I'm making tedious progress on my framework:

When you talk to someone, you can take on one of three ego states - parent, child, or adult. These ego states are preconceived notions you picked up from childhood - parent is how you thought your parents acted, child is how you acted, adult is what you see as logical.

Each of these states has a charge +/-. A Child+ might want to play games or explore the world, a Child- might be stubborn and throw temper tantrums.

In interacting with another person, we take on one of these ego states and expect our conversational partner to react accordingly. A Child- might pout and demand they get their way, expecting the other person to play a Parent+ and appease them with sooth talks or gifts.

The first step in the program is recognizing this framework in our interactions.

The second step in the program is recognizing the game this framework creates.

The first "player" chooses an ego state.

The second player can respond accordingly or choose a different state.

The first player then chooses to respond accordingly, double down on their initial state, or move to a new state entirely.

The goal of the game is for both players to find equilibrium - for both players to agree they are in appropriate states.

"Appropriate states" are where things get tricky, because they change depending on the player's goals.

I think this is good, because while the framework is pretty simple it can be applied to a lot of different situations.

This is all based on transnational analysis, but I want to be able to make that structure more practical and immediately useful in an every day setting.