The author maintains that the heart of transactional analysis is in helping people develop the courage to risk positive change, not only at the individual level but also at the collective cultural level. Focusing on the cultural level, he views some authoritarian cultures as derivatives of restrictive family structures bound by scripts and compares these to a therapeutic group culture that can serve as a model for how modern egalitarian cultures can allow for positive social change. With a social structural analysis, he identifies impasses to such change, distinguishing some differences between cultures of fear and cultures of courage. Listing the different forms of courage needed for countering injunctions that impede such change, the author accounts for the reality of authority structures and power influences. He describes some of the ethical dilemmas we face when we encourage cultural change, citing recent research in courage, including its role in organizational change.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AnsbacherH. L.AnsbacherR. R. (Eds.). (1956). The individual psychology of Alfred Adler. New York, NY: Basic Books.
2.
AnsbacherH. L.AnsbacherR. R. (Eds.). (1964). Alfred Adler: Superiority and social interest: A collection of later writings. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
3.
BaumrindD. (1968). Authoritarian vs. authoritative parental control. Adolescence, 3, 255–272.
4.
BennisW. (2007). The challenges of leadership in the modern world: Introduction to the special issue. American Psychologist, 62, 2–5.
5.
BerneE. (1963). The structure and dynamics of organizations and groups. New York, NY: Grove Press.
6.
BerneE. (1966). Principles of group treatment. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
7.
BerneE. (1972). What do you say after you say hello?: The psychology of human relationships. New York, NY: Grove Press.
8.
BondT. (2006). Intimacy, risk, and reciprocity in psychotherapy: Intricate ethical challenges. Transactional Analysis Journal, 36, 77–89.
9.
BoydS.ShadboldtC. (2011). Reflections on a theme of relational supervision. In FowlieH.SillsC. (Eds.), Relational transactional analysis: Principles in practice (pp. 279–286). London, England: Karnac.
10.
CamposL. (2000). It's OK to belong: A developmental view of redecision therapy with juvenile offenders. Journal of Redecision Therapy, 2, 66–77.
11.
CamposL. (2010a). Beyond script destiny: Chance and circumstance in the life course. Transactional Analysis Journal, 40, 278–287.
12.
CamposL. (2010b). Redecision therapy and social justice. Transactional Analysis Journal, 40, 85–94.
13.
CavanaghG. F.MobergD. J. (1999). The virtue of courage within an organization. Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations, 1, 1–25.
14.
CialdiniR. B. (2007). Influence: The psychology of persuasion. New York, NY: Harper/Collins.
15.
CurryT.JiobuR.SchwirianK. (1999). Sociology for the 21st century. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
16.
DregoP. (1983). The cultural parent. Transactional Analysis Journal, 13, 224–227.
17.
DregoP. (2009). Bonding the ethnic child with the universal parent. Transactional Analysis Journal, 39, 193–206.
18.
EusdenS. (2011). Relational TA and ethics—Minding the gap. In FowlieH.SillsC. (Eds.), Relational transactional analysis: Principles in practice (pp. 269–278). London, England: Karnac.
19.
FreedmanL. (2009, 7 November). Can an organization redecide its script? Workshop presented at the Redecision/TA Conference, New Orleans, LA, U.S.A.
20.
GoldbergC.SimonJ. (1982). Towards a psychology of courage: Implications for the change (healing) process. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 13, 107–128.
21.
GolemanD. (1998). Working with emotional intelligence. New York, NY: Bantam Books.
22.
GolemanD.BoyatzisR.McKeeA. (2002). Primal leadership: Learning to lead with emotional intelligence. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
23.
GouldingM. M.GouldingR. L. (1979). Changing lives through redecision therapy. NY: Brunner/Mazel.
24.
GouldingR. L.GouldingM. M. (1978). The power is in the patient: A TA/gestalt approach to psychotherapy (McCormickP., Ed.). San Francisco, CA: TA Press.
25.
GoussakovskiV. (2009). Pioneering the development of transactional analysis and TA training in a new area of the world. Transactional Analysis Journal, 39, 320–325.
26.
GregL. (1998). Alfred Adler, the forgotten prophet: A vision for the twenty-first century. Westport, CT: Praeger.
27.
HollanderE. P.OffermannL. R. (1990). Power and leadership in organizations. American Psychologist, 49, 179–189.
28.
JamesM. (1997). Religious liberty on trial: Hanserd Knollys—Early Baptist hero. Franklin, TN: Providence House Publishers.
29.
JamesM.JongewardD. (1971). Born to win. Transactional analysis with gestalt experiments. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
30.
JongewardD.BlakeneyR. N. (Eds.). (1976). Contracts, permission, potency, and protection in organizational work. In BlakeneyR. N. (Ed.), Current issues in transactional analysis (pp. 109–115). New York, NY: Brunner/Mazel.
31.
KievA. (1972). Transcultural psychiatry. New York, NY: The Free Press.
32.
KillmanR. H.O'HaraL.StraussJ. P. (2009). Developing and validating a quantitative measure of organizational change [Online publication]. Retrieved from http://www.kilman.com/PDF/CourageArticle.pdf.
33.
LandaicheN. M.III. (2009). Understanding social pain dynamics in human relations. Transactional Analysis Journal, 39, 229–238.
34.
LopezS. J.SnyderC. R. (2003). Positive psychological assessment: A handbook of models and measures. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
35.
LordH. G. (2006). The psychology of courage. London, England: Kessinger Publications.
36.
Madlala-RoutledgeN. (2009). Transactional analysis holds promise for healing trauma and building resilience at the societal level. Transactional Analysis Journal, 38, 269–272.
37.
MazzettiM. (2010). Eric Berne and cultural script. Transactional Analysis Journal, 40, 187–195.
38.
MazzettiM. (2011). Cross-cultural transactional analysis. In FowlieH.SillsC. (Eds.), Relational transactional analysis: Principles in practice (pp. 189–198). London, England: Karnac.
39.
PetersonC. (2006). A primer in positive psychology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
40.
PuryC. L. S.LopezS. J. (Eds.). (2010). Psychology of courage: Modern research on an ancient virtue. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
RachmanS. J. (1984). Fear and courage. Behavior therapy, 15, 109–120.
43.
RachmanS. J. (1990). Fear and courage (2nd ed.). New York, NY: W. H. Freeman.
44.
RobertsD. (1985). Redecision therapy as applied to cultural and ethnic scripts. In KadisL. B. (Ed.), Redecision therapy: Expanded perspectives (pp. 287–290). Watsonville, CA: Western Institute for Group and Family Therapy.
ShivanathS.HiremathM. (2003). The psycho-dynamics of race and culture. In HargadenH.SillsC. (Eds.), Ego states (Key concepts in transactional analysis: Contemporary views) (pp. 169–185). London, England: Worth Publishing.
49.
StotlandE. (1969). The psychology of hope. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
50.
WheelamS.JohnstonF. (1996). The role of informal member leaders in a system containing formal leaders. Small Group Research, 27, 33–55.
51.
YangJ.MillirenA.BlagenM. (2009). The psychology of courage: An Adlerian handbook for healthy social living. New York, NY: Routledge.
