While I am not generally known for psychological theory or particularly psychologized practice, the recent trend for my wife to ask me, "What's up on the Drama Overground," got me thinking more about this and some of the useful psychological things I have learned along the way, of which I still find Transactional Analysis, that seemingly forgotten bit of reaction to and addition to Freudinism, of great, practical, explanatory value.

Oddly enough, though I recommend the book TA Today in my book, I have been amazed that nobody has ever mentioned to me that they read it, which is really unfortunate, as I expected plenty of people to read it and go, "Wow, how did we forget that important work and why is more of it not incorporated into current understanding of human interaction more directly and consciously?", and then recommend it to all of their friends.

So, here are some basics of TA theory that just might prove useful to someone, as I see much recently that can very easily be illuminated by these points, which is not surprising, as they illuminate a huge swath of human behavior in general with great simplicity and ease. I don't mean to come off as "Wow, this is the theory of all human behavior that explains everything!", but I do wish to encourage people to take a serious look at these very simple, straightforward concepts to see how they might practically apply to their own lives and, in this case, on-line interactions.

TA basic theory

I think that the concepts of Scrips and Drivers, as well as the Drama Triangle and Game theory, are very worth knowing well so that you can see how they unfold in daily life and thus be more aware of what is going on and less caught up in it. Enjoy.

Is transactional anaysis the basis for the "I'm Ok, You're Ok" book? 

Someone recently gave me that book to read, but I didn't.  But I could.

That's the stuff.

Now, there is a reaction movement called I'm not ok, you're not ok, and that's ok, and they make some useful points, but they don't invalidate plenty of the original wisdom and useful concepts.

Good stuff, I'll have to come back to this later. (level 2 stroke for you Daniel.)

With this post, you just convinced me to actually go and read the book. (Game theory sounds fun.)

By the way, there's probably a simple reason why no one has gone and read it: AFAIK in MCTB you only say that it's good, but not what's in there, and what makes it great.

Is Freud related to Rorschach? You know, the guy who painted lots of pictures of my parents fighting?

I've had it in my e-library for awhile now. Coincidentally, just yesterday I was looking for a physical copy in a used bookstore.

Robert Anton Wilson and Timothy Leary were both heavily influenced by TA. RAW included it in Prometheus Rising, and Leary regularly wrote about games and scripts. And, the idea of scripts is pretty well-known in the psychology world. So, TA hasn't gone completely unused.

I'm moving TA Today and Games People Play to the top of my reading queue...  Thanks Daniel

HI all - I have read it and recommend it (I'm a psychologist).  I think it probablyis still influential, but it's been rebranded so as to drop some of the more overt Freudian stuff, which may not be the most useful part anyway.  Assertiveness training, boundaries work, non-violent communication all show the influence of TA.  Thanks, Paul

What is the book called after the rebranding? Is it still available?

Another angle of approaching such problems is found in the book: "Getting To Yes" (check the wikipedia entry, for starters...)

Easy to read -- less than 100 pages, if I recall. Used copies are available at Amazon starting at $0.01.

It was very popular, engendering a sequell titled "Getting Past No."

The context was more business, political, etc. conflict, but the basic inter-personal situations and solutions certainly apply here too.

Hi Andy - sorry for my sloppy writing. I didn't mean literally 'rebranded'.  I meant to say that the same ideas were still circulating in the field of psychology, just dressed up in different jargon (specifically, cognitive or solution-focused rather than psychoanalytic).  The classic books (Games People Play, etc.) are still in print I think.