Vol. 39, No. 1, January 2009 61 Positive Psychology and Transactional Analysis Rosemary Napper Abstract This articles describes the author���s encoun- ter with two ���positive��� psychologies���trans- actional analysis and positive psychology��� and some of the similarities and differences in their founding, evolution, and branding. Because transactional analysis has remark- able properties as a metalanguage, many positive psychology ideas can be considered from a TA perspective and translated into TA concepts. On the other hand, positive psychology may be able to provide research evidence for concepts from transactional analysis. This comparison highlights the con- tradictions deeply embedded within transac- tional analysis theory between a philosophi- cal framework based on the empirical scien- tific paradigm of the 1950s, which focuses on ���objectivity,��� and a more contemporary con- structivist philosophy, which focuses on ���subjectivity.��� ______ History may view the twentieth century in ways that we cannot yet imagine. It is likely to credit this era with the development of a myri- ad of psychological approaches growing out of Freud���s late nineteenth-century work on hypno- tism and hysteria (from his studies with Char- cot, 1885-1886) and hysteria and dreams (from his work with Breuer as articulated in Breuer & Freud, 1895). Bragg (1998) has suggested that Freud had more impact on the world than any- one before or since. A longer-term view of the twentieth-century Western world already puts into perspective the fashionable ebbs and flows of psychological frameworks: humanistic schools arising out of experiences from World War II cognitive and behavioral approaches gaining popularity alongside the technological develop- ments of the 1960s and 1970s, as humans gran- diosely considered that they might be able to control environment and society a resurgence of notions of the unconscious, with a new focus on the interpersonal and thus intersubjective domain toward the end of the century, perhaps emerging in response to complexity theory and quantum physics���and that is only to name a few. It was said in my training that there are over 400 named psychologies currently in exis- tence. And now, at the beginning of the twenty- first century, a collection of research and ideas loosely termed ���positive psychology��� (PP) is beginning to permeate not only some existing approaches, but also politics, practices within organizations and education, psychotherapy and counseling, and even popular culture. This impact is not unlike the one transactional analy- sis (TA) had in its heyday in the 1960s and 1970s, and many of the ideas within positive psychology echo notions for which transaction- al analysis provides useful maps and metaphors. This article offers an overview of some of the developments and range of ideas within positive psychology and suggests links with transactional analysis. It does not attempt to cri- tique coherently the positive psychology move- ment, although some of my signposts for doing so may be decipherable in this text. At the same time, this article juxtaposes positive psycholo- gy with transactional analysis in order to pro- vide some critique of the latter. If transactional analysis is to continue to develop internation- ally in breadth as well as in depth, we need to pay attention to our strengths rather than put energy into our weaknesses and internal dis- putes about those. By attending to our strengths, we can continue to build on our excellent his- tory of integrating ides from other psychologi- cal domains into central transactional analysis thinking. My Journey Noticing the increasing prevalence of the term ���positive psychology��� and how some of its ideas seemed to connect with transactional analysis, I attended and enjoyed the first British positive psychology conference in April 2007. At that meeting, there were some transactional analysis workshops presented by people who

ROSEMARY NAPPER 62 Transactional Analysis Journal use but are not trained in transactional analysis, and I noted for sale an early positive psycholo- gy text that included a somewhat limited and old-fashioned section on transactional analysis by Linley and Joseph (2004). The conference was organized by the Centre for Applied Posi- tive Psychology, which is linked to the Univer- sity of Warwick. I also read a fair amount of positive psy- chology literature and took part in a global tele- course in positive psychology with one of the key contemporary teachers, who is based in the United States. (Significantly, no one else in the course seemed to have heard of transactional analysis!). In November 2007 I attended a con- ference offering positive psychology for busi- nesspeople organized by the University of East London (UEL) (the first university in Britain to offer a master��� degree in positive psychology), to which the founder of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, was invited. He is based at Pennsylvania State University in the United States, and earlier in the week he had been asked to speak to 1100 members of the British Psychology Society. At all of these events, I noticed two factors that I otherwise only ex- perience around the best of transactional analy- sis training and conferences: people adopting an ���I���m OK, You���re OK��� stance and demon- strating authenticity. Why do I have such interest in positive psy- chology? As a coach, consultant, and facilitator using transactional analysis to realize the poten- tial of individuals, groups, organizations, and communities, I find my working focus is at odds with many of my psychotherapy colleagues and with authors who focus on the pathological aspects of being human in their efforts to bring about healing or a reorganization of the self. In my work, the contract is different. My focus is on what is already working and how the future could be at its best. This approach is essentially pragmatical and creates hope, which in itself is often considered the most important aspect of counseling, therapy, and coaching . I was originally attracted to transactional analysis because, unlike many psychologies, it contains concepts that focus on the healthy as- pects of individuals and groups and is built on the positive assumptions that people are OK, everyone can think, and thus they can decide to change if they wish. This resonated for me then and does so now as a reasonable, if utopian, philosophy on which to base an appreciation of humankind���s individual and collective psy- chology. As a late twentieth-century person originally trained in sociology, I am skeptical about the basis of the classically empirical sci- entific paradigm for studying human beings in- dividually or in groups. Therefore, the evolution of transactional analysis from Berne���s early hopes for scientific observation to a more re- cent trend toward constructivism and meaning making fits well with my own frame of reference. Thus, the research basis of positive psy- chology is a challenge to some of my core be- liefs, yet it seems to provide some of the very scientific observation that Berne might have wanted to find. What also strikes me are (1) the similarities in development and in some of the ideas of transactional analysis and positive psy- chology and (2) the differences and how some of these might be of great value for us within transactional analysis if they could be used to build on and strengthen our work. What���s in a Name? I have never understood why transactional analysis is called transactional analysis. Why not script analysis? Or the psychology of autonomy? I assume that part of the reason is that, at the time it was developed by Berne, it was somewhat radical to suggest that interac- tions might provide insight into a person���s inner world, that the intrapsychic impacts the interpersonal, and that the other���s involvement invites another series of internal and interper- sonal responses. Thus, the term ���transaction��� (i.e., exchange) became part of the unique branding of transactional analysis. However, I think this has created problems for TA. ���Trans- actional��� is not an everyday word. If I had a penny for every time someone has asked me what it means, I would be rich! Its main asso- ciation, and literature, is from the financial world. Do a Google search on ���transactional analysis��� and see what you get. As for the word ���analysis,��� I guess that at the time Berne was writing, it represented both an attempt to un- derscore the scientific basis of the theory and