Lab Educação 2050
Official introductory program · UNAT-Brasil

What do you sayafter you sayhello?

TA 101 presents the fundamentals of Transactional Analysis, the theory of personality and communication created by psychiatrist Eric Berne in the 1950s. It is the field’s official introductory course and the prerequisite for training as a transactional analyst (TA 202).

Request the syllabusSee the program
P
Parent
A
Adult
C
Child
Fig. 1 — Structural diagram of the Ego States (Berne, 1961)
Course load
16 hours
The official program provides for 12 to 20 hours
Format
In person or online
Always live
Audience
General
No prerequisites
Structure
9 thematic blocks
From definition to autonomy
§ 1 — Definition
Transactional Analysis
noun · psychology

A theory of personality and human communication and, at the same time, a systematic method of personal change. It starts from a simple observation: the way two people exchange stimuli and responses reveals structures of personality that can be described, understood and modified.

Definition adapted from Berne, Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy (1961), and Stewart & Joines, TA Today (1987).
PRINCIPLE 01

OK/OK existential position

Every person has worth and dignity. Behaviors can be questioned; the person cannot. It is the starting point of any working relationship in TA.

PRINCIPLE 02

Contractual method

Change starts from an explicit agreement: what one wants to change, how, and with which responsibilities for each party. The contract makes the process verifiable.

PRINCIPLE 03

Autonomy

The ultimate goal: to act in the present with awareness, spontaneity and intimacy, instead of repeating decisions made in childhood.

Areas of application
Clinical
Organizational
Educational
Counseling
§ 2 — Ego States

Three ways of being, observable in anyone.

Berne defined the ego state as a coherent system of feelings, accompanied by a corresponding set of behavior patterns. They are not abstract concepts: they show up in the voice, the posture, the vocabulary.

Berne, Games People Play (1964)

Parent

Behaviors, thoughts and feelings copied from parental figures. It is the record of rules, values, judgments and care received, reproduced almost always without examination.

Signs: “should,” “always,” “never”; a tone of correction or protection.

Adult

Direct responses to the here and now, with all the resources of a grown person. It processes information, estimates probabilities, tests reality before deciding.

Signs: objective questions, assessment of data, a neutral tone.

Child

Behaviors, thoughts and feelings relived from one’s own childhood. A source of creativity, intuition and joy and also of the adaptations learned to survive in the family environment.

Signs: enthusiasm, curiosity, tantrums, compliance.

From structure to function.

Structural analysis asks what is in each state. Functional analysis asks how it is used: the Parent expresses itself as Critical or Nurturing; the Child, as Natural or Adapted.

In the program: contamination, exclusion and symbiosis — when states blend, close off or are distributed between two people.
P
Critical
Nurturing
Parent
A
Adult
C
Natural
Adapted
Child
Fig. 2 — Structural and functional analysis
Person 1
P
A
C
Person 2
P
A
C
Fig. 3 — Transactional diagram. Solid line: social level. Dashed: psychological level.
§ 3 — Transactions

The unit of communication.

A transaction is a stimulus on one side and a response on the other. Analyzing it means identifying which ego state each message comes from and which one it is addressed to. Berne described three types and three rules.

Complementary

Person 1 · AdultWhat time is it?
Person 2 · AdultHalf past three.
First rule
When the response goes back to the ego state that sent the stimulus, communication can continue indefinitely.

Crossed

Person 1 · AdultHave you seen where I left my keys?
Person 2 · ParentYou always lose everything!
Second rule
When the transaction is crossed, communication breaks off. To resume it, someone must change ego state.

Ulterior

SalespersonThis model is better, but it may be above your budget.
CustomerI’ll take this one.
Third rule
On the surface, Adult speaks to Adult. But the message hooks the customer’s Child, and it is the Child who answers. The outcome is decided at the psychological level.
§ 4 — Program

Nine blocks, from definition to autonomy.

Content defined by the official UNAT-Brasil program (Manual of Norms and Procedures, 2022). Total course load falls between 12 and 20 hours; at Lab 2050, it is 16 hours distributed according to the class schedule.

I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
BLOCK 01 OF 09
Block hours
0
2 h
4 h
2 hours
Dark: minimum. Light: maximum expected.
Block I · 2 hours

Course objectives, definition and philosophy of TA, areas of application and contract

  • —Definition of Transactional Analysis
  • —History: Eric Berne, biographical data and work
  • —Development of TA
  • —Philosophical principles: contractual method, OK/OK existential position, autonomy
  • —Areas of application: clinical, organizational, educational and others
  • —Administrative, professional and psychological contract; requirements: mutual consent, competence, consideration and lawful object
Note

The four requirements of a contract were formulated by Claude Steiner from the law. Without mutual consent, competence, consideration and lawful object, there is no contract — only intention. Steiner, Scripts People Live (1974).

Block II · 3 to 4 hours

Structural and functional analysis of personality

  • —Definition of ego states
  • —Recognition and diagnosis of ego states
  • —Contamination and exclusion
  • —Symbiosis
Note

Berne proposed four complementary diagnoses for an ego state: behavioral, social, historical and phenomenological. One alone is not enough. Berne, Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy (1961).

Block III · 1 to 2 hours

Transactional analysis

  • —Transactions: definition
  • —Types of transactions
  • —Rules of communication
Note

This is the block that gives the theory its name. The transaction is the smallest observable unit; games, rackets and script can be described as sequences of transactions. Berne, Principles of Group Treatment (1966).

Block IV · 2 hours

Strokes and discounting

  • —Definition
  • —Stimulus hunger and recognition hunger
  • —Types of strokes
  • —Discounting
Note

A stroke is the unit of recognition. Berne treated the need to be recognized as basic as the need for food. To discount is to ignore, without realizing it, information relevant to solving a problem (Schiff et al., 1975).

Block V · 2 to 3 hours

Social structuring of time

  • —Structure hunger
  • —Six ways of structuring time: withdrawal, rituals, pastimes, activities, games and intimacy
Note

The six ways are in increasing order of the intensity of strokes exchanged and, in the same order, of psychological risk. Berne, Games People Play (1964).

Block VI · 1 to 2 hours

Game analysis

  • —Definitions
  • —Advantages of games
  • —Examples of games
  • —Degrees of games
  • —Ways of diagramming: transactional diagram, game formula and the Drama Triangle
Note

Formula G: Con + Gimmick = Response → Switch → Crossup → Payoff. Berne, What Do You Say After You Say Hello? (1972).

Block VII · 1 to 2 hours

Racket analysis

  • —Natural and learned emotions
  • —Definitions of rackets and stamps
  • —Meaning of internal (intrapsychic) processes
  • —Relation of rackets to transactions, games and life script
Note

A racket is the substitute feeling, learned and authorized in the family, that covers the authentic emotion. Erskine & Zalcman, The Racket System (1979).

Block VIII · 1 to 2 hours

Script analysis

  • —Existential positions: definition and description
  • —Life script: definitions
  • —Origin of script in the child’s experiences
  • —Process of script development
  • —Script change
Note

Script is an unconscious life plan, decided in childhood, reinforced by parents and justified by later events. Berne, What Do You Say After You Say Hello? (1972).

Block IX · 1 hour

Autonomy

  • —Awareness
  • —Spontaneity
  • —Intimacy
Note

Autonomy is not a personality trait but the recovery of three capacities that script restricts. Berne, Games People Play (1964).

§ 5 — Two classic diagrams

Instruments for seeing what usually goes unnoticed.

Stephen Karpman, 1968

Drama Triangle

Psychological games can be read as a drama with three roles. The game is completed when the participants switch roles — the moment Berne called the switch. Scroll the page to see the exchange.

Persecutor
Rescuer
Victim
A
B
A offers help that no one asked for. B accepts, in the role of Victim.
Franklin Ernst, 1971 · Thomas Harris, 1967

Existential positions

Basic convictions about one’s own worth and the worth of others, formed early and rarely put into words. Each position tends to produce a kind of outcome in relationships. Move the cursor over the quadrants.

− / +
I’m not OK, you’re OK
Get away from
+ / +
I’m OK, you’re OK
Get on with
− / −
I’m not OK, you’re not OK
Get nowhere with
+ / −
I’m OK, you’re not OK
Get rid of
I’m OK →
You’re OK →
Voices

“Many who could be great ballet dancers spend their time dancing with the dishes at a lunch counter, and others who could be great mathematicians become bank clerks, working in offices or at a betting shop. Within their chemical limitations, whatever they may be, each individual has enormous possibilities for determining his own destiny. Generally, however, his parents decide for him before he can realize what they are doing.” (Our translation.)

Eric Berne
Creator of Transactional Analysis

“Deliberate manipulation drives crowds into delirium, into a paranoia that triggers the mutation of ordinary men and women into deaf, blind followers — cannon fodder. Ventriloquist’s dummies, animated from a distance, who replicate (under the illusion that they are their own) the controller’s opinions and judgments.” (Our translation.)

Maku de Almeida
Cofounder of Relational Integrative Mentoring (Mentoria Integrativa Relacional)

“In groups that are more isolated, both physically and intellectually, the arrival of new arguments is made difficult, as is awareness of what a public debate grounded in reason would be [...]. That is, it is not uncommon that, depending on the degree of dependence a given family has [...], its dissenting members, those who bring doubts [...], are regarded as dangerous.” (Our translation.)

Vinícius Sgarbe
Psychoanalyst and transactional analyst
§ 6 — Autonomy

Berne closes Games People Play by asking what exists beyond games. The answer is autonomy, which shows itself through the release or recovery of three capacities. It is the last block of the program and the goal of all the previous ones.

Awareness

Seeing and hearing the world in your own way, in the present, and not as you learned to interpret it.

Spontaneity

Freely choosing among the options of feeling, thinking and acting, including among ego states.

Intimacy

Exchanging affection and candor without games and without exploitation. It is the way of structuring time richest in strokes.

§ 7 — Library

Where to start reading.

A selection from the bibliography recommended by the official program, with the Brazilian editions.

Eric Berne
Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy
Brazilian edition: Summus, 1985
Eric Berne
Games People Play
Brazilian edition: Nobel, 1995
Eric Berne
What Do You Say After You Say Hello?
Brazilian edition: Nobel, 1988
Eric Berne
Principles of Group Treatment
UNAT, limited circulation
Thomas A. Harris
I’m OK—You’re OK
Brazilian edition: Artenova, 1969
Muriel James & Dorothy Jongeward
Born to Win
Brazilian edition: Brasiliense, 1978
Claude Steiner
Scripts People Live
Brazilian edition: Artenova, 1976
Richard Erskine & Marilyn Zalcman
The Racket System
Eric Berne Memorial Award, UNAT
Stan Woollams & Michael Brown
The Total Handbook of Transactional Analysis
Brazilian edition: Cultrix, 1979
Roberto Kertész
Análise Transacional ao Vivo (Transactional Analysis Live)
Summus, 1987
Format

TA 101 at Lab 2050.

The syllabus follows the standard of the international Transactional Analysis associations and is recognized as the official introduction to any later training in the field.

01
16 course hours

Distributed according to participants’ schedules.

02
In person or synchronous

Exclusively live, with room for discussion among participants.

03
Up-to-date material

Content available online, with practical exercises.

04
Application

An exclusive forum for case discussion and supervision.

After 101

TA 101 is an indispensable prerequisite for TA 202, the training of the transactional analyst, which deepens clinical, educational and organizational applications. The course also presents the certification process with UNAT-Brasil.

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