TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS
Transactional Analysis is the method for studying interactions between individuals, and Eric
Berne regarded transactional analysis as ‘systematic phenomenology’, meaning that it valued
existentialism, a concept which traditional psychology previously excluded. A ‘phenomenon’1 is
something as it appears to a person’s mind, and phenomenology is the study of lived experience,
i.e. the subjective experience, and is primarily concerned with phenomena: the appearance of
things, or things as they appear in our experience. Phenomenology seeks to understand the
outside world as it is interpreted through the human consciousness, and takes a look at how
“reality” is understood and structured according to an individual. Everyone experiences reality
differently because everyone’s “reality” has been co-created by both external data and their
own consciousness; meaning human understanding evolves from the relationship formed by
these two things acting upon each other.
In a way almost antithetical to analytical and behavioural approaches in psychology, such as
CBT, which seek to understand a client by imposing a theoretical schema upon the client’s
subjectivity, the phenomenological approach inquires into the subjective and perceptual life
of the client, trusting that an inward-looking approach will speak for itself (without needing a
theorem imposed upon it). This existential psychotherapy proposes the idea that all inner conflicts
are due to that individual’s confrontation with the ‘givens’ of existence (i.e. their mental maps).
Our mental maps are subjective, incomplete perspectives of reality which have been filtered
and selected by our subconsciousness. We can go years, or even a lifetime, believing things
to be true because they have remained in our mental map, unquestioned, throughout our
lives. We don’t always know why we react in ways we do; most of our negative habitual or
instinctive responses to people or situations stem from deep-seated hurts which we may, or
may not, be aware of. Every effect has derived from a cause, and whilst some reactions you
have may feel so second nature to you that you consider them intrinsic, this can often mean
that we don’t question them when necessary.
Any negative instinctive responses we have to certain people or circumstances are examples
of us transferring our subconscious hurts onto others; but what’s encouraging to remind
yourself is that all behaviour is learned, which means it can easily be unlearned by identifying
the underlying cause and re-experiencing it. When we become more aware of ourselves, we
can begin to add more detail to our mental maps.
Sometimes, the way our clients see things in a counselling relationships aren’t always the way
that things are. It’s not the counsellor’s job to judge or impose their own analyses, but to help
clients fill in the blanks by asking better questions and help them explore whether or not the
hurts they’re experiencing go deeper than they believe. This is because no personal experience
can ever be ‘observable’ by an external person, so it’s important for a counsellor not to impose
themselves into a discussion of phenomena.
1. Berne, E. (1987). Transactional analysis in psychotherapy: A systematic individual and social psychiatry. New
York: Ballantine Books. (Original work published 1961).
TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS
EXERCISE
••Pair up with one or more persons and give each person a pen and paper (you may want
to ask a friend or family member to help you out with this exercise).
Have each person write on their paper ‘This is how I see the world’.
••Have each person look out of the same window, or go outside (but make sure you are all
looking in the same direction).
••For the next 5 minutes, write down what you see and how you feel.
••Don’t share your observations with the others whilst completing the exercise.
••Now, come together and share your experiences together, but have only one person speak
at a time whilst the other person/persons take note of any differences and similarities the
speaker had to themselves.
Thoughts to take away from this workbook:
••Can you identify any instinctual/habitual reactions/responses you have towards specific
people or circumstances? If so, what are they and why do you think you behave this way?
••Have you ever had an experience when you misunderstood someone’s intentions, or they
have misunderstood yours, in a negative way? Describe your experience of this situation,
noting everything down from what happened to their body language. Now, if you don’t
have the person as a contact in your life, write down what their experience of that situation
may have been, what body language they may have read etc. What differences are there
in your perceptions of the same reality?
••What questions can you ask someone that will help them challenge their mental maps
and experiences (such as ‘How do you know that, how are you so certain?’, ‘What
evidence do you have x feels that way towards you?’, ‘Why do you think you act that
way?’, etc.)
