Self Help Transactional Analysis

Transactional Analysis, fondly referred to as TA, is a school of human psychology. Six theories and nine auxiliary topics cover the content of this theory. It is a systematic psychotherapy for personal growth and personal change. It offers insightful understanding of how human personality is structured; how the personality components manifest in terms of behavior; the many ways in which human beings communicate with each other; the ways in which unhealthy interactions occur; how programmed responses occur; and finally how life is lived out in keeping with the dictates of a ‘life script’ which we write in childhood.

Most of us are fine to the age of 10-12 years. Thereafter a shift takes place between what we expect out of ourselves, from others and life generally. We start assigning meaning. A gap takes place between what is communicated by another, what the communication is taken to be, and how it impacts our perception of ourself, of others and our quality of life entitlements. We start making choices and decisions. Programmed living takes root. We do not dedicate time to make decisions, reach conclusions, and act on them. We fail to make sane, safe, effective responses the bedrock of our system. Life gradually goes off track. Our relationships become soured. We come to believe that bickering is a part of life. We start living life from either a one up, or one down, or futility dominant position.

Transactional Analysis is a powerful theory that helps us to understand the many ways in which we think, feel, behave, act and respond to people and in situations of life. Imagine a roulette wheel. A stimulus sets the wheel in motion. An internal programme gets the wheel to stop at a predictable number. Our perception, evaluation, assessment and response is dictated by the definitions of the number. We are helpless. The programme is the Script. Script is short for Life Script. It is ‘written’ in childhood mostly by the time we are seven years old. If it is free of harm to self, to others or violative of social laws well and good. Else, one needs to take recourse to therapy. TA theory lacks content that one could use for Self Therapy. This is where this app walks in. It provides six sets of practices which together help to become free of dysfunctional patterns of thinking, feeling, behaving, expressing, interacting and many other patterns.

I invite you to first engage in the practices then move to the theory content. I wish you every success in your endeavor.