Transactional Analysis Journal

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.

Berne's (1958) transactional analysis of games consisted of comparing the ego states of two players and identifying two levels of communication (overt and covert). This analysis emphasized the social psychiatry of games. When Goulding and Kupfer (Goulding, 1972) later developed an individual psychiatric approach in their diagram of games, Berne originally refused to accept it as game analysis. Once a game had been dealt with at the social level, Berne believed that individual psychiatry should be restricted to structural analysis and decontamination of ego states. This article suggests that viewing the Goulding (intrapsychic) model as one plane and the Berne (transactional) model as another–with the individual operating in both–offers the most effective means of helping people reclaim their power to be game free and to find options for healthy living.

The psychotherapist's sensory, physical responses–a form of countertransference phenomena–may play an important role in communication between therapist and client. This article describes kinesthetic responses, suggests ways therapists can increase their awareness of such phenomena, and discusses possible interventions based on these responses.

This article, co-authored by a supervisor and a supervisee, describes a supervision session during which experiential exercises were used to stimulate right-hemispheric creativity and to integrate this creativity with left-hemispheric cognition in the process of treatment planning in transactional analysis psychotherapy.

English's (1975) concept of the three-cornered contract is developed further by adding the idea of psychological distance and then combining these ideas with other TA concepts and group leadership theories. Four types of psychological distance and the TA concepts useful in diagnosing them are described, along with a number of possible consequences and risks linked to each type.

This article integrates concepts from transactional analysis and the field of rehabilitation in order to suggest insights into the psychosocial aspects of physical disability that can help clients and professionals be more effective in achieving their rehabilitation goals. Psychosocial, the aim of rehabilitation is to restore and maintain optimal levels of independent functioning in the person's intrapersonal, interpersonal, and community systems. The TA concepts of Parent, Adult, and Child ego states provide specific mechanisms by which a person with disability, a family, or a health care professional may intervene in these systems and facilitate the rehabilitation process.