Eric Berne (Eric Lennard Bernstein 1910-1970) is an American psychotherapist and psychologist who created “transactional analysis” based on the development of some psychoanalytic ideas by him. Unlike classical psychoanalysts, who carry the analysis of the problems experienced by the client back to his first days and years of life, Berne considered it necessary to bring the analysis to the life history of his parents and other ancestors. The most important part of the analysis is the selection of “scenarios” (life plans) of an individual, often planned by ancestors (for example, a father wants to see his son as a scientist against his son’s desire to become a football player), as well as a “structural analysis” of the states of the I of this individual (ego-states). There are three of these states:
- Parent (behavioral patterns of the individual, repeating the patterns of parents)
- Adult (I states that objectively evaluate reality)
- Child (“archaic survivals” of childhood).
In different situations of interpersonal communication, various states of the Self can be activated and determine the specific structure of “transactions”. The most important type of such a structure is a “game” (a system of transactions with hidden motivation, a predictable outcome). Bern’s main works are devoted to the analysis of various kinds of «games» used by people in everyday communication.
Publications
- Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy, 1961
- «Structure and Dynamics of the Organization of Groups», 1963
- «Games People Play», 1964
- «Principles of group treatment» 1966
- «Sex in Human Love», 1970
- «People who play games», 1972
- «Psychoanalysis and psychotherapy for the ignorant»