 Hello and welcome to Manchester Institute for Psychotherapy TV and as always it's a Tuesday evening and I've got Bob Cook with me who is going to do yet another book review. So welcome Bob, how are you? Welcome Rory, I'm fine. I'm sitting in my lovely warm room in Dizby and I'm going to do another book review for sixth. So I'm very pleased. Yes it's the sixth book review and those of you watching might notice that Bob's in glorious high definition video. He's bought himself a new webcam haven't he Bob? I've just had some trials and tribulations about installing him but now it's up and you've told me I look very sharp so I'm very pleased. You do Bob. So which book are you going to review tonight? What book is it that you're going to share with us? Well this is one of my favourites, going back a couple of decades now. Written by Ian Stewart, the same person who wrote TA Today which I reviewed earlier. It's a book he wrote in 1992 published in 1992 and it's simply called Burn, B-E-R-N-E and he's talking about the originator of transaction analysis as we know. And what I like particularly about this book is that it's not just paperbacks so it's fairly short so it's accessible to read. But he talks about the evolution of TA up to 1992 and he talks about the different schools and approaches of TA which have developed into 1992. So I'm not talking about the relational school which came in 2008 but we're talking about the approaches up to 1992 and he goes into in some depth the different branches of transaction analysis which evolved from the classical TA of Burn that we know 1960 onwards. That's interesting because a lot of people watching may believe that like a lot of therapists there's only one version of it and there's one template. But I know through our time speaking together there's lots of different versions. I'm not a TA therapist but I know of one off the top med which is the Redecision School and there's more of them. So the first thing the book really does is explore the different schools and the last great leap I think was the Relational School wasn't it in 2008. So what are the different schools there Bob? I'm sure that I'm fascinated to know about this because like everybody else I assume there's only one but share with us Bob. So if somebody comes up to you and says I'm a TA therapist I want you to say back to him what style of TA therapist you are. So I'll tell you what denotes a TA therapist first of all. It's a person that thinks ego states, thinks transaction analysis proper that's the analysing of transactions and communications, thinks about games which is repetitive sequence of patterns and thinks about script which is the unconscious life plan. Now if that person thinks those four things you could call them a TA therapist. Those are the major hallmarks of transaction analysis psychotherapy how Bern originated in 1961. Now after that when he died in 1970 different approaches started to develop. Now they all have the same hallmark I've just explained. Think about ego states, scripts, games. However the style of TA and the focus of transaction analysis in terms of methodology differed. So quite likely in 1971 you had the Redecision School which came about around the 70s. You have the Shiffian School which is the Parenting School if you like. Concentration on the Parenting Estate. You have the Integrative School which is more like the Urschian Integrated Focus which came along and of course you still had the Classical Schools you had four. So what this book does very neatly is does an overview of these different approaches or schools if you like of transaction analysis which still carry the hallmark of that theoretical standpoint I talked about but the style is different. So why is it important or do you think it's important that students of TA know the different schools? Is it important that anybody training to be a TA therapist has an understanding of the different approaches within TA? Yeah certainly for example purposes definitely you're able to chart the evolution of transaction analysis within different schools and approaches from 1991 to where we are today. So if you go to an exam to become a clinical practitioner you may be asked questions like that. So from that point of view trainees studying TA need to know the evolution, the different approaches, the different focuses and the different emphasis. So that's very important. In terms of a layman knowing it's interesting. It's interesting in the history of a modern psychotherapy and the evolution it goes through and it's also interesting different focuses the different approaches put on it. So Eric Byrne for example will concentrate on strengthening the adult eager state. Re-decision psychotherapy as you mentioned earlier on would concentrate on that the change, the decisions is understanding the child eager state. Integrated approach would look at its focus on integration and the integration of the whole. So you've got different focuses that's interesting in itself but I think most interesting for the layman will be looking at the history and how transaction analysis is developed from as I said from 1961 to 1992 when that book is written. So it sounds to me like any students who's a serious pupil or students of TA would benefit from reading this book. We'll just put the book up now and the details and also we'll put a link in the bar below on YouTube. And you can click on that and then you can go and buy it. So there it is. We'll take that picture down now. And so it sounds to me like there's two reasons that people may buy this book. One is those people are really interested in being students of TA and boning up for exams. And also the layperson who may just be interested in psychological interventions or the history of psychotherapy. And that gives a deeper understanding of what can apply on the surface to be a single theory. Correct. The third one I'd like to mention that this book is very good at. It has quite an extended chapter on the advantages and disadvantages of transaction analysis psychotherapy. Now many books that people read concentrate on the advantages of this wonderful psychotherapy model. In this book, very accessible talks about the rebuttals and the criticisms of TA. Now that's a very important because if you're going to study transaction analysis as trainee, you need to know a critical sense of some of the rebuttals of transaction analysis over the last 30 or 40 years. And that's really important. And it writes this in a very accessible style. This isn't a deep textbook. This is 100 pages and very accessible. So easy to access. It covers everything around any exams that may be up for that. And also most modern curriculums have built into them a critique. You've got to criticise your own modality, haven't you nowadays, and say where it will work and where it might not. So it looks like it's the complete package, Bob, in terms of... I studied that book when I went for my clinical exams the two or three weeks before I went to my clinical exams where I would be asked live about rebuttals and criticisms of world's advantages of modern TA. And I studied that book. It's a wonderful, accessible book. So easy to access, easy to understand, not written in very wordy academic language. Not at all. And useful for last-minute revision for your exams. And in my case it was. So it worked. Well, it sounds like a wonderful book. It's by our friends at Sage, which is a serious book publisher. What else you'd like to say about the book? Any other pearls of wisdom that's lodged within its pages, Bob? I like the front of it. It's got a very good picture of Eric Byrne on it. So for people who don't know what Eric Byrne looked at, so many people might not, it's got a lovely hand drawn. I don't know who drew it. Picture of Eric Byrne in a study mode. So that's nice. I like that. And I think I really do believe it puts TA in context, as I've just said, within 1991 to 1992. That in itself, because I'm a historical buff, is really nice. Yeah. So it's good to have if you're a student. It's good to have if you're looking at the history of psychotherapy. It sounds like it's nice to own. I mean, there's something to be said about having a book that you pick up and you feel real connected to. And also it's one that you could just take with you before you sit for your exams. Have a quick flip through and do what will be colloquially. Do a Bob Cook bone up before and pass you exams. And you get a good sense of who Eric Byrne was as well. Yes. Yeah. Get a sense of the sense of the way of being of him. Who he was. Clearly you would through this book. Yeah. So it's highly recommended. We'll put a link in the link below and you can go click on and have a look. I always say on these interviews that this isn't a paid advert. You have two for YouTube now in case they take you off the YouTube. But this is just Bob sharing his passion for books. So Bob Cook. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Bye bye.