Eric Berne

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Eric Berne (May 10, 1910 – July 15, 1970) was a Canadian-born psychiatrist best known as the creator of transactional analysis. He published technical and mass-market books on the subject.

Berne

1 Background and education
2 Clinical work
3 Intuition
4 Transactional Analysis
5 Transactional object of Drinking
6 The Role of the Addict / Alcoholic
7 Personal life
8 Further reading
9 External links

[edit] Background and education

Eric was born on May 10, 1910 as Eric Lennard Bernstein in Montreal, Canada. He was the son of a physician and a writer, David and Sara Gordon Bernstein. His father died in 1921, leaving Sara with Eric and his sister, Grace (who was five years younger).

Bernstein attended McGill University, graduating in 1931 and earning an M.D. in 1935. While at McGill he wrote for several student newspapers using pseudonyms. He followed graduation with a residency in psychiatry at Yale, where he studied psychoanalysis under Dr. Paul Federn. He completed his training in 1938 and became an American citizen in 1939. In 1943 he changed his legal name to Eric Berne.

[edit] Clinical work

Berne's training was interrupted by World War II and his service in the Army Medical Corps. After working at Bushnell Army Hospital in Ogden, Utah, he was discharged in 1945. He resumed his studies under Dr. Erik Erikson at the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute and practiced at Mt. Zion Hospital.

In addition to technical papers on psychoanalysis, Berne published The Mind in Action in 1947. He became a group therapist attached to several hospitals in San Francisco. He also began to further extend of the Ego State Model of Dr. Federn.

Dr. Berne's work began to diverge from the mainstream of psychoanalytic thought. He published his work in several technical journals, but met with largely negative reactions. His break became formal in 1949 when he was rejected for membership in the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute.

[edit] Intuition

Berne wrote a series of papers and articles on intuition, describing in one popular exposition his apparently uncanny ability to guess the civilian occupation of soldiers from just a few moments conversation with them. His musings on the faculty of intuition led to his groundbreaking work on transactional analysis.

[edit] Transactional Analysis

Main Article, see: Transactional analysis.

Berne mapped interpersonal relationships to three ego-states of the individuals involved: the Parent, Adult, and Child state. He then investigated communications between individuals based on the current state of each. These interpersonal interactions he called transactions; certain patterns of transactions which popped up repeatedly in everyday life he called games.

In the early 1960s he published both technical and popular accounts of his conclusions. The best-selling book Games People Play made terms like scripts and tokens part of the ordinary vocabulary. His Structures and Dynamics of Organizations and Groups in 1963 examined the same analysis in a broader context than one-on-one interaction.

His seminar group from the 1950s developed the term Transactional Analysis (TA) to describe therapies based on his work. By 1964, this expanded into the International Transactional Analysis Association. While still largely rejected by the psychoanalytic community, many Psychological therapists have put his ideas in practice. Other applications have appeared in the practice of organization development consultants. By 2003 the various TA organizations boast over 15,000 world wide members.

Berne was famous for his use of ordinary, easy-to-understand words instead of psychiatric terminology. Berne had some very interesting insights on alcoholism.

Berne Saw Alcoholism as a choice not a disease. His concepts are still prevalent in Family system therapy.

[edit] Transactional object of Drinking

The transactional object of the drinking, aside from the personal pleasure it brings, is to set up a situation where the Child can be severley scolded not only by the internal partent but by any parental figures in the environment who are interested enought to olbige. It is the same in the game Schemeile: the messmaking, which attracts the most attention, is merrely a pleasure-giving way for White to led up to the crux, which is obtaining forgiveness by Black.

There are a variety of organizations involved in ‘Alcoholic’, some of them national or even international in scope, others local. Many of them publish rules for the game. Nearly all of them explain how to play the role of Alcoholic: take a drink before breakfast, spend money allotted for other purposes, etc. They also explain the function of the Rescuer. Alcoholics Anonymous, for example, continues playing the actual game but concentrates on inducing the Alcoholic to take the role of Rescuer. Former Alcoholics are preferred because they know how the game goes, and hence are better qualified to play the supporting role than people who have never played before. Cases have been reported of a chapter of A.A. running out of Alcoholics to work on; whereupon the members resumed drinking, since there was no other way to continue the game in the absence of people to rescue.

With the rise of rescue organizations which publicize that alchohllism is a disease, alcoholics have been taught to play "Wooden Leg".^[1]

[edit] The Role of the Addict / Alcoholic

Roles: Victim (addict), Persecutor (usually spouse), Rescuer (often family member of same sex), Patsy (enabler), Connection (supplier)

.Pastimes: Are martini (how much I used) and morning after (look what you made me do). Many addicts find unlimited access to these pastimes in organizations such as AA.,

The game is played from the Victim role as "see how bad I've been; see if you can stop me." The purpose is self-punishment and the garnering of negative (persecution) strokes and positive ones of forgiveness, and the vindication of an "I'm not OK" existential position. The game often becomes elaborated into a self-destructive life script, especially if the parents were also chemically dependent.

Effective antithesis and cure can be achieved through psychotherapeutic script analysis, redecision,relearning.,

^[2]

[edit] Personal life

While Berne's professional life was full of intellectual challenge and creative work, he was less successful in his personal life. He was married three times. His first wife was Elinor McRae. They married in 1942, had two children, and divorced bitterly in 1945. In 1949 he married Dorothy DeMass Way, by whom he also had two children before their divorce in 1964.

After his popular success, Eric married a third time, to Torre Peterson in 1967. The couple took up residence in Carmel, California where he wrote, but he continued some clinical work in San Francisco. This marriage also ended in divorce in early 1970. Dr. Berne died suddenly of a heart attack on July 15, 1970.

[edit] Further reading

Eric Berne by Ian Stewart; 1992, Sage Publications, ISBN 0-8039-8466-9; (Paperback: ISBN 0-8039-8467-7).

By Eric Berne, M.D.

Games People Play: the Psychology of Human Relations; 1964; (1978 reprint, Grove Press, ISBN 0-345-17046-6); (1996 Paperback, ISBN 0-345-41003-3)
What Do You Say After You Say Hello?; 1975; ISBN 0-552-09806-X
The Mind in Action; 1947, New York, Simon and Schuster.
Sex in Human Loving; 1963, Beverly Hills, California: City National Bank.
The Structures and Dynamics of Organizations and Groups; 1961; (1984 Paperback reprint: ISBN 0-345-32025-5).
Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy; 1961; (1986 reprint: ISBN 0-345-33836-7).
The Happy Valley; date?, Random House Publisher, ISBN 0-394-47562-3