Transactional analysis

Methods of transactional analysis were proposed by American psychotherapist Eric Berne in 1955. Subsequently, the technique was used and perfected by many talented psychotherapists. Techniques of transactional analysis allow people to understand themselves and understand their behavior. This is necessary for people who have any psychological problems, have difficulty communicating. Transactional analysis helps to understand the cause of conflicts and find ways to eliminate them.

Basic provisions and concepts of transactional analysis

Transactional analysis is sometimes called a communication analysis, because it evaluates a person by interacting with other people. Basics of the technique of transactional analysis are the following statements:

  1. All people are normal, each person has an equal right to respect for oneself and for one's opinion. Each person has importance and weight.
  2. All people have the ability to think, except in cases of congenital or acquired injuries, or unconsciousness.
  3. People themselves are building their own destiny and are in a position to change their lives without going after the earlier decisions.

The basic proposition is the opinion that the same person, being in different situations, can act on the basis of one of the ego states. Transactional analysis distinguishes 3 ego states: the child, the adult and the parent.

The essence of transactional analysis

As already mentioned above, in psychology, for the purposes of transactional analysis, three ego states are singled out: a child, a parent and an adult.

  1. The child's ego-state is characterized by natural motivations that arise in the child. It includes early childhood experiences, attitudes, reactions to oneself and other people. Such a state is expressed as the old behavior peculiar to a person in childhood. The condition of the child is responsible for the creative manifestations of man.
  2. The ego-state of an adult does not depend on the age of a person. It is expressed in the desire to receive objective information and in the ability to perceive the current reality. This state characterizes an organized, well-adapted and resourceful person. He acts by studying reality, soberly assessing his capabilities and counting on them.
  3. The ego-state of the parent includes the attitudes that the person took from the outside, most often from his own parents. Outwardly, this state is expressed in a caring and critical attitude towards other people and various prejudices. The inner state of the parent is experienced as parental moralizing, which continues to affect the little child who sits in each of us.

Each moment of time corresponds to one of these states and the person behaves in accordance with it. But where does the transactivity, why is the analysis so called?

The fact is that the transaction is called the unit of communication, which has two components: the stimulus and the reaction. For example, picking up the phone, we say a greeting (stimulus), prompting the interlocutor to begin the conversation (that is, we expect his reaction). When communicating (that is, exchanging transactions), the ego-states of the interlocutors interact with each other, and how successful this interaction will be, depends on whether we can truly assess our state and the state of the interlocutor.

There are three types of transactions: parallel (communication between peers, the reaction complements the stimulus), intersecting (the directions of the stimulus and reactions are opposite, for example, a sharp reply to the everyday question) and hidden (the person does not say what gestures and facial expressions do not correspond to words).

In addition, transactional analysis considers such concepts as a scenario and an antis scenario of human life. Scenario - these are the settings, which is consciously or unconsciously laid down in childhood by our parents (educators). It is clear that not always such settings are correct, they often break down the life of a person, so they need to get rid of. For this purpose, so-called anti-scenarios (counter-scenarios) are used. But when composing such an antis scenario, a person does not always do it right, he starts to change everything, even those parental attitudes that are good and necessary to him. Therefore, it must be remembered that as a result of transactional analysis, the life scenario should be revised, but competently, taking into account all the positive and negative already existing parties.