Life Positions

“We Are”

“…Together with the propositions that everyone has the capacity to think and that people decide their own destiny (and that they can redecide it), the idea that people are “OK” forms part of the basic philosophy of transactional analysis. As a concept, OKness has been widely discussed in the literature, notably by Harris (1967), Harris and Dusay (1967), Erskine (1995), English (1995), Hine (1995), Jacobs (1997), White (1994, 1995a, 1995b), and Harley (2006). These authors and others have described OKness in a number of ways, which I have organized here into four categories.…”

“…By contrast, Ernst (1971) argued that OKness shifts from moment to moment. Kahler (1979) identified three positions (I+U-, U+I-, I-U-) as behavioral, whereas White (1994) used the sign “?” to alter one of Berne’s original positions and added three others to propose a total of seven life positions: “I’m OK, You’re Irrelevant” (I+U? ), “I’m Not OK, You’re Irrelevant” (I-U?…”

“…One of the problems with OKness is that it is binary: a person is—or, rather, is viewed as—either OK or not OK, a polarity that does not account for the more subtle, ambiguous, or ambivalent evaluations of ourselves and our behavior(s) by ourselves or others. Some of these subtleties are captured in White’s (1994) use of the “?” and the double positive (++) and double negative (- -). In both therapy and training groups, I have seen and experienced OKness and the evaluation of OKness used, wittingly or unwittingly, as an avoidance of the existential, face-to-face encounter “I am, You are”—or not: the philosophical version, as it were, of the intimacy experiment (Berne, 1964).…”

“…By contrast, Ernst (1971) argued that OKness shifts from moment to moment. Kahler (1979) identified three positions (IþU-, UþI-, I-U-) as behavioral, whereas White (1994) Linking OKness to Klein's positions or states of psychic organization (see next section), Harley (2006) argued that the not-OK positions are important developmentally and must be worked through and integrated in order for the fourth ''I'm OK, You're OK'' position to be more than superficial and conditional.…”

Storymaking: In-between anthropological enquiry and Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy

“…. own histories' (White, 1994) which surfaced by telling my therapist of the laughter, tears and conversations shared and overheard during the weekend. I realised that the stories from the PEW weekend and the recent work with my client were contributing to my creating in the therapy process a collective story: a story of resilience and surviving.…”