largely determines its reality. And each ego state lives its own reality like parallel universes existing side by side.
What is consistent for these ego-states, though, is that each lives in a reality born out of trauma and threat. Ego-states are defensive creations. They don’t come into existence when the self is safe or having a good time. Ego-states are created in reaction to pain and fear, when the self is in trouble and cannot handle what is happening. So when an ego-state moves to the psychic level, it is this painful reality that it takes with it. The ego-state’s fragmentary experience and consciousness becomes the basis of its reality. It is separated from the ongoing flow of life, but the ego-state continues to live in a world centered in its pain and trauma long after the trauma has passed for the conscious self. The ego-state knows no other world than the world that gave it birth.
Living in this psychic dimension, ego-states continue to serve the primary purpose of protection for which they were originally created. Each ego-state, conscious and alive in its own reality, continues to keep its experience of pain, fear or distress separate from the conscious mind. The ego-state is like a bubble of consciousness whose purpose is to keep away from, and keep from breaking into, the self’s conscious awareness.
Every defense has its price, and creates its problems. The problem with this defense of dissociation is that in keeping the pain or distress separate from the conscious self, the ego-state is keeping the pain alive at another level. Like burying toxic waste, how deep is deep enough?
This still might not be a problem if there were no ongoing connection or interaction between the conscious self and the ego-states once they were moved to the unconscious level. This is not the case, however. There is not an absolute boundary between these levels. Ego-states can, and do, affect the conscious self. How frequently, or how strongly, depends on the conscious person and the ego-state(s) involved. The effects can range, though, from negligible to overpowering.
This happens when an ego-state is triggered by events, feelings, or thoughts occurring for a person at a conscious level that resemble or match the ego-state’s experience in one or more significant ways. When this confluence happens, it can trigger an ego-state and it will react. It reacts, though, from within its own reality.
Take the example again of the four-year-old attacked by the dog. It’s thirty years later, and the child, now an adult, is standing in her driveway talking to her neighbor when she begins to feel an overwhelming panic. She suddenly breaks into a sweat and her heart starts to race. The woman has no idea why she is feeling so terrified. She only knows that she wants to run into the house or get into her car as fast as possible. The only thing stopping her is that she’s afraid her friend will think she’s crazy. (She may even be questioning her own sanity at this point.)
The 34-year old may or may not have noticed the man approaching from several houses away who is walking his dog. The four-year-old ego-state, however, has noticed. At an unconscious level, the earlier trauma has been re-activated. 4-year-old has seen the dog and she is in a panic. To the four-year-old ego-state, in her limited consciousness, every dog is the dog and she responds in the only way she knows. She wants to run away.
This is what I call “blending.” The 4-year-old ego-state has been triggered, and it’s as if she begins to move toward the conscious mind. (See Figure 3.) The closer she approaches the conscious self, the more her feelings and emotions begin to resonate and the more 34-year-old starts to become aware and experience the feelings of anxiety and a growing panic.
Figure 3: Ego-State Blending with the Conscious Self
An ego-state is triggered by an event in present reality that resembles or touches on its own experience. Once triggered, the ego-state moves toward the conscious level. Depending on the particular ego-state, it might break into consciousness and the person will remember the experience, or it might take over as the alter-personality does. Most of the time, however, an ego-state blends its feelings, emotions and perceptions with the conscious self.
I call this process “blending” because the 4-year-old ego-state does not break into consciousness. The conscious self, 34-year-old, is not remembering the dog’s attack while she stands there with her neighbor. She is not having flashbacks of her front yard nor is she thinking back 30 years. She is not even aware of 4-year-old directly and, therefore, has no way to distinguish between the 4-year-old’s panic and her own. So, 34-year-old will most likely focus her attention in her external reality and look there, first, for what is threatening her because at a conscious level she has no internal reference by which to understand what she is feeling.
This blending by an ego-state can be thought of as a secondary level of defense for a person. The triggering of an ego-state serves to alert and mobilize the self to defensive action against a situation known (by the ego-state) to be threatening or painful. In this way, ego-states act as a kind of early warning system that can alert the self to dangers, and even lead the self to take evasive action to prevent or avoid those dangers.. The problem is that alert is based on old information.
In our example, 34-year-old may find an excuse to end her conversation with the neighbor and hurry back to the house. Or, she might look around and reassure herself that everything is all right… including the man and dog that are approaching. They do not appear threatening, but she watches them as they pass just the same.
Either way, once the crisis is over, the 4-year-old ego-state returns to her normal place within the self and 34-year-old’s feelings of panic and fear start to subside. Before long, she is feeling back to normal and able to get on with her day. In a simple case such as this, the panic reaction may not happen often enough to really warrant any serious concern. 34-year-old might look at it as “just one of those weird things,” and after a day or two, she may not think about the incident again.
This triggering of ego-states and blending with consciousness happens to all of us every day, and maybe several times a day. When something occurs for a person that is close to an ego-state’s original issue or trauma, the ego-state can be triggered and react as if the trauma is happening once again, or threatening to happen. A person sees something, somebody says something to them, or they’re in the middle of doing something, when they suddenly react with feelings and thoughts that do not fit, or that threaten to overwhelm them emotionally.
The person may not know why they are feeling a certain way, or having a particular reaction, or why all of a sudden it seems like a dark cloud has closed in on them. They may know their feelings or reactions are out of proportion to what the situation calls for, or maybe they only become aware of that afterwards when the feelings and reactions have subsided. Often, at these times, there doesn’t seem to be any connection between what is going on in their present conscious reality and what they are feeling or how they are reacting. The mood, thoughts and emotions may last only a moment or two, or they could persist for hours.
How an ego-state affects a person once it has been triggered will depend on the particular ego-state involved. It also will depend on the conscious person’s awareness, and whether they possess the psychological and emotional strengths to tolerate and resolve what is happening without having to shut down, fight someone or escape. The blending can be mild, or it can be strong enough to interfere with what a person is doing, even causing them to change their course of action altogether (like 34-year-old running to her house in a panic, but not sure why).
The problem with this defense, however, is that the ego-state who has been triggered is living in a limited reality, and the pain or threat it is feeling and reacting to is based on its own experience and perception, not the conscious self’s present reality. The ego-state is acting, so to speak, on old information; it’s a protection based in past reality. So, when an ego-state is triggered, it alerts the self to a danger (or potential danger), but it also conflicts with the conscious self in two significant ways.
First, when an ego-state is triggered, the person is caught between two realities – the conscious physical reality and the psychic reality being lived by the ego-state. The dichotomy between these two realities is confounded by a second dichotomy. When an ego-state is triggered, the person is also caught between two identities. At one level, an ego-state is a part of the self, “this is me.” At another level, though, for the purposes of protection, there is a denial of self. The conscious self and ego-state remain separate beings. “That isn’t me,” meaning “that pain, fear, distress… is not mine.”
These dichotomies – between the physical and psychic reality, between present and past, between the self’s ego-identity and the ego-state identities – set up an ambiguity and a tension within the self. They create a deep ambivalence between the conscious self (who knows, but doesn’t know what happened) and each ego-state (who is self, but is not self).
The boundaries of identity and reality here stretch and blend. 34-year-old is not 4-year-old, but then again, she is. The dog several houses away is not a threat to 34-year-old, but then again, it is – a dog is a dog. And dogs can bite. She knows, without knowing how, that it could happen in an instant, and logic backs her up. There really are grounds for fear and panic.
If 34-year-old was a client and, through hypnosis, I talked to this 4-year-old ego-state today, she probably would not know who I am, or that I was talking to her from the year 2004. This would not be unusual. Most ego-states, on first contact, are not aware of the present physical reality. She also, most likely, would not even be aware of 34-year-old, the conscious personality, who is now an adult and living in a very different reality from her own. 4-year-old, for example, would not know about 34-year-old’s husband and children, or the house she lives in or the work she does.
I find that ego-states often are surprised and amazed when they learn of the conscious self in an adult body and see the changes that have occurred since their own creation. It’s as if they have lived in a bubble of time. When they first learn of these changes, it’s as if they do a double take, and then realize that there is a bigger picture. In the healing process, this realization in itself often brings the ego-state some relief and creates a greater willingness to communicate with me. I have to be careful, though. This awareness of the present reality can also frighten an ego-state and be overwhelming. Because of this, I always tell an ego-state right from the start that we are there to help, and I will continue to emphasize that message as we also move to the core issue – the pain and distress it carries.
4-year-old’s lack of awareness of the present reality is not because she has been asleep. She hasn’t been. She is awake and still living in the reality in which she was created. She is still four-years-old; it is still a clear and sunny day, and she is still in her front yard. If I asked her, she could tell me where she is in her yard, what she is wearing, and what toys are there. She could also tell me what is going on around her and, if willing, she could tell me what is happening to her.
More importantly, 4-year-old can also share her experience directly with 34-year-old at a conscious level if she chooses. In contrast to blending, I picture sharing as an ego-state not only moving close to consciousness, but entering consciousness. (Figure 3.)
Figure 4. Ego-state Sharing to Consciousness
By sharing, an ego-state brings its experience, not only close to, but enters into consciousness. The conscious self will begin to remember, and to some extent, relive the ego-state’s experience(s).
Unlike with blending, where the conscious self and ego-state remain unconscious of each other’s presence, in sharing, the 4-year-old opens her consciousness, so to speak, to 34-year-old and 34-year-old, then, will see, feel, hear or know the experience of the attack itself.[iii] At that point, she is remembering. What was once separated now becomes part of the whole.
While blending happens frequently with people in the course of their day-to-day experience, sharing is not as common. Normally, the boundary between these two realms of consciousness remains intact. There are occasional times for a person, though, when an ego-state is triggered and breaks through into consciousness as a complete memory, or a flashback, or even a living reality. This can be a shock to a person, but the boundary is usually, and quickly, re-established.
If that breaking through were to happen too frequently, though, a person would become overwhelmed by the sheer confusion and emotions running riot through his or her every day experience. These are people, for example, who are diagnosed as psychotic. For the most severe, it’s as if the boundary is ripped through with holes. We need the boundary between these realms, for survival, and to live a stable and productive life.
In the healing process, the attitude toward sharing is just the opposite. We do want to open that boundary so that there can be a sharing between these levels of consciousness. We want the ego-state and the conscious self to know each other, and in the knowing, remove any need for dissociation. This sharing, as I have talked about, is a central step in the healing process because it is the point where two conflicting realities can meet and be resolved and where two identities can be reconciled and aligned.
When an ego-state does share, it affects the conscious self both at a cognitive and emotional level. Psychologists, as I’ve discussed earlier, call it “insight” and “catharsis.” When, for example, 34-year-old remembers the dog’s attack, she will also understand what happened that day she was talking to her neighbor and went into a panic. She will make the connection. She will know that the ego-state I am talking to had been triggered by the dog that was approaching; but she will also understand that 4-year-old was still responding to the dog that attacked her so many years ago. 34-year-old may also sense that this early trauma could be involved in the general discomfort she has always felt around dogs. She may even see for the first time just how much she had actively avoided dogs in her life. These are the kinds of cognitive insights that typically result for a person once an ego-state has shared its experience.
At an emotional level, the person experiences the feelings and emotions that were blocked from consciousness and expression when the ego-state was created. It’s as if one’s experience had been short-circuited, and the energy of that emotion held suspended at an unconscious level. The ego-state holds that connection, and the catharsis is the experience that finally completes the circuit and allows the energy to become conscious and be discharged.
Once 34-year-old remembers what happened and has had some level of catharsis, there also will be no need for 4-year-old to hold the emotions or continue the dissociation. The secret is out of the bag. There’s no longer any need for 4-year-old to have to stay away from the conscious self. The dichotomies of identity and reality no longer exist. In reclaiming the experience of the attack (through memory and abreaction), the conscious self reclaims the 4-year-old as herself and the experience as her own. The sharing resolves any need to keep the two separate.
In the process of sharing, 4-year-old herself is also transformed. By opening herself to the conscious mind, the 4-year-old is able to move free of the reality where she has been caught for so long. It is important to remember that 4-year-old’s experience of connecting with the conscious mind and conscious reality has been an abreaction for her as well, altering her perception and therefore her reality. The old reality at that point no longer applies.
This abreaction puts 4-year-old into a position to release the pain, terror, and distress that she has been carrying since she was created. Once she signals that her sharing and release is complete, I will ask her if she is still feeling any distress. At that point, I want to make sure she is clear. This doesn’t mean that she forgets what happened, but it is no longer her present reality. The release and transformation free her to move to a new consciousness, her own place of integration.
I will ask the higher self whether 4-year-old should have a conscious experience in the present before moving to her place of integration. (For some ego-states, this conscious experience seems important and helpful for their integration. For others, it doesn’t seem necessary, or they have already experienced it.) If higher self responds “yes,” to the conscious experience, I will ask that it help 4-year-old to have that experience before moving her to her place of integration.
TZ. Higher self, please help 4-year-old to come forward here to the conscious mind for that conscious experience and perception. Help her to see that she is safe here in the present. … communicate to her also, higher self, any further information and understanding about this present reality that can be helpful to her. (Pause)
When that experience is complete, higher self, help her to move to that place of Light and integration that is here for her within the self. First finger, when these moves are complete; second finger, if there is a problem.
Once 4-year-old has had a full release, then, she can move to integration. This is the consciousness where each ego-state can live in congruence and increased harmony with the conscious self and conscious reality. It’s a place where the ego-state can remain current with the self. It can be aware of what is happening in the present, but it doesn't’t have to be aware. It’s as if it exists adjacent to everyday consciousness with a door into the present. (See Fig. 4).
Figure 5: Integration
Once an ego-state has shared and released whatever pain or fear it carries, it can move to a place of integration within the self. It is a psychic place - a state of consciousness – where they are free of pain and distress. They do not live “in” the consciousness of the present reality but “adjacent” and coincident with it.
Integration is a state of consciousness, and so the place of integration itself will be determined largely by the consciousness of the particular ego-state involved. If an ego-state really needs to live alone in a house on the river in order to be in harmony with the self, then that is where she will move. If the ego-state is a child who needs to be with other children, then she will be. In general, though, an ego-state’s integration means that it moves into a new balance and compatibility with the self and frees the conscious person and the ego-state from an old perception and a painful reality.
For 34-year-old, the conscious personality, integration will mean that the next time she is close to a dog, her extreme fight or flight reaction won’t be triggered, and if the situation does cause concern, she will have more freedom to determine whether the dog is a real and present threat or not. She also will not be caught between two perceptions where a little concern and anxiety cascades into confusion and a rising panic.
A large part of the healing process, then, is the accumulating effects, or synergy, created by the integration of these inner beings as each comes into alignment with the conscious self in the person’s present physical reality. Each one of these integrations is a healing of the fragmentation and pain that has, at some level, kept a person afraid and splintered for many years. In healing, integration is not something the person does, but it is something that happens once the person clears the way.
Each integration of an ego-state frees a person from hidden conflict and backward looking protection. Each time an ego-state integrates, it is a reclaiming of the self; and each reclaiming brings the person increased clarity and understanding about one’s self, the world in which they live, and a greater feeling of safety and freedom.
[i] See Chapter 2, To the Borderline of Spirit.
[ii] It may turn out that the likelihood of different forms of ego-states may depend on the culture a person is part of. For native Americans, for example, animal forms may be more commonly seen than in our Western culture.
[iii] Many people think of memory as visual. I have to tell my clients when we start inner work that memory can be encoded in different ways – visual, auditory, kinesthetic, or emotional – or any combination of these. There are some clients whose memory is shared like a video-replay in Technicolor. The memory is so clear that the client can report the tiniest details as the scene unfolds. Another client might experience intense sensations in the body but have no visual or auditory. There are others who receive only a snapshot image, or a wave of emotion, or experiences a physical pain with no images.