Transactional analysis and politics

A critical review

Abstract

This article offers a critical review of the literature on transactional analysis (TA) and politics. It discusses Eric Berne's own relationship with politics, makes some distinctions between social psychiatry and social psychology, and comments on the influence of radical psychiatry on TA—especially in the 1960s and '70s. Finally, it offers a conceptual framework that categorises the interplay between TA and politics, and gives examples of these different aspects of TA and politics.