Eric Berne define Transactional Analysis as "a theory of personality and social action, and a clinical method of psychotherapy, based on the analysis of all possible transactions between two or more people, on the basis of specifically defined ego states into a finite number of established types." (Eric Berne, 1975, "What Do You Say After You Say Hello", London, Corgi.)
Berne proposed that anything that happens between two or more people could be broken down into a series of single transactions from a specific ego states. A 'transaction' consisting of a singular stimulus and a single response, verbal or nonverbal from one person to another. It is called a 'transaction' because each party gains something by it and that is why s/he engages in it.
Transactional Analysis is, as its names states, an analysis of these transactions.
"Any system or approach" Berne asserted, "which is not based on the rigorous analysis of single transactions into their component specific ego states is not transactional analysis." (Eric Berne, 1975, "What Do You Say After You Say Hello", London, Corgi.)
Transactional Analysis, therefore, can be use in any field where there is a need for understanding individuals, relationships, communication and systems.
For example TA can be used as a system of psychotherapy. The ego states in social interaction can be observed for the individual to understand the structure of his/her personality, which can then be altered to make life changes for that individual.
Equally TA can be used to observe the transactions between, say, teacher and pupil, giving insight into where the relationship is lost and how better communication can be achieved that facilitates the teaching.
Berne defined the ego state as a 'consistent pattern of feelings and experiences directly related to a corresponding consistent pattern of behaviour'. Berne named three ego states, the Parent, the Adult and the Child. The Parent can be seen as being either critical or nurturing and the Child can be either Free or Adapted. The Parent ego state is a set of behaviours thoughts and feelings, which have been interjected from parents or parent figures.
The Adult ego state consists of a set of behaviours, thoughts and feelings which respond directly with the 'here and now' that is not copied from parents or parent figures, nor is it a replay from the individuals own childhood.
The Child ego states are the archaic behaviours, thoughts and feelings that are replayed from the individuals own childhood.
These ego states can be identified or diagnosed through four types of observation.
Ego States Functional Model
Critical Parent; Individual stands one hand on hip, one finger wagging toward the person being transacted with, sharp tone of voice saying 'You shouldn't do that!'
Nurturing Parent; Individual stands leaning forward with one arm around the shoulder of the other individual, a gentle expression on their face, saying in a soft tone of voice 'Would you like me to help you with that?'
Adult; Stands squarely facing another and asks 'What is the time?'
Adapted Child - Head facing the floor, hands twisting in each other and says in a small voice 'Please can I have …'
Free Child; Running wildly with arms outstretched shouting 'Yippee.'
A transaction can be described as a transactional stimulus plus a transactional response, this being the basic unit of social discourse.
(The use of the words 'stimulus' and 'response' is assuming something from the models point of view. It could be argued that a transaction could be a stimulus + stimulus:
'How are you?'
'How are you, did you get the job?'
Or response + response:
'I feel like rubbish today'
'I wish I had another day off'
T.A. defines three types of transaction.
A Complementary transaction in which the ego state addressed is the ego state that responds. Using the ego state functional model, with arrows or 'vectors' to show the direction of each transaction, the vectors will be parallel:
'What time is it?'
'Three o'clock.'
A Crossed transaction is one in which the transactional vectors are not parallel. The ego-state being adressed is not the ego-states that responds.
'Could you pass the salt '?
'You should have realised you wanted the salt before you sat down, get it yourself'
In an Ulterior transaction two messages are conveyed at the same time. One of these is an overt or social-level message, the other a covert or psychological-level message.
'Where are my socks?' (You are not a good enough wife.)
'In the drawer' (You are always telling me off)
When a baby is born its primary hunger is not food but the need for the touch of another human being, the need for physical and mental stimulation.
Rene Spitz investigated this need by observing babies reared in children's homes.
Even though well fed, warm and clean they were more likely to experience physical as well as emotional difficulties than children reared by their Mothers.
Spitz research demonstrated that sensory deprivation in the infant might result not only in psychic changes, but also in organic deterioration. It shows how vital the touching, hugging and 'stroking' is that babies normally get from their care providers.
This social handling and physical intimacy Berne called a 'unit of recognition' or a 'stroke'.
He classified our need for 'strokes' under the banner of 'the Four Hungers':
We are born with stimulus hunger , the need for physical and mental stimulus and, under ordinary conditions, have an ample supply available. As we grow and are weaned away from our Mother's breast we learn to substitute other forms of recognition in place of our mothers physical touching.
We learn to compromise, we learn to gain strokes from more subtle sources.
Recognition hunger, the need for acknowledgement by others, is a first level of sublimation of the more 'primeval' stimulus hunger . A smile, a compliment, or even an affront, all show us that our existence has been recognised and so feed this hunger.
These strokes that satisfy our hungers are universally deemed as being so important to our well being that it is considered rude or even antagonistic to omit to offer them when in a social position to do so.
As we further 'mature' we add on structure hunger and position hunger .
Discounting is an internal mechanism whereby a person minimises or ignores some aspect of themselves. Here are (Non-passive) examples of the four levels of discounting by using a person going on holiday as an illustration.
Ann and Eric are going on a short break to Greece. The evening before the departure, Ann and Eric, having finished the packing, settle down to a glass of wine in front of the TV. A New flash comes on reporting increasing bad weather and heavy snowfall in the South of England. Heathrow Airport has been closed.
Eric "I guess I better phone Luton Airport to see if they think they might close."
Ann "The snow will be gone by tomorrow, and anyway Heathrow's miles from Luton. I've
never heard of Luton being closed because of snow, that's ridiculous."
(Discounting at T2)
Eric "I'll phone anyway, they just shown pictures of snow in West London"
Ann "Well there may be snow at Luton and maybe they'll have
to cancel some of today's flights but our flights not until midday tomorrow,
it's going not going to stop the planes taking off tomorrow is it!"
(Discounting at T3)
Eric "I just phoned Luton and they say they are cancelling all flights today and tomorrow."
Ann "Oh great, well that's that then, I'll go and unpack.
Blooming weather!"
(Discounting at T4)
Eric "Hang on why don't we see if we can change our flight to the Midland Airport, there's no snow up there."
Ann "We could but we don't know where we need to call, or
who to talk to, and it's really late I don't suppose anyone will be there now."
(Discounting at T5)
Eric "I'll ring directory enquiries – yep, here you go, names and numbers, give them a call"
Ann "Ok, um, err, I think I need an Ouzo first."
(Discounting at T6)
An understanding of time structuring and the words used in T.A language will be needed to understand the relevance of this story.
Last night I went to a works party. All the usual people doing the usual things.
Mr W. Drawn, unsurprisingly, seemed totally absorbed in looking at the 18th century prints on the walls (which he passes a dozen times every work day) whilst Mrs R. Tual was asking how his wife and children were.
Mr W. Drawn had just started to absent mindedly dust the rubber plant next to Mrs Tual with his serviette whilst conjuring up his response when Pat Thyme came up to them both and commented on the weather.
Both Mr Drawn and Mrs Tual looked relived.
Mr Drawn muttered something about getting another drink and left in the direction of the staff kitchen.
Mrs Tual heartily agreed with Pat about the dreadful weather, I heard Pat Thyme saying how 'there really should be a covered walk way from the parking area to the offices and they were discussing whose department was responsible for such a thing but how unlikely it was for anything to ever get done by any department in this firm anyway so what was the point...?' by the time I had walked by them.
Mr Blue, Ms Green and Mr Red had, between them it seemed, managed to pull half a cork out of a bottle of wine and they seemed to be creating a corner of 'activity' as they all put forward what they thought would be the best solution for getting the other half of the cork out, or in – as Mr Red suggested.
There were lots of shouts of 'good idea' or 'nice one' as each view was energetically tried, and deflated 'I didn't think so's' when each in turn failed. There was a final cheer when they succeeded and Mr Red patted Mr Blue on the back and Mr Blue held Ms Green's hand aloft in triumph, which, in turn, held the first poured glass of wine from the challenging bottle, before they all took a drink and began to discuss the lunchtime canteen darts match.
By the window Macy and Inti seemed to be in their own bubble, as usual. They often seem to be laughing together or one of them seems to be saying something that, it seems, the other one really wants to hear. They certainly focus on what the other has to say. They just seem to be really open and relaxed with each other. I can imagine that it would feel quite nice.
Oh here comes Mr X. 'Hello Mr X you look particularly charming tonight. Come and stand next to me whilst we talk. I was just noticing how Macy and Inti were hitting it off and thinking how nice it would be to be that close to someone. Not with Inti of course – it would have to be someone with a bit more charm for me, someone with that certain 'X' factor .'
'Good evening Ms Paro, and if you found yourself next to someone like that what would you do?' 'Oh I would be 'game' Mr X, I would want his charm to take control Mr X, I would be putty in his hands Mr X, he could lead me down a path of his choice Mr X.' 'Then allow me to . . . '
'Oh Mr X what do you think you are doing. My goodness you didn't think I meant YOU did you!!!!!!!!
A game I have witnessed is one played between family members. It is a family of four. A mother, a father and two sons. One of the sons plays on his own (who we'll call John); the others are interchangeable.
John and one or more of the others can play.
In brief one family member, say the other son Fred 'unwittingly' upsets John who then protests, gets angry and then shouts, but gets no response and so eventually storms out, reflects and then returns to apologise.
Fred gets sympathy from other family members for being shouted at and then they all forgive John when he apologises. Initially it looks like it could be a game of 'Uproar ' but I think that several games are being played; I think Fred is playing NIGYYSOB (Eric Burne gave all the games he described titles. NIGYYSOB is the acronym for 'Now I've Got You You Son Of a Bitch'), which the other family members buy into.
John responds with a game of 'Courtroom' but as the third party/ies refuse to play his game, he tries to turn it into 'Uproar', which is also met with silence, and so it turns into 'Schlemiel'.
Using the Drama triangle: Fred does something that could be regarded as 'unfair' or 'against social norms' for his own benefit with the cost of disrespecting John. The play is repeated until John responds. He is in the role of the 'Victim' in the drama triangle and Fred in the role of the 'Persecutor'.
'John the Victim' protests his corner but 'Fred the Persecutor' denies the 'unfairness' of his play, and denies he is in 'Persecutor'. A third and/or forth member may then be drawn in by 'John the Victim' as a 'Rescuers' to play a possible game of 'Courtroom'.
The third and/or fourth member refuses to be the 'Rescuer' and in his/her muteness appears to back the 'Persecutor'. 'John the Victim' now gets angry and begins to shout. He has switched and taken on the role of the 'Persecutor' and Fred is now the 'Victim'.
The third party/ies now take/s on the role of 'Rescuer' for 'Fred the Victim'. This increases John's anger and his 'Persecution' is now at them both, or all three if the whole family decided to play and they all take on the role of 'Victim'.
John's anger and role as 'Persecutor' is met with silence. John cannot maintain his anger with no feedback and/or no active 'Victim' and so he storms off.
John reflects on ways he could have made Fred understand his errors rather than just unleashing his anger on him and so puts himself in the 'Rescuer' position of how he could have 'helped' John to see both sides but then feels sorry he didn't do this and feels he has made every thing unpleasant and so re-enters in the role of self imposed 'Victim' and apologises.
He wonders why this is always happening to him.
Fred hears the apology and steps into a 'Rescuers' role and rescues John from his internal pain by forgiving him. He has made John feel so bad that he hasn't had to think about his own behaviour.
John's payoff is racket sadness. Fred's payoff is racket gladness.
A life position is a person's basic belief about him/herself and others, which is used to justify decisions and behaviour.
Berne (1972; 84) suggested that there are four life positions:
Each stance expresses the individual's view of his/her own worthiness and value and that that s/he assigns to another in relation to him/herself. Each alternative results in a different way that the individual feels and perceives and that creates the 'normal' response to various life situations.
Once adopted it is therefore likely that s/he will construct the rest of his/her script and games to fit in with it.
Berne wrote 'Every game script and destiny is based on one of these four basic positions.'
As a child grows s/he receives a lot of verbal and non-verbal messages from his/her caretaker/s, which impact on the script formation of that individual.
These messages can be group into different brackets:
Each of these types of messages can be illustrated on the Script Matrix (Claude Steiner).
The script matrix is a diagram to show the transmission of script messages viewed in terms of ego-states.
The Script Matrix
So the child becomes influenced by the different inputs of his/her caretakers in the writing of his/her script. The counterinjunctions are mostly used in a positive way and shape how we go about life. Social manners, 'Be good', 'work hard' are typical examples.
Programs show the child how to do things, count to ten, hide your feelings. Mostly they are constructive and positive.
Injunctions, which are negative, cannot make a child write his/her script in a particular way. The child can still decided what to do with the injunctions s/he receives. For example a 'Don't Exist' injunction may be taken on board as a whole and the child (or later in adulthood) will commit suicide, or have an 'accident' that results in his/her death.
Alternatively the child might make a magical early decision to shift the impact of this decision and kill someone else, or they may stop existing as a person by going-crazy and so not having to actually die. The child may even recognize the injunction as the injunction giver's problem and reject it completely.
Whilst the child is forming his/her script, deciding how to keep to counterinjunctions and soften injunctions s/he may decide to cover the injunction with a counterinjunctiuon. So the injunction to 'Don't Exist' might be tempered with the counterinjunction to 'work hard' so part of the individual script is 'as long as I worked hard it's alright for me to exist/stay alive.' So this individual will 'work hard and play hard' even at the cost of his physical health because not to do so would mean s/he would have to listen to the injunction not to exist. Likewise one injunction can cover another. 'It's OK for me to exist as long as I don't succeed.'
So the counterinjunction, program, injunction/permissions all play a major part in the individual's script formation but I think it is worth noting that if two children had identical messages it would fall to their individual decisions as to what to do with these messages that would decide that person's final script.
Autonomy in TA terms is seen as the quality which is manifested by the release or recovery of three capacities: awareness, spontaneity and intimacy; any behaviour, thinking or feeling which is a response to here-and-now reality, rather than a response to script beliefs.
The definition of 'Independence' is given as 'capable of acting for ones self or on ones own'. (Collins English Dictionary 1979)
The TA term 'Autonomy' is making the distinction of behaviour that is not directed by interjected influences but is a result of injunction, counterinjunction, permission and contaminated Adult free responses.
The dictionary definition of independence merely reflects the ability to respond without outside influence but does not take into account internal influences of our life positions and script decisions.
So the autonomous person's awareness; his/her ability to see, hear, feel, taste and smell things would not be filtered to fit his parents definition. S/he would not feel the need to name things and criticise things but just to experience then. The experience of this type of awareness the autonomous person looking at the view of the hills would look at the hills and experience the sight and maybe be aware of his/her bodily response.
Whereas an independent person would have an internal monologue such as 'Ah that Mount Verde, 1400 feet high I think. I went there in '76 or was it '77. First climbed by Scott in 1792.'
From the point of spontaneity the autonomous person would have a whole range of options in thinking feeling and behaviour from any of the three ego states to suit the presented situation. Here the independent individual will respond from the ego state most encouraged or modelled in that particular type of circumstance when a child.
So in looking at a view of some hills the independent person may sit and wonder at the beauty in a very Adult way, maybe pondering how lucky s/he was to be alive in a Parental way but it may not even occur to, for example, pull his/her shoes off run barefoot through the grass arms outstretched before rolling down the hill.
In intimacy, a sharing of feelings and wants between two people and is likely to take place in Free Child. An autonomous person would most likely move to Free Child for this interchange having first assured a safe setting for this through Adult contract-making and Adult protection.
In a person who is independent this is also possible but if Parent and Child have been interjected and/or Adult contaminated them there will by many points at wish the process could/would be halted. This would be manifested as arguments and misunderstandings as the 'intimate' couple interacted from their individual independent interjected perspectives.