ITAA:: International Transactional Analysis Association

A Compilation of Core Concepts

TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS IS:

1. an easily understandable yet sophisticated psychological theory about people's thinking, feelings and behavior and,
2. a contemporary and effective system of psychotherapy, education, organizational and socio-cultural analysis and social psychiatry.

EGO STATES AND TRANSACTIONS. People's interactions are made up of transactions. Any one transactions has two parts: the stimulus and the response. Individual transactions are usually part of a larger set. Some of these transactional sets or sequences can be direct, productive and healthy or they can be devious, wasteful and unhealthy.

When people interact they do so in one of three different ego states. An ego state is a specific way of thinking feeling and behaving and each ego state has its origin in specific regions of the brain. People can behave from their Parent ego state, or from their Child ego state or from their Adult ego state. At any one time our actions come from one of these three ego states.