Eric Berne's Theory of Transactional Analysis: What It Is, Techniques, and Examples

The Transactional analysis theory is a theory created by Eric Berne At the beginning of the 20th century, it is currently widely used in the organizational, educational and clinical fields with the intention of promoting personal growth and the development of human potential.

In the following Psychology-Online article, we will explain what this theory consists of, the techniques it uses to carry out personal change and we will detail a practical example in relation to overcoming the lack of esteem.

Index

1. What is Berne's Transactional Analysis Theory
2. The three states of the self in transactional analysis
3. What techniques does the theory of transactional analysis use?
4. A concrete way of approaching problems from the theory of transactional analysis

Berne's theory of transactional analysis is a humanist-based theory of personality that, based on the belief in true human potential, focuses on the integral development of people from the

Eric Berne was a psychoanalyst-oriented psychiatrist whose main objective was to create a theory or social model that would allow the explanation of human behavior by analyzing vital functioning of people. This socio-psychological model starts from three premises on which its development is based:

1. People are born pure and perfect
2. With great potential to deliver to the world
3. Endowed with the ability to change

Based on these philosophical principles, the author formulated his theory according to which a person develops three states of the self that will function permanently and alternately at each moment of his life. These entities will have a similar equivalence to psychoanalytic entities "I, it and superego":

1. State of the Father I: This state will be equivalent to the psychoanalytic "superego", according to which the person internalizes a whole series of norms on how he must act himself, others and the world in his day to day life.
2. Adult Self State: in this case, this state will resemble the psychoanalytic "I" and would correspond to the current present and conscious person.
3. State of the Child Self: this last state, would be conditioned by all the unconscious beliefs about oneself, about others and about life that the person has been acquiring throughout his childhood experiences, remaining, most of them, in the unconscious. This entity would be equivalent to the psychoanalytic "id".

According to Berne, the person creates a life script from these three states of the self that guide and regulate his vital behavior. This life script is made up of a series of unconscious beliefs that are internalized as mechanisms of adaptation to the environment. In many cases, part of this life script is rigid and subjects the person to the execution of certain stereotyped behaviors, called by Berne "psychological games", which follow the established guidelines and confirm the life script created without allowing the person to live naturally and spontaneous.

This is so before the part of the life script created from negative or traumatic experiences whose result is the assumption of certain self-injurious and limiting beliefs that generate psychological games that limit the development of true human potential. The main objective of the therapeutic intervention of transactional analysis is to become aware of this negative part of the life script along with the psychological games that it entails and how these limit the free and healthy development of the person in their life.

To carry out the catharsis process and personal cleansing of limiting aspects that do not allow the person to grow and develop their full potential to deliver it to the world, the theory of transactional analysis uses certain techniques:

• Awareness of the alternate functioning of the three states of the self: Through this technique, the person becomes aware of how he thinks, feels and acts differently depending on of the state of the self in which he is in each moment and of how this determines the state of well-being of him and happiness. These three states contain a positive part that would be equivalent to the assumption of norms of cordial and peaceful coexistence, in the case of the "I father", the conscious and sober acting in the present, in the case of the "adult self" and spontaneity, play, joy and naturalness, in the case of the "child self". However, there is a negative and limiting part that would correspond to the assumption of punitive norms, in the case of the "father I", the performance dominated mostly by the "child self" and the "child self" in the "adult self" and the censorship created by fears and traumas in the "self kid". Awareness of the different manifestations of these three states is an important part of this therapeutic process to motivate change.
• From this awareness, I know determine and establish the life script created by the person throughout her life and it is verified how this has influenced and continues to influence her health.
• To deepen this awareness, the different "psychological games" that the person has internalized are specified as behaviors that feed and sustain his life script.
• From the detailed analysis of these important details, a contractual agreement between both parties regarding therapeutic scheduling established in such a way that it involves the motivation and involvement of the patient, assuming it as an active part of their own personal change process.
• Therapy will use the technique of contrast the irrationality of the beliefs that support the life script and psychological games, offering and putting into practice new ways of thinking, feeling and acting that are more realistic, constructive and healthy for the person.

Next, we will present a concrete way of approaching a self-esteem problem within an educational environment:

Faced with a young person with self-esteem problems, the therapeutic intervention based on the theory of transactional analysis would consist of inquire with the patient what their childhood experiences were and how these interacted with the educational style of the family and the environment to build a certain "father me" and "child me" that will be determining decisively the performance of the "young self" through the created life script and psychological games used.

In these cases, the expectation is that it is a young person with a minimum level of affective deficiency fed by rigid parental educational patterns and authoritarian, overprotective or absent who have established beliefs of inadequacy and worthlessness and distrust of others and the world in general. These irrational beliefs have created a life script that lead him to act using psychological games concrete that will verify to him like "character of second". This way of proceeding separates the person from the rest of the colleagues, which leads him to confirm his worthlessness by not being treated as one more.

Showing all this complex mechanism to the young person will allow him to become aware of the way in which he himself constructs his own reality. From there, alternative ways of life will be shown to youand you will be encouraged to put it into practice so you can see for yourself the benefits of personal change in your life. Accompanied at all times, they will be encouraged to progressively make the change towards ways of acting that are more respectful with themselves and, consequently, open with others.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Eric Berne's Theory of Transactional Analysis: What It Is, Techniques, and Examples, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical psychology.

• Berne, E. (2016). Transactional analysis in psychotherapy: A systematic individual and social psychiatry. Pickle Partners Publishing.
• de la Fuente, F. V. (2004). Transactional Analysis (Properly), by Eric Berne. El Catoblepas Digital Magazine, 34, 16-55.
• Pereira, M. L. N. (2011). A review of Transactional Analysis theory and possible applications in Orientation education. Education magazine, 35(1), 1-47.