Transactional Analysis (TA) was developed by Eric Berne (born May 10, 1910, Montreal; died 1970; UCSF Eric L. Berne papers) in the late 1950s. It describes personality in terms of three ego states and analyzes the exchanges, or transactions, between people. Key books: Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy (1961) and Games People Play (1964).
Lineage
- Berne trained in psychoanalysis. He began at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute in 1941 with Paul Federn as his analyst, and later trained at the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute. His 1956 application for membership was turned down, and he went on to develop his own approach.
- Federn's ego psychology and his concept of ego states directly influenced Berne's Parent, Adult and Child model.
- Relation to ego state therapy: TA and Watkins & Watkins' ego state therapy both build on Federn's ego states. TA works mainly with three broad states and interpersonal transactions, while ego state therapy works with many specific states, often through hypnosis. See Ego State Therapy.
Vocabulary & evolution of terms
- Parent / Adult / Child ego states: Berne's three ego states. Parent is patterns taken in from parental figures, Adult is here-and-now reasoning, and Child is feelings and behavior carried over from childhood. Later TA split them further (for example Nurturing and Critical Parent, Free and Adapted Child).
- Transactions: the basic unit of social exchange, a stimulus from one person's ego state and a response from another's. Transactions can be complementary, crossed or ulterior.
- Strokes: units of recognition, positive or negative. Claude Steiner later expanded the idea in his "stroke economy."
- Games: repeated sets of ulterior transactions that lead to a predictable payoff, popularized by Games People Play.
- Scripts: an unconscious life plan formed in childhood. Berne developed the idea in his last book, What Do You Say After You Say Hello?
- Drama triangle (Karpman): Stephen Karpman's 1968 model ("Fairy Tales and Script Drama Analysis," Transactional Analysis Bulletin 7(26), 39–43; UCSF/Calisphere, Karpman's site) of the shifting roles Persecutor, Rescuer and Victim, widely used to analyze games.