Transactional Analysis is a good theory for development or coaching purposes or for organizational change
Transactional Analysis is closely related to psychoanalysis. It is still quite popular on the HR scene, but is totally irrelevant in clinical psychology or I/O psychology. Although small pockets of psychoanalysts can still be found in some countries, academic practitioners of transactional analysis are a rare breed nowadays.
When I worked at a Belgian bank, I was obliged to attend a training to become a TA coach myself. Luckily for me, I soon discovered how full of nonsense the theory was.
Key words
Transactional analysis (TA), Eric Berne, I am OK and you are OK, life positions, first three years, life script, reacting as a child, parent, or adult.
What is transactional analysis?
Eric Berne (1910–1970) was a Canadian MD and psychiatrist who later lived in the United States where he was trained in Freudian psychoanalysis. He developed his own theory, which he called transactional analysis (TA). He published his first article on the subject in 1958: Transactional Analysis, A New and Effective Method of Group Therapy. In 1964, he published his now famous book Games People Play: The psychology of human relationships. For some people, the book I am OK – You’re OK by Thomas Harris, a friend of Eric Berne, might also ring a bell.
Berne’s theory was grounded in psychoanalysis. Proponents of TA say it is different from Freudian psychoanalysis in that it focuses on (social) transactions between people rather than focusing on what is happening inside people’s minds. Some sources mention that Eric Berne was refused admission to the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute and that is why he started to turn away from Freudian psychoanalysis after having practiced it for over 15 years. One year after his rejection, he had already written two papers about the concept of the ego states.
The central idea of Berne’s theory is that we are born a blank slate, or in a ‘normal’ state, but as a young child we will develop a (life) script. This is something like a scenario about how one will lead his/her life. According to Berne, this life script results in unconscious motives that steer our behavior. One can only adapt the scenario to a very limited extent, and as an adult we are not even aware of this script. Adults will follow their life script and continue to use the strategies they developed during their childhood, even if this leads to pain, agony, or pathology.
Other famous concepts from the theory include:
● Ego-positions: does one act as a child (archaeopsyche), as a parent (exteropsyche), or as an adult (neopsyche)? Our ego-position will impact how we make transactions with others. TA strives to strengthen the adult position, because that is the most objective and rational position. Berne framed these three positions within the ‘ego’ as defined
by Freud, who also defined two other parts of our ‘psychic apparatus,’ namely the Id and the super-ego.
● Transaction: by this Berne meant what modern psychologists call interpersonal interactions and patterns of interaction:
o Complementary transaction: a communication pattern where people respond from the same ego-position. For example, when childlike communication is answered with childlike communication from our counterpart in the interaction.
o Crossed transaction: this is when there is a mismatch in ego-positions.
● Drama ( Karpman 273) triangle : when one person (the persecutor) attacks another person (the victim) and a third party comes to the rescue of the victim (the helper). In doing this, the helper becomes involved and may become a persecutor or victim him or herself.
● Games: people play a number of games, or a series of complementary transactions that have an ulterior motive and a predictable payoff, such as getting attention, revenge, winning the game, etc. Berne believed these games were counterproductive. He distinguished between first level games (accepted in a social setting), second level games (hidden agendas), and third level games that can result in serious damage or injury. Examples of such games are “see if you can catch me” (Berne, 1964, p. 80) (the game a criminal offender plays with the police), and “see what you made me do” (Berne, 1964, p. 73) (e.g. a man saying this to his wife, who he beat up), or “Now I’ve got you, you son of a bitch.” (Berne, 1964, p. 62) But also “the game of ‘Homosexuality’” (Berne, 1964, p. 125) (he considered homosexuality as an ego state, and as a psychopathology caused by a script).
● Racket: the notion that one fakes socially accepted emotions to hide socially unaccepted emotions. According to Berne, it is a kind of rationalization for one’s own unaccepted feelings and serves to reconfirm the script. According to this view, someone who complains that people often ignore him might unwittingly behave in such a way that people effectively ignore him. This behavior follows the script in an unconscious manner so that the script can be confirmed.
● Life-positions: How you view yourself and others: e.g. ‘I am OK, you are not OK’ or ‘I am OK and you are OK.’
● Injunctions: injunctions are a kind of idea that have become internalized by a person. For example, Berne thought the parental injunction (i.e. a parent telling her child) “Don’t be you (the sex you are)” (Goulding & Goulding, 1976, p. 41) would create embarrassment and confusion in the child, instilling in them that they might be homosexual (Berne believed homosexuality didn’t really exist but was a child ego-position).
According to Berne, all psychological or psychiatric problems are ‘a choice’ and can be solved with TA therapy to help change the early childhood script. Nowadays, a lot of consultants and coaches make money out of TA by offering counseling. They claim they can help you with organizational development or to identify old and self-limiting personal scripts.
273 Stephen Karpman, a pupil of Carl Gustav Jung, popularized this drama triangle in 1968.
■ Executive Summary Theory
Eric Berne’s ideas about the human psyche, life scripts, and ego positions have never been subjected to the scientific method, in which hypothesis testing is a central component (context of proof). His ideas are not taken seriously in the modern education and training of psychiatrists and psychologists.
Empirical Data
There is a total lack of empirical, peer-reviewed research in top ranked peer-reviewed magazines. The scarce empirical data on the impact of TA on organizations shows no effects.
The theoretical/empirical grid
Conclusion
TA is still alive and kicking in organizations that have entrusted TA-believers with their employees. This is a dangerous practice and is not without risk for organizations. The risk of harm to the well-being of employees is too high not to abandon TA entirely. It should be done, and urgently.
Moral Assessment
If one considers the origins of the thinking of psychoanalytical schools, the absence of therapy success, and the severe risk of aggravating patients’ conditions, it is highly immoral to still be using such a theory and therapy. Science has since offered us better explanations for psychological problems and far better (therapeutic) methods. In the hands of laypeople, this method—which is basically an attempt at talk therapy—becomes even more dangerous. Practitioners are unlikely to recognize problematic patterns or psychopathologies and may even make things worse.
Discussion
The curious case of… psychoanalysts’ obsession with sex
First let me tell you something about Freud. His ideas about the human psyche and his therapy are relevant to the reader to understand the frame of reference and kind of dominant thinking in which Berne developed his own psychoanalytical fabrications. Let’s also not forget that psychiatry still isn’t well regarded by many other physicians, and lobotomies were still being conducted until the end of the 1960s. Lobotomies involved damaging people’s prefrontal lobes in an effort to ‘cure them’ from schizophrenia or bipolar depression by forcing an object resembling an ice pick into the brain through the thin backbone of the eye socket…
Sigmund Freud is regarded by most people as the founder of psychoanalysis. The views he developed were not based on results from using the scientific method as we know it today, but rather on his assumptions, introspection, and ‘creative’ thinking:
“I am actually not at all a man of science, not an observer, not an experimenter, not a thinker. I am by temperament nothing but a conquistador—an adventurer, if you want it translated—with all the curiosity, daring, and tenacity characteristic of a man of this sort.” (Sigmund Freud, translated letter to Wilhelm Fliess, Feb. 1, 1900)
Freud is known to have been obsessed with sex and regarded almost every problem to be the result of our sex drive or sex life. He developed notions such as penis envy (adolescent girls experience anxiety because they don’t have a penis), the idea that adolescent boys have castration anxiety, or that boys suffer from the Oedipus complex (boys secretly dream of killing their dad so that they can have sex with their mother). He also viewed masturbation as highly problematic. Apart from his obsession with sex, he also thought that all dreams have meaning, so he developed his dream interpretation theory. He believed that we have an unconscious mind that serves as a reservoir for suppressed memories of traumatic events, but that this reservoir influences our conscious thought and behavior. He probably suffered severely from apophenia,274 or the tendency to perceive correlations and connections between events or things where there are none. For example, he saw phallus symbols everywhere.
Many years later, his daughter released his private letters and historians found that he had lied about almost all the patients he had treated: almost no one was ever cured. A total of 287 letters to Wilhelm Fliess—a German Jewish surgeon treating ear, nose and throat problems—were found, spanning a period of 17 years of Freud’s practice. These letters reveal a lot. For example, on September 21, 1896, Freud wrote to Fliess that none of his patients had completed the psychoanalysis sessions. He had desperately tried to suggest to his patients that their problems were due to repressed sexual experiences during childhood. In 1897, he changed his views, thinking that neurasthenia (‘nervous exhaustion’—a kind of pathology doctors would now describe as something between depression and chronic fatigue syndrome) was caused by excessive masturbation. In none of the letters did Freud ever report one success, despite referring to some 218 patients. He probably lied about that number too. Mikkel Borch-Jacobson studied the Freud Archive in Washington and traced down reports for 31 patients, of which 3 got better, 3 committed suicide, 4 attempted to commit suicide, and the others remained ill or their condition worsened (2011)
Freud’s main problem was that, once he became convinced of an idea (confirmation bias), he stubbornly tried to suggest that idea to his patients until they said what he wanted to
274 In statistics, this is called a Type I error: seeing patterns where there are none.
hear. It almost must be said that Freud (1926) both directly and indirectly admitted that people who underwent psychoanalysis probably fared no better than people who were not ‘treated.’ With his talk therapy, he tried to treat people who suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorders, erectile dysfunction, homosexuality, and toxicomania. All without achieving success—which in a way reflected his own struggle with heroin addiction and tobacco addiction. Probably the most astounding letter was one that Freud wrote to Jung: “ to ease my conscience, I often tell myself: ‘especially don’t try to cure, learn and earn money!’ these are the most effective goals” (Freud to Jung, January 25, 1909). It is truly amazing that nowadays people still believe in psychoanalysis, and some psychiatrists and psychologists still try to rip patients off, all while Freud’s own letters reveal he admitted that psychoanalysis led to no improvement for people suffering from psychopathologies.
Transitioning back to TA, Eric Berne was also a victim of the dominant yet erroneous thinking of his time, as some of his publications reveal:
● He also viewed masturbation as a disease: “The problem of masturbation” (Berne, 1944, p. 301).
● He expressed a strong interest in oral, anal, and phallic ‘attitudes,’ even in a paper on the exploration of space: “Although exploration is predominantly an oral sublimation, anal and phallic drives also come into play in proper sequence” (Berne, 1956, p. 549).
● Like Freud, Berne also considered homosexuality a psychopathological disease , though he thought it was caused by a life script. He denied the legitimacy of homosexual desires and behaviors and believed that if you changed the script leading to homosexual feelings, the individual would no longer be homosexual. He was convinced that homosexuality was a child ego state (The ego image, 1957—cited in Barnes, 2004) During group therapy sessions, he said that homosexuality was a childlike behavior to attract attention from others combined with a fear of genitals of the opposite sex, perhaps due to incest. Berne’s views on homosexuality were found in his therapy session notes in 1952—but he wrote about homosexuality from the same perspective in his 1947 book The Mind in Action, in his 1968 book A Layman’s Guide to Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis, and in many other of his writings. Historic reviews by practitioners of TA (e.g. Graham Barnes, 2004) have revealed that Berne constructed the concept of the child ego state in an attempt to explain homosexuality. He thought a child developed the idea of homosexuality because it had a writhing experience when standing naked before adults. His circular reasoning went like this: if you can make the child ego state disappear (by developing the adult ego state), you make the homosexuality disappear.
He and his acolytes believed in life scripts to the extent that they viewed AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) as a club that was created to bring together people playing the ‘game of the Alcoholic.’
What Freud’s and Berne’s thinking clearly demonstrates is that a person can become so deeply convinced by their own preconceptions that they only seek to confirm their prior beliefs (i.e. confirmation bias), thus ruling out all other possible explanations. Even in light of patients who didn’t get better, they stubbornly continued with the methods they created in the dark recesses of their minds.
What else is wrong with this stuf?
Psychoanalysts are notorious for their general inability to deal with criticism or skepticism. Freud thought that if you resisted his psychoanalytical therapy, this was proof that you had a problem and you needed therapy even more. This is a tenacious form of circular reasoning and many people weren’t able to see the flaws in his logic and subjected them-
selves to his ‘treatments.’ I was given the same ‘treatment’ when I opposed some of the ideas that seemed unlikely when I was forced to attend a TA course. I had started my selfstudies in psychology, and I had never encountered such bizarre ideas. At one point in my development path as a trainer at the Belgian bank where I worked, I was selected (or forced, rather) to attend a training on transactional analysis because it would improve my coaching skills. Whenever I asked the psychologist critical questions, she used to question my motivations for asking these questions. According to her, if I felt such resistance, then I might have a serious problem. Her authority as a psychologist, together with peer pressure, initially forced me to restrain myself while nevertheless opening my mind. Indeed, I opened my mind so much that my brain almost fell out! However, the central idea still seemed highly unlikely to me: transactional analysis states that during our first three years as a child, we choose our life scenario, including the diseases we will develop and try to conquer. That would be an extreme case of free will at a very young age. On the fourth day of training, I decided to challenge her again and asked her about schizophrenia: is that a choice too? She confirmed it was—and that is where I lost my naivety. I knew this was bullshit and that schizophrenia is a brain disorder that is largely caused by genetic influences. My sister-in-law, who I wrote about in Part I, was diagnosed with schizophrenia, a condition we had been well-informed about by doctors and by a specialized patients’ association.
Psychoanalysts also thought that (biological) depression syndromes and schizophrenia were not brain disorders but were caused by interactions with the environment and had to do with narcissistic problems. Autism was explained by ‘refrigerator-mothers’ who interacted in a cold-hearted way with their children. They didn’t need to be treated with medication, but with talk therapy.
The views of transactional analysts resulted in accusations of poor parenting and restricted gay people to a life of silence and hiding. From notes found regarding his therapy sessions with patients, it is clear that Berne tried to convince a gay patient that he should resist sexual feelings, because “two men could not exist side by side in one place,” (Barnes, 2004, p. 130) and especially not in one bedroom. He also tried to convince homosexual patients who were thinking about committing suicide that if they did so, they wouldn’t really be dead but would merely kill something in themselves. He said he could help homosexuals by going “back to birth and reform someone’s character.”
It is only because of public pressure and the removal of homosexuality from the list of psychiatric disorders 275 that nowadays the few believers in transactional analysis no longer speak about the early foundations of transactional analysis.
■ Theoretical soundness
What does my Champions League of experts say?
They are all very clear on psychoanalysis: biologists such as Richard Dawkins and Robert Trivers ridicule psychoanalysis. Philosopher Daniel Dennett and psychologists Steven Pinker and Judith Rich Harris refer to behavior genetics research with identical twins, other children, and adopted children to point out that probably 0% to 2% of problems can be ascribed to interactions with parents and another 2% to interactions with siblings. It is estimated that 60–80% of all our behavior is due to genetics and the rest is due to interactions with our environments such as same age peers, social neighborhood, school environment,
275 Eric Berne lived in the United States, which is where transactional analysis has its roots. The American Psychiatric Association banned homosexuality from the list of pathologies in December 1973.
and cultural norms and habits. The idea of a life script as theorized by TA is impossible. Neuroscientist John T. Bruer also pointed to the myth of the first three years, and Steven Pinker has relegated the idea that we are born as a blank slate to the dustbin in his famous book The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature.
TA posits that a patient entering therapy “must be in touch with their pain enough to feel a need or desire to change” (James & Gilliland, 2003, p. 149 as cited in Adams, 2008, p. 2). In order to do so, TA tries to uncover the so-called parental drivers and injunction messages and uncover past scripts. Lilienfeld et al. (2010) have stated this is a myth: it has been demonstrated that confronting the past does not help people heal. Moreover, the mind is not like a tape-recorder that flawlessly records events. Researcher Elisabeth Loftus, for example, has convincingly demonstrated how we distort the picture of past events (1993). There is no compelling evidence that most psychological problems stem from childhood difficulties (Paris, 2000—cited in Lilienfeld et al., 2010). Contemporary psychotherapy methods, such as behavioral and cognitive behavioral therapy, have demonstrated their effectiveness for a number of psychiatric disorders without having to dig into untrustworthy memories of the past. Moreover, there is the risk that suggestive questions may result in false accusations against parents for the problems people suffer from. Ultimately, the patient isn’t helped and other people (e.g. the parents) may even suffer (more) too.
What does the majority of the feld of experts think?
The concept of a central life script chosen by a child at a very early age is almost unanimously refuted and ridiculed. This doesn’t mean people never act according to interpersonal scripts or behavioral patterns (if… then…) that they acquired or became ‘conditioned’ to during their lives. The evidence for scripts is not very clear, and scripts are considered speculative by many, but the kind of consciously chosen life scripts (including choosing diseases) that Berne proposed are highly unlikely and even impossible when viewed from the cognitive development perspective of young children.
The flawed views regarding autism, sexuality, and homosexuality are very unscientific and morally unacceptable. TA is not considered a bona fide theory or therapy: none of the latest meta-analyses of the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic methods have included TA (probably also because no studies on its effectiveness are available).
Leonard Horowitz (2004, p. 76) reviewed some of the interpretations Eric Berne mentioned in his book Games People Play. For example, according to Berne, Mrs. White was always playing the game “ Why Don’t You – Yes But ” in which she explained a problem to the other members of group therapy, but always their refused advice (“Why don’t you…”) by beginning her objections with “Yes, but…” (Berne, 1964, p. 118). As the others gave up, Mrs. White became the ‘winner of the game’ according to Berne. Horowitz has a much simpler and parsimonious explanation for this behavior: it is a mismatch in communication. It is very unlikely that Mrs. White set out to defeat the other ‘players’ in the group therapy—is it more likely she sought empathy and compassion and not advice (in fact, that was exactly what Berne suggested as a solution, namely, to acknowledge Mrs. White had a difficult problem). Horowitz argues that the underlying motive is much more important to explaining the behavior (in the case of Mrs. White, she had a communal motive to receive empathy, not an agentic motive to get advice or to win a game). Needs, and (interpersonal) motives, are now considered better explanations for behavior, as are contextual influences (our brain as an input-output machine), inherited patterns of communication and interactions, etc.276
276 For more explanations, see the chapters on metamotives and the interpersonal circum plex in Part V
The theoretical score: -5. Because the life script theory contradicts biology: the cognitive development of a child cannot allow for a conscious choice of a life script. Given that its proponents try to give it scientific status, it deserves a score of -5.
■ Empirical findings
What is the level of evidence?
One of the problems is that it is almost impossible to investigate the central idea that very young children consciously choose their script. How would one research this with very young children who are barely aware of their cognitive processes?
The idea that diseases like autism, schizophrenia, or drug dependence like alcoholism are an early ‘choice’ is complete bullshit. We know some are brain disorders, and others are problems caused by predispositions that ‘come to expression’ though interaction with the environment.
As one might expect, researchers have found genetic causes for most psychiatric problems. Psychiatrist Kenneth Kendler has worked for many years on research into the genetic causes of certain psychopathologies. He largely based his work on twin research (known as the Virginia Twin Project). Among other things, Kendler and his research group reached the conclusion that genetic flaws play a part in just about all psychiatric pathologies. They determined that, based on differences in the concordance rates, it is possible to calculate the ‘heritability’ differences between monovular (identical, same sex) and biovular twins. Simply put, heritability estimates are calculated from the differences in concordance rates of MZ (MZ or monozygotic) compared to the concordance rates of DZ (DZ or dizygotic) twins. The larger the differences between the concordance rates of monovular twins and the concordance rates of biovular twins, the greater the impact of the genes. For example, in the contraction of measles, both monozygotic and dizygotic twins have a 70% chance of becoming ill. The concordance figures are equally high, so the cause is not genetic. In the case of schizophrenia, the concordance rate is 50 to 60% for MZ and 15 to 20% for DZ. For schizophrenia, this leads to a hereditary figure of 80 to 84% (Cardno et al., 1999, Kendler et al., 2009). In other words, the genetic component is very high. And so, we know that heritability estimates for autism, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorders (including manic depressive disorders) are high (once again, just like height and physical strength). Panic disorders and major depression have also shown high heritability estimates (Kendler, 2001; Kendler et al., 2009)
277
As for the other tenets of TA theory or TA therapy, we cannot trust a journal like the Journal of Transactional Analysis, as there is a huge risk of biased judgment in the narrative reviews and ‘research.’ There is a significant absence of peer-reviewed research in the top-ranked psychological magazines.
In 2007, a professor from the University of Ghent conducted a search for me in The Web of Science for my first review of TA. It resulted in a mere 5 articles published by Eric Berne. They were published in Transactional Analysis Journal (2 articles) and in Training and Development Journal (3 articles—one was a book review). The title of one article was: “Games people play at Christmas.”
Of course, the International Transactional Analysis Association lists many more books and
277 This paragraph is taken from my previous book Around Leadership thanks to the kind permission of Around Publishing Ltd.
articles in an effort to impress us. Let’s take a quick look. The APA PsycNET database features 2,387 articles when I entered ‘Transactional analysis’ into the search engine. 1,451 appeared in Transactional Analysis Journal. Other articles appeared in psychoanalytical or psychodynamic journals. Only two high-ranked magazines came up in the search: Leadership Quarterly (10) and the Journal of Applied Psychology (7). However, neither of these magazines featured articles on TA, but rather on Transactional Leadership. Clearly, no peer-reviewed articles on TA could be found in those magazines. Some 21 of the 2,387 papers were meta-analyses, but none of them actually addressed TA, as most of them dealt with transactional leadership.
I found one narrative review (this is not a scientifically trustworthy methodology) which concluded: “ Results of the usefulness of TA in occupational settings are unclear ” ( M iller & Capuzzi, 1984, p. 30). Even more telling is the number of citations: this article was cited only once, and in a book. I also found an article by Mark Neath who looked at the evidence for TA training in organizations. He found only some articles (mostly with very small sample sizes) in the Transactional Analysis Journal and some books. Again, his article is only referred to once… in a book. The article has only four pages, of which, only one page deals with the “evaluation of TA interventions” (Neath, 1995, p. 3). Seven studies were reviewed, of which three studies had no control group or control and treatment groups were not equivalent on pre-test performance, one study had a sample size of only 17 people (yet the authors still managed to publish 4 articles on the ‘study’…), and one study had only 21. The other studies had flawed designs.
Concerning the articles, none of them reported that they studied improved performance, and only reported on perceptions in attitude. The largest study concerned customer treatment in which the effect of TA training was evaluated using 600 questionnaire responses. 58% of the respondents felt they did their job more efficiently, 78% felt they were somewhat/ much more positive about their job, 66% saw themselves somewhat/very differently from what they did before and 65% thought they treated the customer better. However, the behavioral outcomes as expressed in customer courtesy ratings did not show any change—in fact, customer ratings continued to decrease. Although Neath admits that empirical work is missing, the sample sizes are small, the results didn’t reach statistical significance, the trained groups performed no better than the control groups, and evaluations were based on trainee reactions, etc., he still concluded that anecdotal evidence points in the direction that TA training can lead to more positive attitudes. Amazing how one can be so blind to the data (or the lack of data).
What this absence of empirical evidence in the academic literature means is that TA is a dead-end.
The empirical score: -3. Although systematic reviews have not revealed the efficacy of TA, the quality of the systematic reviews I consulted was low. So instead of giving it a score of -4, I am scoring it -3, since several studies found no evidence that TA was effective in organizations and other research has refuted the central tenets of the theory.
Why do people believe TA can ofer them valuable insights?
Most people don’t make the effort to critically appraise theories and methods, and thus are not aware of the problematic status of psychoanalysis in general and transactional analysis in particular. How many people know that Berne considered masturbation and homosexuality diseases that developed after a young child had integrated this ‘disease’ into his life script?
As with many other flawed theories, believers seek to uphold the ideas and propagate TA, and have found an easy outlet in the world of work organizations. A lot of consultants probably feel attracted to such models that are made available to laypeople who have never studied or explored psychology. The theory probably gives consultants the feeling that they know something about psychology and can actually help people without having to put in the effort to study psychology for 5 years at a university. And they can make good money out of it, a good enough motivation for many.
How likely is it that this theory will ever prove to be valid?
Researchers have known for quite some time now that genes and innate brain disorders are important precursors of psychopathology. The role of the first three years of life is downplayed by the vast majority of knowledgeable experts. Only in some cases does exceptional abuse lead to psychological problems. Conversely, a great number of people who have been (sexually) abused function normally as adults without having to seek the help of a psychologist (for an overview, see Lilienfeld et al., 2010).
It has been convincingly demonstrated that our memory is not to be considered a tape-recorder. The idea that we consciously choose our life scripts at a very early age, including the diseases we ‘want’ to have and fight, is complete and utter nonsense . It’s time to relegate this theory to the eternal dustbin, as contemporary psychology scholars did decades ago. In fact, contrary to the field of HR, most of them never even took it seriously.
■ Original sources consulted
Adams, S. A. (2008). Using Transactional Analysis and Mental Imagery to Help Shame-Based Identity Adults Make Peace With Their Past. Adultspan Journal, 7(1), 2-12.
Barnes, G. (2004). Homosexuality in the First Three Decades of Transactional Analysis: A Study of Theory in the Practice of Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy. Transactional Analysis Journal, 34(2), 126–155. Berne, E. (1964). Games People Play. The psychology of human relationships. New York: Grove Press.
Berne, E. (1972). What Do You Say After You Say Hello? New York: Grove Press.
Bruer, J. T. (1999). The myth of the first three years. New York.
Cardno, A.G., Marshall, E.J., Coid, B., Macdonald, A.M., Ribchester, T.R., Davies, N.J., Venturi, P., Jones, L.A., Lewis, S.W., Sham, P.C., Gottesman, I.I., Farmer, A.E., McGuffin, P., Reveley, A.M., Murray, R.M. (1999). Heritability estimates for psychotic disorders: the Maudsley twin psychosis series. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry, 56, 162–168.
Goulding, R., & Goulding, M. (1976). Injunctions, decisions, and redecisions. Transactional Analysis Bulletin, 6(1), 41-48.
Harris, T.A. (1969). I’m OK – you’re OK. US: Harper & Row. Horowitz, L.M. (2004). Interpersonal Foundations of Psychopathology. Washington: American Psychological Association.
Kendler, K.S., MD (2001). Twin studies of psychiatric illness. An update. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry, 58, 1005–1014.
Kendler, K.S., Myers, J., Potter, J., & Opalesky, J. (2009). A web-based study of personality, Psychopathology and substance use in twin, other relative and relationship pairs. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 12(2), 137–141.
Lilienfeld, S. O., Lynn, S. J., Ruscio, J., & Beyerstein, B. L. (2010). 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions About Human Behavior. Wiley-Blackwell.
Loftus, E. F. (1993). The reality of repressed memories. American psychologist, 48(5), 518–537.
Neath, M. (1995). Evaluating transactional analysis as a change strategy for organizations. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 16(1), 13–16.
Van Rillaer, J. (2014). Les désillusions de Freud sur l’efficacité thérapeutique de sa methode, Science et pseudosciences, 309–310
■ Other References (abstracts, summaries, excerpts, or reviews)
Berne, E. (1944). The problem of masturbation. Diseases of the Nervous System, 5(10), 301-305.
Berne, E. (1956). The psychological structure of space with some remarks on Robinson Crusoe. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 25(4), 549-567.
Borch-Jacobsen, M., & Shamdasani, S. (2011). The Freud files: An inquiry into the history of psychoanalysis Cambridge University Press.
Freud, E. L. (1961). Letters of Sigmund Freud 1873-1939. London: The Hogarth Press. Edited by Ersnst L. Freud and translated by Tania and James Stern.
James, R. K., & Gilliland, B. E. (2003). Theories and strategies in counseling and psychotherapy (5th ed.). Needham Heights, MA, US: Allyn & Bacon. (cited in Adams, 2008; the book has a chapter on Transactional Analysis)
Miller, C. A., & Capuzzi, D. (1984). A review of transactional analysis outcome studies. American Mental Health Counselors Association Journal. (Full text no longer available)
Paris, J. (2000). Myths of childhood. New York: Brunner/Mazel. (cited in Lilienfeld et al., 2010)