LVN Students: Rise With Your Power Within
Date: March 1, 2019
We all know Sigmund Freud as the father of modern psychoanalysis and the famous Polypsychism theory. He was the first psychologist to identify the multiple subegos within each person’s psyche, which continuously interact, agree, or disagree with each other. However, many people don’t know of another psychologist, Eric Berne, who took this theory to the next level and came up with his Transactional Analysis concept.
Using Eric Berne’s theory, we will attempt to analyze VN nursing students’ motivations and actions who choose to enter an LVN program here in California. We will also see how this theory may explain the LVN students’ success, academic achievements, and ability to make it to their graduation and license exams.
According to Eric Berne, by the age of six or seven years, each of us has formed three subegos that dictate our thoughts, feelings, and responses to others and motivate or inhibit our actions. These three subegos include the inner child, the inner adult, and the inner parent. The Inner Child is the curious discoverer within each one of us. The Inner Child is part of one’s psyche that motivates us to learn, create, and explore new horizons.
Similarly, in the VN program nursing students, this inner child often has to be actively involved in the learning process, discover new knowledge, and discover an original path in life and career.
Simultaneously, the inner child is one’s sensitive part: loves, hates, likes, and dislikes. Therefore, it is crucial to keep the inner child involved and satisfied with a successful endeavor, such as going to an LVN College and happily graduating.
The Inner Parent is the responsible part of one’s persona. It is the part that says that you need to study when your inner child wants to play, watch TV, have fun, or party. The Inner Child is the controlling part of one’s psyche that makes us keep order in life, school, work, and other aspects. It is the part that says what you have to do, must do, or shouldn’t do.
Similarly, the LVN students’ inner parent must be strong enough to prioritize studying and attending classes and clinical labs as necessary to complete studies. The Inner Parent is also the nurturing part, taking care of the inner child. It is the part that says, “Good job” to yourself or talks you through a difficult task.
On average, we talk to ourselves about 1,000-3,000 words a minute. It is our subego having a conversation, helping us through situations, and letting us create and grow. In nursing students, this nurturing parent is significant in self-nurture, self-confidence, and self-encouragement, as vital as others’ nurture.
Finally, the Inner Adult is the assertive part of one’s personality. The analytical part solves problems like a mathematician solves an equation, no feelings, no strings attached. The Inner Adult is the part that often helps settle conflicts between the inner parents and the inner child by using calculated logic.
Again, this part is essential in the Nursing Program since it helps solve school problems, home, work and helps move forward in studies. As we can see, the three subegos, the inner child, adult, and parent, must work according to each other to complete an LVN program.
Each LVN course can be an adventure, but when the inner child, adult, and parent work together with minimal tension, they have the power within that allows them to achieve maximum results. Opposed to this, a conflict of these subegos can lead to under-achievement and even withdrawal from a program. Therefore, maximum effort should be put in to augment each student’s collaboration to help each LVN student reach their potential.
