THEORY EMERGING FROM THE PERSONAL

Interviewer: Marina Vasile
November, 2016

BIO

Richard Erskine has been an active and influential member of the TA community for over 40 years. During this time he has written extensively on a number of important TA concepts such as the Parent Ego State, scripts and games, as well as relational needs, to name a few. His contribution and involvement extends to other psychotherapeutic communities, including Gestalt therapy, psychoanalysis and integrative psychotherapy. Currently he is the training director at the Institute for Integrative Psychotherapy and he continues to teach in several countries around the world.

Video 1 – What is in the client’s best interest? The search for a professional identity

• The warmth and excitement of the TA community and its evolution from its origin to the present day
• Finding ways to integrate influences from other psychotherapeutic communities

Video 2: Turning struggle and experience into theory: moving from personal to theoretical

• Writing as an attempt to solve a theoretical or methodological problem as well as a dialogue with colleagues, trainees and friends
• Looking back at theory from the past and taking a firm stance in relation to different concepts and directions
• A personal relationship with the Parent Ego State

Video 3: Getting personal

• Theory as a bridge between the personal and the professional: on inquiry, validation, empathy, criticism and shame
• Powerlessness, disappointment but also impact and intensity in the therapeutic relationship
• On the darker aspects of being human

Video 4: The universal and the unique

• Relational work in the organizational field
• Working across different cultures
• Grappling with Eric Berne’s legacy