Freud and Berne Comparing and

Freud and Berne Comparing and Contrasting Freud's Psychoanalytical Theory with Berne's Transactional Theory This paper will compare and contrast Sigmund Freud's (1920s) theory of psychoanalysis with Erik Berne's (1950s) theory of transactional analysis. Freud's psychoanalysis deals with mental and/or behavioral afflictions caused by the lack of fulfillment of subconscious desires. According to Freud, a patient's Self often fights against its subconscious fantasies, which leads to stress in the patient's life.

Psychoanalysis provides treatment through free association: the patient talks and signs or clues are picked up by the psychoanalyst, who in turn attempts to bring to the patient's consciousness what his or her subconscious is trying to reveal. The psychoanalyst does not do so through direct intervention but by asking questions that will lead the patient to discover unconscious motives for his or her behavior. The treatment is aimed more at understanding the patient, as opposed to Berne's treatment which emphasizes a cure.

Thus, while Freud attempts to get the patient to understand the subconscious motivation behind the neurosis or personality disorder, his descendent Berne would attempt to do even more. Freud's model of the mind consists of three parts: the id, ego, and super-ego. The id is like subconscious desire; the ego is that part which is recognized by the Self; and the super-ego is the part that decides what is good and bad for the Self. Canadian born, psychoanalytically trained psychiatrist Erik Berne called his Transactional Analysis theory extra-Freudian.

Berne represented Freud's ego as having three parts itself: the child, adult, and parent states. According to Berne, harmful experiences in one's childhood can lead to pathological disorders and mental illness. Because Berne emphasized a patient's interaction with others as indicative of the cause of affliction, Berne termed his theory transactional. Poor and unproductive interaction was a sign of a problem in one of the ego states.

Berne concluded that nearly everyone suffered from a problematic ego, and that most people tried to make up for their defects by "playing games" with other people. Although Berne's idea of ego states (parent, adult, child) does not correlate to Freud's idea of id, ego, super-ego -- both explanations offer a similar kind of view of the psyche. However, as each person presents his or her own unique ego-state, no universal ego-state may apply to humanity as a whole.

In fact, transactional analysis relies upon the observation of individual patients' manifestation of their own ego-state through interaction with others. Freudian psychoanalysis, however, applies a universal model, sexually oriented in nature, to a universal psyche. While transactional analysis attempts to define the ego-state for the individual so that the individual can be cured, Freudian psychoanalysis attempts merely to.