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An Additional Retrospective Article

What Do We Mean by I'm OK, You're OK?

Pages 116-117
Published online: 28 Dec 2017
 
Translator disclaimer

“I'm OK, you're OK‘ is implicitly fundamental in the theory, practice, and teaching of Transactional Analysis, yet the meaning of the phrase has not been specified in the literature. The author suggests that the phrase is more significant than being simply one of four possible combinations of the concepts “I,” “you,” “OK,” and “not-OK,” and commends the possibility of an experiential, rather than conceptual, base of the unqualified connectedness and preciousness of all life. As a philosophical statement, the author suggests that “I'm OK, you're OK” be understood to mean “Every human being, without exception, is valuable, important, and to be taken fully into account.”

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Author information

Nancy Porter

Nancy Porter, B.Arch., PhD., Clinical Teaching Member and former Vice President, ITAA. Director of Training, TAO, Baton Rouge, Louisiana; soon to be in San Diego.