The Script

INTERNATIONAL TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS ASSOCIATION VOL. 40, NO. 8 NOVEMBER 2010

Digital Script Is a Big Success

The responses we received to the first digital Script were enthusiastic and mainly positive: I just received the digital version of The Script. It looks great and functions perfectly. Congratulations to everyone involved. Terry Berne, Spain What a feeling to see The Script in this new format! With its vibrant colors and beautiful pictures, it is at last happening! C. Suriyaprkash, India Great new Script! Looking forward to the January issue in the new design. I see this transition as a micro version of the macro changes that all of us on the board are working toward! Susan George, India The new Script is classy and brilliant. Bill Cornell, USA The first electronic version of The Script is a tour de force. Congratulations on all the wonderful articles and, in particular, the vivid color photos. Ken Mellor, Australia I got my Script by email today and it looks good! Ill probably print it out and read it that way. Lis Heath, UK Congratulations on managing to fit so much in this issue of The Script and yet making it interesting and easy to read, even by computer! Fanita English, USA Remember, all members will receive both the digital and hard-copy Script through 2010. Then, in 2011, the newsletter will be published monthly and sent digitally in a new format that will be easier to read on screen and to print out. So, make sure we have your current email. If you want to continue receiving the hard copy, sign up for that option for a fee when you renew your dues. If your renewal doesnt come until after 1 January and you want the hard copy, please email itaa.admin@ itaa-net.org by 1 December. And make sure to add [email protected] to your safe sendors list so your Script email doesnt end up in your spam folder.

Life with Father

by Terry Berne

he following text was delivered by Eric Bernes son Terry at the Centenary Conference in Montreal on 12 August 2010. It is based on the epilogue to A Montreal Childhood, a memoir of his youth written by Eric Berne and edited by Terry (published in 2010 by Editorial Jeder, Seville, Spain, and available online at www.jederlibros.com). I grew up in Carmel, California, a seaside town whose bohemian origins were slowly being supplanted by overwhelming tourism and high real estate prices. But in the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, the townor village, as it likes to call itselfstill retained a bohemian and relaxed atmosphere, friendly to the arts and artists, with real stores that served the community and where long-term residents were recognized by and were possibly friends of the proprietors. There was a hardware store, a couple of grocery stores, a drug store, a lumber yard, a surf shop, a good oldfashioned book store, two movie theaters, a couple of local hamburger joints, and a small hospital where my brother Rick and I were born. Nearly all these have disappeared, replaced by shops catering to tourists. My fathers office was right downtown in an old building whose entryway featured a rather melancholy indoor garden lit by a curious crepuscular light that entered through a skylight in

the stairwell. The office itself was hardly more inviting to a small kid, except that Dad always kept some delicious fruit cookies in the small studio-style kitchen. His secretary, Mary Williams, gave off an aura of faithful service and hard-working professionalism that is captured perfectly in certain movies from the 1940s and 1950s. She served my father for his entire professional life once hed moved to Carmel after discovering the town while he was stationed at nearby Fort Ord in 1943 and 1944. I could walk downtown on any day around lunchtime and accompany Dad to lunch at the Pine Inn, a fancy hotel with a good restaurant where he ate regularly. I always imagined that they had a table permanently reserved in his name. Carmel is famous for having no street addresses, and you had to retrieve your own mail from the post office, which consequently became the unofficial meeting place for Carmel residents. Going there was always an occasion to catch up with friends, or to see someone you hadnt seen

Terry Berne in Montreal following his speech

in years, or to get the lowdown on conditions at the beach from those stopping to get their mail on their way home. From a very young age we used to walk the mile or so to and from school through the woods, something that is probably unthinkable these days. So, life was ideal in a small-town-America sort of way, ideal in retrospect, of course, and Ill be forever grateful to have lived in such a privileged, beautiful place. The beach played an important role in all our lives. Ive traveled quite a bit in my life, and I can say that Ive never seen a coastline to rival Carmels. Point Lobos is a spectacular natural reserve just south of Carmel made famous by the

Despite the fact that Dad was what is informally known as a workaholic, I never felt he lacked time to spend with his kids.

continued on page 6

Board Notes
by John Heath
ts autumn where I amseason of mists and mellow fruitfulness, as John Keats described it. Please bear with me, those of you who dont have this season or dont have it at this point in the year. Here the natural world is coming to its fullest abundance and preparing for the big sleep of winter. Its a time of culmination. And yet, having spent most of the first 40 years of my life driven by the academic calendar, I am acutely aware that, for many, this is a crucial beginning time. In schools and learning institutions, new aims, new groups, new courses, and new demands all come crowding in at this time as we end the lazy days of the summer and set our sights on the next push. It seems to me that in the life cycle of the ITAA we are feeling the tension between those two points right now. Some things are coming to ripeness after the efforts of former seasons, and new tasks are emerging that will need determination and courage to see to completion. The best of these new things will, I hope, become the fruits of a future timebut Im getting ahead of myself with such personal hopes. Life will take its own course. The ITAA has matured into an organization that is prepared to face its limitations. This is very good news, because limitations are also the defining outer boundaries, without which there

John Heath (right) with Lewis MehlMadrona during the Montreal closing ceremonies, in which the two of them smoked a sacred pipe to offer blessings for the spirit of the conference and the future of the ITAA.

INSIDE
Learning from Our Mistakes: A Call for Articles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Knowing How to Say Hello and Good-Bye. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Clinical Symposium in Montreal . . 3 Nominations Sought for ITAA Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Ballot to Fill President and VP of Operations Positions . . . . . . . 4 Members Forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Bilbao Conference Call for Proposals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Keeping In Touch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

can be no clear identity. For me, our defining limits now are: 1. SIZEWe are a community (or at least a group) of about a 1000 people spread across the world. Theres plenty of room for more, but right now, thats us and thats fine. 2. CHOICEIn very broad terms, about 10% of worldwide TA membership is also part of the ITAA. They have chosen to be members. For many, perhaps most, of those people the ITAA is a second membership TA organization. Primary membership allegiance in the TA world usually belongs to a national organization or a training institute. That does not mean the ITAA is second best, but it is the choice that people make second. Our real mission now is to be the extra spice in the mix for those who want it. 3. ACADEMIC RESPECTABILITY Through a mixture of individual commitment to

hard work and the organizational nerve to maintain an independent stance toward academic exploration, we have evolved a wonderful scholarly journal. Thank goodness the Transactional Analysis Journal could never be called a mouthpiece of theoretical orthodoxy. It is courageous in its scope and offers a platform for the widest possible academic exchange in TA. 4. COMMUNICATION WITH MEMBERS We have modernized our communications with members by accepting the advantages of the digital age. The Script, a favorite read of many friends around the world, is to become a monthly online newsletter. We have broad agreement to online voting, which hugely increases the possibility of membership consultation. 5. CONFERENCINGWe have a wonderful conference tradition of our own and now have a contract with EATA and WPATA to put on a continued on page 2

JOURNAL ENTRY
Learning from Our Mistakes: A Call for Articles
by Charlotte Sills

am the guest editor for the October 2011 Transactional Analysis Journal on Learning from Our Mistakes. To encourage you to consider writing for that special issue, I offer here a couple of stories to get the ball rolling. Teaching a course on groupwork, I decided to offer participants a creative exercise that would give them a first-hand experience of how patterns of relating in their family of origin shape their here-and-now experiences in groups. With a dramatic flourish, I emptied a large bag of assorted buttons in the center of the floor and started to invite people to choose some that would represent their family members. To my horrorand no doubt to hersI saw one of the group members go as white as a sheet and retreat into the corner of the room, where over her shoulder, she asked me politely to remove my creative learning aid: She had a button phobia. So, I made a mistake, and I learned of the existence of a phobia that had been completely unknown to me. Apparently, it is not so rare: Some people fear loose buttons but not attached ones; some cannot even stand the buttons on their clothes and need to use only zips and Velcro. So these days, before I offer that exercise, I always remember to ask, Is anyone uncomfortable with buttons? It means that I have to forego my dramatic flourish, but its worth it for the protection of the people with whom I work. What is fascinating, but perhaps not surprising if we acknowledge the cocreated shaping of everything, is that the participant who was unexpectedly traumatized was one whose history had made it difficult for her to trust the care of authority figures. And here was I, the responsible leader, unexpectedly disturbing her. And that leads me to my second vignetteone from the consulting room, where our mistakes, our unconscious blunders and forgettings, can oftenif we have the courage to explore thembe the hidden pathway to deeper understanding. My client, I shall call him Doug, was something of a playboy. He enjoyed life and played hard; he had lots of men friends and was popular with girls, being charming and humorous. He

came to therapy because he began to wonder whether that was all there was. It was no longer fulfilling to follow his freewheeling lifestyle, and he began to wish he could have a meaningful relationship with a woman. But he didnt know how to make this happen. As the therapy unfolded, Doug began to tell the story of his childhood and adolescence, the bleakness of which was moving in the extreme. Gradually, I became aware that Doug, while he was very open about all his hurts and painful memories, was subtly keeping me at a distance. He would tell me the stories of his lifeoften very poignant and tenderbut he was sure to include some sort of joke that would make me genuinely smile, or he would say something witty or clever as he left the session. Sometimes he would tease me about an aspect of my way of being that he had noticed, not at all in a hostile way; on the contrary, he was always delightfully perceptive, but it always seemed to put him one up. I unpacked all this one day in supervision and began to understand that Dougs way of entertaining me prevented me from getting close and from being in a powerful position. I felt disarmed in a very real way. My supervisory colleagues and I wondered whether the issue was that he could not let himself depend on me. I resolved to raise this with him at an appropriate time. I cannot remember how long after the supervision it was before an occasion arose. And this is an important point. I had just filed away in my mind the intention to make a particular intervention and didnt really think about it. One day, Doug settled himself in to tell me a story about an experience at school. I interrupted him and gently invited him simply to tell me

about it and not feel the need to entertain me. Doug erupted in anger. What an absolutely stupid thing to say, where on earth had that come from? Had I been to supervision? (!) I was shocked at his anger and a bit confused. But then he said, If you had said that to me months ago, I could see the point, but I havent made a joke in ages. With embarrassment I realized that he was absolutely correct. He had been gradually letting his guard down over the past months and taking his

I made a mistake, and I learned of the existence of a phobia that had been completely unknown to me.
inner world much more seriously. I had simply trotted out my intervention as planned. I apologized and wondered aloud why I had said that. I also let him know that I was very aware of how strongly he felt. I had really upset him. This led to a very painful and important conversation about how he had never felt seen by anyone. Peopleand, of course, his mother, who was caring for a sickly brotherhad always relied on him to look after himself. He had felt that not only his inner feelings but also his achievements (including his changes of mind) went unnoticed. Space here doesnt allow a thorough exploration of this event. Suffice it to say that I learned a lot from it. First, when I looked back, I realized that

the change in Dougs entertaining presentation had happened around the time I had talked in supervision. I was reminded of the old adage that if we talk about clients in supervision, they change! I like to believe that in this complex world of unconscious, mutual communication, the client gets to know all about the supervision. But actually, I think it is more likely that my emerging awareness caused a shift in me that invited a different response in my client. The second learningan important reminderis that the meanings we attribute to what happens in the consulting room may be very different from our clients. And the third learningas alwaysis that if we can stay engaged with ourselves and our clients in times of rupture, a new deepening of understanding can take place. We are dedicating the October 2011 issue of the TAJ (with acknowledgments to Patrick Casement for his thoughtful book of the same name) to Learning from Our Mistakes. To try something new is often to stumble and then to have the chance to learn. But how often do we take the time to really celebrate this sort of learning? Here is an opportunity. Please contribute your articlesshort or long; cow-poke or rocket science. All fields of transactional analysis. Let us learn from each others mistakes. Please follow the instructions to authors on the inside front cover of each TAJ and send your articles to the managing editor at robinfryer@ aol.com . And if you wish to contact Charlotte Sills, email her at [email protected] .

ITAA WEBSITE: www.itaa-net.org

continue to require leadership, but of a kind and in a style that embodies the nature of our organization. For instance, a team approach to the leadership process at the BOT level might effectively model a collaborative relationship between board and members. That, in turn, would model and invite a collaborative relationship with other organizations with whom we wish to network. I think wed all agree on the need to consult more, and for that to be effective, we need respect for our differences. This means disciplining ourselves to speak truth in a way that does not overpower or discredit other possible truths. We need rigor, not conformity, in our thinking processes. I think Eric Berne would have agreed with that. So we must screw our courage to the stickingplace, as Shakespeare wrote in Macbeth. Its a curious and complex metaphor that implores us to extend our courage, or vision, to the point at which it will stick, or hold steady. It may sound like rather an aggressive image, but, in fact, it is about nothing more hostile than a violin. The sticking-place is the point at which the screw on a musical string instrument holds firm. If the tension is too loose, the screw doesnt hold. If its too tight, it also isnt stable. When its right, the tension holds steady and the instrument plays its true note. So thats where Ill endleaving you with the image of your board of trustees colleagues tweaking and turning the screws as we try to tune this beautiful, 50-year-old instrument called the ITAA. Perhaps we can get such a melody out of her that well get the whole TA world into a jig. Take your partners!!! John Heath, Acting President, October 2010 [email protected]

Board Notes
continued from page 1
World TA Conference every 3 years. Its true that there have been world conferences before, but we did not have a contractual commitment to this until 2007. Other multinational TA organizations have been approached to join in this contractual arrangement. 6. NETWORKING WITH COLLEAGUE ORGANIZATIONSWe have shed all of the actual baggage and most of the psychological baggage of the past, when the ITAA dominated the international scene in the TA world. We now are promoting ourselves as a networking organization, not a controlling one. At this point, we have respectful, nonhierarchical relations with other TA organizations, and a new atmosphere of trust and cooperation is building. 7. POLICY ON ACCREDITATIONWe have separated our finances from those of the Training and Certifying Council and have begun to articulate our support for a single worldwide examination and accreditation process in transactional analysis. 8. FINANCIAL PRUDENCEWe have begun the painful process of streamlining our financial commitments to suit the size of organization that we are. 9.WEBSITEWe are close to launching a new Web site with new interactive member services and the facility for automating a number of routine processes. 10. A MODERN PSYCHOLOGICAL LANGUAGEWe have transactional analysis

itself. Not exclusively due to the ITAA, of course, TA has matured into a clear psychological meta-language. Some of us think its a complete road map of the human psyche in itself, and some of us think its a useful route that guides into wider psychological domains. We continue to argue and disagree among ourselves, but we have the language to do that coherently and an ethos that is common to us all. Those are the fruits of our time, ripe or nearly ripe. In my role I am drawn every day to a sense of gratitude for what has gone before and the work that people have put in to get us to this point. So where now? What are the new demands? In a nutshell, we need a new vision, or at least a radically revised one. We are constituted through our bylaws and our mission statement. They may need some revision, but its the way we implement them that is really the issue. A worldwide networking organization, for example, most likely does not flourish best under a hierarchical leadership system. We need collaborative decisionmaking systems and a collaborative management style. Autonomy is a wonderful aspiration, but any community wishing to promote autonomy in its members cannot do that from an autocratic position. The rule of the super-autonomous and fully individuated over the shy and undecided, or even the plainly apathetic, is not going to take us forward. It is hierarchy in disguise. This could take us to some interesting new places. If we agree that we need a style of governance that encourages conversation, perhaps wed do better with a chairperson, not a president. Thats not a simple issue though, as the title president brings a definite sense of leadership responsibility with it that the word chairperson doesnt convey so potently. We will certainly

The Script
The Newsletter of the International Transactional Analysis Association 2186 Rheem Dr., #B-1 Pleasanton, CA 94588-2775, USA Phone: 925-600-8110 Fax: 925-600-8112 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: http://www.itaa-net.org Editor: Laurie Hawkes, MA Managing Editor: Robin Fryer, MSW Desktop Publishing: lockwood design Printing: MarinSun Printing Deadlines for copy and advertisingfirst of the month prior to the month of publication. (The Script is not published in January, May, or September.) Deadline: 1 November for the December issue; 1 December for the January issue.

The Script (ISSN 0164-7393) is published monthly except January, May, and September by the International Transactional Analysis Association.The subscription rate is $10/year as part of dues for all classes of membership. For information on dues rates for various membership classifications, contact the ITAA office at the above address. Periodicals postage paid at Pleasanton, California, and additional mailing office. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Script, 2186 Rheem Dr., #B-1, Pleasanton, CA 94558-2775. 2010 International Transactional Analysis Association, Inc.

THE SCRIPT

NOVEMBER 2010

AFTER HE SAID HELLO

Knowing How to Say Hello and Good-Bye
By H. D. Johns

edited by Pam Levin

or Eric, Hello was an invitation. Hedges Capers introduced us. I was relieving Hedges as chaplain at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. It was 1963. Eric acknowledged me, asked if I had read his books. I replied that I had. He asked me what I thought of them. Having been thoroughly indoctrinated in psychoanalytic theory at the Menninger School of Psychiatry, I said rather flippantly that I saw no reason to shift from Freuds structure to Adlerian ego psychology. He did not become defensive. Rather, he spoke of the group that met Tuesday evenings in San Francisco and invited me to join them. That was his Hello: an invitation to a meaningful dialogue. My first visit altered the course of my life. I think it began with the awareness of the importance of intuition. At that session a tape was presented, I think by Ray Poindexter. I considered it inaudible. When we complained about the tape, Eric said, You hear whats important. At one point Eric stopped the tape and asked the presenter, Whos giggling? No one else had heard the giggle. Eric said, Thats a 10-year-old child, being tickled. I thought about that. How come I hadnt heard that giggle? I went back to Erics books and became aware of the importance of the Child ego state being aware and in the here and now. Eric was teaching an introductory course that I attended, and I received a copy of his notes. I memorized that syllabus: ego states, transactions, basic positions, time structure, games, and scripts. It was all there. I found them to be of immediate use, particularly ego states and transactions, in counseling Navy personnel.

If Eric had not known how to say Hello, I might never have followed up with becoming close to transactional analysis people: Betty and Hedges Capers, who, like Eric, saw potential in me I had not suspected and nourished it with plentiful strokes. I might never have joined a group led by David Kupfer and Bob Goulding in which I saw transactional analysis basics being applied in therapy. I would not have received Hedgess invitation to join him as cofacilitator in a weekly group.

I might never have known about the drama triangle, which was not only quickly incorporated into my emerging therapeutic philosophy but also applied to myself, thus enabling me to stop defensive reactions by plugging in my Adult. I probably would never have heard of reparenting, warm fuzzies and stroke cities, and redecision. A sudden outburst of intense anger several years before had prompted a study of anger and the feelings that fueled it. Realizing that the source of my anger was a fear of the worst thing happening, I came to the firm belief that anger is fueled by fear-threat. Applying transactional analysis, I made what was for me an amazing discovery: that fear-threats could be classified according to basic life positions. In 1974, the Transactional Analysis Journal (TAJ) published my article entitled Three Pots of Anger, which I later expanded into a book. In preparing this article for The Script, I went back to those TAJs of 1974 and recalled how the early journal articles and, before them, the Transactional Analysis Bulletin that Eric edited, had simple, practical ideas applicable to my therapeutic sessions. Erics insistence on speaking and writing in words that an 8-year-old could understand and his clear analysis of transactions led me to an intensive study of assertive communication. The focus of my practice since Eric said Hello has been to encourage people in two ultimate contracts: in Mary Gouldings words, To come to a compassionate understanding of parents, myself, and others and to move beyond games and gain autonomy through the recovery of awareness, spontaneity, and intimacy.

That was his Hello: an invitation to a meaningful dialogue.

If Eric had never said Hello, I would not so early have experienced a change in my emotional environment. Until then, in groups, I had experienced being shut out. My suggestions went unnoticed. I was used to sitting in a back corner in any group in which I participated. By decision, I began to sit in the front center. My presence became potent. I began to enjoy a transient feeling of OKness and struggled with it until I heard Eric say, OKness has nothing to do with what you do or how you feel. It meant simply, Its OK with me to be me and by the same measure its OK with me for you to be you. If Eric had not said Hello, I would not have had the close acquaintance with other transactional analysis thinkers: Hedges and Betty Capers, Tom Harris, Bob and Mary Goulding, David Kupfer, Ken Ernst, Claude Steiner, and Steve Karpman, who led me to an awareness of the depth of innovative thinking that is basic TA.

Keeping in mind Erics stance, Get them well first; then, its OK to explore what caused their illness, I have learned the value of short-term therapy. Through the years, I have been enriched by the enigmatic words and ideas of Eric Berne and other transactional analysis people. Sometimes, listening to recordings of a session, I hear their voicesEric, Hedges, Claude, Steve, Bob and Maryspeaking through me. Transaction analysis has immeasurably enriched my life and the lives of my friends, family, and clients. Even my dogs! And this all began with Eric knowing what it means to say, Hello. I was a continent away when he said, Goodbye. But I think I know how it would have been, had I been there. He would have given me a hearty handshake because he also knew when, and how, and to whom, to say Good-bye. H. D. Johns can be reached at [email protected] .

Clinical Symposium in Montreal

by Richard Erskine
s promised, and following on the publication in the last Script of pieces about the educational and organizational symposia, we are pleased to offer these reflections on the clinical symposium. At the Montreal conference, Richard Erskine organized a day-long symposium on life scripts for participants in the fields of psychotherapy and counseling. The symposium was structured to present the ideas of several transactional analysis authors featured in a new book edited by Erskine entitled Life Scripts: The Transactional Analysis of Unconscious Relational Patterns

published by Karnac Books. The book is composed of 13 chapters by 14 transactional analysts, each of whom wrote about a different perspective on life scripts. Some of the chapters present a traditional view, others reflect the incorporation of research in child development and neurophysiology, and still others present a radical perspective on life scripts. The purpose of this symposium was to stimulate dialogue among conference participants and to foster the development of concepts and therapeutic practice. The morning began with Erskines opening address on Life Scripts: Definitions and Points of View, which set the stage for the other keynote speeches and the roundtable discussion. Birgitta Heiller gave a keynote speech entitled When TA Script Theory Meets Real Life, in which she challenged the traditional concept of script as inhibiting spontaneity and flexibility, instead presenting the idea that life scripts are a reflection of existential issues that each of us must grapple with during several phases of life. Bill Cornell gave the third keynote speech, entitled ExtraFamilial Influences in Script Formation; he stimulated the audience to think about the influences in script formation and script change from outside of the clients family system. Following the keynote speeches, several of the authors formed a roundtable discussion to reflect on the keynote presentations and to express their ideas about life scripts. The members of the roundtable were Jim Allen, Bill Cornell, Fanita English, Birgitta Heiller, Gloria Noriega, Rosemary Napper, Charlotte Sills, and Ian Stewart.

Participants engage intently in small group discussion during the clinical symposium in Montreal.
After the roundtable discussion, the large audience broke into small discussion groups in which people reflected on the keynote presentations, the roundtable discussion, and the theory and therapy methods of life scripts. By the end of the morning, each group reported the salient points of their discussions to the group as a whole. In the afternoon, each of the roundtable discussants presented a workshop. These included Script Protocol, the Transference/Counter-transference Matrix, and Enactment by Bill Cornell, Script Development and Episcripts by Fanita English, Life Scripts: Unconscious Relational Patterns and Psychotherapeutic Involvement by Richard Erskine, Life Scripts: An Existential Perspective by Birgitta Heiller and Charlotte Sills, Transgenerational Scripts in Action by Gloria Noriega, and Closing Escape Hatches: Myth or Master Move? by Ian Stewart. The symposium on life scripts was very well received by participants. There have been several requests for future symposia in which everyone can participate in a discussion on specific topics of interest to clinical and counseling transactional analysts. It is also possible that the keynote speeches, the roundtable discussion, and the reports of the small discussion groups may be transcribed for a forthcoming issue of the Transactional Analysis Journal.

Upcoming TAJ Theme Issue

Learning from Our Mistakes
Guest Editor: Charlotte Sills Deadline for Manuscripts: 1 January 2011
Please follow the instructions to authors on the inside front cover of any recent issue of the TAJ and email manuscripts to TAJ Managing Editor Robin Fryer, MSW, at [email protected] .

THE SCRIPT

NOVEMBER 2010

ITAA NEWS
Ballot to Fill the Positions of ITAA President, VP of Operations F
ollowing the surprise resignation of our last president, Rosemary Napper, John Heath, Vice President of Operations, according to the bylaws and with the full support of the Board of Trustees (BOT), assumed the job of acting president. The trustees have since been working diligently to address the concerns of members and have taken seriously the motion passed at the annual general membership meeting (AGM): The membership give the Board of Trustees a mandate to do whatever is necessary in order for transactional analysis to thrive as a worldwide movement and report to the membership about what they have done. The current BOT members are working well together and consider continuity in the current team will benefit the ITAA as an organization and, of course, you as members. To this end, we have consulted the ITAA lawyer and ask for your agreement to a one-off waiver of bylaws for John Heath to be elected as president to serve a term from 2010 to 2013. A new president-elect can be elected in time to assume the post in January 2013, taking over from John at the AGM later that year. Thereafter, the election arrangements and sequences would return to normal. Johns election would create a vacancy in the post of vice president of operations. According to bylaw F5, a vacancy in any office for any reason shall be filled by the Board of Trustees for the unexpired portion of the term. In the proposal below, we are asking for your vote to support the BOT in their election of John Heath and their appointment of Vladimir Goussakovski as vice president of operations. The legal wording of the motion is below. Please make sure to cast your vote to be received by the ITAA office by 4 pm on Friday 7 January 2011. Members who have a consent to electronic balloting on file with the ITAA will receive their ballots by email; all others will receive their ballots via regular mail. Steff Oates, ITAA Secretary
Whereas the office of president has become vacant, as is the office of president-elect, and Whereas the board of trustees wish to promote continuity in leadership and operation of the ITAA, and Whereas the board of trustees have been granted broad powers by the members to take necessary action to thrive, and Whereas the board of trustees has appointed John Heath as acting president, and Whereas the board of trustees believe it would be in the best interests of the ITAA and its members to fill the office of president immediately for a term of 3 years ending at the AGM in 2013 and that the office of president-elect be filled by members before January 2013, be it Resolved that the members hereby approve the election of John Heath to serve as president commencing immediately upon the members approval of this resolution and continuing until the AGM of 2013 or until his successor is qualified and elected, and Further resolved that ITAA hold an election for president-elect to take up post no later than January 2013, and Further resolved that the vacancy in the office of vice president operations created by the election of John Heath to the office of president be hereby filled with the appointment of Vladimir Goussakovski, who shall serve as vice president of operations for a term of 2 years until 2012 or until his successor is qualified and elected, and Further resolved that upon election of a president-elect in 2013, the ITAA shall resume following the officer selection procedures as outlined in the ITAA bylaws as may be amended from time to time.

I approve the election of John Heath as president from now until the AGM of 2013 and the appointment of Vladimir Goussakovski as vice president of operations. * Not an official ballotvoting members will be sent their ballots soon. *

Vladimir Goussakovski is a TSTA (psychotherapy), one of the first certified transactional analysts in Russia. He is one of the founders and a former president of the St. Petersburg Institute for TA (SITA), the first Russian TA organization. He presently works in private practice as a psychotherapist and as a trainer and supervisor in different cities of Russia, Ukraine, and the former Soviet states in the Caucasus and Central Asia. He started ongoing TA training in Ukraine and Armenia. He has written for The Script and recently was published in the Transactional Analysis Journal. Vladimir attended the ITAA conferences in Bangalore and Istanbul, MITACs in Zurich, Utrecht, and Edinburgh, and EATA conferences and made presentations. Due to studying TA abroad and his pioneering work to develop TA in new countries, he is well aware of the need for sensitivity to cultural issues.

Nominations Sought for ITAA Awards

he ITAA invites you to consider nominating a worthy recipient for the 2011 Eric Berne Memorial Award (EBMA). The following information and materials must be submitted to the EBMA Committee in care of the ITAA office. All documents must be submitted by email in electronic form (Microsoft Word or Acrobat PDF). 1. Name(s) of author(s) nominated 2. Publication citation: Full reference for journal article, book, or publication in which the contribution being nominated has been published 3. Area of contribution: Specify one of the following categories as the area in which you think the most significant contribution has been made: (a) theory, (b) research, (c) applications, or (d) other areas not covered by these. 4. A brief title for the contribution: For example, the concept in theory, a descriptive title for the research project, the specific practice application, or a title for some other relevant area 5. A nominators statement (1500 words maximum) supporting the nomination as an original and highly signicant contribution to transactional analysis in the designated area. This statement must include discussions of the following: The originality and innovation of the contribution within transactional analysis The relationship to previous work in transactional analysis and related theories or elds of application, including research where applicable Evidence of the impact the contribution has had on the development of the field of transactional analysis

Any other statements about the contribution that need to be considered by the committee in the opinion of the person(s) making the nomination

9. Unpublished material and work published after December 2008 are not eligible for nomination at this point. The deadline for Eric Berne Memorial Award nominations is 1 December 2010. The Hedges Capers Humanitarian Award was established to recognize ITAA members who have made significant, enduring contributions to humanity in keeping with the ideals and ethics of the ITAA. These contributions are primarily seen as activities that promote the welfare of humankind, especially through the alleviation or elimination of pain and suffering. ITAA members who make such contributions often do so at the cost of personal risk and/or sacrifice. The humanitarian activities may form a lifelong pattern or be expressed in a single, widely noted occurrence. The deadline for the Capers Award is 1 January 2011. The Muriel James Living Principles Award honors ITAA members who have advanced the growth of transactional analysis by personal example as well as by contributions of an exceptional and lasting nature. Personal example involves consistently living the principles of transactional analysis, which includes, but is not limited to, clear Adult thinking, joyful creativity, compassionate ethics, and a lack of gaminess in transactions with others. Such a person models egalitarian relationships and promotes an Im OK, Youre OK atmosphere in both professional and personal arenas. The nominee will have demonstrated commitment, concern, and caring for both individuals and the world community and will be active in the international advancement of the principles of transactional analysis either professionally or personally. The deadline for the James Award is 1 January 2011.

The Robert and Mary Goulding Social Justice Award was established by the ITAA Board of Trustees to honor the contributions of Bob and Mary Goulding and other ITAA members who have contributed to others in the world through the application and advancement of redecision theory, therapy, and principles. The Goulding Social Justice Award is designed to recognize individuals whose focus has been the advancement of humankind through utilizing the core principles of redecision theory in their personal and professional lives. These core principles include: self-determination, personal responsibility, direct action, and affirming relationships. Nominees will have contributed, in their own way, by any or many of the following activities: disclosing unfairness, challenging injustice, confronting perpetrators, questioning values that support injustice, enabling understanding and respect, encouraging equalitarian values, and facilitating awareness of institutionalized injustice. The deadline for the Goulding Social Justice Award is 1 January 2011. Any ITAA member may suggest another member for the Capers, James, or Goulding award by submitting in writing a detailed nomination addressed to the vice president of operations. Please submit the nominees name along with a narrative account of the reasons the individual deserves recognition, attaching all relevant documentation. For these awards to be meaningful, we need you to consider who within the ITAA is deserving of the associations highest honors and to let us know. Please submit nominations for any of these awards to the ITAA office. We look forward to hearing from you.

Each nomination needs to be supported by a single nominators statement. If more than one individual is making the nomination, the nominating group will prepare a common statement and select a nominators representative. 6. Individual, group, or organization making the nomination: Please supply the name, address, telephone numbers, fax numbers, and email address of the nominator (or nominators representative) the EBMA committee may contact if additional information or material is required to consider the nomination fully. 7. Copies of the publication(s): One electronic copy of the article(s) or book chapter(s) in which the contribution being nominated appears must accompany the nomination. If the article or book chapter was written in a language other than English, then an English translation must be included, along with the publication(s) in the original language. No more than three articles and/or book chapters can be submitted. 8. Notification of the nominee: It is the responsibility of the person(s) making the nomination for the award to notify the author(s) of his or her intention to do so and to provide him or her with a copy of the written materials submitted to the EBMA Committee. The nominator is to verify to the committee that he or she has done so either by submitting a copy of the letter to the nominee or a statement to that effect. Without this verification, the nomination will not be accepted, except in those instances in which the award would be made posthumously.

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MEMBERS FORUM
Observing the ITAA Board of Trustees
Dear Editor: I was curious. What happens during an ITAA board meeting? How do they deal with the many different tasks, proposals, and suggestions of the community? And how would they response to the difficult situation of the ITAA these days? I visited a board meeting for the first time in Montreal. I knew members are invited to observe, which I think is interesting. When do you have the opportunity to observe management at work? After the conference, I observed the meeting for 2 days. I was impressed with the curiosity and passion the board members demonstrated as they went over the tablecloth posters on which we wrote our ideas for the future of the ITAA during the World Caf on Saturday. Ideas from us were embraced and discussed intensively to create a guideline (or a vision) for the coming years. After that there was a lot of work to do to make structural or financial decisions. Our board of trustees has taken on a big responsibilityto help us to make progress with transactional analysis and to establish a structure for us that can serve as a secure base. Conferences offer a meeting point where we can connect and share. But the ITAA might be more: A community that is stable and powerful enough to spread transactional analysis as a valuable theory to help people grow in their professional contexts. I want to thank the board for their commitment and engagement. Your work is impressive. Thorsten Geck, Hamburg, Germany ITAA, so I limit my reflections to the qualitative observations Ive made in discussions with friends and colleagues. In my country, Italy, young trainees dont usually join the ITAA; some become interested after the CTA exam, and interest grows for those who decide to become PTSTAs (my trainees usually join after the TEW). I find a similar situation elsewhere in Europe: Colleagues who join the ITAA usually have more advanced certification, often know English, are involved with the international flavor of transactional analysis, are interested in the scientific literature, and have developed a deep sense of belonging to our community. This may be one reason why the mean age of the association is high: Such a professional profile is usually reached after a number of years of education and training. For these reasons, we can realistically imagine a potential membership reservoir of between 800 and 1200 people out of the 10,000 to 12,000 TA practitioners who belong to TA associations worldwide. It does not look realistic (a matter of an ideal self?) to expect a significant increase of the membership: We are already a lot! The reasons colleagues uniformly give for joining the association are: 1. Affective reasons: Being a member means belonging to and enjoying the internationalism of the association, which is deeply rooted in the history and tradition of TA. 2. Publications: The TAJ and The Script are cornerstones for the continuous education and the best practice of transactional analysts. 3. Conferences. These three aspects overlap, for example, publications and conferences are the main way to maintain and reinforce the sense of belonging. These reasons are also, more or less, the same ones that connect professionals to other scientific associations: belonging to a community, scientific literature, and conferences. So, where is the problem? It seems to be mainly financial and connected with the ideal self. None of the other scientific societies to which I belong has as heavy and expensive an administrative structure as we have in the ITAA. The typical organization for professional and scientific associations these days has no office and no full-time employees. The association budget is focused on the publications and the Web site (70-90% of the budget). A minor part of the budget (10-30%) is for administration (travel and meeting of the trustees and the president, etc.). Conferences are usually self-financing. I think the ITAAs current administrative and cost structure is not related to its real self, but to an ideal one, probably coming for the past. Creating a lighter structure consistent with our real self the self of a lively scientific societyshould bring us to a balanced budget. If we accept (and enjoy) what we area healthy association of 1000+ members whose services are appreciated and for which there is an existing marketand concentrate on answering real needs, the future will develop successfully. In conclusion, the real self of the ITAA is good, and it is a pleasure to belong to such a lively association. I believe the current board of trustees understands the points I have articulated here and is moving forward with realistic and intelligent plans to stabilize the ITAAs finances. When our present and our real self are respected, honored, and protected by a balanced budget, then we can imagine our future, following our needs and creativity, as we experienced doing together in Montreal. There is no reason to think that we are in crisis, if we accept, respect, and enjoy what we already are. Marco Mazzetti, Milan, Italy

Possible Ways Ahead for the ITAA

The ITAA has been part of my life since 1969. I joined in response to an invitation from Eric Berne, to whom I had written asking for more information on TA than I had been able to find after reading all his available books. Within 4 years, I was training in the United States and participating in the vibrancy of what I experienced as a lively, liberating, innovative community of people intent on understanding themselves and others, sharing their understanding, and concentrating on helping people with their personal problems. Those were very exciting times, and the ITAA was a background structure providing training, conferences, and networking options. Where we are today seems very different. For geographical reasons (its a long way to Australia) and until very recently from choice, I have not kept up to date with what was going on organizationally, except briefly through Robin Maslen when he was president. More recently, I have participated occasionally in the ITAA Forum. As a result of this underexposure, I may have inaccurate perceptions of what is going on. Nevertheless, I hope my views will contribute to strengthening the ITAA. In my early days as a member, 1969 to 1975, what worked to hold us together were shared interests, mutual respect, a sense of common purpose, infectious excitement about the developments we were making, and more. Yes, there were certainly some tensions; however, in the early days, these were not sufficiently intense to disturb our overall cohesiveness. Also, there was an obvious attempt by most people, including the leaders of the various schools, to stay game free and, in their relationships with each other, to model what they were teaching. These days, by contrast, there seems to me, given my partial information, to be fragmentation between schools, with some people marking out the value of their approaches by highlighting differences (or faults) between theirs and others. I find this disturbing. Like many others, my early experience of TA was wonderful and life changing. I had the good fortune in my training to have Jacqui Schiff and Bob and Mary Goulding as my Teaching Member sponsors. Back in those days, there were tensions between some people in those two schools (notably Jacqui and Bob and Mary), significantly fanned by Jacquis penchant for stirring things up. Even so, I always saw and valued the contribution the redecision and Cathexis school each made and marveled at the power that arose from integrating them. Also, I had trained myself in Bernean TA from Eric Bernes books before getting to the United States. This made classical TA my foundation, which it still partly is. After a great deal of exposure to many senior TA people during my training, I found no conflict continued on page 6

2011 WORLD TA CONFERENCE

A Present and a Future for the ITAA

Dear Editor: During the stimulating conference in Montreal, transactional analysts had the chance to reflect on the future of our association. Id like to add some reflections about our present. I have often perceived a kind of depressive mood about the state of the ITAA, and Im wondering if it might be related to a discount of our present. Often Ive heard about what we can, or must, become and complaints that we are in a bad financial situation, we are not enough, or not what we have to be. One way to describe depression is to focus on the gap between the ideal self and the real self, and I wonder if the depressive mood around the ITAA could be due to the fact that our community is facing an unrealistic ideal self. So, I wish to reframe what the ITAA is by exploring our real self, what we are now. First of all, we are a worldwide association of around 1000 members! That is an enormous number of people who every year pay a significant amount of money to be part of this community. Second, we have significant and strong attractions: The July 2010 Script reported 46 new members in only 3 months (February to April 2010). To me these are tremendous successes that can be discounted only if we compare the present membership with what was happening in other times, many years ago in quite a different situation. A membership of 1000 people is larger than any other scientific or professional association to which I belong: especially since, while its official language is English, most of the members are not native English speakers. Almost 300 people participated to the Montreal Conference, which is between a fourth and a third of the whole association. Both of these are signs of involvement and success. I couldnt find figures related to the regional origin or the certification status of the members of

Bilbao, Spain
7-9 July 2011
Training Endorsement Workshop: 2-4 July Exams: 5-6 July ITAA Board Meetings: Mon. & Tues. 4-5 July and the morning of Sun. 10 July

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Dear Colleagues: The Challenge of Growth is the theme of our next World Conference organized by EATA, ITAA, and WPTA with the Spanish Association APPHAT. It will be held in Bilbao at the Deusto University from 7-9 July 2011. We will be pleased to receive your proposals for sharing your knowledge and your ideas about transactional analysis application and theories. You can submit your workshop or presentation proposals to the email address [email protected] , and you can download the forms and other relevant information about the conference from the conference Web site at www.TAbilbao2011AT.com .

DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: 10 DECEMBER 2010

We are looking forward to meeting you in Bilbao next July and to creating together an exciting conference in a collegial atmosphere. Amaia Mauriz Etxabe, Bilbao Conference Chair Thorsten Geck, Scientific Committee

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Forum
continued from page 5
between them or their rich variety of approaches. Consistent with this, most of my articles in the TAJ include significant emphasis on integrating concepts and approaches within TA and between TA and other systems. I know I am not alone in this interest. Turning to the present and the future, my hope is that everyone who perceives there to be a divide between their preferred approach and those of others will investigate the common ground between them all. By doing this, we can more easily discover how each can contribute to or complement other systems. We dont need to stand on the corpses of peoples different points of view in order for us to be right. In a world awash in many places with contention and aggression between points of view, I would like all transactional analysts to model how to resolve conflicts with good will, mutual respect, cooperation, and grace. It is deeply disappointing to me to have witnessed the frequent tone and flavor of some past debates as, it seemed to me, they not infrequently descended into something much less than this. As transactional analysts, we have many tools to help us stay clear with each other. Lets all use them. I can think of two things that might help. First, notice how different people often require interventions that are especially suited to them. One system doesnt suit all. Who does your system suit best? Second, different contexts lend themselves more to some general approaches and interventions than others. Think of the different requirements of long- and short-term programs. When thinking about the future of the ITAA, it also seems obvious to me that we need to adapt to the world of today. Things work differently

these days, and to contribute what we can, we need to align ourselves with those differences. If we dont, then well miss, maybe even alienate, the new generations of people who are operating on different priorities, interests, ways of learning, and ways of communicating. And we run the risk of becoming completely irrelevant when what we know is still so important. From the beginning, the talent of TA people has been obvious. Just think of the storm of insight and all the new developments that came from TAs early and later years. These are nothing short of astounding. And using them, we have helped change the world. What wonderful richness we had and still have available! And we have ample reason to stroke all appearances of talent, creativity, and originalityeven if its not our own. Maybe remembering this before we start talking about the contentious issues to do with the ITAA will help. I think we will do better to spend much more time concentrating on where we agree and what is working. By doing so, we may more easily adopt an orientation in which identifying a need for change and recognizing differences are both understood as processes that build on our great strengths rather than as ways of revealing flaws or weaknesses. Lets also seek and find people who are doing things well and learn from them. For example, a large number of TA organizations around the world are successful. If it hasnt been done before, maybe a survey to identify what works well in them, as well as in the ITAA, would help guide us to ways of doing things that cope with the challenges the ITAA currently faces. At the same time, I would like to see the ITAA open up considerably to become much more a hub or distribution point for information than it has been, to provide easy access to knowledge, skill, and experience. I would like it to be an exemplar of openness, cooperation, affirmation, direct dealing, generosity of spirit and resources, sharing

among equals, support rather than control, and a real powerhouse of availability (personal, professional, situational, educational, and other). I think those parts of the modern world that are functioning well are like this these day. And the younger generations respond well to the approach. Far from losing anything by opening up, my experience has shown that everything grows stronger, more alive, and richer. So I hope we take the possible risks of opening up in order to promote the fulfilment of the desires of all ITAA members who wish to share what we have learned that make peoples lives richer, happier, and more fulfilling. What we put out, well get back. What we are getting back now is what we have already put out. Useful and salutary lessons for us all. Ken Mellor, Seymour, Victoria, Australia

REFERENCE Grof, S, with Bennett, H. Z. (1993). The holotropic mind: The three levels of consciousness and how they shape our lives. New York: HarperCollins.

New Path to TSTA

Hello: I am writing regarding Maurice Vaughans article entitled Developing a New Pathway to TSTA in the July 2010 Script. Well said. Much needed. There are several persons here in Halifax who would be TSTAs now if the pathway were less arduous. Four of our colleagues attended a TEW years ago. Two are still actively teaching, and they are very good at it. One of those is still pursuing the TSTA, slowly, because of the difficulty of fitting the requirements into her life. And there is my husband, Curtis Steele, who decided not to pursue the TSTA soon after he became a PTSTA because, as a psychiatrist with numerous other credentials and lots to do, he could not justify doing so much more. I also want to raise, again, what I perceive as the need to make the CTA credential more accessible to persons who are already qualified, and practicing, in their professional fields. We have trained many, many excellent therapists who have declined to go further with ITAA because they would have to invest so much additional time and money for certification. In jurisdictions where a TA credential is accepted as a basis for licensure, without other bases, extensive and intensive requirements make sense. Otherwise, they are a barrier, and I believe they have been a major reason why, in North America, ITAA has not grown and, in fact, has seriously declined. Nancy Porter-Steele, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Logosynthesis and Protocol

Dear Editor: Thanks for the excellent May-June issue of The Script. I appreciate the numerous thoughtful articles. I offer a comment relevant to one small part of one of them. In writing about Bill Cornells work, on page 7, the authors say Protocol, again unlike script, can . . . only be brought into awareness, understood, and lived within. I am happy to report that there is another way, and it is very effective. That is Logosynthesis, developed by Willem Lammers, TSTA. At the master class in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the autumn of 2009, he taught the application of Logosynthesis to basic perinatal matrices (Grof, 1993). This method results in freeing the person from protocol. Mary Goodman and Trish North taught Logosynthesis in Lima, Peru. Curtis Steele and I presented briefly on it in New Orleans in 2009. I recommend it highly to all therapists. Nancy Porter-Steele, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Life with Father

continued from page 1
photographer Edward Weston, and my father often took us kids there for an afternoon hike. We could look down on the small bays filled with giant kelp and spot a variety of sea birds, seals, sea lions, and otters as well as the occasional whale making its way south on its yearly migration from the cold waters of Alaska to the warm inlets of Baja California in Mexico. Those walks instilled in me a lifelong love of nature, in particular sea life. My father died the summer I turned 15, and I was taking a summer course in marine biology at the local high school when I received the news. I had two large aquariums at home stocked with creatures such as sea anemones, sea urchins, starfish, and abalone that we had collected among the tide pools of Carmel and Pacific Grove, incredible ecological niches unequaled anywhere else in the world for the variety and abundance of sea life they contain. Despite the fact that Dad was what is informally known as a workaholic, I never felt he lacked time to spend with his kids. My father helped me conceive, refine, and carry out two long-term experiments involving my aquariums, specifically my favorite specimen, a brilliant red starfish named Abe. Dad was actively involved in every phase of the experiment, as we trained Abe through conditioned reflexes to respond to light and changes in the water level of the aquariums that mimicked local ocean tides. He led me to solutions that I never would have discovered on my own. There always seemed to be science magazines about the house, such as Sea Frontiers and Science, and product catalogues such as those from Canadas own Edmunds Scientific Supplies, from which we made frequent purchases, including an awesome oil-immersion

microscope more suited to a professional science lab than the desk of a preadolescent kid. Dad also spent many hours with me poring over a magazine I subscribed to that came with a series of prepared microscope slides featuring anatomical samples, single-celled plants and animals such as amoebas and hydras, and natural phenomenon of every type and description. Science was his veritable passion, further confirmed by the telescope he kept in his study, which we regularly hauled out on clear nights to gaze at the full moon or planets such as Venus, a ritual repeated throughout our childhood. I should mention here that our mother, Dorothy, contributed to this focus on nature through her love of birds. There was a small bookshelf filled with birding books (including classics such as Audubon and Peterson) in the breakfast room, and a pair of binoculars was never out of reach, so that even as children we could identify almost any bird that chanced to alight on one of the many bird feeders distributed throughout the garden. Dad was determined to teach me both chess and algebra, neither of which Ive ever mastered, not despite his efforts but because of them, Im convinced. I was a poor student of anything to do with mathematical thinking, and this frustrated him to no end. I dreaded our weekly algebra sessions out in his study, where he would write out the complicated formulas on the same blackboard he used to work out ego state transactions. I just never got a hold on the logic he was trying so hard to instill, but he wouldnt give up, and he was already pushing me toward calculus while I was still floundering with basic algebra. My incapacity in this area was probably my major childhood trauma in relation to my father. Chess, however, came a close second. He questioned my every move and expected real progress, which never materialized. I did finally learn to play acceptably at an intermediate level, but mostly on instinct and from a desire to please Dad. These lessons, algebra and chess, were practically the

only time we really clashed, and whatever intelligence and enthusiasm I displayed in other scientific or intellectual pursuits was negatively compensated for on those dreaded evenings. Poker, of course, was his real game, and a regular ritual for many years. Even as a child I was aware of its symbolic role as a metaphor for life, something it took me years to really understand. But its only real consequence for me was that if Dad was in an especially good mood the morning after a game, then we knew he had won. He usually gave us a bit of money from his winnings or took us to the wharf to buy some fresh crab for dinner. Although we were by no means religious (Ive never been inside a synagogue except on a visit to the famous medieval one in Toledo, Spain), we were taught to believe in an omniscient God and dutifully said our prayers in Hebrew every night before sleeping. I often asked the normal questions, such as how could God be aware of everything at once, and my father did his best to explain the meaning of Shema Ysreal adonai eloheinu adonai echad. The vague concept of a higher being watching over me and knowing my every thought definitely haunted my childhood, but not overly so. Dad also frequently read verses from the Old Testament (from a King James Bible) at the table before beginning dinner. But that was the extent of our religious teaching. We celebrated traditional Christmas, though we did light candles on a small Menorah as well. So any profound identification with Jewishness would come later and was mainly a cultural awareness rather than a religious one. There were full shelves of books in nearly every room of the Carmel house as well as in Erics study in the back garden. There was no apparent order; instead, there was a an incredible variety of titles of every sort, tending toward the obscure, and many of the books would not have been out of place in some imaginary library described by the fabulist Jorge Luis Borges. Perhaps most

prominent were the myriad travel books, many of them old, dusty, and of an antiquated typography difficult to decipher. In Kurt Vonneguts Life Magazine review of Games People Play, published in 1965, he says that Dads favorite books were James Baillie Frasers 1828 translation of the Persian adventure story called the Kuzzilbash and Dawn Ginsberghs Revenge by the American Jewish comic writer S. J. Perleman, who wrote several of the Marx Brothers movies. But I remember that his favorite novels, at least, were The Brothers Karamozov and Stendhals The Charterhouse of Parma. This makes sense, both for the profound moralism of the Dostoyevsky and the biting irony of Stendhals depiction of Napoleons occupation of Italy. There was a 30volume set of Burtons rendition of the 1001 and One Nights, Mungo Parks account of his African journeys, and countless other narratives of travels to the Near and Far East, the South Pacific Islands, Antarctica, Turkestan, and other then exotic destinations. There were, of course, many books by Freud, and numerous art books, both of individual artists such as Giotto and Goya, and anthologies of great collections. (Dads favorite painting was Botticellis The Birth of Venus.) Among his papers we found a response from Gertrude Stein to a letter from one Lennard Bernstein Gandalac, Esquire, dated 1932, when he was a student at McGill. Apparently, he had sent her an early monograph, as yet unidentified, along with various questions about her writing and her undergraduate psychology studies with William James, which she happily answered in her inimitable style. Back to the beach. Carmels beaches are a marvel, a mixture of pristine white sand and rocky shore. One of the great privileges of living in Carmel was daily contact with the sea in such a spectacular setting, which had attracted artists

continued on page 7

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LIfe with Father

continued from page 6
and writers ever since its streets were laid out at the end of the nineteenth century. These included, at one time or another, Mary Austin, Jack London, Robinson Jeffers, Sinclair Lewis, and the photographers Edward Weston and Ansel Adams. Robert Louis Stevenson even spent a few feverish weeks in Monterey on his way to the South Seas. Eric was an assiduous beach goer, and one of these, at the foot of Valley View, was known around town as Erics Beach; we called it, simply, Dads Beach. This is where he would go several times a week to hobnob with what he called the gang, a ragtag group of fellow Carmelites and beach habitus. Erics routine consisted of a short jog along the beach (preceded by a few brief exercises) followed by a short swim in the frigid waters of Carmel Bay. One rather eccentric habit always attracted some attention: He possessed a heavy-duty metal sea thermometer attached to a long tether, which he would toss far out into the waves, letting it sink slowly down amidst the tumbling water, then draw it back in again after a few minutes to take a temperature reading. Invariably far too chilly for most people, at least in winter, Eric almost always dove in despite water temperatures in the upper 40s and low 50s, swimming out as far as the rocks that jutted out into the small bay. Dad was at his most relaxed and cheerful while among his friends at the beach, catching up on local news and exchanging jokes with the small group of regulars. We often built fires with the abundant driftwood washed on shore by storms (this is no longer allowed), and at night on the 4th of July (Independence Day), hundreds of bonfires were lit up and down the beach, while the skies above erupted with fireworks. Just down the coast from Carmel is Big Sur and the spectacular central California coast. We often took family outings down the coast, accompanied by Rick and my half-siblings Janice and Robin, to look for jade among the coves and rocky beaches, or more frequently, to eat at Napenthe, a sprawling and dramatic restaurant perched on the cliffs high above the sea and a well-known Central Coast landmark with dramatic views of the surrounding hills and out over the Pacific Ocean. Nearby was the Esalen Institute, pioneering headquarters of the human potential movement. I went there with Dad when I was a kid. It was there that he met Fritz Perls. The only thing I remember about our visit is the rarefied atmosphere of the hot tubs that seemed to hang over the cliffs far above the crashing waves and both my awe and shyness at the naked and half-naked people soaking their bodies in the steaming water beneath the summer sun. This was the mid-1960s, after all. I recall that my father had misgivings about the activities at Esalen, as he felt strongly that there should be no physical shenanigans between patients and each other or between patients and therapist. When I was 12, my brother Rick and I accompanied Dad on a trip to Hawaii to meet with Gregory

Bateson, the famous anthropologist, psychologist, and pioneer of cybernetics, whose ideas found an echo in Dads ideas on game theory and intuition. Bateson, at that time, was director of the Oceanic Institute near Honolulu, where he was studying porpoise communication. We spent an afternoon with him at the oceanarium, and he invited us to dinner at what I recall as a spectacular house with an enormous fireplace in the middle of the pleinair living room. He later dedicated a lecture to Eric at the inauguration of the Congress for Social Psychotherapy at the Southeast Institute in 1977, where he recalled that Eric was one of the few people he had met who knew ancient Greekand not just in the sense of having memorized the declinations and other grammatical details taught at good schools in those daysand could really use ancient Greek texts as a source of information and reference. Eric spoke several languages and was familiar with many more; his study had an entire shelf lined with US Army language guides that he used on his travels, especially when researching the incidence and treatment of mental health in nonWestern societies throughout the world. He traveled extensively from the 1930s right on into the 1960svisiting hospitals in cities and rural areas all over Asia, the South Pacific, islands such as Fiji and Tahiti, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, India, Eastern Europe, Syria, and Turkeyand wrote extensively about his findings. After his death we found boxes and boxes of his written communications with mental health officers all over the world (complete with original envelopes and stamps!), who provided him with figures and statistics about psychiatric disorders and their treatment, including the number of doctors, type of installations, budgets, the number of beds, the number and gender of patients, types of disorders, local superstitions or beliefs related to mental health, methods of treatment, attitudes toward modern psychological theories and techniques, and so on. All these papers now reside in the Eric Berne Archive at the University of California, San Francisco. An interesting outcome of this research was that he suffered persecution during the McCarthy era because of his travels. In the late 1940s he was investigated by the Select Committee on unAmerican Activities, which was the precursor to the McCarthy investigations. He lost his government job as Psychiatric Consultant to the US Army because he was deemed a security risk. He was interrogated over a period of several years, had his passport rescinded, and had to justify his reasons for visiting such countries as Turkey, Russia, Hungary, and numerous others where he had traveled while investigating the cultural differences in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses. He had also signed a petition circulated by a group of prominent scientists calling for the US government to stop politicizing scientific research by pressuring public and private research foundations to cease offering financial support to scientists whom the government deemed too liberal. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) went so far as to request a detailed list of all the maps in his possession. There was a public trial in San Francisco where my father had to wear a paper bag over his head in order to protect his identity and where he was referred to only as Doctor X in order not to completely ruin his reputation. But in reality my father was, if anything, anticommunist. When I was 12 I accompanied him, along with my half-sister Ellen and half-brother Peter, on a trip to Bulgaria where Dad was attending a congress. I had expressed my admiration for the order, cleanliness, and friendliness we experienced while crossing the country by car from Sophia to the Black Sea. He admonished me and told me to look more closely; he explained how Marxist theory was great on paper but went completely against every psychological instinct of real human beings. He then pointed out that we were being followed everywhere we went. Another anecdote related to the Cold War, which illustrates the extent to which Americas postwar prosperity and optimism were pervaded with fear and paranoia, is the story, now somewhat comi-

cal, of how one day in the fall of 1962 Dad called us all out into the back garden and handed us shovels. We were to begin digging a bomb shelter for the family to take refuge in should nuclear war with Russia break out over their placement of nuclear warheads in Cuba. And we actually did begin digging. Im not sure to what degree our activity was tinged with irony, but the widespread apprehension was reinforced at school by drills in which we were all to leap under our desks in the event of an attack by missiles carrying nuclear warheads. Im not sure how much protection my rickety desk would have offered against hydrogen bombs, but I suppose it was better than nothing. At any rate, we only abandoned work on the by now large chasm in the garden several days later when Russia agreed to remove its missiles from Cuba and the threat of total war diminished. Dads study had been turned into a storehouse for emergency items, such as flashlights, batteries, toothbrushes, toilet paper, and canned goods. These things remained in their drawers, lined with aluminum foil, for the next 30 years. Another use to which we put the back garden was perhaps the principal monthly ritual of our childhood: burning the brush and accumulated trash from the garden. This was, seemingly, to my young eyes at least, my fathers favorite activity and always a cause for enjoyment. Our garden was large enough for an entire area to be devoted exclusively to this sacrament. There was a heap of brush culled from the regular weeding of the garden and trimming of the trees and next to it an actual incinerator, a small concrete structure, slightly pyramidal, where paper and other combustible trash was burned. Tending both the pile and the incinerator was a morning-long labor of love that required careful tending and stirring; it offered hours of tranquil conversation with our father on a given Saturday or Sunday before lunch. When I think about it now, I can only be amazed that Eric was able to accomplish all that he accomplished given these frequent leisurely weekends spent tending the fires or going to the

beach. But these hours stirring the smoldering brush and discussing a myriad of things remain among the most emblematic memories of my childhood, and especially of life with Father. Id like to add a few details that might lead to a better understanding of his personality: 1. He loved jazz, and I remember one record especially that he always enjoyed playing for us: it was by the West Coast drummer Shelley Mann and was highly percussive, a style that enjoyed a certain vogue at the beginning of the 1960s. 2. He always carried a small, pocket-sized inflatable life preserver with him whenever he flew. It was so old and grubby that I doubt it ever could have worked if the necessity had arisen. 3. One of his favorite sayings was: There are no bones in ice-cream. 4. One of his favorite jokes was: Instant water: just add coffee Thank you.

TAJ Editorial Board Members Sought

The TAJ is seeking new additions to the editorial board beginning 1 January 2011.There are seven openings, as usual, for the next term, 20112013, and one opening to fill a vacancy for the term 2011-2012. If you are interested in being considered for one of these positions, please email your name, country, and a brief statement about your areas of interest/expertise and your experience in writing and/or editing to TAJ Managing Editor robinfryer@ aol.com by 1 December.

EXAM CALENDAR
Exam CTA Exams Exam Adm. Exam Date Location App. Deadline WPATA . . . . . . 11 Nov 2010 . . . . . . Fremantle, Australia . . . . . . 11 Aug 2010 COC . . . . . . . . 11-12 Nov 2010 . . . Rsrath, Germany . . . . . . . . 11 Aug 2010 COC . . . . . . . . 11-12 Nov 2010 . . . Paris, France . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Aug 2010 COC . . . . . . . . 2-3 Dec 2010 . . . . . Milan, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Sept 2010 BOC. . . . . . . . . 7 Jan 2011 . . . . . . . . Bangalore, India . . . . . . . . . . 7 Oct 2010 COC . . . . . . . . 27-28 Apr 2011 . . . . Daventry, UK. . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Jan 2011 COC . . . . . . . . 14-15 Apr 2011 . . . . Belgrade, Serbia. . . . . . . . . . 14 Jan 2011 COC . . . . . . . . 5-6 Jul 2011 . . . . . . . Bilbao, Spain. . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Apr 2011 COC . . . . . . . . 10-11 Nov 2011 . . . Louvain-la-Neuve, Belg . . . . 10 Aug 2011 COC . . . . . . . . 17-18 Nov 2011 . . . Neustadt, Weinstr., Ger . . . 17 Aug 2011 COC COC COC COC COC COC . . . . . . . . 11-12 Nov 2010 . . . Rsrath, Germany . . . . . . . . 11 Aug 2010 . . . . . . . . 11-12 Nov 2010 . . . Paris, France . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Aug 2010 . . . . . . . . 27-28 Apr 2011 . . . . Daventry, UK. . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Jan 2011 . . . . . . . . 5-6 Jul 2011 . . . . . . . Bilbao, Spain. . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Apr 2011 . . . . . . . . 10-11 Nov 2011 . . . Louvain-la-Neuve, Belg . . . . 10 Aug 2011 . . . . . . . . 17-18 Nov 2011 . . . Neustadt/Weinstr., Ger. . . . 17 Aug 2011

TSTA Exams

CTA Written TEW

All Regions. . . . Your choice . . . . . . . Submit to Regional Exam . . Your choice (Non-Europe) Coordinator after paying $50 fee to T&C Council WPATA . . . . . . 14-16 Nov 2010 . . . Fremantle, Australia . . . . . . 13 Jul 2010 EATA . . . . . . . . 4-6 Apr 2011 . . . . . . Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Dec 2010 EATA . . . . . . . . 2-4 Jul 2011 . . . . . . . Bilbao, Spain. . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Mar 2011 EATA . . . . . . . . 1-3 Dec 2010 . . . . . Barcelona, Spain . . . . . . . . . 1 Jul 2010 EATA . . . . . . . . 5-7 Dec 2010 . . . . . Barcelona, Spain . . . . . . . . . 1 Jul 2010

TA CONFERENCES WORLDWIDE
10-14 NOVEMBER 2010: Fremantle, Australia. 20th WPATA Conference. Contact: Linda Gregory at [email protected] or www.wpata.com.au . 5-12 JANUARY 2011: Frenchmans Cove, Port Antonio, Jamaica. Fifteenth USATAA Winter Gathering. Contact: Dianne Maki, [email protected] ; phone: 908-2341873. 7-9 JULY 2011: Bilbao, Spain. Major International TA Conference sponsored by EATA/ITAA/WPATA. Contact: Amaia Mauriz Etxabe at [email protected] .

TEvW TPW

* COC CTA exam candidates who are doing the COC written case study must submit it no later than six months before the oral exam date. Details/application available from the COC Language Group Coordinators. Note: Exams subject to availability of examiners/exam supervisors. BOC not responsible for expenses incurred when unavailability of examiners/exam supervisors causes exams to be canceled or postponed. To be an examiner for an ITAA/BOC exam, examiners must be at least a CTA for a CTA exam or a TSTA for a TSTA exam. To arrange to take a BOC exam, contact the T&C Council, 2186 Rheem Dr., #B-1, Pleasanton, CA 94558-2775, USA. Note: COC people sitting for BOC exams must forward the equivalent of the EATA fee to the T&C Council office. To arrange to take a COC exam, contact your EATA Language Coordinator. Check with the EATA office or the EATA News for the name of the appropriate Language Group Coordinator. TSC Training Endorsement Workshop fee: $450 ITAA members/$600 non-ITAA members payable in US dollars to T&C Council, c/o the T & C Council office, 2186 Rheem Dr., #B-1, Pleasanton, CA 94558-2775, USA. COC Training Endorsement Workshop: to take a COC TEW, contact the European TEW Coordinator, c/o the EATA office.

THE SCRIPT

NOVEMBER 2010

KEEPING
C. Suriyaprakash, ITAA Vice President of Research and Innovation, writes, Im pleased to share my joy at having been successfully conferred the degree of doctor of philosophy in management by the Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, India. The title of my thesis was Transactional Analysis of Transformational Leadership: Relationship between Personality of Leaders and Members, Leadership Style and Leadership Outcomes. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first attempt at using a transactional-analysis-based model of personality in transformational leadership research. I used the ego state and life-position-based behavior modes for my study. The findings were interesting and significant in establishing the relevance of transactional analysis as a model of personality to discover personality antecedents of transformational leadership behaviors. I thank all my friends and colleagues in the ITAA for their continuous support and encouragement. My thanks also to the Eric Berne Fund for the Future, which partially funded this research in its initial years. I look forward to publishing my research in the Transactional Analysis Journal at the earliest possibility and also to undertaking further research based on transactional analysis models and leadership. Suriya is also Professor at the Jansons School of Business, facilitator at Relations Institute of Development, and secretary of Asha Counselling and Training Services. Congratulations, Suriya! Attila Vandra was honored by the Asociatia Romana de Analiza Tranzactionala (Romanian Transactional Analysis Association) (ARAT) in November 2009 with their annual scientific award for his article entitled Mechanisms for Transmission of Ulterior Transactions published in the January 2009 Transactional Analysis Journal. Attila is the first Romanian to have published in the TAJ, so the community wanted to reward his effort and initiative. It was for the first time in the history of the association that someone received this award. The award was given as part of a special ceremony on the occasion of the third national conference organized in Bucharest by ARAT. The title of the event was Transference and Countertransference, and it took place from 27-29 November 2009. Important people in the international TA community agreed to take part in the conference, including Bill Cornell, Mick Landaiche, Birgitta Heiller, Roger Day, Helene Cadot, and Mario Salvador. In his acceptance speech, Attila gave a touching summary of his life before and after coming across transactional anal-

IN

TOUCH
John Gladfelter was honored with the first USA TA Association John H. Gladfelter Life Values Award. This award is given one or more times annually to a person or persons for significantly contributing to ones community or environment utilizing the life values of transactional analysis. In his remarks on accepting the award on Johns behalf, Jim Wrightsman wrote, John is and has been a mentor to hundreds of transactional analysts and group psychotherapists. He has lived, walked, talked, and, more importantly, taught the values of TA in every community that he represented. All of these environments were enhanced by his contributions. Felipe Garcia was honored with the first USATAA Felipe N. Garcia History Award. This award is given once or twice a year to a person or persons for significant contribution to the founding or continuing history of the USATAA organization using the Im OK, Youre OK collaboration model. In her remarks on presenting the award, Lucy Freeman said, I want to recognize the special qualities with which Felipe has graced the association from the start. He is a visionary. His dedication to equality, inclusion, and a cooperative structure informed the design of the organization with coordinators and regional representatives rather than traditional hierarchical roles. Felipe continues to remind us to include and empower the members in all of our decisions. Our thanks to USATAA for the information on the M&M, Gladfelter, and Garcia awards.

In Memoriam
Lucia Gib Tukumura passed away in Lima, Peru, on 9 June of 2010. Lucia was an enthusiastic transactional analysis psychologist and psychotherapist. Those of you who came to the Lima conference in August 2009 may remember her leading a Biodance group with much love and joy at the closing ceremony. She was a young Peruvian woman with Japanese ancestors. Lucia was a clinical psychologist and an efficient psychotherapist very much committed to her patients and the practice of transactional analysis. She was a Teaching Member of the Latin America Transactional Analysis Association (ALAT) and was under contract to become an ITAA Certified Transactional Analyst, almost finishing her written exam. Lucia is survived by Kiome, her 16-year-old daughter; her mother, sister, and nephew; and many patients, TA students, friends, and colleagues. Lucia, along with Angela Melgar and Maritza Calocero, directed the DES-KUBRIR Institute in Lima. Our dearest Lucia rests peacefully. (Our thanks to Gloria Noriega for this note.)

quickly became what was then called a Clinical Member and a Provisional Teaching Member; soon she would become a Teaching Member, what we now call Certified Transactional Analyst and Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst. For ITAA she since has been chair and member of many certifying exam boards. In the early 1980s she was the chair of the social action committee, a member of the training standards committee, and a member of both the Board of Certification and the ITAA Board of Trustees. For USATAA Val was the Midwest Region Coordinator from 1994 to 1997. Then she served as general coordinator from 1996 to 1999. For that she received the 1999 M & M Award for Outstanding Service. She was a director at large for training for the coordinating council from 2001-2006 and was instrumental in the development of the Transactional Analysis Practitioner (TAP) training program and in obtaining USATAAs ability to give continuing education credits to psychologists, licensed counselors, and social workers. Val was the councils coordinator for education for 2008 and 2009. Presently she is full professor and professor emeritus at Indiana University School of Social Work in Indianapolis, Indiana. She has received many honors and awards, including the Indiana University Presidents Award for Teaching Excellence in 2000 and the Trustee Teaching Award in 2004. Valerie has published prolifically within and outside of transactional analysis circles. We are proud to have her as one of our own and congratulate her on becoming the 2010 Indiana Social Worker of the Year. (Our thanks to Chuck Holland for this report.) Fanita English was honored with the 2009 USATAA M & M Award during the Mary Goulding Memorial Redecision/TA Conference in New Orleans in November 2009. The award, for outstanding leadership in transactional analysis, is presented annually to persons who give leadership to USATAA in the spirit of Muriel James and Mary Goulding. Fanita was given the award for her work over many years on behalf of the USATAA, including serving as an ad hoc member of the USATAA Council, hosting the councils annual retreat since 2004, and actively participating in the teaching and design of the TA Practitioner training.

ysis, closing with a memorable expression: I used the Dont Succeed injunction at its maximum potential, in that I didnt succeed in not succeeding. (Our thanks to Diana Deaconu and Viorel Ciocan for this report.) Val Chang, PhD, TSTA, was recently chosen Social Worker of the Year for Indiana. Nominees were social workers who demonstrated programs of advocacy for clients and/or the social work profession. All nominees enlisted public support for improved human services and had leadership qualities that effectively integrated experience with education personally and professionally. Each showed a willingness to take risks for improved social services and social issues and had capacities to contribute to the publics knowledge of social work. Val passed her ITAA oral exam in 1975 and

Soo Hee Oh, having successfully completed the Training Endorsement Workshop in Montreal, has now qualified as the first Korean Provisional Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst in counseling. She also writes that she has become an adjunct professor of Soongsil University in Seoul and is planning to open a TA Academy to teach transactional analysis to graduate students.

Statement of Ownership and Circulation

(Act of August 12, 1970, Section 3685, Title 39, United States Code) Filed with the Postmaster in Oakland, 1 October 2010, for The Script Newsletter. Published monthly except January, May, and September. Publisher: International Transactional Analysis Association, 2186 Rheem Dr., #B-1, Pleasanton, CA 94588-2775, USA. Editor Laurie Hawkes, c/o the ITAA, 2186 Rheem Dr., #B-1, Pleasanton, CA 94588-2775, USA, and Managing Editor Robin Fryer, c/o ITAA, 2186 Rheem Dr., #B-1, Pleasanton, CA 94588-2775, USA. Owner: International Transactional Analysis Association, 2186 Rheem Dr., #B-1, Pleasanton, CA 94588-2775, USA. The known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders owning or holding one percent or more of the total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities is: none. The average number of copies printed each issue during the preceding 12 months is: (a) total number of copies printed: 1500 (b) paid and/or requested circulation(1) paid/requested outside-county mail subscriptions: 276; (2) paid in-county subscriptions: none; (3) sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, and counter sales: none; (2) other classes mailed through USPS: 1078; (c) total paid and/or requested circulation: 1354; (d) free distribution by mail(1) outside-county: none; (2) in-county: none; (3) other classes mailed through USPS: 11 (e) free distribution outside the mail: 0; (f) total free distribution: 11; (g) total distribution: 1365; (h) copies not distributed135; (i) total: 1500. Percent paid and/or requested circulation: 99%. The actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date is: (a) total number of copies printed: 1300; (b) paid and/or requested circulation(1) paid/requested outside-county mail subscriptions: 182; (2) paid in-county subscriptions: none; (3) sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, and counter sales: none; (2) other classes mailed through the USPS: 946; (c) total paid and/or requested circulation: 1128; (d) free distribution by mail(1) outside-county: none; (2) in-county: none; (3) other classes mailed through USPS: 11; (e) free distribution outside the mail: 0; (f) total free distribution: 11; (g) total distribution: 1139; (h) copies not distributed161; (i) total: 1300. Laurie Hawkes, Editor Percent paid and/or requested circulation: 99%.

(From left) Attila Vandra holding his award, with Cezara Dasu, the second Romanian to have passed the CTA (P) exam and Bogdan Serbanescu, the first Romanian PTSTA (O). Cezara and Bogdan hold certificates from ARAT recognizing their accomplishments.

THESCRIPT

NOVEMBER 2010