Transactional analysis was the brainchild of Eric Berne MD.
Eric Lennard Bernstein was born in Montreal Canada in May 1910. His father was a general practitioner and died of tuberculosis at the age of 38 when Eric was only eleven years old.
An understanding of how close Eric Berne was to his father can be gained from the fact that Berne's first book Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy is dedicated to his father.
The dedication in traditional medical Latin states:
In memory of my father David, doctor of Medicine and Master of Surgery, and also Doctor to the Poor. In 1935, Eric gained his doctorate in medicine and master of surgery at McGill University in Canada.
Some time later he moved to Mount Sion hospital in New York. He became a US citizen and changed his name to Eric Berne.
In 1941 he commenced training at the New York Psychoanalytic Society with Paul Federn as his analyst.
In 1943 Eric Berne joined the US army, working in the medical psychiatry department. He rose to the rank of Major.
In 1946 he left the army and moved to Carmel in California. He resumed his training as a psychoanalyst, this time with Eric Eriksen as his analyst.
He became assistant psychiatrist at Mount Sion Hospital in San Francisco, consultant to the surgeon general of the US army, and as well, worked in the veterans' hospital.
In the 1950's, he challenged the orthodoxy of both the profession of psychiatry and psychoanalysis, and so the first break with the then prevailing mode of psychotherapy occurred.
This was the start of a series of evening seminars discussing social psychiatry. These seminars laid the ground rules and indeed opened and fertilised the ground for transactional analysis.
Eric Berne wrote many learned papers on transactional analysis and these were discussed and improved. Indeed, from the discussion of these papers at the evening seminars, Eric Berne came to produce the books on transactional analysis which we now love and learn from.
In 1956, Berne applied for membership of the institute of psychoanalysis in San Francisco. His membership was rejected because he was daring enough to defy rigid Freudian concepts.
For Eric Berne the rejection was devastating and frustrating.
Spurred on by this rejection, he began to evolve his own theory of personality and psychotherapy which he called Transactional Analysis.
His theory was presented to the world in 1961 with the publication of his first pure TA book Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy.
In the years between 1956 and 1970 when he died, his creative genius was in full flow.
During a relatively brief professional life devoted to transactional analysis he was responsible for at least six major professional contributions, any one of which would have been enough to have earned its originator the respect and gratitude of the members of the psychotherapy profession.
He developed the theory of personality which has both a formidable depth and elegant simplicity.
He formulated a structured method and sequence of therapy which, because of its clarity and logic, is a godsend to the therapist.
He focused on the internal process occurring within the patient which he called "ego state analysis" or structural analysis.
He developed transactions which take place between the ego-state of one person and those of another person which he described as "transactional analysis"
He studied transactions between people who communicate with each other in ongoing relationship and he called these "game analysis"
Finally he developed the process of "script analysis" which examines in detail the elements of the master plan or script which we all develop for our lives.
Berne turned his attention to group organisation and structures. He had much of value to say about formation development and functioning of groups.
Transactional analysis today is used in:
In 1964 Eric Berne and his San Francisco and Monterey seminar colleagues decided to create a TA association, naming it the International Transactional Analysis Association in recognition of the growing numbers of transactional analysts who resided outside the USA.
Transactional Analysis is now established in over sixty-five countries in the world.
In Europe, transactional analysis is widely used in Belgium, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Scotland, and Wales.
Transactional Analysts work in one of the three specialist fields - Educational, Organisational, or Clinical. A new specialist field is being currently developed to deal with counselling.
Here in Ireland, amazingly, until a year ago, so far as can be found out, not a single Irish person belonged to the ITAA. In fact there was just one Irish resident who was a member, and she was Australian.
It was December 4 1994 that a public meeting was held, and from those who attended it, Transactional Analysis in Ireland (TAI) was formed.
Monthly meetings have been held since then, attended by people from all over the country - from Larne to Kerry, from Enniskillen to Wexford, and not leaving out Waterford, Westmeath, Galway and Louth.
At these TAI meetings, those present discuss a topic of TA application,, and share what knowledge they have gleaned from reading the books.
A registered trainer came from England and gave a TA101 in March 1995.
Most people who attend TAI meetings have no ambition to become professionally trained. They just want to learn other ways of living their lives so that they will be happier.
TAI intends organising professional training for trainers in the relatively near future.
The TA101 course mentioned above was conceived by Eric Berne himself. It is a basic 12-hour course in transactional analysis which has two aims -
to communicate the key concepts in a simple yet accurate form and
secondly to present these concepts in a manner which excites and stimulates the Child part of the listener to want to learn more.
Berne's 101-course is probably one of the finest introductory teaching tools ever devised in any profession.
On Wednesday 15 July 1970 Eric Berne died at the young age of 60, but he believed (along with Confucius) that a scholar has a responsibility to pass on his knowledge through writing.
He published many books and articles. During the past 25 years these theories have been expanded and broadened by theoreticians of Transactional Analysis.
Other information about origins of TA and Eric Berne's Life
Detailed history (ITAA Website)
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