TA practice - A great tool for growing in self awareness.

Transactional Analysis (TA) practice  is a great tool for growing in self awareness. TA theory was developed by Dr. Eric Berne in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He developed the theory from his training in psychoanalysis, learning experiences from his patients, and his wide and deep reading and travel. In spite of the depth of the concepts he was explaining, he used very commonplace and simple terms to explain the concepts. This lead to evolution of simple tools and models to understand the human mind. This in turn has made it easy for everyone (the sophisticated academicians as well as common persons and even patients with psychiatric problems) to practice the models and tools developed by the theory. In the 50th year of his best selling book 'Games People play' I am making an effort to reflect on this eidetic theory and edifying models & tools developed by this theory for personal growth and development.

Self Awareness

Much of our social behaviors are guided by unconscious motivations. They are beyond our awareness. As a result many of us live in the 'then and there' than in the 'here and now'. Especially the problems experienced in our social interactions are results of this kind of living. If we are able to get in touch with our unconscious (including preconscious and  subconscious) motivations we will be able to understand the problems we experience and ways to get out of them. The more we do that the deeper we are able to understand ourselves. With consistent practice the better we will be oriented to the 'present' or function in the 'here and now'. Here is a tool to begin the practice!

The PAC model of Personality and Structural Analysis of Mind.

The difficulty to understand the human mind has been considerably reduced by the PAC model developed by Dr. Berne ( Berne E (1961) Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy, Grove press, New York). This model speaks of the mind having three basic parts. The Child part that feels, thinks and behaves like children: the Adult part that feels, thinks and behaves like rational grown ups: the Parent part that feels, thinks and behaves like any one of the parenting figures a person has experienced. At any given moment every human being will be functioning from any one of this aspect of the mind which has been technically named as 'ego states'. Structural Analysis is the process of understanding the structure of our feelings, thoughts and behaviors using this frame work. An effort to understand ourselves using this tool is easy and rewarding. This can be done intuitively or using  an objective questionnaire developed for the same. As soon as one starts doing this, thoughts starts getting organized and one gets a new language to communicate about internal experiences. This is the beginning of regaining of awareness about  our motivations. Consistently practicing this, and experimenting this in contractual groups helps moving forward in this awareness. This is the basic learning in any experiential TA training programs. More on this later.