BEYOND GAMES AND SCRIPTS

Nearly seven years after Berne's death, his disciples have assembled these excerpts from his writings. Transactional analysis was his brainchild, a series of group therapy techniques which introduced a theory of tripartite ego-states (Parental, Adult, Child) along with popular names for familiar maneuvers such as ""If It Weren't For You"" and ""Rapo."" Highly critical of the psychoanalytic establishment--which, incidentally, rejected his membership application--Berne developed his ideas in the Fifties (after a traditional analysis with Erik Erikson) and made hay in the Sixties: Games People Play (1964) was on the best-seller list for almost two years and other works followed easily until his death in 1970. Included here are passages--some edited-- from his major works and speeches; even at a distance the scrappy, playful prose and down-to-earth examples retain their original flavor although so much jazzy terminology, compressed into short chapters, is a bit troublesome. Berne is not quite the superstar his editors maintain, but this selection does represent his most important contributions.