Our history

The Berne Institute is named after the founder of Transactional Analysis, Eric Berne.

In 1984 Adrienne Lee started an internationally recognised training programme with Ian Stewart. It was dedicated to excellence in the teaching of all the schools and approaches in TA with a focus on the uniqueness of each individual learner. In 1994 the training moved to its present building and became The Berne Institute. As well as meeting all the standards and requirements for accreditation with the international TA associations, Adrienne and Ian ensured that all course were also validated and quality assured by Middlesex University and UKCP. This, and the contribution of many international trainers who are specialists in their field, made The Berne Institute one of the leading international TA training Centres of Excellence.

Eric Berne 1910-1970

Born in Montreal, Canada, Berne qualified as a medical doctor in 1935 and moved to the USA. He began his psychiatric residency and went into psychoanalysis. He was drafted into the Army Medical Corps as a psychiatrist during WWII and on his discharge continued his psychoanalytic training.

Berne's theory of transactional analysis was based on the ideas of Freud but was distinctly different. Freudian psychotherapists focused on talk therapy as a way of gaining insight to their patient's personalities. Berne believed that insight could be better discovered by analyzing patients’ social transactions.

He developed his new approach to psychotherapy using the concept of intuition and in 1956 published papers in which he first explained the Parent, Adult and Child ego-states and used the term ‘structural analysis’. In 1957 he presented a paper entitled Transactional Analysis: A New and Effective Method of Group Therapy. The following year he presented his theory of games and script and the basic framework of TA was complete.

Eric published several books including Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy and Games People Play which became an international bestseller. In 1963 he published The Structure & Dynamics of Organisations & Groups focusing his ideas "to offer a systematic framework for change in groups & organizations."

Eric Berne died in 1970 and his final book, What Do You Say After You Say Hello?, was published posthumously in 1972. His basic ideal was to cure people quickly which was rooted in his medical training as a doctor. He wanted TA to be accessible so that client and therapist could co-operate in the process of cure. This accessibility means that today TA has an international following and is represented by organisations all over the world.

As a result, TA has been successfully adapted for use in business organisations, education, coaching and counselling.

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