The early Greeks conceptualized physis as the generalized creative “force of Nature, which eternally strives to make things grow and to make growing things more perfect” (Berne, 1968, p. 89). This article discusses Berne's unique and neglected contribution to our understanding of this concept as well as its further development in transactional analysis by Clarkson. Physis is also contrasted with the two other major drives in human motivation–eros and thanatos–and some implications for transactional analysis psychotherapy are considered.
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