“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

With the exception of the ego, the various parts of the personality do not react to time as a series of moments. All is experienced as present. The child therefore within the adult personality is not dead, nor are his reactions considered, basically, as reactions which are part of a past behavior pattern; but these reactions exist side by side with adult reactions.

Many reactions, many patterns of reactions, are rejected by the ego upon some occasions and accepted upon other occasions, but as a rule such alternate behavior is annoying to the ego itself. The ego deals with cause and effect, and often denies particular reactions because it decides that they are not effective. The ego is fairly rigid, comparatively speaking. Rationalization is one method by which the ego justifies its acceptance of a reaction which it once rejected as ineffective.

The strength of the ego of course is also a factor here. If the ego is not a particularly strong one to begin with however, the conflict will seldom reach these proportions. Instead the ego will merely be slightly surprised at behavior which it does not condone, but eventually will accept because it has been forced to recognize its reality.