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Eric Bernes (1910-1970) was an author of Games People Play, and I’m ok, you’re ok. He was the first person to

publish the ‘self-help books’ and published this theory (Transactional analysis) in 1958. Eric Bernes came up with

the transactional analysis after influences from such theorists as fraud and one day treating a 35 year old lawyer,

who referred to himself as a’ little boy, not a lawyer’ but outside the office was a successful hardworking man.

Bernes later referred to this man by saying ‘am I talking to the lawyer, or little boy?’ he then referred to these

two states as ‘adult and child’ later observing the parent stage of the patient representing what he was taught

when he was younger.

Parent

‘Taught the concept’

‘Never talk to strangers’

‘Never steal’

‘Look before you cross’

These are examples of what you get

taught as a child by a parent, you

then adapt what you have learned

from your parent into everyday

situations. This is perceived

approximately in the first five years

of your life, they are external events that the brain has recorded.

Eric Bernes Transactional Analysis

Child

‘Felt the concept’

‘That cartoon was really

funny’

‘The clown was really scary’

‘The ice cream was tasty’

Stored in the child is the

emotions and feelings that

accompanied the internal events

associated with the external

events the child has perceived,

this is the way they felt at the

time which may impact the way

a person feels about something.

Adult

‘Learned the concept’ … Dr. Thomas Harris

‘I told you not to touch that hot

plate’

In this scenario, the adult was told

the message and understood it as

soon as the adult learned the

consequences from this action; this

is putting what you’ve been taught

into practise and learning why

you’ve been told. The adult

validates the information told by

the parent.