This article presents some links between the work of Eric Berne and that of Melanie Klein before discussing Berne's theory of the four existential positions and some later developments of this model. The author examines a lost connection with Klein's theory on positions along with a Kleinian perspective on early childhood development and psychopathology, which provided the inspiration for Berne's positions. The article suggests that transactional analysis theory and practice would be enriched by the addition of such a Kleinian perspective. This argument is supported by case examples along with some clinical discussion. A new interpretation of existential positions is proposed.
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