38 Transactional Analysis

G. Padma Priya

1. Introduction

Transactional Analysis is both a theory of personality and an organized system interactional therapy. It is grounded on the assumption that we make current decisions based on our early experiences/. Early in life we may have felts powerless or even experienced ourselves as struggling for survival. Decision made then about how to behave may not be valid, useful or empowering today. The TA therapist focuses on helping clients rethink these early decisions in light of present circumstances. TA emphasizes the cognitive and behavioral aspects of the therapeutic proven. Within TA there are three recognized schools – classical, schiffian (or reparenting), and redecisional – and unofficial schools identified as self-reparenting and corrective parenting. TA provides an interactional and contractual approach. It is interactional in that it emphasizes the dynamics of transactions between people and it is contractual; in that remembers develop clear statements of what they will change and how they will be different us a react of being in a group.

2.  Objective:

• Define terms specific to Transactional analysis.
• Learn and apply principles, strategies of Transactional analysis.
• Discuss the goals of Transactional analysis therapeutic approaches.
• To learn the language and concepts underlying Transactional analysis  Learning
• To analyze our relationships with one another in terms of TA.

3.  History

Eric Berne (1910-1970), qualified as a psychotherapist, developed transactional analysis (TA) theory in 1950. From 1955 to 1962 Berne’s discovered the ego states which were the initial stage of development in transactional analysis. This discovery was based on neurological experiments that suggested that different ego states are experienced by persons upon direct stimulation of the brain. Berne recognized the importance of this discovery and identified three distinct ego states – parents, Adult and child – which constitute a coherent system of thinking, feeling and behaving.

From 1962 to 1966 Berne centered on games which were the second stage of the development transactional analysis. Berne’s curiosity in communication theory led him to understand that there are two types of messages i.e. psychosocial were generated from single source of communication. As a result the idea of games discovered – a two level transactions giving rise to expected payoff.

The dominant force in TA during the third developmental phase (1966 – 1970) was script analysis. The concept of scripts emerged concurrently with Berne’s (1966) book on group treatment. Methods for understanding and analyzing scripts were built up and used in the treatment. Thus, transactional analysis began shifted from intellectual approach to proactive approach which therapist use to change client scripts. In the 1970s, TA gained additional prominence through such popular publications as Born to Win (James & Jongeward, 1971) and What Do You Say After You Say Hello? (Berne, 1972), published two years after Berne’s death in 1970.

The fourth influence on TA was the hybridization by the Gouldings (1978; 1979) of TA and Gestalt into redecision therapy. Redecision therapy ferrets out the affect that links past to present and allows the client to challenge his or her beliefs about the self in the past.

4. Overview of transactional Analysis

Transactional analysis does not try to ‘make’ the patient better, but to bring him into a position where he can exercise an Adult option to get better. We have observed several identifying characteristics of transactional analysis. Among that, the first one is contractual- here the therapeutic contracts are working with the clients for specified period. In the second one, decision making and the responsibility of a therapist could be focused. In the third one, clients can be assisted with their general or personal behaviour and feelings to get along with the existing world. Often, it is this decision process that is the essence of TA. In the third analysis, the practitioners share common vocabulary which is well defined and could be understood by the clients with their known language. The knowledge and education of the clients is important during the TA process.

The ego states and life scripts concepts of all TA therapists can be approached based on the assumption “I’m OK-You’re OK”.

The therapeutic principles and theory of personality from transactional analysis are processed by these four different types of methods, such as,

1.Transactions – what people say and do to one another.

2.Scripts – endless feedback loops of behavior generated in early childhood and continuing to the present

3.Games and cons – transactions (often maladaptive) that are played with others and that lead to payoffs (also often maladaptive)

4.Structures – the differential composition of ego states specific to each individual.

5.  The Key concepts of Transaction analysis that a therapist will use in their work Transaction analysis theorists understand personality development in terms of several key

concepts: ego states, strokes, injunctions, decisions, script formation, games, transactions, and life positions. The basic personality premise of TA is that all of us are three people in one – a child, an adult, and a parent.

5.1 The child Ego State

Every child has their ego states which consist of inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. This constitutes the recording of child’s initial experiences and one own self concept. The Child ego state can be categorized into two practical states – the Adapted Child and the Free Child. The Free child is joyful, curious, playful and spontaneous whereas the individual who stay in the stage of free child for long period may be considered irresponsible or out of control. However, Adapted Child ego state may be categorized as industrious, compromising, rebellious and compliant and they act as if parent or somebody may be observing or listening.

Throughout one’s life, the Child ego state is both an influence and a state of being that is internally derived. It provides the “want to” of the personality and is the force that motivates the individual.

5.2 The parent Ego State

In terms of function, the parent ego state may be categorized into the Critical Parent and the Nurturing Parent. In most cases, someone functioning as a Nurturing Parent is caring and protective may sometimes be overprotective. Critical Parent is prejudiced, oppressive, controlling and intimidating.

Trusting neither self nor others, the Critical Parent calls on external authority to enforce his or her demands.

In the Parent ego state is recorded a modeled and taught concept of life. This unerasable concept is composed of events that actually happened in childhood. The problem is that the individual internalizes this tape in a distorted fashion, recording both the distorted and the objectives realities of what one’s parents were. Because the child is dependent on its parents, it is unable to comprehend that they were not God, but human, and thus made mistakes. As a result, that child grows to adulthood with a commingled but “ultimately right” Parent ego state that is filled with demands, directions, and dogmatic decisions. The Parent ego state, then, is the externally derived “have to” of the personality.

5.3 The adult Ego State

The Adult ego state is the umpire between the needs of the Child ego state and stress of parent ego state. The Adult ego state is not only a functioning part of the personality but also an observation state, and it is internally derived. One of its major functions is to update the Parent ego state. Therefore, too much adult results in a technically rational but too little adult results in an illogical and irrational individual.

5.4 Strokes

In TA theory, the need for strokes is considered the basic motivation for any human social interaction and necessary to an individual’s healthy functioning. The most positive strokes come from parents who unconditionally accept their children. Though children prefer positive strokes, negative strokes are much considered than no strokes at all. Adulthood is also achieved from spouses, bosses, children, peers and achievements towards the good job. When straightforward, direct strokes are not available, people may opt to play games and rackets to obtain them. Eventually the stroke one gets or gives reinforce one’s life In summary, the stroke one receive s or gives to others reinforce script, life position, transactions, games and ego functions.

5.5 Life Positions

Life position is a result of parental treatment during the early days of child. and is a major component of an individual’s life script. There are four basic life positions an individual may adopt.

1.I’m OK – You’re OK. This is probably the position reflect how the child entered the world. As long as the child’s emotional and physical needs are met in a loving, accepting way (given “permissions”), the infant retains this position and maintains a “winner’s” script.

2.I’m Ok – You’re not OK. If a child is mistreated, he or she may decide others are not OK, which is essentially a defense against a more basic feelings of being “not OK.” People in this position often blame and distrust others and react to the world with frustration or anger (sometimes called the “paranoid” position).

3. I’m not OK – You’re Ok. If the child’s needs are not met, the child may decide that it is his or her fault for being “lacking” in some fundamental way. This is the most common position and is sometimes called the “depressive” position. People who are frequently in this position commonly experience guilt, depression, inadequacy and fear.

4. I’m not OK – You’re mot OK. If stroking is lacking or extremely negative, the child may decide, “’m not OK – You’re not OK.” Since there is no source of positive stroking, the infant may give up and feel hopeless. Persons who adopt this position are more likely to end up in mental institutions, jail, or the morgue.

5.6 Script Formation

During the early childhood days individual decision towards the life is scripted in brain which is unerasable. Scripts have multiple components like parental injunctions, payoffs, life positions, games and physiological attributed. Parents may send children two types of messages that influence the formation of their life position: permissions and scripts messages. Permissions – positive strokes given unconditionally – are growth-promoting messages. In contrast, negative are, growth-restricting, and destructive injunctions.

After the child incorporates early messages from the parents, a script develops into a strong belief system, which is staunchly defended as an adult. Negative, long-term, global injunctions and attributions do little for the child’s physical and mental health.

  5.7 Counterscripts

To complicate matters, the nurturing parent also contradictory “Do” message that may have problematic consequences for the child called a counterscript, these parental messages demand acquiescence to the social and cultural expectations of society. The Nurturing Parent makes a positive verbal demand – “Be a caring person” – which is contradicted by hypocritical action of the Critical Parent who says, “I won’t give any money to that charity; they’re just a bunch of welfare parasites”. In other words, “Do as I say, not as I do!”

5.8 Transactions

A transaction is the fundamental unit of behavior in transactional analysis theory. It is the needed for communication between child, adult and parent ego states of two person which determines if the communication stops or continues. It is “an exchange of strokes between two people, consisting of a response and a stimulus between the ego states”. A conversation involves a series of linked transactions. There are three kinds of transactions – complementary, crossed and ulterior. In complementary transaction the reply is between the same ego states. Hence, it is also called as parallel transaction. A crossed transaction happens when there is a crossed communication the receiver replies to the ego state different from one to which the communication was aimed at. Whenever a crossed transaction occurs, a breakdown in communication is likely to follow. An ulterior transaction is one that contains two levels of communication – a social level and a psychological level – and always involves more than two ego states. The psychological message is the ulterior message; it is aimed at an ego state different from the one the social message is aimed at.

5.9 Games

Games are repetitious, a recurring transactions, superficially reasonable, but with a hidden drive. Games may be played at a variety of levels and intensities: some are socially acceptable; in others feelings are hurt without any permanent damage; and still others are played for keeps. Games are defense mechanisms as well as transactions, and everyone plays them 60 to 70 percent of the time. The general advantage of a game is that it is a stabilizing influence. Homeostasis is promoted by the stroking one receives, and psychological stability is reinforced by the confirmation of ‘one’s situation ’.

5.10 Rackets

Desired negative feeling is associated with payoff that they use to confirm their life position is termed a racket. This collection of bad feelings is usually learned from a parent figure to whom the child ego state has become accustomed.

5.11 Drama Triangle

Drama triangle is an enclosed system with a persecutor (I am better that you; you are inferior), a rescuer (I know more than you; you are inferior), and a victim (I am helpless) at its corners. In terms of strokes, the persecutor discounts others with negative stokes, the rescuer discounts others with conditional positive strokes, and the victim discounts him-or herself with negative strokes. An individual may move into a game or racket from any of the three basic positions by exaggerating or devaluating the worth of himself or herself or the other person”. Individuals switch positions as the game or racket progresses. When the other person refuses to continue to play, such individuals switch drama triangle positions and play games in order to continue receiving strokes.

Ultimately, therapists will use these concepts in transactional analysis therapy to promote structural rearrangement and deconfusion of a client’s child ego-state. They will encourage clients to challenge their current beliefs and the way he or she uses their life script. This will help them to better understand the direction and patterns of their life for themselves, and this awareness can help them to make the decision to change their behaviour.

6. Process of therapy

Settings for transactional analysis range from homelike surroundings to more business like offices. Since body language clues are important in conducting transactional analysis, in most therapists’ offices there are no tables or chairs that block therapist and client views of one another. The majority of TA settings include whiteboards, black boards or giant paper pads that both therapists and clients can use to illustrate transactions and games and other relevant matters. Some therapists employ audiovisual aids to provide feedback and heighten clients’ awareness.

In the initial session or sessions, therapists work in a number of ways. Therapists introduce and use a simple common vocabulary. During therapy there is no gossiping or small talk. Ground rules for the therapeutic contact are agreed, such as no violence or threats of violence, and no use of alcohol or mind-altering drugs. Furthermore, an initial fee-for-service business contract may be established. Therapists conduct an initial assessment of clients and work with them to establish contract goals, including a time frame for ending therapy.

6.1 Therapeutic Goals

Transactional analysis seeks to help clients obtain an ‘I am OK, you are OK’ life position. For clients who have been turned by their life’s experiences from princes and princesses into frogs, Berne saw four possible goals. Stewart views these goals as progressive stages in the direction of cure.

1.Symptomatic control – though still feeling distress, clients can control their symptoms in their interactions with others.

2.Symptomatic relief – getting better, or ‘progress’, which Berne regarded as making clients into more comfortable frogs.

3.Transference cure – here clients can stay out of their scripts so long as they can keep their therapists either literally or mentally around.

4.Autonomy – casting ‘off the frog skin and taking up once more the interrupted development of the prince or princess’. The client’s Adult takes over the role of the therapist as the client attains autonomy. Autonomy refers to the capacity for ‘non-script’ behavior ‘with no particular time schedule, developed later in life, and not under parental influence’.

The attainment of autonomy involves the person’s regaining three basic capacities of the fundamental OK position: awareness, spontaneity and intimacy.

• Awareness – awareness means the capacity to see and hear directly and not in the way in which one was brought up.
• Spontaneity – spontaneity means the capacity to feel directly and to express feelings directly and not in the way in which one was brought up.
• Intimacy – intimacy means the capacity to relate to another person or persons in an aware, spontaneous, loving and game-free way.

6.2 The therapeutic relationship

Transactional analysts provide supportive and nurturing relationships conducive to clients assuming greater personal responsibility for their lives. Transactional analysis, as originally formulated by Berne, is largely an educational process and thus the therapist-client relationship resembles a democratic teacher-learner relationship. Early on in therapy, therapist and clients establish ground rules and define the elements of their working or learning contract. Therapists train clients in the skills of analyzing ego states, transactions, games and scripts. Furthermore therapists encourage and assist clients to identify Adult options for dealing with people, problems and situations in their lives. As indicated earlier, more often than not therapists’ offices contain educational aids like whiteboards and large writing pads.

6.3 Therapeutic Interventions

Berne regarded transactional analysis as an umbrella term for four different, but inter-related, approaches to treatment. These approaches are structural analysis, transactional analysis, game analysis, and script analysis. There is a progression from structural analysis, through transactional and game analysis, to script analysis, though he realized that the script analysis state was not always attained.

6.3.1 Structural Analysis

As mentioned earlier, structural analysis consists of diagnosing and separating one feeling-thinking-and-behaviour pattern or ego state from another. Structural analysis helps clients to identify and become aware of both the existence and the contents of their ego states. Its aim is to free people to have appropriate access to all their ego states without debilitating exclusions and contaminations.

6.3.2 Transactional Analysis

The aim of transactional analysis as social control or the ability of the Adult to decide when to release the Parent or Child and when to resume the executive. If a person does not have social control, others can consciously or unconsciously activate that person’s Parent or Child ego states in ways may not be helpful. Clients are helped to understand the go state transactions involved in situations and relationships in which they are experiencing difficulty as a means towards greater competence in handling them.

6.3.3 Game Analysis

Game analysis is another way of attaining social control. Just as an understanding of structural analysis is a prerequisite of transactional analysis, so an understanding of analysis of single transactions is a prerequisite of understanding the more complex series of transactions called games. In game analysis the client is encouraged to learn more satisfying ways of structuring time and acquiring strokes. The methods of game analysis include helping a client to see what game he or she is playing, what the moves are, what the racket or bad feelings payoffs are, and how the games justify a life position. It is also important to help the client to express constructively the natural child need or feeling which he or she has been discounting.

6.3.4 Script Analysis

The script analysis must take care not to behave in ways promote a client’s script. The purpose of script analysis is to help clients to get out of their script and thus to behave autonomously. The therapist needs to listen carefully to an observe the client’s verbal and non- verbal behavior for script signs or signals. Additionally, script analysis may involve the use of a script checklist to help both analyst and client to know the client’s script (Berne, 1972). Script analysis aims to help clients to abandon their early decision, previously made in different circumstances and with an incomplete neopsychic or Adult apparatus, by now making and enacting re-decisions for change.

7. Conclusion

Hope this module gave an insight into the principles and strategies of Transactional Analysis, strategies of learning theory, and the application of these principles and strategies in assisting clients to replace negative behaviours with more acceptable behaviour. Transactional Analysis has wide applications in clinical, therapeutic, organizational and personal development, encompassing communications, management, personality, relationships and behaviour. Whether you’re in business, a parent, a social worker or interested in personal development, Eric Berne’s Transactional Analysis theories, and those of his followers, will enrich your dealings with people, and your understanding of yourself.

Web links

• http://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/transactional-analysis.html
• https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/types/transactional-analysis