Skip to Main Content
13
Views
0
CrossRef citations
Altmetric
 
Translator disclaimer

Owning our transactional analysis roots includes accepting coownership of the psychoanalytic vertical orientation. The dominance of the oedipal represents the vertical dimension of our lives and can be seen as the centerpiece of Freud’s theoretical framework, which found its way seamlessly into transactional analysis. This article takes a metaperspective on these developments and focuses on the murderous aspects of sibling relationships. It starts with a vignette about a sibling relationship and a reflection on mythology, both in relation to murderous sibling behavior. The author then considers why sibling relationships have been neglected so long in the psychoanalytic literature. The article expands on the lateral and horizontal dimensions of society before adding the core dynamics of lateral psychology thinking: identification and deidentification. The author concludes by promoting the case for integrating both vertical and horizontal orientations and suggests three potential areas for further research.

Additional information

Author information

Servaas van Beekum

Author Biography
Servaas van Beekum, drs., is a social scientist with a background in analytic, humanistic, and systemic modalities. He is a Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst, a psychotherapist (PACFA reg.), a supervisor and executive coach (EASC/AAoS reg.), and a consultant to organizations. He is the past president of the European Association of Transactional Analysis and the ITAA and works globally as a guest trainer, author, speaker, and consultant. Servaas is a cofounder of Group Relations Nederland (1992) and Group Relations Australia (2005), associations that study unconscious group process in organizations. Servaas is the 2015 recipient of the Eric Berne Memorial Award. He lives in Sydney, where he has a private practice as a psychotherapist, executive coach, and supervisor and where he is the director of the consulting training arm of the Australian Centre of Integrative Studies (ACIS). He also works as a consultant for Aspirall. Servaas can be reached at 158 Wellington Street, Bondi/Sydney 2026, New South Wales, Australia; email: . An earlier version of this article was presented as a paper at the Australian Centre for Integrative Studies Conference on “Allies & Enemies: The Role of Real and Metaphorical Siblings in Our Psychological World” held in Sydney, Australia, 23-24 March 2012.