transactional analysis

American  

noun

Psychology.

1. a form of individual or group psychotherapy focusing on social interactions, psychological games, and analysis of relationships as persons shift among the roles of parent, child, and adult. TA

---

transactional analysis British  

noun

1. psychol a form of psychotherapy that attributes neuroses to lack of balance in the personality between the conflicting ego-states of child, adult, and parent

---

Etymology

Origin of transactional analysis

First recorded in 1960–65

Example Sentences

But from all these approaches – including humanistic therapy, interpersonal therapy, transpersonal therapy, transactional analysis and so on – it’s generally agreed that one emerged triumphant.

From The Guardian • Jan. 7, 2016

The counsellor I worked with was trained in transactional analysis – she was great, we really focused on what the issue was … which helped me get my confidence back.

From The Guardian • Aug. 19, 2011

The Federal Correctional Institution at Fort Worth holds Gestalt therapy sessions as well as providing transactional analysis for the 400 male and 100 female residents.

From Time Magazine Archive

She "really connected" with Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and mentions her debt to transactional analysis.

From Time Magazine Archive

Indeed, President Burness Moore of the American Psychoanalytic Association finds transactional analysis "superficial," and Psychiatrist James Gordon of Washington, D.C., calls it "a hermetic system, defensively, self-righteously complete, dangerously closed to outside criticism and change."

From Time Magazine Archive