Thoughts on Eric Berne?
Apr 12, 2005 at 9:12 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 4

Feanor

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I signed up this year for a seminar that is about transactional analisis, and it's very interesting. I recently read two of Bernes books: Games People Play and What Do You Say After You Say Hello [the hungarian title was better], and they made me think quite a bit about myself. Do you have any experience with Berne's books?
 
Apr 13, 2005 at 1:48 AM Post #2 of 4
Yes, read all the books and did a lengthy term paper on transactional analysis many years ago. My advice: get on a therapeutic dose of Prozac (or equivalent) and completely forget about psychobabble mumbo-jumbo. (PS: I am not being sarcastic here; just shooting from the hip based on my personal experience.) PPS: Getting older and wiser helps too!
 
Apr 13, 2005 at 6:02 AM Post #3 of 4
Quote:

Originally Posted by ricks584
Yes, read all the books and did a lengthy term paper on transactional analysis many years ago. My advice: get on a therapeutic dose of Prozac (or equivalent) and completely forget about psychobabble mumbo-jumbo. (PS: I am not being sarcastic here; just shooting from the hip based on my personal experience.) PPS: Getting older and wiser helps too!


Are you implying that if I think along the lines of TA further, I will be depressed? I dont feel depressed now, the books merely got thinking. So you dont give him too much credit, right?
 
Apr 13, 2005 at 11:17 PM Post #4 of 4
I guess my only point was that, if one is relatively mentally healthy (and granted, many people are not), one will interact with others in an "adult" fashion as a matter of course.
Prozac and related medecines do more than just cure depression (yes, for many it is a complete cure); they can relieve or "cure" a number of other common psychiatric illnesses or symtoms.
I had an acquaintance once who said thet Prozac should be "added to the water supply".
I found TA to be very interesting at the time. I believe TA provides a very useful framework for analyzing interactions and identifying people who are in need of some type of psychiatric help. I could certainly see it being used in short term psychological counseling/evaluation.
I personally do not think the study of TA by itself is going to help anyone in need of psychological help, or at least have much of a lasting effect on people. Relatively "normal" people, like yourself, already deal with others in an "adult" fashion most of the time.
Personally, I think TA is most useful in identifying people in need of help. In my opinion, today's medications provide the most effective and efficient means of actually treating people who have been diagnosed with significant psychiatric maladies.
I could be very wrong though; just my opinions. I have no idea how TA is being used today. It's been a long time since I studied it, but I remember being very intrigued by the framework it provided for analyzing counter-productive human interactions.
 

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