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Revising . Unhealthy childhood experiences could damage the Child or Parent ego states, which would bring discomfort to an individual and/or others, in a variety of forms including many types of Mental Illness . Berne considered how individuals interact with one another, and how the ego states affected each set of Transactions . Unproductive or counterproductive transactions were considered to be signs of ego state problems. Analysing these transactions, according to the person's individual developmental history, would enable the person to "get better". Berne thought that virtually everyone has something problematic about their ego states and that negative behaviour would not be addressed by 'treating' only the problematic individual. Berne identified a typology of common counterproductive social interactions, identifying these as " Games ". Berne presented his theories in two popular books on transactional analysis. As a result, TA came to be disdained in many mainstream mental health circles as an example of "pop psychology". A light rock song, " The Games People Play ", reinforced the idea of lightweight inanity. TA was also dismissed by the conventional psychoanalytic community because of its radical departures from Freudian theory. However, by the 1970s, because of its non-technical and non-threatening jargon and model of the human psyche, many of its terms and concepts were adopted by Eclectic Therapists as part of their individual approaches to Psychotherapy . It also served well as a therapy model for groups of patients, or marital/family counselees, where interpersonal (rather that Intrapsychic Disturbance s) were the focus of treatment. The more dedicated TA purists banded together in 1964 with Berne to form a research and professional accrediting body, the International Transactional Analysis Association , or ITAA. The organization is still active as of 2006. TA OUTLINE TA is a theory of personality and a systematic Psychotherapy for personal growth and personal change.
KEY IDEAS OF TA Like Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP), TA is pragmatic, that is, it seeks to find "what works" and where applicable develop models to assist understanding. Thus it continually evolves. However some core models are part of TA as follows: The Ego-State (or Parent-Adult-Child, PAC) model At any given time, a person experiences and manifests their personality through a mixture of behaviours, thoughts and feelings. Typically, according to TA, there are three ego-states that people consistently use:
Within each of these are sub-divisions. Thus parental figures are often either ''nurturing'' (permission giving, security giving) or ''controlling'', childhood behaviours are either natural (''free'') or ''adapted'' to others. Each of these tends to draw an individual to certain patterns of behaviour, feelings and ways of thinking, which may be beneficial (''positive'') or dysfunctional/counterproductive (''negative''). Ego states are not intended to correspond to Freud 's Ego, Superego And Id , though some have compared the two theories. Rather, ego states are consistent for each person and are more readily observable than the hypothetical Freudian model. In other words, the particular ego state that a given person is communicating from is determinable by external observation and experience. Ego states also do not correspond directly to thinking, feeling, and judging, as these behaviours are present in every ego state. There is no "universal" ego state; each state is individually and visibly manifested for each person. For example, a child ego state is individual to the specific human being, that is, it is drawn from the ego state they created as a child, not some 'generalised childlike' state. Ego states can become contaminated, for example when a person mistakes Parental rules and slogans, for here-and-now Adult reality, and beliefs are taken as facts. Or when a person "knows" that everyone is laughing at them, because "they always laughed". This would be an example of a childhood contamination, insofar as here-and-now reality is being overlaid with memories of previous historic incidents in childhood. Transactions and Strokes
People often create pressure in (or experience pressure from) others to communicate in a way that matches their style. Thus a boss who talks to his staff as a controlling parent will often engender self-abasement or other childlike responses. Those employees who resist may get removed or labelled as "trouble". Transactions can be experienced as positive or negative depending on the nature of the strokes within them. However, a negative transaction is preferred to no transaction at all, because of a fundamental hunger for strokes. The nature of transactions is important to understanding communication. Kinds of transactions =Reciprocal or Complementary Transactions A simple, reciprocal transaction occurs when both partners are addressing the ego state the other is in. These are also called complementary transactions. Example 1: :A: "Have you been able to write the report?" (Adult to Adult) :B: "Yes - I'm about to email it to you." (Adult to Adult) Example 2: :A: "Would you like to come and watch a film with me?" (Child to Child) :B: "I'd love to - what shall we go and see?" (Child to Child) Example 3: :A: "Is your room tidy yet?" (Parent to Child) :B: "Will you stop hassling me? I'll do it eventually!" (Child to Parent) Communication like this can continue indefinitely. (Clearly it will stop at some stage - but this psychologically balanced exchanged of strokes can continue for some time). =Crossed Transactions Communication failures are typically caused by a 'crossed transaction' where partners address ego states other than that their partner is in. Consider the above examples jumbled up a bit. Example 1a: :A: "Have you been able to write that report?" (Adult to Adult) :B: "Will you stop hassling me? I'll do it eventually!" (Child to Parent) is a crossed transaction likely to produce problems in the workplace. "A" may respond with a Parent to Child transaction. For instance: :A: "If you don't change your attitude you'll get fired" Example 2a: :A: "Is your room tidy yet?" (Parent to Child) :B: "I'm just going to do it, actually." (Adult to Adult) is a more positive crossed transaction. However there is the risk that "A" will feel aggrieved that "B" is acting responsibly and not playing his role, and the conversation will develop into: :A: "I can never trust you to do things!" (Parent to Child) :B: "Why don't you believe anything I say?" (Child to Parent) which can continue indefinitely. =Duplex or Covert transactions Another class of transaction is the 'duplex' or 'covert' transactions, where the explicit social conversation occurs in parallel with an implicit psychological transaction. For instance, :A: "Would you like to come and see the barn?" :B: "I've loved barns ever since I was a little girl." Social level adult-to-adult; psychological level child-to-child flirtation. Phenomena behind the transactions Life (or Childhood) Script
Each culture, country and people in the world has a Mythos , that is, a legend explaining its origins, core beliefs and purpose. According to TA, so do individual people. A person begins writing their own life story (script) very young, as they try to make sense of the world and their place within it. Although it is revised throughout life, the core story is selected and decided upon typically by age 7. As adults it passes out of awareness. A life script might be "to be hurt many times, and suffer and make others feel bad when I die", and could result in a person indeed setting themselves up for this, by adopting behaviours in childhood that produce exactly this effect. Or it could as easily be positive. Redefining and Discounting
Injunctions and Drivers TA identifies twelve key injunctions which people commonly build into their scripts. These are injunctions in the sense of being powerful "I can't/mustn't ..." messages that embed into a child's belief and life-script: : Don't be (don't exist), Don't be who you are, Don't be a child, Don't grow up, Don't make it in your life, Don't do anything!, Don't be important, Don't belong, Don't be close, Don't be well (don't be sane!), Don't think, Don't feel. : In addition there is the so-called episcript, ''"You should (or deserve to) have this happen in your life, so it doesn't have to happen to me."'' Against these, a child is often told other things they must do. There are five of these 'drivers': : Be perfect! Please (me/others)! Try Hard! Be Strong! Hurry Up! Thus in creating their script, a child will often attempt to juggle these, example: "It's okay for me to go on living (ignore ''don't exist'') so long as I ''try hard''". This explains why some change is inordinately difficult. To continue the above example: When a person stops ''trying hard'' and relaxes to be with their family, the injunction ''You don't have the right to exist'' which was being suppressed by their script now becomes exposed and a vivid threat. Such an individual may feel a massive psychological pressure which they themselves don't understand, to return to ''trying hard'', in order to feel safe and justified (in a childlike way) in ''existing''. Driver behaviour is also detectable at a very small scale, for instance in instinctive responses to certain situations where driver behaviour is played out over five to twenty seconds. Series of transactions Rituals A ritual is a series of transactions that are complementary (reciprocal), stereotyped and based on social programming. Rituals usually comprise a series of strokes exchanged between two parties. For instance, two people may have a daily two stroke ritual, where, the first time they meet each day, each one greets the other with a "Hi". Others may have a four stroke ritual, such as: A: Hi! B: Hi! How do you do? A: Getting along. What about you? B: Fine. See you around. The next time they meet in the day, they may not exchange any strokes at all, or may just acknowledge each other's presence with a curt nod. Some phenomena associated with daily rituals:
Pastimes A pastime is a series of transactions that is complementary (reciprocal), semi-ritualistic, and is mainly intended as a time-structuring activity. Pastimes have no covert purpose and can usually be carried out only between people on the same wavelength. They are usually shallow and harmless. Other kinds of transactional series The other kinds include procedures, operations and games. Games are discussed below. GAMES AND THEIR ANALYSIS Definition of game A game is a series of transactions that is complementary (reciprocal), ulterior, and proceeds towards a predictable outcome. Games are often characterized by a ''switch'' in roles of players towards the end. Each game has a payoff for those playing it. The ''antithesis'' of a game, that is, the way to break it, lies in discovering how to deprive the actors of their payoff. Students of transactional analysis have discovered that people who are used to a game are willing to play it, even if as a different actor from what they originally were. Analysis of a game One important aspect of a game is its number of players. Games may be two handed (that is, played by two players), three handed (that is, played by three players), or many handed. Three other quantitative variables are often useful to consider for games:
Based on the degree of accepitability and potential harm, games are classified as:
Games are also studied based on their:
Contrast with rational (mathematical) games Transactional game analysis is fundamentally different from rational or mathematical game analysis in the following senses:
Some commonly found games Here are some of the most commonly found themes of games described in '' Games People Play '' by Eric Berne :
Rackets
More technically, a racket feeling is ''"a familiar set of emotions, learned and enhanced during childhood, experienced in many different stress situations, and Maladaptive as an adult means of problem solving"''. A racket is then ''a set of behaviours which originate from the childhood script rather than in here-and-now full Adult thinking, which (1) are employed as a way to manipulate the environment to match the script rather than to actually solve the problem, and (2) whose covert goal is not so much to solve the problem, as to experience these racket feelings and feel internally justified in experiencing them''. Examples of racket and racket feelings: "Why do I meet good guys who turn out to be so hurtful", or "He always takes advantage of my goodwill". The racket is then a set of behaviours and chosen strategies learned and practised in childhood which in fact help to cause these feelings to be experienced. Typically this happens ''despite'' their own surface protestations and hurt feelings, out of awareness and in a way that is perceived as someone else's fault. One covert pay-off for this racket and its feelings, might be to gain in a guilt free way, continued evidence and reinforcement for a childhood script belief that "People will always let you down". In other words, rackets and games are devices used by a person to create a circumstance where they can legitimately feel the racket feelings, thus abiding by and reinforcing their childhood script. They are always a substitute for a more genuine and full adult emotion and response which would be a more appropriate response to the here-and-now situation. The first such game theorized was ''Why don't you/Yes, but'' in which one player (''White'') would pose a problem as if seeking help, and the other player(s) (''Black'') would offer solutions. White would point out a flaw in every Black player's solution (the "Yes, but" response), until they all gave up in frustration. The secondary gain for White was that he could claim to have justified his problem as insoluble and thus avoid the hard work of internal change; and for Black, to either feel the frustrated martyr ("I was only trying to help") or a superior being, disrespected ("the patient was uncooperative"). Games can be classed as level 1, 2 or 3 according to the stakes played. Level 1 would be lots of small paybacks (the girl who keeps meeting nice guys who ditch her, and feeling bad). Level 3 would be payback built up over a long period to a major level (ie court, mortuary, or similar). They can also be analysed according to the Karpman Drama Triangle , that is, by the roles of Persecutor, Victim and Rescuer. The 'switch' is then when one of these having allowed stable roles to become established, suddenly switches role. The victim becomes a persecutor, and throws the previous persecutor into the victim role, or the rescuer suddenly switches to become a persecutor ("You never appreciate me helping you!"). (This section with thanks to: ''TA Today: A New Introduction to Transactional Analysis'' by Ian Stewart, Vann Joines) PHILOSOPHY OF TA
POP TA Berne's ability to express the ideas of TA in common language and his popularisation of the concepts in mass-market books inspired a boom of 'popular' TA texts, some of which simplify TA concepts to a deleterious degree. One example is a caricature of the structural model, where it is made out that the Parent judges, the Adult thinks and the Child feels. Most serious TA texts, including those aimed at the mass market rather than professionals, avoid this degree of oversimplification. Thomas Harris 's highly successful popular work from the late 1960s, '' I'm OK, You're OK '' is largely based on Transactional Analysis. A fundamental divergence, however, between Harris and Berne is that Berne postulates that everyone starts life in the "I'm OK" position, whereas Harris believes that life starts out "I'm not OK, you're OK". Many transactional analysts have regarded Harris as too far-removed from core TA beliefs to be considered a transactional analyst. SEE ALSO
REFERENCES Books by Eric Berne (Popular)
Books by Eric Berne (Other)
Books by other authors
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