Transactional Analysis by Dr. Eric Berne

1. TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS
by Dr. Eric Berne

2. 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

3. •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.

4. •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.

5. 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.

6. •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

7. •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.

8. •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.

9. The Birth of Transactional
Analysis

10. •Eric died on July 15,
1970. Eric Berne is
buried at the El
Carmelo Cemetery in
Pacific Grove,
California.

11. 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.

12. •The Agent. The person sending the stimulus.
•Respondent. The person who responds.

13. 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.

14. 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

16. 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.”

17. 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”

19. 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

20. •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!”

21. •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.

22. •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%

23. 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.

24. 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.

25. 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

26. 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.

27.  
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

28. •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.”

29. 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. 

30. 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

31. 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.

32. •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.

33. 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

34. 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".

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

36. Concept Map
Straight Transaction

37. Crossed Transaction Ulterior Transaction

39. 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.

40.  
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.

41. 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.

42. Characterization

43. •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.

44. •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.

45. ThAnk you! 