Keith Tudor TSTA-P
Field of audience: All

Language: English
Level of audience: Advanced

In this workshop, I will present a critical view of legacy, legitimacy, and identity with regard to transactional analysis.

I will consider legacy both in terms of what we have inherited from Eric Berne and the first and second generation of transactional analysts, and also with regard to what we are leaving for the next generation. Based on recent work on the different schools, traditions, approaches, and sensibilities of transactional analysis (TA), and on honouring our legacy (Tudor, 2024), I will discuss how these help or hinder the transmission of values, behaviours, emotions, and narratives from one generation to the next.

In the context of research which acknowledges the significance of extra-therapeutic factors and the therapeutic relationship over theoretical orientation and/or modality, I will consider the legitimacy of TA in relation to recognition, and research. I will make some distinctions between the need for recognition, and the push for certain forms of regulation, especially through the state (Tudor, 2017). I will also discuss how research can help our case for recognition.

Finally, with regard to identity – or, more, accurately, identities – I will discuss how our legacy and questions of legitimacy impact on our identities as transactional analysts, and how we include and exclude diverse aspects of our histories as well as the present. In doing so, I will also reclaim the view of TA as a social psychology (Batts, 1982; Jacobs, 1990, 1991; Massey, 1996, 2007; Newton, 2024; Price, 1978; Symor, 1977) and, therefore, transactional analysts as social, critical, and radical psychologists.

The workshop will take the form of a paper, delivered in three parts, interleaved with activities, and small and large group discussion.