Eric Berne and His Big Idea‪!‬

Eric Berne lived and worked during the first development of psychology as we know it today. He was one of the forward thinkers of that time and is best known today for his life-changing book, Games People Play, a compilation of situations and interactions he observed with the aid of his earliest work that described the basic components he employed to arrive at the existence or as well as interworkings of the patterns of behavior between two or more people. He called these “games”, and the name stuck. The wild popularity of Transactional Analysis began in Eric Berne’s “games”.
In retrospect, the only major change I would make in Berne’s blockbuster Games People Play would be to include more clearly what basis he employed to detect and identify the games he wrote about. I would change this because, unfortunately, most therapy and counseling methods called Transactional Analysis today or that purport to stem from Berne’s early teachings are built not on his basics which he used to form his conclusions about games and other aspects, but are built on conclusions from observations such as games, disregarding the existence of or necessity to understand Berne’s original BIG IDEA. A clear understanding of Berne’s original epiphany, his BIG IDEA should of necessity of understandability precede and accompany any TA methodology today.
This book is intended to make a quick and clear correlation between Eric Berne’s original thoughts on the thinking processes of man and the methodology known as Human Interaction Analysis developed by Danna G. Hallmark. To establish this link the author follows the path of Berne’s methodology from his first Big Idea in 1947, through the several stages of genuine development of the concept to today.
As Berne made clear in the first sentence of his Author’s Forward:
"The object ... is to make the dynamics of the human mind tangible to those who are more interested in understanding nature than in using big words or memorizing definitions.”
Eric Berne - 1947 - The Mind in Action
This book, Eric Berne and his BIG IDEA! is written to do just that and more. It is designed to quickly and clearly bring his theory back from the many forms it is in today to Berne’s original, perfect, simple, clear concept. This book is also designed to introduce to those who aren’t familiar with it the clarification for today’s audience of Berne’s original works, built on the foundation of the original concept and true to the legacy of the founder. That concept is known as The Hallmark Method of Human Interaction Analysis. The reader will be able to quickly understand how Berne’s concept came to be what they are today and the path it took to get here.
The New Applied Method of Transactional Analysis and Hallmark Method of Human Interaction Analysis was developed as an enhancement and furthering of the work of Berne, Harris, and Goulding. Built on the Foundation of the Original Concept. True to the Legacy of the Founders.