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Abstract

Eric Berne's politics have been an enigma to many in transactional analysis. His responses to political statements in the San Francisco Social Psychiatry Seminars were decisively unsympathetic, and the author's assumption has been that Berne was avowedly apolitical. However, recently unearthed information invites reevaluation of that assumption and reveals, hidden in plain sight, that Berne's strong preferences were populist, in favor of equality, individual freedom, and open discussion. These views have profoundly influenced the collective attitude of transactional analysis as a democratic, egalitarian, and cooperative movement, which transactional analysis tools are ideally suited to implement. These qualities of transactional analysis, in addition to its cutting-edge theory and methods, explain its attractiveness around the world.

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References

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Eric Berne's Politics: “The Great Pyramid”

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