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Article

Care and Maintenance of the Tree of Transactional Analysis

Pages 115-125
Published online: 28 Dec 2017
 
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In this article, the analogy of a tree planted by Eric Berne is used to provide a perspective on what constitutes the “core” of transactional analysis. In describing the roots, trunk, and branches of this “tree,” the author calls for care and maintenance so that it can grow with greater synergy and less entropy. Some of the challenges that may affect the healthy growth of this “tree of transactional analysis”—such as the integrative psychotherapy movement, constructivism, objection to the use of energy metaphors, the “psychoanalytization” of transactional analysis, and lack of scientific validation—are identified and discussed. The author urges transactional analysts to sustain the healthy growth of transactional analysis for the new millennium by following the legacy of Berne's original creative and scientific spirit, without which there would be no transactional analysis today.

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Author information

Leonard P. Campos

Leonard P. Campos, Ph.D., ABPP, Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst, is now a retired psychologist in Roseville, California. He enjoys working in the garden, where he learned how to care for and maintain the growth of his plants. For 32 years he was a practitioner of a highly effective form of a transactional analysis-based integrative psychotherapy created by Robert and Mary Goulding in the early 1960s and later called “redecision therapy.” If you are still passionately interested in the care and maintenance of transactional analysis, you can contact Leonard by writing him at 1606 Oakview Dr., Roseville, CA 95661, U.S.A., by email at or by visiting his website at www.TA-doctor.com.