Transactional Analysis: An Introduction

An understanding of the basics of transactional analysis theory will help enrich all your interpersonal relationships, and enhance your awareness of your own motives and behaviors when interacting with others

by Jane C Woods

Transactional Analysis is one of the most accessible theories of modern psychology. Transactional Analysis was developed by Eric Berne, and his famous ‘parent adult child’ theory is still being further developed today.

Applications

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.

Roots

Throughout history, and from all standpoints: philosophy, medical science, religion; people have believed that each man and woman has a multiple nature.

In the early 20th century, Sigmund Freud first established that the human psyche is multi-faceted, and that each of us has warring factions in our subconscious. Since then, new theories continue to be put forward, all concentrating on the essential conviction that each one of us has parts of our personality which surface and affect our behaviour according to different circumstances.

Eric Berne

In the 1950’s Eric Berne began to develop his theories of Transactional Analysis. He said that verbal communication, particularly face to face, is at the centre of human social relationships and psychoanalysis. Transactional Analysis became the method of examining the transaction wherein: ‘I do something to you, and you do something back’.

The three ego states

Berne also said that each person is made up of three alter ego states:

• Parent
• Adult
• Child

These terms have different definitions in TA than in normal language.

Parent

This is our ingrained voice of authority, absorbed conditioning, learning and attitudes from when we were young. We were conditioned by our real parents, teachers, older people, next door neighbours, aunts and uncles, Father Christmas and Jack Frost.

Our Parent is made up of a huge number of hidden and overt recorded playbacks. They are typically embodied by phrases and attitudes starting with 'how to’, ‘under no circumstances’, ‘always’ and ‘never forget’, ‘don’t lie...cheat...steal’, etc, etc.

Our "parent" is formed by external events and influences upon us as we grow through early childhood. We can change it, but this is easier said than done.

Child

Our internal reaction and feelings to external events form the "Child". This is the seeing, hearing, feeling, and emotional body of data within each of us.

When anger or despair dominates reason, the Child is in control. Like our Parent we can change it, but it is no easier.

Adult

Our "Adult"’ is our ability to think and determine action for ourselves, based on received data. The adult in us begins to form at around ten months old, and is the means by which we keep our Parent and Child under control. If we are to change our Parent or Child we must do so through our adult.

When we are experiencing a change over which we have no control there may be a tendancy to revert to childlike behaviour, particularly if we feel our bosses are talking to us from Adult mode.

You can find out more about this in Berne’s book, still in print and regularly reprinted, Games People Play.

Example

Who are you today? Is that your inner child responding? Or the critical parent? Or the mature, considered adult?

Here’s an example of how all three states can reveal themselves in a few minutes.

Imagine you are driving happily down the motorway. A car suddenly undertakes you and you are forced to tale evasive action to avoid a crash. You do so competently and immediately and avert a crisis. Adult.

Then your "naughty child" emerges and you think "I’ll show ‘em" and you begin to increase your speed until you are driving a very dangerous few feet from the bumper of the offending car, flashing your lights and making obscene gestures (I guess most of us know what I’m talking about here!) Child.

Eventually you pull back and start muttering that the driver should not be on the road at all; people like them are all idiots and where are the police when you need them etc. You may even find yourself repeating phrases that your parents have actually used. Critical parent.

Whether you subscribe to the TA theory or not, I think it’s useful model to grasp when you sometimes find yourself behaving less than professionally at work.

Just ask yourself, “who’s the adult here?”

Jane C Woods is founder of changingpeople - consultancy, training and development services. Jane has spent a lifetime working with people of all ages, class, status, income and profession; helping them achieve to their full potential. Her experience covers both the private and public sector, ranging from small business owners to large organisations, professors at Cambridge University to those who may have no formal qualifications who know they want to change their lives but aren’t yet sure how to go about it. Visit Jane's website and read her blog regularly for a host of free, practical advice and information that really works.

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