Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy: An Integrated Approach by Petruska Clarkson. Published by  Tavistock/Routledge, London and New York, 1992;  345 pages; £35.00.

Transactional analysis is a psychotherapy, originally developed in America in the 1950s, with a membership of 8,000 practitioners in 52 countries. Its founder was Eric Berne who trained as a psychoanalyst at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute. Dr Clarkson describes Berne's influences as a background understanding of Freud, Klein and Fairbairn combined with the intrapsychic phenomenological interests of Federn and the social-developmental emphases of Erikson. His writing assumes familiarity with psychoanalytic, ego psychological and object-relations theories.

Dr Clarkson describes Berne's theoretical approach as being:

… an extension to the in-depth emphasis of psychoanalysis with its singular focus on intrapsychic dynamics. Transactional analysis as a theory of psychotherapy, however, integrates intrapsychic dynamics with interpersonal behaviours in an innovative reactive manner within a humanistic/existential framework of values.

Berne, himself, was a prolific writer and used an approachable style and language that made his theories a cult for the 1960s. However, his concepts and theories have often gone unacknowledged as his influence has been absorbed into popular vocabulary and infiltrated other psychotherapies (for example, the concept of the ‘child’ in a person, giving ‘strokes’ to a person, playing a ‘game’ with another person). Furthermore, the theories have been trivialised by others who do not grasp the theoretical depth behind the ‘user friendly’ language.

Since the 1960s, many writers and theorists have added to the body of knowledge. Although many therapists utilise concepts and knowledge taken from Transactional Analysis, to become a certified transactional analyst requires a four-year training