Transactional Analysis (TA) or “Transactional Analysis Approach” is a personality and psychotherapy theory developed by Eric Berne, who was trained as a Freudian psychoanalyst and psychiatrist, and his colleagues. As a humanistic approach, Transactional Analysis reveals both a structural model of personality and a functional behavioral model. Eric Berne, who thought that psychoanalysis was time-consuming, complex and weak in communicating with clients, moved away from psychoanalysis and concentrated on TA theory in order to make significant changes in the lives of his clients.
The historical development of TA can be discussed in four stages. The first phase began with Bern's definition of ego states (Parent, Adult, Child), which provide an explanatory perspective on thinking, feeling and behaving. Berne decided to study personality by observing here and now phenomena such as the client's voice, gestures and words. Eric Berne thought that these observable criteria provided a basis for drawing conclusions about an individual's past history and predicting future problems. The second phase focuses on transactions and games. During this second phase, TA became popular because of its understandable concepts and because people could recognize their own games. TA has been viewed primarily as a cognitive approach, as little attention is paid to emotions at this stage. In the third stage, TA focused his attention on life destiny and destiny analysis. The fourth phase, covering the period from 1970 to the present, is characterized by the inclusion of techniques that are also evident in Gestalt therapy, group therapy and psychodrama into TA. In this process, TA tried to balance its early emphasis on cognitive factors and insight by moving more actively and towards emotional structures.
Based on an anti-deterministic worldview, TA focuses on the human capacity to go beyond the ordinary and choose new goals and behaviors. embraces his belief. However, this does not mean that we are free from the influence of social forces. TA also recognizes that we are influenced by the demands and expectations of important people around us. This influence is especially evident in individuals' environmental It manifests itself in the decisions made in early childhood, when the person is more attached to the people around him. According to TA, we make decisions at some points in life, both physically and psychologically, in order to survive. However, these early decisions can be reviewed and questioned, and they can be replaced with new ones if they no longer serve.
According to Stewart (2000), TA's philosophical assumptions can be summarized in three statements:
1. All people are good. Everyone has value and dignity. First of all, this situation is an expression of existence rather than a behavior. Everyone is valuable no matter what they do or who they are. Believing that every person is equal does not mean treating everyone the same, but it means accepting the existence of everyone. As humans, everyone is neither better nor worse than each other, they are just different. Despite these differences, every person is OKEY.
2. Everyone has the capacity to think. Everyone without significant brain damage has the capacity to perceive changes in their environment and themselves. All psychological problems can be solved by the individual himself with the appropriate approach and when the necessary information is given to the individual.
3. Everyone decides their own destiny, and these decisions can be changed later. The environment and people we are in can have a greater or lesser effect on us. But whatever the circumstances, we decide how to react.
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