Language: English
Level of audience: All

This workshop will invite attendees on a journey through our shared professional history of the development of humanistic psychology and, in particular, of transactional analysis theory.

We will examine the philosophies of European Exceptionalism and A City on a Hill, which drove European occupation of overseas territories and North American occupation of culture, political power and thought. Our investigation into the origins of some core theories of humanistic psychology and, in particular, transactional analysis, will focus on how the personal histories of their authors and the European and North American frame of reference of their day may have influenced the development of humanistic psychotherapies.

We will draw on the presenter’s personal stories of ancestral and contemporary members of his own family, some of whom were the oppressor, others the oppressed, and, paradoxically, some were concurrently the oppressor and the oppressed. Their stories highlight the nuance of history, which can sometimes be alluring to depict as wholly ‘good’ or wholly ‘bad’, whereas, in fact, it is complex.

Part two of the workshop is dedicated to an examination of the cultural shift we observe in our professional bodies in recent years. Today, there is a clearly evident movement to transform leading TA regulatory and membership bodies into truly international organisations, representing the interests and cultural frames of reference of our colleagues across the world.

The aspiration of this workshop is to illuminate for those attending the significance and far-reaching consequences of the recently adopted ITAA/EATA joint mission statement, and how each of us can play a part in embodying in the wider world our shared mission, vision and values.