TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSISby Dr. Eric Berne

Overview:• Transactional Analysis is a personality theory

which gives us a picture of how people are structured psychologically.

• Transactional Analysis is underpinned by the philosophy that people can change and we all have a right to be in the world and be accepted.

• Transactional Analysis (TA) was greatly influenced by one of the foremost theories in Personality, the Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud

• But Freud’s greatest contribution to Eric Berne’s theory was the fact that the human personality is multi-faceted

• Another contributory to Eric Berne’s theory would be Dr. Wilder Penfield who did experiments on the application of electrical currents to specific regions of the brain.

• Berne mapped interpersonal relationships to three ego-states of the individuals involved: the Parent, Adult, and Child state.

• He then investigated communications between individuals based on the current state of each. He called these interpersonal interactions transactions and used the label games to refer to certain patterns of transactions which popped up repeatedly in everyday life.

The Theorist • Eric Berne was born on May 10, 1910 in Montreal Quebec, Canada, as Leonard Eric Bernstein.

• ErIc Berne came to the United States in 1935.

• In 1936, he began his psychiatric residency at the Psychiatric Clinic of Yale University School of Medicine, where he worked for two years.

• Around 1938-1939, Berne became an American citizen and shortened his name Eric Leonard Bernstein to Eric Berne.

• He also went into the Army Medical Corps

• Eric Berne married thrice and was divorced twice in his whole life.

• In 1947 he began to work with Erik Erikson; their working relationship lasted for two years.

• Berne's work began to diverge from the mainstream of psychoanalytic thought.

• In 1949 when he was rejected for membership in the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute.

The Birth of Transactional Analysis

• Eric died on July 15, 1970. Eric Berne is

buried at the El Carmelo Cemetery in

Pacific Grove, California.

The Theory• A transaction – the fundamental unit of social

intercourse.• A transactional stimulus. If two or more people

encounter each other…sooner or later one of them will speak, or give some other indication of acknowledging the presence of the others.

• A transactional response. Another person will then say or do something which is in some way related to the stimulus.

• The Agent. The person sending the stimulus.

• Respondent. The person who responds.

Berne’s Three Ego States

• The human brain works like a camcorder it records all our thoughts, feelings and emotions since childhood which we tend to replay in our adult life.

• Ego state - a consistent pattern of feeling and experience directly related to a corresponding consistent pattern of behavior.

Parent • This is a set of

feelings, thinking and behavior that we have copied from our parents and significant others.

• Examples of recordings in the Parent include:

• “Never talk to strangers”

• “Always chew with your mouth closed”

• “Look both ways before you cross the street

Adult• ego state is about direct responses to the here

and now. We deal with things that are going on today in ways that are not unhealthily influenced by our past.

• “Wow. It really is true that pot handles should always be turned into the stove” said Sally as she saw her brother burn himself when he grabbed a pot handle sticking out from the stove.”

Child• – is a set of behaviors, thoughts and feelings

which are replayed from our own childhood. • - Child are the emotions or feelings which

accompanied external events.

• “When I saw the monster’s face, I felt really scared”

• “The clown at the birthday party was really funny”

Analyzing Transactions

• Structural analysis - the process of analysing personality in terms of ego states.

• Straight transactions (or complementary transactions) - the response must go back from the receiving ego state to the sending ego state.

• simplest transactions are between Adult - Adult ego states.• Parent – Child transactions are almost as simple as Adult-

Adult transactions

• Crossed Transaction.Not all transactions between humans are healthy or normal.

In those cases, the transaction is classified as a crossed transaction.

• In a crossed transaction, an ego state different than the ego state which received the stimuli is the one that responds.

• Example:

• Agent’s Adult:  “Do you know where my cuff links are?” (note that this stimuli is directed at the Respondents Adult).

• Respondent’s Child:  “You always blame me for everything!”

• When we learn to recognize and differentiate between straight and crossed transactions we

increase our ability to communicate clearly with others. Conversations made up of straight transactions are more emotionally satisfying and productive than conversations that have

frequent crossed transactions.

• Transactional Analysts will pay attention to all of the cues including non-verbal cues when

analyzing a transaction and identifying which ego states are involved.

• Dr. Mehrabian

▫ Actual Words – 7%▫ The Way words are delivered (tone, accents on

certain words, etc.) – 38%▫ Facial expressions – 55%

Parent

• Physical - angry or impatient body-language and expressions, finger-pointing, patronising gestures,

• Verbal - always, never, for once and for all, judgmental words, critical words, patronising language, posturing language.

Child• Physical -

emotionally sad expressions, despair, temper tantrums, whining voice, delight, laughter, speaking behind hand, raising hand to speak, squirming and giggling.

• Verbal - baby talk, I wish, I dunno, I want, I'm gonna, I don't care, oh no, not again, things never go right for me, worst day of my life, bigger, biggest, best, many superlatives, words to impress.

Adult

Physical - attentive, interested, straight-forward, tilted head, non-threatening and non-threatened.

• Verbal - why, what, how, who, where and when, how much, in what way, comparative expressions, reasoned statements, true, false, probably, possibly, I think, I realise, I see, I believe, in my opinion

Ulterior Transactions

• Berne says that we can communicate on two levels. There is the social message – what we say, and the psychological message – what we mean.

• • Sarcasm is a great example of this. When

we are sarcastic what we say is the opposite of what we mean.

 Strokes • Berne defined a stroke as the “fundamental

unit of social action.”

• Berne introduced the idea of strokes into Transactional Analysis based upon the work of Rene Spitz, a researcher who did pioneering work in the area of child development

• Berne postulated that adults need physical contact just like infants, but have learned to substitute other types of recognition instead of physical stimulation

• Berne defined the term recognition-hunger as this requirement of adults to receive strokes.

• Positive or Negative, is better than no strokes at all. Or, as summarized in TA Today, “any stroke is better than no stroke at all.”

Life Scripts and Early Decisions• A life script is an unconscious life plan based on decisions made in early childhood about ourselves, others, and our lives.

• The early decision (or sets of early decisions) is the most important part of our life script

• It is what we do with these messages that are so important. 

Existential Positions

These are:•I'm OK, You're OK•I'm OK, You're Not OK•I'm Not OK, You're OK•I'm Not OK, You're Not OK

Games• “A game is an ongoing series of 

complementary ulterior transactions progressing to a well-defined, 

predictable outcome. Descriptively, it is a recurring set of transactions… with a concealed motivation… or gimmick

• Games are learned patterns of behaviour, and most people play a small number of favourite games with a range 

of different people and in varying intensities.

• First Degree games are played in social circles generally lead to mild upsets not major traumas.

• Second Degree games occur when the stakes may be higher. This usually occurs in more intimate circles, and ends up with an even greater negative payoff.

• Third Degree games involve tissue damage and may end up in the jail, hospital or morgue.

People play games for these reasons:

• to structure time• to acquire strokes• to maintain the substitute feeling and the system

of thinking, beliefs and actions that go with it• to confirm parental injunctions and further the

life script• to maintain the person's life position by "proving"

that self/others are not OK• to provide a high level of stroke exchange while

blocking intimacy and maintaining distance• to make people predictable

Examples of games players are:

• The Persecutor: "if it weren't for you", "see what you made me do", "yes, but".

• The Rescuer: "I'm only trying to help", "what would you do without me?"

• The Victim: "this always happens to me", "poor old me", "go on, kick me".

Contracts

• An agreement entered into by both client and therapist to pursue specific changes that the client desires

Concept Map

Straight Transaction

Crossed Transaction Ulterior Transaction

Discussion Similarities to Other Theories

•Transactional Analysis (TA) first and foremost is similar to that of Sigmund Freud’s three components of the personality.

•Humanistic perspective particularly Carl Roger’s humanistic psychology. Both theorists believe that people can change and grow.

 Differences from Other Theories

• Eric Berne focused on the treatment of the observable transactions known as "games" rather than on the unconscious drives for sex and hunger of that of Freud.

Critical Analysis•Transactional Analysis is indeed a fresh method in our approach to understanding ourselves. I find it very simple and quite easy to understand, since it uses terms that are of our age which many people could easily relate to it.•I also agree to TA ‘s philosophy that indeed we as human being have the right to be here and we have the capacity to change and grow.

Characterization

• Dr. Eric Berne tried to play games with Frank Sinatra and nearly go his teeth kicked in. Their playground was The Daisy, a private discotheque in Beverly Hills.

• At The Daisy, Dr. Berne’s Child had tried to engage Mr. Sinatra’s Child, but instead reached the singer’s puritanical Parent. Deeply offended, this Parent decided to punish this obstreperous Child and called on two men retained for that purpose. Within the doctor’s framework, only this duo behaved as Adults. If part of their job was to threaten other people’s teeth, and if they fulfilled their contract, then their actions were rational, and neither their Child nor their Parent showing.

ThAnk you!