“I'm OK, you're OK‘ is implicitly fundamental in the theory, practice, and teaching of Transactional Analysis, yet the meaning of the phrase has not been specified in the literature. The author suggests that the phrase is more significant than being simply one of four possible combinations of the concepts “I,” “you,” “OK,” and “not-OK,” and commends the possibility of an experiential, rather than conceptual, base of the unqualified connectedness and preciousness of all life. As a philosophical statement, the author suggests that “I'm OK, you're OK” be understood to mean “Every human being, without exception, is valuable, important, and to be taken fully into account.”
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References
1.
ErnstF.H.Jr., MD, The OK corral: The grid for get-on-with. Transactional Analysis Journal, 1971, 1 (4), 231–240.
