Transactional Analysis

Transactional analysis (TA) is a psychological theory, developed by Eric Berne. It is mainly known as a theory of psychotherapy, however, it is also used in counselling, organisational, and educational fields.

Berne developed TA as part of his critique of psychoanalysis of his time. He believed that some goals of psychotherapy—such as achieving symptomatic relief—were not the primary focus of psychoanalysis and, as such, resulted in treatment that was too long. He also believed that there was an inherent power imbalance and lack of transparency to the relationship between the analyst and the patient, which he opposed to.

One of the key components of transactional analysis is the concept of ego states, suggesting that there are three distinct parts of our personality - Parent (P), Adult (A), and Child (C) - that influence our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours in different situations. Ego states, as such, can be useful concepts in understanding one’s subjective experience of themselves and others.

Eric Berne

Eric Berne (1910-1970), the founder of transactional analysis, was a Canadian psychiatrist of Jewish heritage, whose parents immigrated from Poland and Russia. He was born in Montreal, Canada. His father, David Hillel Bernstein was a medical doctor and his mother, Sarah Gordon Bernstein, a professional writer. He also had a younger sister. Eric’s father died when Eric was only 9 and was later raised by his mother who paved the way to his medical degree. Eric’s birth name initially was Eric Lennard Bernstein, however, he later changed into Eric Berne.

After becoming a medical doctor, Berne studied psychiatry in the United States. Almost as soon as he started his first job as a psychiatrist, Berne began training for a psychoanalyst at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute, with Paul Federn as his analyst.

During World War II he became a psychiatrist in the US army, which is also when the first traces of transactional analysis appear. At the time Berne was diagnosing soldiers for psychiatric disorders, however, the diagnosis had to be delivered in a short period of time, so Berne willingly relied on his intuition to diagnose the level and the type of the mental disorder. This later led to his work on intuition and the publication of a series of papers on this topic also represent the first traces of TA.

Berne’s training as a psychoanalyst was disrupted by the war. After the war he relocated to Carmel, California and in 1946 he re-commenced the psychoanalytic training at San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute. His analyst became Erik Erikson. In 1956, the title of a psychoanalyst was withheld as Berne was told he is not yet ready to become a psychoanalyst and would need some years of personal analysis for him to reapply. This was a significant event both in Berne’s career, as well as for the development of TA. Berne had already become very critical of psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, and psychiatry prior to this event, so his criticism only deepened after this. Driven by rebellion and resentment, he further accelerated the development of TA theory. The prevailing motive in his development of TA was to develop a psychotherapy theory that would be closer to the layman and the patient, as well as theory that would tackle the power dynamics between the patient and the analyst, which he saw as inherent to the psychoanalytic process.

Transactional Analysis as a Theory of Personality

Berne’s theories of personality, which resulted in his development of the structural ego state model, have roots in his works on intuition, however, they were only published as a coherent and independent theory in 1961 (Berne, 1961).

Berne suggested the structure of personality consist of three so-called ‘organs’: exteropsyche, neopsyche, and archeopsyche and which “manifest themselves phenomenologically and operationally as three types of ego states, called Parent, Adult, and Child respectively” (Berne, 1961, p. 36). An ego state is a “consistent pattern of feeling and experience directly related to a corresponding consistent pattern of behavior” (Berne, 1966, p. 364).

Therefore, whilst Freud conceptualised the psyche using abstract concepts of superego, ego and id, Berne’s ego states can all have observable behaviour, thoughts, and feelings attributed to them. This means that a person’s current experience of an ego state or a shift from one ego state to another can be directly observable by another person.

Parent and the Child are ego states that are based on archaic experiences, that is an internalisation of experiences of self and others from one’s past. Adult, conversely, is seen as an ego state that is focusing on the present. However, any of the ego states can be triggered by the present, which means that the individual can respond to what is happening in the present from one of their archaic ego states.

Berne (1961) defined the Parent ego state as “a set of feelings, attitudes, and behavior patterns which resemble those of a parental figure.” (p. 75). Parent ego state thus includes the internalisations of one’s experience of their caregivers. When the person is in their Parent ego state, they will exhibit behaviour, thinking, and experiencing inherent to their caregiver.

The Adult “is characterized by an autonomous set of feelings, attitudes, and behavior patterns which are adapted to the current reality.” (Berne, 1961, p. 76). When in their Adult, the individual’s behaviour, thinking, and feelings will not be influenced by their past.

The Child ego state, is “a set of feelings, attitudes, and behavior patterns which are relics of the individual’s own childhood.” (Berne, 1961, p. 77) This means that the Child will include thinking, behavioural patterns, and experiences that they experienced and internalised in the past. For instance, a person may experience themselves and others as they experienced themselves in their relationship with their caregivers.

Analysis of Transactions

Berne developed the analysis of transactions based on his group therapy practice, however, it later became the cornerstone of analysing interpersonal relating and, as such, the basis for individual therapy. According to Berne, transactions take place between two or more individuals. They originate in different ego states as well as stimulate a response from different ego states. He saw a transaction as a “transactional stimulus plus a transactional response.” (Berne, 1966, p. 370),

The analysis of transactions is part of TA theory of communication which runs according to three rules (Berne, 1966). Firstly, “as long as the vectors are parallel, communication can proceed indefinitely.” (Berne, 1966, p. 223-225). Secondly, “if the vectors are crossed, communication is broken off.” (Berne, 1966, p. 225). And thirdly, “the behavioral outcome of an ulterior transaction is determined at the psychological and not at the social level” (Berne, 1966, p. 227). 

Script Theory

Berne regarded script as an “unconscious life plan of the individual” (Berne, 1966, p. 228) that may result in individual “spending his whole life in a predetermined way based on decisions he made in early childhood” (Berne, 1966, p. 228). What Berne was referring to here is that the individual may base their behaviour in the present on their unmet needs and the internal conflicts caused by adverse experiences from their childhood.

This is a process that goes on outside of the person’s awareness so, whilst the person may consider their decisions to be rational and logical, this is actually not the case. For instance, a person that, as a child, felt unseen and lacked recognition from their caregivers may develop an unmet need to be seen by others. They may end up in relationships where they feel unseen, under-appreciated, neglected, rejected, etc. On the conscious level, such individual will attempt to avoid such unfulfilling relationships, however, they will paradoxically tend to keep re-experiencing them. Therefore, an individual’s life “may not be what he wants, but it is what he wants it to be” (Berne, 1972, p. 51).

Basic Positions

Berne developed the theory on basic positions (also known as life positions or existential positions) as a part of his theory on psychological games. He regarded a basic position as “the fundamental variable of human living” (Berne, 1962, p. 23). For Berne, basic positions are based on so-called predicative absolutes, such as “All men are evil.” (Berne, 1962, p. 23). A basic position is taken in order to justify an early decision, which he defined as a “childhood commitment to a certain form of behavior; the basis for character formation in the form of a verb absolute” (Berne, 1966, p. 363). For instance, based on an adverse experience, a child may develop an early decision that they are bad or not good enough—in Berne’s words not-OK. In their adult life, a person will unconsciously attempt to justify this decision through, for instance, continuously being rejected in relationships.

Berne conceptualised four basic positions: (1) I am OK, you are OK; (2) I am OK, you are not-OK; (3) I am not-OK, you are OK, (4) I am not-OK, you are not-OK.

A systematic analysis of Berne’s theories suggests that his theory on basic positions was strongly influenced by Ronald Fairbairn’s object relations theory on the internalisation of “badness” in the attempt for the child to control such “badness” (Zivkovic, 2023). Berne’s basic positions mirror this theory, suggesting that a child internalises what they experience as not-OKness in the caregiver in order to be able to experience the caregiver as OK and through that experiences themselves as OK (Zivkovic, 2023).

An analysis and update of Berne’s basic positions and early decisions theories suggests that Berne failed to acknowledge another basic position, which is the adaptive or pathological “I’m OK, You’re OK.” This is the position that a child develops by adapting to their caregiver in order for the child to escape the experience of their own and the caregiver’s “badness” or not-OKness (Zivkovic, 2023).

Approaches to Contemporary Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy

Even though Berne was critical of psychoanalysis and psychiatry of his time, he firmly grounded the theory and practice of transactional analysis on psychoanalytic theories of his time. In this, he was, amongst others, greatly influenced by Ronald Fairbairn, Melanie Klein, and almost to the point of idealisation, Freud himself. For this reason, his approach to TA psychotherapy was distinctly psychoanalytic and psychodynamic.

However, because of his critique of the power imbalance between the patient and the therapist and his devotion to bring the theory closer to layman understanding, he sparked further development of TA as a humanistic approach to psychotherapy. Through time, the humanistic branch gained momentum and, in the modern TA world, represents the most prevalent approach to TA psychotherapy.

TA psychotherapy can be viewed as an integrative theory, whereby theories from different approaches (such as psychoanalytic, psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioural, humanistic, person-centred, etc.) are combined under the umbrella of TA concepts.

For this reason, modern approaches to TA psychotherapy range from those that are underpinned by psychoanalytic and psychodynamic theories and modes of practice, to those that are distinctly humanistic, and even those that are purely cognitive-behavioural.

Ales Zivkovic, MSc, Psychotherapist

References:

Berne, E. (1961). Transactional analysis in psychotherapy: A systematic individual and social psychiatry. Grove Press.

Berne, E. (1962). Classification of positions. Transactional Analysis Bulletin, 1(3), 23.

Berne, E. (1966). Principles of group treatment. Grove Press.

Berne, E. (1972). What do you do after you say hello? The psychology of human destiny. Grove Press.

Zivkovic, A. (2023). OKness Revised: Analysis and Evolution of Berne’s Concept of OKness, the Basic Positions, and the Related Reenactments of Berne’s Internal World in the Transactional Analysis Community. Transactional Analysis Journal, 53(3), 286–300. https://doi.org/10.1080/03621537.2023.2214420