Transactional Analysis Journal

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Transactional Analysis: An Enlightened Expansion for the Future

Thomas Clary
Transactional Analysis Journal 1981 11: 37
DOI: 10.1177/036215378101100108

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 Transactional Analysis:
An Enlightened Expansion for the Future
Thomas Clary
Abstract
Proposes to expand the scope of trans-
actional analysis by incorporating theoretical
concepts developed in other psychological
approaches. Discusses C. Jung's ideas of
the unconscious and of intuition as ex-
amples which would enable TA to reach
beyond the limits derived from E. Berne's
formulations. Psychic conversations with
Jung and S. Freud are reported, and a
personal meditation experience of a con-
versation with Berne is described.
This article is the result of a meditation
reaching beyond transactional analysis to
determine its future through the spiritual,
psychic and occult literature.
Psychology is a young discipline, and
much remains for psychologists to dis-
cover about the human mind. It is not
enough merely to build on what Eric
Berne did: It is time to go far beyond and
to explore those ideas which Berne, in spirit
form, may be urging us to explore.
I believe that to concern ourselves with
maintaining mental health for all we must
broaden the scope of script to accept the
Jungian "unconscious" which may include
all that has preceded us in the cosmic past
and all that is ahead of us in the cosmic
future. And we must seek new methods
which will instill psychic awareness and
positive psychic energy in all mankind.
To provide permission to think for those
who may need it, I have used my intui-
tive skills to find out what Berne would be
thinking about such ideas.
What follows, although partially based
on psychic experience, may safely be
regarded as psychologically important.
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Berne himself used intuition as the basis
for his initial inquiry into transactional
analysis. As Paul McCormick, editor of
Berne's series of eight papers published in
Intuition and Ego States, says, "Eric Berne
does more in these pages than penetrate
the mysteries of intuition. He explains the
fascinating course that led him to found a
whole new psycho-therapeutic system,
transactional analysis (TA)."
Berne based his theory of intuition on
the physical personality. He wrote of intui-
tion as knowledge based on experience and
acquired through sensory contact with the
subject, without the "intuitor" being able
to formulate to himself or others exactly
how he came to his conclusions (Berne,
1977a). And he went on to amplify his
definition with the statement that knowledge
is based on experience and is acquired by
means of pre-verbal unconscious or pre-
conscious functions through sensory con-
tact with the subject (l977a).
To support his theory, he wrote that his
definition of intuition approximated the
definition of Jung, a position which defines
intuition as a psychological function trans-
mitting perceptions in an unconscious way
(Berne, 1977a). He also referred to Aristotle,
who described what has been called
"intuitive induction," as the hierarchical
organizational ability of the organism to
experience sense perceptions, to retain
those sense perceptions and to systematize
such memories (l977d). Berne saw this as
similar to the functioning of calculating
machines as described by Norbert Wiener
in his book Cybernetics.
Berne's concept of intuition was only a
beginning in that he kept it solely on the
physical plane dealing only with the human
37
THOMAS CLARY
"We must broaden the scope of script to accept the Jungian
'unconscious' which may include all that has preceded us in
the cosmic past and all that is ahead of us in the cosmic future."
personality. He did not himself clarify
Aristotle's grasp of a "still higher level"
as something more than the personality of
man.
In 1956, ten years after Berne had written
his article on "The Nature of Intuition"
for the Psychiatric Quarterly, Jung wrote
of the unconscious as no mere repository
of the past, but as a receptacle full of the
germs of future psychic situations and
ideas. Jung felt that in addition to memories
from a long-distant conscious past,
completely new thoughts and creative
ideas can also present themselves from
the unconscious-thoughts and ideas that
have never been conscious before: "They
grow up from the dark depths of the mind
like a lotus and form a most important
part of the subliminal psyche" (Jung, 1964a).
Jung (1964b) included all forgotten ideas
as well as all that we have seen, heard,
smelled or tasted in the unconscious be-
cause our attention was deflected at the
time the stimulus occurred or because the
stimulus to our senses was too slight to
leave a conscious impression, and stated
that: "Like the instincts, the collective
thought patterns of the human mind are
innate and inherited. They function, when
the occasion arises, in more or less the
same way in all of us." He further stated
(1964c) "you can easily fall into the
erroneous idea that man comes into the
world with a psyche that is empty, and that
in later years it contains nothing more than
what is has learned by individual experience.
But the psyche is more than consciousness."
He also wrote (1964d) that the unconscious
"contains all aspects of human nature-
light and dark, beautiful and ugly, good
and evil, profound and silly."
Jung wrote of intuition (1964a) as one of
four functional types corresponding "to
the obvious means by which consciousness
obtains its orientation to experience: Sensa-
tion (i.e., sense perception) tells you that
something exists; thinking tells you what
it is; feeling tells you whether it is agreeable
38
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or not; and intuition tells you whence it
comes and where it is going." He wrote:
"Even a man of high intellect can go badly
astray for lack of intuition or feeling ...
Even physics, the strictest of all applied
sciences, depends to an astonishing degree
upon intuition, which works by way of the
unconscious (although it is possible to
demonstrate afterward the logical proce-
dures that could have led one to the same
result as intuition) ... One can explain and
know only if one has reduced intuitions
to an exact knowledge of facts and their
logical connections."
I have clarified Jung's ideas of the un-
conscious and intuition to show that before
he died, he was going far beyond what
Berne gave him credit for in his own
articles and also beyond what Berne him-
self dwelt on during his short lifetime.
And yet, we ask ourselves if Jung's
ideas were really complete. Robert R.
Leichtman, a physician and psychic based
in Baltimore, MD, wrote of his talks with
Jung and Freud in lung and Freud Return,
a part of his series "From Heaven to
Earth." Leichtman described his 1973
interview with Jung and Freud, which was
accomplished through the mediumship of
D. Kendrick Johnson of Carmel, CA (iron-
ically, the former home of Eric Berne).
Leichtman asked Jung (Leichtman,
1979(a), "How can the average person who
isn't considered sick achieve greater
maturity?" Jung replied, "There needs to
be greater communication and coopera-
tion between the conscious and uncon-
scious aspects of the personality. This
would have to start with more awareness
of the contents and operation of all dimen-
sions of the mind. The careful examination
of the mind-particularly the sources of
one's thoughts and memories-would be
necessary. "
Leichtman also (Leichtman, 1979b) asked
about the newer branches of psychology.
While Jung refused to "air dirty linen,"
he praised those branches that "empha-
Transactional Analysis Journal

size the evaluation of meaning." lung also
said, "This is far more important than
the classic approach of going after the
roots of why you hate your mother, and so
forth. It is much more healing to say 'So
your mother was mean to you, but what is
there about her that you can love?' Some-
thing of this sort would be a ISO-degree
switch from the classic approach, and that
is just what is needed. For those people
who are more concerned with mental
health than with mental illness, the mean-
ings are far more important than the
'why?' "
Leichtman asked if it would be helpful
for psychologists to use intuitive skills as
well as traditional methods when dealing
with their patients (Leichtman, I979c).
Jung replied, "Actually, there are some
enlightened psychiatrists who are already
doing this exact thing ... I know that, for
myself, I did my best work when I could
somehow almost merge with the patient.
I am sure that this is a psychic phenomenon."
Freud joined the pair in a three-way
discussion through another medium, Paul
Winters. Freud disclosed the fact (Leicht-
man, 1979d) that his family was quite
psychic and that "as a youngster, I learned
a great deal about the parapsychic part of
the human mind and how to use it, although
I kept this fact hidden." Freud (Leichtman,
197ge) went on to "make final plea to my
colleagues to take the psychological
principles that have been laid down and go
forward with them, rather than get caught
up in the dogma of the past interpreta-
tions of my work and Dr. Jung's work. If
this can happen-if there are some psychia-
trists and psychologists who will move out
to the periphery and explore their own
minds with the knowledge they have-then
psychology will go where it should. There
will be a much more humanistic view and a
much more holistic view of the human
mind-the wonderful mind as it is."
This leads to a more personal discussion
of the boundaries of psychological research.
During the past few years, I have become
increasingly interested in parapsychology
and psychic phenomena as they relate not
only to individuals but also to cultures,
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TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS
"TA seems to me to provide
a framework for further study
in these areas, but one that
needs the addition of multi-
dimensional psychological
information."
nations and the universe. TA seems to me
to provide a framework for further study
in these areas, but one that needs the addi-
tion of multi-dimensional psychological
information. Muriel James and Louis M.
Savary (1974) approach this to some
degree in The Power at the Bottom of the
Well when they expand the ego states to
include "The Power Within." But again,
this is only a beginning.
With my own questions still unanswered,
I decided to "actively meditate." The
active meditation process (created by
Leichtman) calls for relaxation, concentra-
tion, and detachment from one's own body
sensations and personality in order to gain
attunement with one's higher self. At this
point in this particular meditation, I felt a
spinning of colors, and I asked for the
virtues of love, compassion, forgiveness,
intellect, wisdom, joy and devotion to pour
through me. Then I felt a quietness. With-
out conscious effort, I briefly saw the face
of Eric Berne as I remembered him through
pictures. He was smiling. And then there
was just a bright light. At this point, I said,
"I'll ask Eric." The dialogue went like this:
T.: I am concerned about ITAA and its
benefits for Special Field Members.
ERIC: I can't understand why business-
people are so interested in ITAA. It was
organized for those in social psychiatry
and other related professions in the mental
health fields. Oh, I'm glad TA is helping
out in business organizations. There cer-
tainly is a need for mental health in business
as well as in any walk of life. But ITAA
isn't to provide a forum for business con-
sultants to play therapy or use this limited
knowledge in their roles. This can be very
destructive. I wish they would join business
and professional associations. We started
the special area in ITAA for researchers
who were not practicing therapists.
39
THOMAS CLARY
T.: I guess that tells me I shouldn't be in
ITAA.
ERIC: Not necessarily. You're a psycholo-
gist. You're looking to the future and to
how psychology can be helpful to the world
as well as to individuals. As long as you
will be a researcher, you can contribute
much. This you need to do to get people
who are now in IT AA off dead-center.
T.: What do you think about the future
of transactional analysis?
ERIC: Remember, I was an experi-
menter. I was a rebel-so much so that I
was never certified as a psychoanalyst. I
really wanted to be. Freud didn't want me
to be, he tells me now. He encouraged my
rebellion so that some new psychological
findings could be developed. Had I become
a psychoanalyst, I might not have pursued
transactional analysis as I did.
The group that was with me in the early
days of the San Francisco Social Psychiatry
worked on theoretical issues. We argued.
In fact, we verbally fought over ideas.
People don't do that now. They fight each
other on a personal basis, not on the basis
of ideas to improve TA.
No one is doing anything to further
the field of psychology. Everyone in IT AA
seems to be just recycling what we did
before I passed over. They aren't coming
up with any new ideas. For the most part,
many in TA are building walls so that
what I wrote is dogma. Everything written
about TA today just builds on what I
wrote. Muriel James is an exception. I
wish she'd do more on her "power within."
I wasn't a very spiritual person when I was
working on TA. It's necessary to expand
beyond the personality.
T.: Then what are you suggesting?
40
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ERIC: Therapists need to look for new
energy sources, both for themselves and for
their patients. They need to stop being so
dogmatic in their thinking and look beyond
present horizons. They need to search for
new ways. Dr. Freud agrees with me on
this.
I've learned a lot since joining the spirit
world. I've had many helpful discussions
with Dr. Freud and Dr. Jung. All of us
here are doing our best to direct certain
people in pushing psychology into what is
being known as parapsychology and holistic
medicine. I'm impressed that you are seek-
ing information from a psychic and study-
ing the occult world as to how this might
improve mental health in the future.
And so, I don't really know if this was
truly a conversation with Eric Berne, or a
dialogue between my conscious and my
subconscious or merely a product of my
imagination. But it has given me food for
thought, and it is moving me to expand
traditional transactional analysis. I would
hope that the impetus is also given to other
TA scholars and researchers to move the
field ahead.
Thomas C. Clary, PhD, SFTM, is
President of The Clary Institute in Wash-
ington, D. C.
REFERENCES
Berne, E. Intuition and ego states. San Francisco,
California: TA Press, 1977, (a)4, (b)6.
lames, M., & Savary, L.M. The power at the bottom
ofthe well. New York: Harper and Row, 1974.
lung, C.G. Man and his symbols. Garden City, New
York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1964, (a)37-
38, (b)33, (c)75-76, (d)103, (e)61, (f)92.
Leichtman, R.R. From heaven to earth: Jung and
Freud return. Columbus, Ohio: Ariel Press, 1979,
(a)32, (b)33, (c)47, (d)66, (e)75.
Transactional Analysis Journal