This unique book, incorporating both theory and practice, provides an invaluable guide to the assessment of dreams in transactional analysis (TA). Grounded in the latest neuroscientific research, it offers both neophyte and experienced TA practitioners a pathway to incorporate a client’s dreams within individual and group therapy, exploring key issues including trauma, dissociation and nightmares, dreams of change and transformation, dreams of healing, and transference and countertransference in dreams. It will support therapists through the very first steps toward the analysis of more complex interpersonal dynamics and dream analysis in a group setting. Also discussing the direction of future research in the area, as well as an overview of an experiment on dream analysis during the recent pandemic, this will be key reading for anyone working in the field.

In Transactional Analysis of Schizophrenia: The Naked Self, Zefiro Mellacqua presents a full assessment of the relevance and value of transactional analysis in understanding, conceptualizing and treating schizophrenia in contemporary clinical settings. Opening with a review of Eric Berne’s ideas, Mellacqua applies theory to the understanding and psychotherapeutic treatment of people suffering from first-episode schizophrenia and to those already living with more long-lasting psychotic levels of self-disturbance. The chapters address a series of crucial methodological themes, including the need for both intensive and extensive analytic sessions; the therapist’s tolerance of uncertainty and not knowing; the informative quality of both therapist’s and patient’s embodiment(s); the emergence of the transference-countertransference relationship; the link between silent transactions and unconscious communication; dream analysis; and the value of regular supervisions. Mellacqua’s approach incorporates meetings with family and caregivers, as well as emphasising multidisciplinary work with patients in a variety of settings, such as in hospitals, outpatient clinics, and psychiatric home treatment. The book is illustrated with engaging clinical case studies throughout, which illuminate the schizophrenic experience and provide examples of how these tools can be used to help patients. Transactional Analysis of Schizophrenia demonstrates how those who suffer from acute schizophrenia, especially those at their very first episode of psychosis, can make an effective recovery and live a satisfying life through the therapeutic application of transactional analysis. It will be essential reading for transactional analysts, psychodynamically oriented psychotherapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses, social workers, academics and all mental health professionals working with people suffering from schizophrenic psychoses. See the below link for an interview about the book with Gianpiero Petriglieri and series editor William F. Cornell: https://vimeo.com/499800269

The main values and principles of Transactional Analysis, in its original psychodynamic matrix, become a concrete experience in this book thanks to the accurate description of the daily practice of a long-experienced therapist: Anna Emanuela Tangolo. Analyzing several cases, the author examines the clinical tools of Berne's group therapy and the analysis of dreams, without however neglecting other important aspects such as preparing the setting or leading an interview. Particular relevance is given to the therapeutic relationship, seen as the interweaving of an experience in order to send stimuli to the patient so as to re-structure his or her intrapsychic world through rigorous and precise inputs, analysable in linguistic sequences. This book is meant not only for those who study psychotherapy, but also for anyone who wants to learn about clinical TA and its functioning.

Tangolo and Massi offer a complete manual for transactional analysis (TA)-based group therapy. Group Therapy in Transactional Analysis demonstrates the evolution of TA as a relational psychodynamic therapy rich in clinical experiences both within individual and group settings. The authors outline how to select clients, which setting to provide, how to establish contracts, and which techniques to use during group sessions. The book includes a full assessment of research and theory, clearly demonstrating efficacy and taking into account neuroscientific studies on intersubjectivity and the social brain. This is combined with a practical approach which supports therapists from the very first steps to the analysis of more complex interpersonal dynamics and dream analysis in a group setting. Finally, future research directions are discussed, together with an overview of an experiment on online groups in the time of coronavirus. This foundational text will be a key reference for therapists in training and professionals new to the principles of transactional analysis. It will also be of interest to students on psychotherapy training and clinical psychology courses.

This book represents a synthesis of more than thirty years dedicated to the spreading and teaching of transactional analysis, and will be useful to students, directors and professors of the schools of transactional analysis, and also to therapists of other schools, providing an up-to-date and complete idea of the current state of the analytic transactional methodology. The handbook describes the epistemological and methodological roots for a well-grounded psychotherapy with transactional analysis (TA): differences among method, methodology, therapeutic plan, and strategy and technique are all illustrated. TA is presented as a phenomenological branch of modern relational psychoanalysis. Transference and counter-transference are reconsidered in a Bernean perspective. The four strategic phases of alliance, decontamination, deconfusion, and relearning are presented, together with the well-known techniques of the eight Bernean therapeutic operations, two and three-chairs work, redecision technique, and dream-work.

All people dream regularly, regardless of their circumstances, whether they remember their dreams upon awakening or not. From the beginning of human history, dreams have been a source of creative inspiration and spiritual renewal, emotional and psychological insight, and scientific and cultural innovation.