The New Emerges Out of the Old

Abstract

This article considers how new ways in which a client and therapist relate emerge out of old ways the client related to others, with the subsequent transformation of maladaptive schemas and ego state relational units (Little, 2006) into more adaptive schemas. The author explores the nature of the client's pathology and maladaptive relational schemas and the therapeutic action that might be transformative for the client. He also examines a modern perspective on the transferencecountertransference matrix and explores further the concept of optimal neutrality.

Transactional analysis and our philosophical premises: 70 years on

“…This may be changing in some forms of contemporary transactional analysis which has sought a different inquiry into psychological states. Many integrative, co-creative and relational practitioners (see Bonds-White & Cornell, 2001;Erskine, 1993;Hargaden & Sills, 2002;Little, 2013;Summers & Tudor, 2000, 2015 have been interested in the need to make space for symbolic and non-verbal communications-even if they seem primitive and unformulated (Stern, 2011). Some developments in the professional and academic canon have struggled to permeate the culture in the international transactional analysis community.…”