Let's go fly a kite! And off soars the Child Ego state, or your "inner child", on the end of a string. One of the main goals of transactional analysis is to look closely at the Child dancing on the end of the string, analyze the motivation for the behavior, and seek to improve his or her life. There is every possibility the kite-flyer may be an adult behaving in their Child Ego state, which makes the process of analysis even more interesting.
The Child Ego displays all the spontaneity, freedom, whimsy, and curiosity specific to a child. Since the Child Ego state is dominated by emotional responses rather than critical or rational responses, the more unproductive side of this ego state may be anger, despair, or feelings of worthlessness. The businessman in coat and tie, running through the sprinkler to the sidewalk lemonade state is acting out of his Child Ego state.
The same executive honking his horn and shaking his fist because the car in front of him is driving to slow is allowing the Child Ego to dominate. A more specific expression of the Child Ego is the "Little Professor", as opposed to the Natural Child or Adapted Child.
The Little Professor may stop in the middle of the sprinkler to try and figure out the oscillating movement of the water. The adult Little Professor may impulsively tear apart the steering wheel on a Saturday morning to explore the mechanism of the blowing horn. Recognizing the "Little Professor" means recognizing the curious, precocious explorer inside, and behaviors that indicate that curiosity and adventurous spirit.
The "Little Professor" loves to explore, experiment, and create. His or her creative development may move through identifiable stages of recognition, pleasure, discovery, creative expression, and proficiency and control. The Little Professor begins by noticing and recognizing the abundance of interesting stimuli in his or her environment, starts to derive joy and pleasure from those objects, people, and events, begins to experiment and create, and then displays greater mastery, proficiency and control over his or her creation.
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