Transactional Analysis
Journal
July 2003 Abstract
Volume 33, No. 3
The Interface Between Berne and Langs: Understanding
Unconscious Communication
Ken Woods
Abstract This article
describes a four-step formulation for addressing the unconscious content of
games and pastimes. This model is based, in part, on the psychoanalytic
psychotherapy developed by Robert Langs. While the work of Eric Berne addresses
the conscious content of psychological games and pastimes, Langs's work
addresses their unconscious, highly subjective content. Using both provides
transactional analysts with a more complete model for addressing patient
communications, especially those from the Child state of the ego.
Transactional Psychoanalysis
Michele
Novellino
Abstract This article describes recent developments in the
psychodynamic approach to transactional analysis and its clinical applications
to individual psychotherapy. The Freudian roots of Berne's work are considered
essential for a methodology based on three foundations: (1) the work setting,
(2) transference and countertransference analysis, and (3) interpretation.
Script Analysis and Change in the Rosarium
Philosophorum
John Nuttall
Abstract Eric Berne (1972/1992)
wrote that one aim of script analysis is to free people "so that they can open
the garden of their aspirations to the world" (p. 131). Such aspirations were
conceptualized as a derivative of physis, the growth force of nature that works
against the limiting forces of the script. This "opening" brings awareness of
the "moving self" (p. 248) and the self's many ego states. The author argues
that this process is similar to what Jung called "individuation" (Jung,
1946/1969a, p. 158). Jung believed this psychic process was allegorized in the
ancient alchemical text of the Rosarium Philosophorum, which he used to
describe his "psychology of the transference" (Jung, 1946/1998). This article
compares the metapsychology of transactional analysis with the different stages
of the Rosarium and illustrates their coincidence with the use of a case
vignette. The article concludes that there are curious parallels, giving
transactional analysis an archetypal and transpersonal dimension perhaps not
fully appreciated by the psychotherapy community.
Acute Psychotic States: A Clinical
Interpretation
Marina Caravella and Anna Marone
Abstract
Berne drew on many sources for the conceptual layout of his theoretical model,
and on this basis transactional analysis may be defined as "transtheoretical."
Understanding ego states as systems and structures provides an exciting,
original view of personality and psychopathology. Interpreting ego states as
stages (Romanini, 1996) makes it possible to reduce the distance between
normality and pathology. By being located in a structural and time-related
dynamism, psychosis manifests itself when the states/stages become disorganized
and dislocated. It is assumed that in psychotic structures there is a lack of
equilibrium in complementary adaptation processes, with a prevalence of
assimilation over accommodation (Piaget, 1975). This imbalance produces a
structural weakness in A2, and on the basis of external stimuli, it reactivates
the simultaneous reappearance of states belonging to other developmental
stages. Psychotic language reflects this internal disorganization and has its
own affective logic and narrative structure. The proposed interpretation of the
structural mechanisms may facilitate targeted and efficacious therapeutic
actions, illustrated in this article by means of a case example.
Effects of Transactional Analysis Group Therapy on Ego
States and Ego State Perception
Fredrick A. Boholst
Abstract
This study investigated the effects on participants' ego state responses and
their perception of each other's ego states of a 5-day therapy group using
transactional analysis as its theoretical foundation. Twenty-eight third-year
psychology students of the University of San Carlos, Cebu City, Philippines,
participated in the study. In a pretest-posttest-control group design, 15
participants were assigned to the experimental group that underwent a group
therapy patterned after the Gouldings' (1977) redecision therapy, while the
remaining 13 students were assigned to the control group. Two posttests were
conducted, one immediately following the therapy session and the other 6 weeks
after it. Ego states were measured by the Adjective Checklist (ACL) developed
by Gough and Heilbrun (1983). Ego state perception was measured by Dusay's
(1977) egogram. A Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) indicated
significant changes in the ego states after the first posttest: Hotelling's T =
.69584, F (5, 22) = 3.06171, p < .03, and a near significance, Hotelling's T
= .57286, F (5, 22) = 2.52059, p < .059 in the follow-up posttest. Ego
states were also perceived to have changed significantly after 6 weeks. The
observed pattern seemed to be increasing Nurturing Parent, Adult, and Natural
Child ego states and decreasing Critical Parent and Adapted Child ego states.
These ego state changes also seemed to be validated by a repeated measures
MANOVA, which yielded significant effects on the experimental participants'
perception of each others' ego states as measured by the egogram: Hotelling's T
= 2.809, F (5, 10) = 5.619, p < .01. Results are discussed in the context of
the pattern of ego state changes. Also considered is the limitation of the
nomothetic approach in this particular study.
back to list of all
available journals
top of page
|
