So I'vr had a vacation from this blog due to computer and a couple of health problems. I stopped a the point where I wanted to continue with "my" version of what is important about Transactioal analysis. At this point there is so much else that has piled on this subject I'd like to refer the reader to the USATAA Web - under the section "Articles" you'll find the one where (under "English")I describe how I got to TA and what I consider important about TA and eventually I will proceed on the assumption that anyone who is interested can read that
All this in regard to the fact that unbeknownst to me my dear friend Laurie Weiss (who is computer savvy and marvelously energetic with lots of crestive ideas of her own) had enthusiastically referred some of her readers to this blog and it has obtained many hits as a result. So: there goes mjy anonymity and here come imy apologies to those who then found that there wss no follow up from me and..........in advanvce may I inform you that I will be taking another "vacation" from blogging while I try to catch up with a lot of other issues that have come up meanwhile.
Currently I am excited about forthcoming USATAA Council meetings coming up here - planning for a large USATAA conference to be held in Texas in October. I will be doing a l-day Institute there about my concept of three unconscious Drives (or "Motivators" as I prefer to call them since they draw on Freud's concepts but are actually very different) .So eventually (in the far future)I'll tell you more about that
For now - it's a temporary "asta la vista" until I manage to get back to this blog........... -
Friday, April 15, 2011
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Inserts
Many days have elapsed - trouble with computer - not sure how well I'll manage this entry either - there will be spelling errors - "delete" doesnt function well and also can't get back to what I was writing before - left off, I remember with some TA material and my emphasis on importance of familiarity - expertise, I would say! with ego states for all forms of communication. Because of the headinhg "TA" got reactions from my friend Jonathan Wagner who corrects my definitions in accordance with Berne - however i give myself the freedom, in this blog, to define
my way - precisely because ultimately the purpose of this blog is to clarify - - for me the views of human nature, - mine and those I transact with - as I experience them.
Meanwhile am grappling with problems about my own energy - am taking medication to manage my arthritis, other health issues, they make me sleepy and then often problems at night - constant choices during the day about compensating and sleeping versus all I want to do - and trouble dealing with frustrations of computer sticking so much.
Yet too much I want to write about -
paradoxically right now I decide to stop - this blog is supposed to help me escape from daily preoccupations and all the upsetting news that comes at all of us - I won't let it be one more "obligation" to clear - I might let it go for a couple of weeks and return much later . I've been reading about Montaigne (Wayne's suggestion) and his attitude will help me - right now I'll go to the terrace, enjoy the sunshine and then go to sleep ........
my way - precisely because ultimately the purpose of this blog is to clarify - - for me the views of human nature, - mine and those I transact with - as I experience them.
Meanwhile am grappling with problems about my own energy - am taking medication to manage my arthritis, other health issues, they make me sleepy and then often problems at night - constant choices during the day about compensating and sleeping versus all I want to do - and trouble dealing with frustrations of computer sticking so much.
Yet too much I want to write about -
paradoxically right now I decide to stop - this blog is supposed to help me escape from daily preoccupations and all the upsetting news that comes at all of us - I won't let it be one more "obligation" to clear - I might let it go for a couple of weeks and return much later . I've been reading about Montaigne (Wayne's suggestion) and his attitude will help me - right now I'll go to the terrace, enjoy the sunshine and then go to sleep ........
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Transactional Analysis (TA)
I have just looked for yesterday's last entry and can't find it. I fear that the computer has erased it. I wrote about Freudian psychoanalysis and listed the names of the four psychoanalysts, including Berne, who developed "schools" outside of psychoanalysis by working with patients in the "now" rather than starting out with the ponderous individual analysis of dreams to bring forth repressed material from the Unconscious.
Hoping it can be retrieved , I will proceed with what I consider to be so special about Berne's discoveries and creation of Transactional Analysis that my whole approach to therapy was changed radically. From having felt "burnt out" as a psychoanalytic therapist in l964, after using TA, I found new interest, excitement and life energy in treating clients and in offering treatment and training workshops. I could see that I helped people improve their lives and gain satisfaction from their work. Eventually I got to contribute theoretical and practical insights to the field. I remain dedicated to TA, but miss the work and its challenges to the point where I have started this blog to compensate and perhaps help me avoid sinking into depressive lethargy.
1. Ego states
Berne's most important discovery was to show that, psychologically, a grown individual does not develop from childhood into adulthood the way the physical body grows from a small size to larger sizes. . When it comes to thinking and feeling, all the different dynamic ways of thinking and feeling with which a person functioned in the past, since infancy, continue to co-exist in the "Now", in addition to memories stored in the unconscious. Thus,each one of us may shift from one "ego state" to another from minute to minute according to circumstances and the specific moment to moment interchanges of communication ("transactions") that may be taking place with others at each particular moment in time.
Each "ego-state" is a distinct system for thinking and feeling,. Theoretically we operate with hundreds, maybe thousands of potential egostates. However, as a way of establishing manageable categories for gross distinctions among systems, Berne named three broad categories which correspond roughly to developmental stages, naming them Child, Parent and Adult. They can be visualized as three labeled circles.
The Child ego state contains a number of sub-systems which can be shown as concentric circles within the circle showing the Child, like the rings in a branch of a tree which can be seen on a cross-section of a branch or tree trunk. The Child ego state continues to exist throughout a person's life and any one of these subsystems for thinking and feeling may operate at any moment of someone's life.
The Parent ego state starts developing at about age two and starts operating full force around age 5, continuing up to the end of someone's life. It, also, contains concentric circles corresponding to parental influences and "voices"
of parents, teachers and mentors as they affected the individual while growing up - continuing right to the end of someone's life.
The Adult, lastly, can be compared to an internalized computer which is set to deal with the reality of a person's life when called upon by an outside source or by any aspect of the internal Child or Parent. It starts functioning at adolescence, which is why this period is often stormy. The Adult ego state gets updated constantly as the circumstances and reality change in a person's life . Often, the Adult, representing rationality, mediates between conflicting wishes or expectations of the Child or of the Parent. Like the two other ego states it, also, continues to be available up to the end of a person's life unless taken over, or "contamined" by one or both of the other ego states, as imay happen because of Alzheimers disease or senility.
2. Strokes and Transactions
Hoping it can be retrieved , I will proceed with what I consider to be so special about Berne's discoveries and creation of Transactional Analysis that my whole approach to therapy was changed radically. From having felt "burnt out" as a psychoanalytic therapist in l964, after using TA, I found new interest, excitement and life energy in treating clients and in offering treatment and training workshops. I could see that I helped people improve their lives and gain satisfaction from their work. Eventually I got to contribute theoretical and practical insights to the field. I remain dedicated to TA, but miss the work and its challenges to the point where I have started this blog to compensate and perhaps help me avoid sinking into depressive lethargy.
1. Ego states
Berne's most important discovery was to show that, psychologically, a grown individual does not develop from childhood into adulthood the way the physical body grows from a small size to larger sizes. . When it comes to thinking and feeling, all the different dynamic ways of thinking and feeling with which a person functioned in the past, since infancy, continue to co-exist in the "Now", in addition to memories stored in the unconscious. Thus,each one of us may shift from one "ego state" to another from minute to minute according to circumstances and the specific moment to moment interchanges of communication ("transactions") that may be taking place with others at each particular moment in time.
Each "ego-state" is a distinct system for thinking and feeling,. Theoretically we operate with hundreds, maybe thousands of potential egostates. However, as a way of establishing manageable categories for gross distinctions among systems, Berne named three broad categories which correspond roughly to developmental stages, naming them Child, Parent and Adult. They can be visualized as three labeled circles.
The Child ego state contains a number of sub-systems which can be shown as concentric circles within the circle showing the Child, like the rings in a branch of a tree which can be seen on a cross-section of a branch or tree trunk. The Child ego state continues to exist throughout a person's life and any one of these subsystems for thinking and feeling may operate at any moment of someone's life.
The Parent ego state starts developing at about age two and starts operating full force around age 5, continuing up to the end of someone's life. It, also, contains concentric circles corresponding to parental influences and "voices"
of parents, teachers and mentors as they affected the individual while growing up - continuing right to the end of someone's life.
The Adult, lastly, can be compared to an internalized computer which is set to deal with the reality of a person's life when called upon by an outside source or by any aspect of the internal Child or Parent. It starts functioning at adolescence, which is why this period is often stormy. The Adult ego state gets updated constantly as the circumstances and reality change in a person's life . Often, the Adult, representing rationality, mediates between conflicting wishes or expectations of the Child or of the Parent. Like the two other ego states it, also, continues to be available up to the end of a person's life unless taken over, or "contamined" by one or both of the other ego states, as imay happen because of Alzheimers disease or senility.
2. Strokes and Transactions
Saturday, March 26, 2011
About Psychoanalysis, precursor of Cognitive therapies and Transactional Analysis (TA)
Yes indeed I owe much to Transactional Analysis, therefore to Eric Berne, who originated it.
I have already referred to it and urged readers to read my summary under "Articles" on the Web of
USATAA.org - where I refer to Freud as precursor. I will summarize here also, starting with Freud.
He was the great genius who discovered the vast domain ofr the Unconscious into which we tend to repress, during childhood, all kinds of memories and experiences and, in particular, thoughts and feelings considered unacceptable by our parents or society. In later life, these may manifest as all kinds of painful or distressing psychosomatic symptoms. When formerly repressed thoughts and feelings become conscious, a person can use his/her adult mind and faculties to deal with them rationally and can thus obtain relief from previously overwhelming symptoms. Freud considered dreams to be the "royal road to the Unconscious" .By "analyzing " a person's dreams he could help him or her bring repressed material to light. This is easier said than done, because repressed thoughts and feelings are usually disguised, so the process of psychoanalysis is a long one. It became a good research method for Freud and led him to many additional valuable insights about human nature, but it is ponderous, time consuming and expensive for an average patient.
However for a long time the psychoanalytic method seemed like the only way to help patients improve their lives, and in the United States, in many cities, psychiatrists established Psychoanalytic Institutes to train and certify American psychoanalysts.
Four such trained and practicing psychoanalysts developed treatment modalities and "schools" of their own, avoiding the psychoanalytic emphasis on detailed delving into past experiences before dealing with present-day dilemmas. Instead, they showed that by focusing conscious power on the "Now" there are ways to to circumvent analyszing the past regardless of the fact that present-day problems originate during childhood. They were:
1. Fritz Perls
2. Alfred Ellis
3. Aaron Beck and:
4. Eric Berne who developed Transactional Analysis
I have already referred to it and urged readers to read my summary under "Articles" on the Web of
USATAA.org - where I refer to Freud as precursor. I will summarize here also, starting with Freud.
He was the great genius who discovered the vast domain ofr the Unconscious into which we tend to repress, during childhood, all kinds of memories and experiences and, in particular, thoughts and feelings considered unacceptable by our parents or society. In later life, these may manifest as all kinds of painful or distressing psychosomatic symptoms. When formerly repressed thoughts and feelings become conscious, a person can use his/her adult mind and faculties to deal with them rationally and can thus obtain relief from previously overwhelming symptoms. Freud considered dreams to be the "royal road to the Unconscious" .By "analyzing " a person's dreams he could help him or her bring repressed material to light. This is easier said than done, because repressed thoughts and feelings are usually disguised, so the process of psychoanalysis is a long one. It became a good research method for Freud and led him to many additional valuable insights about human nature, but it is ponderous, time consuming and expensive for an average patient.
However for a long time the psychoanalytic method seemed like the only way to help patients improve their lives, and in the United States, in many cities, psychiatrists established Psychoanalytic Institutes to train and certify American psychoanalysts.
Four such trained and practicing psychoanalysts developed treatment modalities and "schools" of their own, avoiding the psychoanalytic emphasis on detailed delving into past experiences before dealing with present-day dilemmas. Instead, they showed that by focusing conscious power on the "Now" there are ways to to circumvent analyszing the past regardless of the fact that present-day problems originate during childhood. They were:
1. Fritz Perls
2. Alfred Ellis
3. Aaron Beck and:
4. Eric Berne who developed Transactional Analysis
truly, why this blog?
Ive re-read what I wrote so far ; I seem to be going round in circles. Behind all I've written here so far is that I want to be able to formulate (for myself, and, eventually for others - to use as they may see fit) as honestly and as clearly as possible, how and why it is that I have been so successful iwith my workshops in Europe between l981 until now. It sounds arrogant or embarrassing or narcissistic or grandiose to say this, alhough it's true. Furthermore, why bother, now that I 'm 94 and firmly closed the possibility of further workshops in Europe, with the idea that I might as well stop "at the top" rather than slowly deteriorate - although I am starting a small bi-monthly consultation group for "people helpers" to still keep my little finger in the process).
What I mean by "success" is that all my workshops went well - some extraordinarily well - with full satisfaction of participants and, more important, with good lasting results in the lives, relationships and/or careers of most, as proven by feed-back received years later, word-of-mouth referrals by previous participants and by my growing reputation , so that no publicity was necessary as the years went on - just an announcement of a "therapy group" or "training group" " general workshop" with my name suffiiced for it to be filled, with a waiting list. Yes my fees were high - well above those of others with similar offerings. (This pattern started originally because between l972, - my first workshop in Germany, - and l980, when I closed my Institute in Philadelphia and decided to work full time in Europe; I had wanted to limit my time in Europe because I still had my Instritute and a few other commitments in the US. )
Now I must say that although I always anticipated that a workshop would go well enough, from an Adult perspective it still seems amazing that most they worked out as well as they did, considering the diversity of the populations, ages, cultures and backgrounds of the people I worked with, especially when I think of the many instances of glowing feed-back from people who claimed, years later, that I had changed their lives. A person I barely remembered might quote a statement or other that I allegedly made years ago as having had a particular transformative effect.This kind of response was baffling; even when I remembered the person or the workshop referred to, the quotation would surprise me - I did not recognise it - it seemed banal, or incidental, not worthy of the extraordinary effects it was said to have elicited. Was it imagined by the person who quoted it, ascribing it to me? Yet this occurred many times, with conviction.
So what was behind such repeated success? My conscious and overt responses were, of course, to be pleased and honored, and I would focus on whoever it was offered such appreciations by thanking or offering whatever encouragement was applicable. However some of the time, in truth, I'd experience a twinge - well-nigh superstitious feeling, and the phrase : "Pourvu que ca dure!" (on condition that it lasts!) - would come to mindt. That was the phrase Napoleon's mother was said to have uttered, in her Corsican style, after each one of his successes. (As we know in transactional analysis, the Parent ego state takes on strange disguises; yes, I must still tell you more about TA, dear Stratosphere, and I will, in due course. )
In fact this may be the moment to say more about Transactional Analysis (TA) to which I owe my success in large part - rather, to the way I have incorporated it as my way of thinking and feeling - including significant additions I have made to the basic theory. However before I do let me say that beyond TA and beyond my childhood experiences with my grandfather, to which I owe my self-confidence, and which I will also tell you more about later, there is still this mysterious "energy transmission"/ intuition process that I want to explore - the one that occurred with my teen-age "fortune telling" experiences I referred to before, to which I ultimately want to devote much more attention - it is the wish for more clarity about some of this - the "magic" that happened over and over in my work - , that actually underlies my having taken on the challenge of struggling to express myself with this blog.
What I mean by "success" is that all my workshops went well - some extraordinarily well - with full satisfaction of participants and, more important, with good lasting results in the lives, relationships and/or careers of most, as proven by feed-back received years later, word-of-mouth referrals by previous participants and by my growing reputation , so that no publicity was necessary as the years went on - just an announcement of a "therapy group" or "training group" " general workshop" with my name suffiiced for it to be filled, with a waiting list. Yes my fees were high - well above those of others with similar offerings. (This pattern started originally because between l972, - my first workshop in Germany, - and l980, when I closed my Institute in Philadelphia and decided to work full time in Europe; I had wanted to limit my time in Europe because I still had my Instritute and a few other commitments in the US. )
Now I must say that although I always anticipated that a workshop would go well enough, from an Adult perspective it still seems amazing that most they worked out as well as they did, considering the diversity of the populations, ages, cultures and backgrounds of the people I worked with, especially when I think of the many instances of glowing feed-back from people who claimed, years later, that I had changed their lives. A person I barely remembered might quote a statement or other that I allegedly made years ago as having had a particular transformative effect.This kind of response was baffling; even when I remembered the person or the workshop referred to, the quotation would surprise me - I did not recognise it - it seemed banal, or incidental, not worthy of the extraordinary effects it was said to have elicited. Was it imagined by the person who quoted it, ascribing it to me? Yet this occurred many times, with conviction.
So what was behind such repeated success? My conscious and overt responses were, of course, to be pleased and honored, and I would focus on whoever it was offered such appreciations by thanking or offering whatever encouragement was applicable. However some of the time, in truth, I'd experience a twinge - well-nigh superstitious feeling, and the phrase : "Pourvu que ca dure!" (on condition that it lasts!) - would come to mindt. That was the phrase Napoleon's mother was said to have uttered, in her Corsican style, after each one of his successes. (As we know in transactional analysis, the Parent ego state takes on strange disguises; yes, I must still tell you more about TA, dear Stratosphere, and I will, in due course. )
In fact this may be the moment to say more about Transactional Analysis (TA) to which I owe my success in large part - rather, to the way I have incorporated it as my way of thinking and feeling - including significant additions I have made to the basic theory. However before I do let me say that beyond TA and beyond my childhood experiences with my grandfather, to which I owe my self-confidence, and which I will also tell you more about later, there is still this mysterious "energy transmission"/ intuition process that I want to explore - the one that occurred with my teen-age "fortune telling" experiences I referred to before, to which I ultimately want to devote much more attention - it is the wish for more clarity about some of this - the "magic" that happened over and over in my work - , that actually underlies my having taken on the challenge of struggling to express myself with this blog.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
telephathy?
Sigrid and I have been out of touch for months- yet just today, after having written yesterday about her and my biography, I find an e-mail from her! Coincidence?Perhaps. Yet such "coincidences" seem to be happening to me a lot - like receiving a telephone call the very minute I'm about to call someone I haven't talked to for a long time....I do believe there is something like telephathy - communication through the airwaves - the stratosphere - ways that seem mysterious to us nowadays simply because science has not yet masteered the technique - how one mind can communicate with another through the airwaves or the elecrtric energy around us, the way television is transmitted,. For that matter, to me, that this blog, being typed in my study in California can be read, for instance by Suriya in India, seems equally mysterious , and the only reason I know it can happen is because I received a message from him. It's just that nowadays we still need the technical intermediary of the internet; -in the future, I believe people will be able to train their minds for direct telepathic communication without such an intermediary whenever they want to, instead of just by "coincidence" - Anyway, I do believe that I have some ability or talent to being a "receptor" though I still don't know how to guide it . In fact, perhaps the episode I described previously about intuiting that the man palm I held was contemplating suicide ties in to this ability - or, in effect, intuition.
I know that my intuition has served me well in the course of doing my many workshops - often "rationalized" as the ability to identify ego states faster and more precisely than just through experience or training.
Perhaps this is really the topic I want to explore in some detail in the course of writing this blog .
For now, here is another experience that comes to mind:-
I suffered a bad accident in October l999 - 3rd degree burns on my left arm and back - from having worn a nylon kimono which caught fire - spent more than 2 months in the hospital - should have died, statistically l02% likelihood given my age - but thanks to excellent care - 6 skin grafts done by Dr. Ikeda at St,Francis Hospital - I recovered completely. During the period of recovery, in the course of my 2nd month at the hospital , while I was still on heavy opiate drugs, there were a number of times where I had the physical sensation of messages of goodwill tingling at my skin. Imagination? Perhaps. Yet often such sensations were quite strong. Of course, during this period, my daughter was busily sending e-mail reports about my condition to large numbers of friends all over the world who were inquiring and sending cards and good wishes by mail, and when she visited she would read some to me or show me cards. So I was well aware that many people were thinking about me. Still, I did feel that these physical sensations of "receiving good will through the skin" were of a particular kind, perhaps comparable to what Transcendental Meditation devotees talk about, and beyond simple auto-suggestion. Anyway, nowadays if/when a friend is sick or grieving I do try to mentally concentrate to "transmit" good feelings - which may or may not be helpful, but then, why not?
I know that my intuition has served me well in the course of doing my many workshops - often "rationalized" as the ability to identify ego states faster and more precisely than just through experience or training.
Perhaps this is really the topic I want to explore in some detail in the course of writing this blog .
For now, here is another experience that comes to mind:-
I suffered a bad accident in October l999 - 3rd degree burns on my left arm and back - from having worn a nylon kimono which caught fire - spent more than 2 months in the hospital - should have died, statistically l02% likelihood given my age - but thanks to excellent care - 6 skin grafts done by Dr. Ikeda at St,Francis Hospital - I recovered completely. During the period of recovery, in the course of my 2nd month at the hospital , while I was still on heavy opiate drugs, there were a number of times where I had the physical sensation of messages of goodwill tingling at my skin. Imagination? Perhaps. Yet often such sensations were quite strong. Of course, during this period, my daughter was busily sending e-mail reports about my condition to large numbers of friends all over the world who were inquiring and sending cards and good wishes by mail, and when she visited she would read some to me or show me cards. So I was well aware that many people were thinking about me. Still, I did feel that these physical sensations of "receiving good will through the skin" were of a particular kind, perhaps comparable to what Transcendental Meditation devotees talk about, and beyond simple auto-suggestion. Anyway, nowadays if/when a friend is sick or grieving I do try to mentally concentrate to "transmit" good feelings - which may or may not be helpful, but then, why not?
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