Introduction

Transactional Analysis (TA) began emerging in the 1950s and ’60s as a somewhat rebellious counter-offering to the then-current approach to psychotherapy – one in which the therapist held the power, the patient held none, and therapy took many years and was expensive. TA has its roots in clinical work, but the cutting edge of TA in the twenty-first century is the growth in using TA for development, learning and change – in both individuals and systems. The simple language and clear diagrams make psychological processes readily understandable and immediately practical. Individuals and organisations as far ranging as global companies and grassroots projects find that TA offers supportive frameworks to understand human dynamics in the system.