Transactional Analysis: The Theory Proposed By Eric Berne
Transactional analysis is a humanistic theory of personality, human relationships, and communication which is applied in psychotherapy, personal growth, education and even the field of organizations.
Initially, it was a form of psychotherapy founded between the 50s and 60s by the doctor and psychiatrist Eric Berne an innovative and creative thinker who united ideas from other currents (psychoanalytic, cognitive-behavioral, phenomenological, etc.), but this theoretical and practical body is still valid today and is applied in a multitude of contexts.
Eric Leonard Bernstein, better known as Eric Berne, is the father of Transactional Analysis. He was born in Canada in 1910 and died in 1970. He was the son of a Polish doctor who died of tuberculosis when Eric was just a child. Berne decided to follow his father’s path and, after earning a doctorate in Medicine in 1935, in 1936 he began his career as a psychiatrist at the Yale University School of Medicine Psychiatric Clinic, where he worked for two years.
A few years later he would begin his studies in psychoanalysis with Paul Federn, one of the first disciples of Sigmund Freud. After his time in various health centers and after serving the North American Army as a psychiatrist, in 1946, when decided to live in California, continued his psychoanalytic training with Erik Erikson
Understanding the concept of Transactional Analysis
But Berne, despite respecting his origins as a psychoanalyst, did not agree with certain ideas that this model promoted and, after the publication of different articles and books, developed his own model of “social psychiatry” His works were authentic best sellers, always written with a simple vocabulary allowing the understanding of both professionals and clients. For Berne, communication and knowledge are largely the solution to emotional problems, and he focuses his approach on social relationships, where the transaction is the basic unit.
Eric Berne himself explains in his book “The Games We Play” that: “The unit of social relationship is the transaction. If two people find each other…sooner or later one of the two will speak, she will give some indication or show gratitude for her presence. This is known as transaction stimulus. The other person will then say or do something that is related to the stimulus, and that is called a transactional response.”
Eric Berne’s model was gaining popularity, and he decided to found the ITAA (International Transactional Analysis Association) with the mission of delving into certain concepts of transactional analysis and providing different developments within the theory. This institution is still in force today to ensure therapeutic and training quality in the different centers where transactional analysis is practiced.
An integrative approach
Transactional analysis, due to its multifaceted nature, is best described as an integrative approach Unlike an eclectic approach, in which the practitioner chooses the most appropriate ideas or techniques from a wide variety of theories or models, the integrative approach finds a point of union between different models, unified in a new model or theory.
Within transactional analysis there are different schools, for example. the classic or the cathexis. As a practitioner integrates the concepts of transactional analysis, he opts for a school that fits his way of being or doing therapy, or he moves through the different approaches within this same theory, so it is about finding a way that best suits the cases treated. In some way, we start from a theoretical and practical base and move on to some variants, as usually happens with psychoanalysts.
In fact, Berne’s integrative approach was born thanks to the fact that he, influenced by psychoanalysis, thought that Freudian theory focused all its efforts on the past, which resulted in a therapeutic practice that left aside the “here and now.” , forgetting aspects as beneficial for therapy as concentration on the conscious (although also the unconscious).
To make it, He combined ideas and techniques of classical psychoanalysis with ideas of humanism or behaviorism The new theory did not focus so much on introspection into the past, but rather the present, the interpersonal context or self-realization and personal growth came to life in its new way of doing therapy.
Transactions and ego states
One of the great achievements of transactional analysis is that it proposes a methodology and basic concepts expressed in simple language without technicalities, and at the same time it facilitates techniques for personal change.
Psychological transactions are analyzed through ego states, different from those proposed by Freud. There are three ego states: Parent, Adult and Child.
A transactional analyst will create a diagram in which you can see the ego states that manifest themselves in a transaction. For example, an Adult-Adult transaction may occur when a surgeon is operating and looks to the nurse to bring him the work tool. This brings it closer, producing a complementary transaction, where the gesture of looking would be the stimulus for the transaction and the delivery of the tool would be the transaction response. Communication will be fluid while complementary transactions continue.
But unfortunately, not all interactions are complementary and, therefore, some are dysfunctional, which Berne called a cross transaction. For example, in a relationship, one of the members, in this case the woman, asks the other member if she has seen her glasses. And the other member, in this case the man, responds: “You always blame me for everything!” The man, instead of responding with the “Adult” ego, responds impulsively, that is, with the “Child” ego, and here a conflict or dysfunctional communication occurs.
Transactional analysis is a decisional model of personality that helps understand relationships with others and with ourselves. It allows us to feel and become aware of what we are and what we need and want. Likewise, it empowers us in the face of change and allows us to have autonomy and initiative in our own personal development.
The objectives of transactional analysis are basically three: awareness, spontaneity and intimacy:
Legacy
Transactional analysis is a popular theory, although its effectiveness is questioned due to the lack of scientific studies demonstrating its effectiveness (in part, this is because it is based on psychoanalysis and its epistemology). Today, it is still possible to train not only in therapy, but There are master’s degrees focused on other fields of application, for example, in Transactional Coaching for Organizations
Below are some of the most important aspects of this theory. Transactional analysis focuses on:
