Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy - Essay Example

1. The foundations of transactional analysis come from Dr. Eric Berne's 1961 book called "Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy" and from his 1960 book called "Games People Play". Transactional analysis is included in the category of talk therapies and in terms of counselling it is one of the most used theories. The theory basically states that transactions make up people's interaction. A transaction is made up of stimulus and reaction to stimulus (response). "Individual transactions are usually part of alarger set. Some of these transactional sets or sequences can be direct, productive and healthy orthey can be devious, wasteful and unhealthy".1 Specific regions of the brain generate a specific way of thinking, feeling and behaving. All these put together constitute an ego state. There are three ego states agreed upon by most specialists: Child ego state, Parent ego state and Adult ego state. These ego states permanently dictate our actions. The names of the ego states are very suggestive. Basically, when a person is in the Child ego state he acts like a child. It is a condition based on feelings and internal reaction to events. The Child is always in control when in comes to anger and despair. If the state dominates a person's life it can lead to self-destruction and abnormal behaviour. The Child is also a source of "creativity, recreation and procreation; the only source of renewal in life2". In challenging and fun activities people let out the Child out of them; in children the child is the most often state. The Adult ego state is based on thought. "When in the Adult ego state the person functions as a human computer. It operates on datait collects and stores or uses to make decisions according to a logic-based program3". This state helps to keep the other two under control and also to change them. It all goes through the Adult ego state as it is thought to be a synonym to being rational and logical. The Parent state is a preconditioned state. This state makes a person behave like one of his parents or a person who has had a very high degree of influence over him. The process is called introjecting and it means that we take in information, judgements and behaviours. "For example, we may notice that we are saying things just as our father, mother, grandmother may have done, even though, consciously, we don't want to. We do this as we have lived with this person so long that we automatically reproduce certain things that were said to us, or treat others as we might have been treated"4. "The Parent decides, without reasoning, how to reactto situations, what is good or bad, and how people should live"5. According to how a Parent judges he can take two states: the Critical Parent when he acts controlling and the Nurturing Parent when he acts supportive. Communication exchanges are transactions. When ego states function properly they generate a stable a healthy communication and relation between two or more persons. Barriers often come from transactions which are not successful. In interacting we pass from one ego state into another as a response to a stimulus. The stimulus may be anything from a word or a phrase (obvious-verbal) to a gesture (non-verbal). In my work as a teacher of English for asylum-seekers I have seen transactions in action and realized how they can disrupt communication between two persons, but I have also seen them work in a positive way making the relating easy and fructuous. The first transactions are called crossed transactions and occur when "the transactional response is addressed to an ego state different from theone which started the stimulus"6. The latter are called complimentary transactions. For long I have been looking for ways in which to make the asylum-seekers learn faster, easier and in a fun way English. One day I came to class with lots of funny pictures taken of the Internet and we were talking about them. Communication was very effective because we were all in the Child ego state. We were creative, playing, laughing, and joking. The lesson went on very smoothly and I covered a lot of ground that day because they were learning without even realizing it. Children always learn things easier and faster that adults and this can also be applied to ego states. This is an example of a complimentary transaction. Unfortunately there are also a lot of examples of communication that was not so effective. At one time sensing that they haven't understood what I was saying I assumed that they were not paying attention. I was in the Critical Parent ego state and they had to follow my demands and got into the Child state. But they became "naughty" and rebellious. That was a real blockade in our communication and that particular lesson was a failure if I do say so myself. This is an example of a crossed transaction. 2. In my work I have also realized how important it is for students to be given feed-back on their accomplishments. However minor the step forward may be, praising or a good mark help in determining that person to study harder and harder. In general these kinds of incentives are called strokes. They can consist of compliments, gestures and basically any form of giving recognition. Research has shown that people need strokes to survive (babies). Therefore even negative strokes are beneficial because it shows us that we matter to ourselves and to others. "Therefore a working definition of a stroke is a transaction which provides a person with either recognition or stimulation"7. Discounts are internal processes that involve the ego states of Child or Parent. "Discounts are an internal mechanism by which people minimize or maximize an aspect of reality, themselves or others. In other words they are not accounting for the reality of themselves or others or the situation"8. Mainly discounting involves a distortion of reality. Unlike strokes which are essential they are life destructive. Discounts are in close relation to Games. When the discount stops, the Game stops. Learning and teaching are negatively affected by discounts. They can mainly be found as ulterior transactions. You ask a student the meaning of a work and he responds that the "board is white". The reply does not mach the stimulus. Also discounts are encountered when a students has problem in learning. In asylum-seekers this is also a problem coming from their background. When they can't learn something instead of asking for help they become either passive saying that they don't need to know that and it is stupid, or hysterical, refusing to even listen to the task again. These are called passive behaviours. In conclusion, strokes are essential to education as they are to life because they offer the will to go on. They are also essential in working together with other staff members because here we give and receive strokes from our peers and it helps us in our own development. 3. Games are a form of stroke exchange. "A game is a recurring series of covert transactions with a beginning, middle andend, and a payoff. The payoff is a hidden advantage which motivates the players to participate"9. In real life we encounter them a series of damaging events which happen to us that follow the same pattern and have the same results. The events aren't external; they are interactions between us and others. "A game is a familiar pattern of behaviour with a predictable outcome. Games are played outside Adult awareness and they are our best attempt to get our needs met - although of course we don't"10. People play games for a number of reasons as: to get strokes, as a substitute for something else, to prove they are right and others are wrong, to predict the actions of other people etc. Most games played in class are First degree games, not so serious and only leading to minor upsets and not major dramas. Sometimes because asylum seekers are unsure about their future they tend to see every other person besides their peers as a person of authority and they try to get that person to help with their situation. It has happed to me sometimes. Usually I am only asked for advice and when I give it most of them respond that I was no help and that they have heard the same thing in several parts. This is a game. They are asking for a stroke which I can not provide. Sometimes they even come to me demanding permanent visas or something like this although the perfectly know what my position is and where my authority ends. This is a more serious game. They are in the Child ego state and they are asking to be saved by the Parent. The game can be stopped when I don't answer as a Parent. In this situation I usually answer as an Adult and it works every time. 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