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Principles of Group Treatment
Explains basic principles and techniques of transactional analysis with a consideration of group dynamics and other forms of treatment
- GenresPsychiatryPsychology
Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
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About the author
Eric Berne
39 books703 followersEric Berne was a Canadian-born psychiatrist best known as the creator of transactional analysis. Eric was born on May 10, 1910 as Eric Lennard Bernstein in Montreal, Canada.He and his sister Grace, who was five years younger than Eric, were the children of a physician and a writer, David and Sara Gordon Bernstein.David Bernstein died in 1921, and the children were raised by their mother.
Bernstein attended Montreal's McGill University, graduating in 1931 and earning his M.D., C.M. in 1935.While at McGill he wrote for several student newspapers using pseudonyms. He followed graduation with a residency in psychiatry at Yale University, where he studied psychoanalysis under Paul Federn.
In 1943 he changed his legal name to Eric Berne.He continued to use pseudonyms, such as Cyprian St. Cyr ("Cyprian Sincere"), for whimsical articles in the Transactional Analysis Bulletin.
Berne's training was interrupted by World War II and his service in the Army Medical Corps, where he was promoted to the rank of Major. After working at Bushnell Army Hospital in Ogden, Utah, he was discharged in 1945.
Bernstein attended Montreal's McGill University, graduating in 1931 and earning his M.D., C.M. in 1935.While at McGill he wrote for several student newspapers using pseudonyms. He followed graduation with a residency in psychiatry at Yale University, where he studied psychoanalysis under Paul Federn.
In 1943 he changed his legal name to Eric Berne.He continued to use pseudonyms, such as Cyprian St. Cyr ("Cyprian Sincere"), for whimsical articles in the Transactional Analysis Bulletin.
Berne's training was interrupted by World War II and his service in the Army Medical Corps, where he was promoted to the rank of Major. After working at Bushnell Army Hospital in Ogden, Utah, he was discharged in 1945.
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March 19, 2019
Interrogation. Specification. Confrontation*. Explanation*.
Illustration.
Confirmation.
Increasing the cathexis of adult: Specification
Clarifying and strengthening its boundaries: Confrontation and Explanation
Decontaminating Child and Parent adulteration.
The Parental grip on the child may be loosened to some extent, so that the Child is more apt to listen to near Parental figures with new view points (such as the therapist and the other group members) as well as to its own Adult. But in some respects the Child remains almost as confused as he was originally.
Structurally, interpretation deals with the pathology of the Child. The Child presents its past experiences in coded form to the therapist, and the therapist's task is to decode and detoxify them, rectify distortions, and help the patient regroup the experiences. The Parent exerts a seductive influence againist interpretations. The Adult scans them and tests them against the probably reality. The Child tries to ward them off because they threaten to deprive him not only of all sorts of gratifications, but also of the protection of his watchful Parent.
In the typical situation it is the therapist's Adult plus the patient's Adult against the patient's Parent plus the patient's Child. Hence the clearer and more cathected the patient's Adult, the more chance of success. The same may be said of the therapist's Adult. At each step the Child must choose between offending the Parent and at the same time giving up old gratifications, or offending the therapist and at the same time giving up the possibility of new gratifications.
Do use interpretation where and when the patient's Adult is on your side, when you are not directly opposing the Parent, and when you are not asking too much sacrifice from the Child or arousing too much fear of Parental retaliation or desertion. "Too much" means that the sacrifice plus the fear outweighs what her Adult and you can promise her in return for seeing things your way rather than the old way.
Crystallisation: A statement of the patient's position from the Adult of the therapist to the Adult of the patient (so now you are in a position to stop playing that game if you choose to"). At this stage the patient's Adult and Child are on good terms with each other, and the Child will also receive the crystalisation gratefully, but with some trepidation and perhaps nostalgia as well, since it means abandoning permanently the old way and trying something new, still strange, and not yet fully tested. What the Child is really abandoning by getting better is his Parent, and it is the Parent who is wronged by the whole procedure. Hence the Parent's reacton to a crystalisation may resemble that of a certain type of mother when her son announces at the age of forty that he is finally leaving the home to get married. She either hastens after the culprit (in this case, the therapist) or becomes an instant invalid. The able therapist should be able to cope with the enraged Parent who sees the Child slipping away into health; but a difficult and dangerous situation arises if somatic symptoms are used as a last-ditch fight. That is another reason why the final decision to get well is left to the patient. If he is pushed, he may get well psychologically, only to come down with a broken leg or a gastric ulcer. If it is left up to him, he will sense when the time is ripe to go ahead, and save himself from organic damage. Thus the therapist tells him when he is able to solo, but the patient decides when he actually take off.
Deliberately functioning as Parent rather than an Adult.
Support: simple stroking whose content, provided that is is tactful, is irrelevant. Its effect may be enhanced if the content is appropriately permissive or protective.
Reassurance: Here the Parental tone of voice may be more important than the content. You're right to do it. It is hard for reassurance to fail if the patient's Child feels exposed, but it may fail under two principal conditions of hypocrisy. (1) if patient's parent gave hypocritical responses (2) if the therapist mistakes for the real thing his own hostile Child playing the role of a parent.
Persuasion: Always contains a strong element of seduction. The therapist should be sure he knows what the patient expects in return for his compliance and be prepared to deal with the ultimate consequenes either of having to deliver the implied reward or of paying the penalty for failing to deliver.
Exhortation: May in some situations produce gratifying results through compliance of the patient's Child. But insofar as this sets up an effective Parent-Child relationship between the therapist and the patient, and one which both find gratifying, it may in the long run make it more difficult to accomplish the ultimate aim of therapy.
Illustration.
Confirmation.
Increasing the cathexis of adult: Specification
Clarifying and strengthening its boundaries: Confrontation and Explanation
Decontaminating Child and Parent adulteration.
The Parental grip on the child may be loosened to some extent, so that the Child is more apt to listen to near Parental figures with new view points (such as the therapist and the other group members) as well as to its own Adult. But in some respects the Child remains almost as confused as he was originally.
Structurally, interpretation deals with the pathology of the Child. The Child presents its past experiences in coded form to the therapist, and the therapist's task is to decode and detoxify them, rectify distortions, and help the patient regroup the experiences. The Parent exerts a seductive influence againist interpretations. The Adult scans them and tests them against the probably reality. The Child tries to ward them off because they threaten to deprive him not only of all sorts of gratifications, but also of the protection of his watchful Parent.
In the typical situation it is the therapist's Adult plus the patient's Adult against the patient's Parent plus the patient's Child. Hence the clearer and more cathected the patient's Adult, the more chance of success. The same may be said of the therapist's Adult. At each step the Child must choose between offending the Parent and at the same time giving up old gratifications, or offending the therapist and at the same time giving up the possibility of new gratifications.
Do use interpretation where and when the patient's Adult is on your side, when you are not directly opposing the Parent, and when you are not asking too much sacrifice from the Child or arousing too much fear of Parental retaliation or desertion. "Too much" means that the sacrifice plus the fear outweighs what her Adult and you can promise her in return for seeing things your way rather than the old way.
Crystallisation: A statement of the patient's position from the Adult of the therapist to the Adult of the patient (so now you are in a position to stop playing that game if you choose to"). At this stage the patient's Adult and Child are on good terms with each other, and the Child will also receive the crystalisation gratefully, but with some trepidation and perhaps nostalgia as well, since it means abandoning permanently the old way and trying something new, still strange, and not yet fully tested. What the Child is really abandoning by getting better is his Parent, and it is the Parent who is wronged by the whole procedure. Hence the Parent's reacton to a crystalisation may resemble that of a certain type of mother when her son announces at the age of forty that he is finally leaving the home to get married. She either hastens after the culprit (in this case, the therapist) or becomes an instant invalid. The able therapist should be able to cope with the enraged Parent who sees the Child slipping away into health; but a difficult and dangerous situation arises if somatic symptoms are used as a last-ditch fight. That is another reason why the final decision to get well is left to the patient. If he is pushed, he may get well psychologically, only to come down with a broken leg or a gastric ulcer. If it is left up to him, he will sense when the time is ripe to go ahead, and save himself from organic damage. Thus the therapist tells him when he is able to solo, but the patient decides when he actually take off.
Deliberately functioning as Parent rather than an Adult.
Support: simple stroking whose content, provided that is is tactful, is irrelevant. Its effect may be enhanced if the content is appropriately permissive or protective.
Reassurance: Here the Parental tone of voice may be more important than the content. You're right to do it. It is hard for reassurance to fail if the patient's Child feels exposed, but it may fail under two principal conditions of hypocrisy. (1) if patient's parent gave hypocritical responses (2) if the therapist mistakes for the real thing his own hostile Child playing the role of a parent.
Persuasion: Always contains a strong element of seduction. The therapist should be sure he knows what the patient expects in return for his compliance and be prepared to deal with the ultimate consequenes either of having to deliver the implied reward or of paying the penalty for failing to deliver.
Exhortation: May in some situations produce gratifying results through compliance of the patient's Child. But insofar as this sets up an effective Parent-Child relationship between the therapist and the patient, and one which both find gratifying, it may in the long run make it more difficult to accomplish the ultimate aim of therapy.
August 23, 2024
BERNE'S MOST EXTENSIVE APPLICATION OF TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS TO GROUPS
Eric Berne (1910-1970; born as Eric Bernstein, he changed his name in 1943) was a Canadian-born psychiatrist, who wrote many popular (even "trendy," in the 1960s) books such as 'A Layman's Guide to Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis,' 'Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy,' 'Structure and Dynamics of Organizations and Groups,' 'Games People Play,' etc.
He wrote in the Foreword to this 1965 book, "There are three reasons for writing this book: 1. It deals with group 'treatment' rather than with group 'therapy'... 2. There is no other systematic treatise on the use of transactional analysis in groups. 3. A large number of people who have observed the writer's groups or have heard him discuss them want more information... The book is based on more than twenty years of experience in practising group psychotherapy in a variety of settings..." (Pg. vii)
He observes, "Group treatment, as the term is intended here, is contractual rather than institutionalized. After a patient presents himself for treatment, the therapist in some way or other ... clarifies what he might be able to do to ameliorate the patient's condition. If and when the patient accepts the stated or implied offer, in whatever form it is made, the treatment can proceed according to the therapist's plan." (Pg. 209) He notes, "Transactional analysis meets these criteria for an improved method of group treatment. It requires less training of the therapist than psychoanalysis; it is effective for the large majority of psychiatric patients of all types... and it evolved indigenously from the group-therapy chamber." (Pg. 212)
He clarifies, "Transactional analysis does not pretend to be a restatement of Freudian, Jungian, or other psychology... The most fruitful application of psychoanalytic thinking finds its place in group treatment after the patient has been properly prepared by transactional analysis. It is also a profitable preparation for Jungian, Adlerian, existential, and other specialized terminologies and ways of therapeutic thinking. Transactional analysis... leaves room for all of them in appropriate contexts. Transactional theory is simpler and more scientifically economical in its statements than many other psychotherapeutic theories, but its clinical use requires conscientious study." (Pg. 216)
He summarizes, "Every human being has... a limited repertoire of ego states, which fall into three types: Parental ego states are borrowed from parental figures... Adult ego states are concerned with ... the estimating of probabilities as a basis for action. Child ego states are relics from the individual's childhood... Superego, ego, and id are inferential concepts, while ego states are experiential and social realities... The term 'transactional analysis' is used to describe the system as a whole, which is divided into a logical ... sequence of phases: structural analysis, transactional analysis proper, game analysis, and script analysis. The diagnosis of ego states... is a special art to be cultivated by the therapist." (Pg. 220-221)
Later, he allows, "Structurally, the two systems can be reconciled by regarding superego, ego, and id as determinants in the formation of Parent, Adult, and Child ego states: the Parental ego state being most heavily influenced by the superego, and Adult ego state by the ego, and the Child ego state by the id." (Pg. 298)
He suggests, "The transactional theory of personality is also a theory of life. For the transactional analyst to plan his work systematically he must be familiar with the sequence of events by which each human being has arrived at his current human condition. He learns ... to infer from clinical manifestations where the individual is and how he got there." (Pg. 259) He outlines "The Four Basic Positions... of the polarity 'OK -- not-OK.'" [These were later popularized in Thomas Harris's bestseller, I'm OK, You're OK.] Later, he states, "Freud was right: outside of the clearcut transference neuroses, psychoanalysis is 'more or less' unsuitable... Transactional analysis, in qualified hands, has turned out to be a happy remedy for this defect in the treatment of conditions outside the classical triad." (Pg. 293)
He admits, "the patient comes to the therapist in the hope that if he behaves in a certain way and follows the instructions of the therapist, the therapist will eventually present him with the magic orb... however... one of [the therapist's] chief duties is to inform the patient ... that he is not capable of gratifying this particular need... In certain cases it is possible to soften the blow by telling the patient that... he might be able to catch an occasional glimpse of it if he can form a game-free relationship with a member of the opposite sex..." (Pg. 284)
This book is extremely useful for persons wanting a fuller understanding of Berne's ideas.
Eric Berne (1910-1970; born as Eric Bernstein, he changed his name in 1943) was a Canadian-born psychiatrist, who wrote many popular (even "trendy," in the 1960s) books such as 'A Layman's Guide to Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis,' 'Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy,' 'Structure and Dynamics of Organizations and Groups,' 'Games People Play,' etc.
He wrote in the Foreword to this 1965 book, "There are three reasons for writing this book: 1. It deals with group 'treatment' rather than with group 'therapy'... 2. There is no other systematic treatise on the use of transactional analysis in groups. 3. A large number of people who have observed the writer's groups or have heard him discuss them want more information... The book is based on more than twenty years of experience in practising group psychotherapy in a variety of settings..." (Pg. vii)
He observes, "Group treatment, as the term is intended here, is contractual rather than institutionalized. After a patient presents himself for treatment, the therapist in some way or other ... clarifies what he might be able to do to ameliorate the patient's condition. If and when the patient accepts the stated or implied offer, in whatever form it is made, the treatment can proceed according to the therapist's plan." (Pg. 209) He notes, "Transactional analysis meets these criteria for an improved method of group treatment. It requires less training of the therapist than psychoanalysis; it is effective for the large majority of psychiatric patients of all types... and it evolved indigenously from the group-therapy chamber." (Pg. 212)
He clarifies, "Transactional analysis does not pretend to be a restatement of Freudian, Jungian, or other psychology... The most fruitful application of psychoanalytic thinking finds its place in group treatment after the patient has been properly prepared by transactional analysis. It is also a profitable preparation for Jungian, Adlerian, existential, and other specialized terminologies and ways of therapeutic thinking. Transactional analysis... leaves room for all of them in appropriate contexts. Transactional theory is simpler and more scientifically economical in its statements than many other psychotherapeutic theories, but its clinical use requires conscientious study." (Pg. 216)
He summarizes, "Every human being has... a limited repertoire of ego states, which fall into three types: Parental ego states are borrowed from parental figures... Adult ego states are concerned with ... the estimating of probabilities as a basis for action. Child ego states are relics from the individual's childhood... Superego, ego, and id are inferential concepts, while ego states are experiential and social realities... The term 'transactional analysis' is used to describe the system as a whole, which is divided into a logical ... sequence of phases: structural analysis, transactional analysis proper, game analysis, and script analysis. The diagnosis of ego states... is a special art to be cultivated by the therapist." (Pg. 220-221)
Later, he allows, "Structurally, the two systems can be reconciled by regarding superego, ego, and id as determinants in the formation of Parent, Adult, and Child ego states: the Parental ego state being most heavily influenced by the superego, and Adult ego state by the ego, and the Child ego state by the id." (Pg. 298)
He suggests, "The transactional theory of personality is also a theory of life. For the transactional analyst to plan his work systematically he must be familiar with the sequence of events by which each human being has arrived at his current human condition. He learns ... to infer from clinical manifestations where the individual is and how he got there." (Pg. 259) He outlines "The Four Basic Positions... of the polarity 'OK -- not-OK.'" [These were later popularized in Thomas Harris's bestseller, I'm OK, You're OK.] Later, he states, "Freud was right: outside of the clearcut transference neuroses, psychoanalysis is 'more or less' unsuitable... Transactional analysis, in qualified hands, has turned out to be a happy remedy for this defect in the treatment of conditions outside the classical triad." (Pg. 293)
He admits, "the patient comes to the therapist in the hope that if he behaves in a certain way and follows the instructions of the therapist, the therapist will eventually present him with the magic orb... however... one of [the therapist's] chief duties is to inform the patient ... that he is not capable of gratifying this particular need... In certain cases it is possible to soften the blow by telling the patient that... he might be able to catch an occasional glimpse of it if he can form a game-free relationship with a member of the opposite sex..." (Pg. 284)
This book is extremely useful for persons wanting a fuller understanding of Berne's ideas.
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February 24, 2007What is happeneing when we have dialogue with my love, with my parent, with my freinds with the taxi driver... . What they want to transfor us with the words,sounds and any other motion in which have a relation with the words.How we can discover the world behinde the words.How can we can use the words in better manner.Whats the role of the words in constructing the human comminication.why words have The multidemensional character for human and... .
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