This article offers a second-order transactional-cybernetic study of transactional analysis as a self-organizing system. A transaction is defined as a circle that includes individuals and their environment, one in which observers, observing, and observations are within the transaction. The central questions of this study involve occasions when transactional analysis has turned back on itself and the terms of relationship have changed. Three instances are discussed—Berne's death, the theory of schizophrenia, and the theory of alcoholism. This article offers a comparison between practices of transactional analysis in the 1970s, when its theory of therapy generated diversity, and later practices arising out of its theory of personality. The proposal is made to retrieve certain patterns of therapy that contributed to the legitimacy of transactional analysis as an effective psychotherapy modality.

1
Views
3
CrossRef citations
Altmetric
Section 2: Theory
Retrieving a Flourishing Psychotherapy: A Transactional-Cybernetic Meditation on Transactional Analysis
Pages 233-247
Published online: 28 Dec 2017