Transactional Analysis

Analytical Essay # 6045

Psychology > Disorders
Psychology > Freud
Psychology > Therapies

A structural and functional approach to Personality Theory and Psychotherapy.

3,500 words () | 8 sources | APA | 1998 United States

Paper Summary:

The Transactional Analysis (TA) personality theory and therapy concepts are based on the ideas of founder Eric Berne. The present article examines the Parent, the Adult, and the Child ego states, which are the foundation for the TA personality theory. Several different types of transactions that individuals participate in are discussed. The TA view of healthy functioning versus pathological functioning which includes ego state boundary problems, transaction problems, destructive scripts, and psychological games are reviewed. Finally, discussions of the strategies and underpinnings of TA therapy are described.

From the Paper:

"The most concise way to define Transactional Analysis (TA) is through its founder's own words. Eric Berne (1972) defined (TA) 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" (p. 20). Berne received his M.D. and C.M. (Master of Surgery) from McGill University in 1935. Shortly after graduation, he began his psychiatric residency at the Psychiatric Clinic of Yale University of Medicine. In 1941, he started training in Psychoanalysis under Paul Federn, and eventually became the analysand of Eric Erickson in 1947 (ITAA, 1996)."