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Article

Transactional Analysis and Psychoanalysis: Writing Styles

Pages 330-334
Published online: 28 Dec 2017
 
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The author compares the languages of transactional analysis and psychoanalysis and argues that in his break with psychoanalysis, Eric Berne took leave, primarily, of the linguistic and therefore conceptual style of psychoanalysis. He sought to write, speak, and think about observable phenomena with the use of verbs and concrete nouns instead of adjectives and abstract nouns, which he characterized as “jazz.” This initial linguistic transformation profoundly affected transactional analysis methodology.

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Claude Steiner

Claude Steiner, Ph.D., ITAA Teaching Member, is a clinical psychologist and one of the founding members, with Eric Berne, of the ITAA. He lives with his wife and editor, Jude Steiner-Hall, alternately between Berkeley and Ukiah, California. He has developed a stroke-centered approach to transactional analysis and is the leader of an emerging emotional literacy training movement centered in Europe. The author of eight books, including Scripts People Live, The Other Side of Power, and Emotional Literacy: Intelligence with a Heart, he is finishing his book Confessions of a Psycho-Mechanic: My Long Life of Love, Sex, and Psychotherapy in Five Continents and has started writing his next book, Analyzing Transactions. He can be reached through e-mail at or at www.claudesteiner.com/strokes.htm.