Interpretive Dynamic Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy (IDTAP)

Interpretive dynamic transactional analysis psychotherapy (IDTAP) (Zivkovic, 2020, 2022) is one of distinctly psychodynamic approaches to transactional analysis (TA) psychotherapy. It is based on Berne’s original theoretical concepts, which were psychoanalytically underpinned, and integrates modern psychodynamic, predominantly object relations, theories and research.

The focus of IDTAP is the resolution of internal psychological conflicts that underpin the individual’s presenting issues, for instance symptoms, functioning, and relationships issues, rather than focusing on the presenting issue itself.

Psychoanalytic Roots of TA and the Influence of Object Relations Tradition

Transactional analysis (Berne, 1961, 1966, 1972) is a psychological theory that was developed by Eric Berne and was originally developed as an approach to psychotherapy. However, even though it was initially developed with the aim of overcoming the shortcomings of psychoanalytic treatment, its foundations were strongly rooted in psychoanalysis.

A large part of the psychoanalytic influence on Berne was also the object relations tradition, predominantly, as Berne himself suggested, the theories of Melanie Klein (Berne, 1972). However, the analysis of his texts reveals that the influence of Ronald Fairbairn was, in fact, much greater (Zivkovic, 2023). This is most evident in Berne’s conceptualisation of basic positions and the concept of OKness (Berne, 1962, 1966, 1972).

How Berne’s Initial TA Theory Forms the Theoretical and Philosophical Foundation of IDTAP

Berne's original transactional analysis theory was based on distinct psychoanalytic theoretical and philosophical underpinnings that also form the foundation and theoretical base of interpretive dynamic transactional analysis psychotherapy (IDTAP).

Analytic Neutrality

As someone who was psychoanalytically-oriented and whose clinical practice was distinctly led by psychoanalytic thinking, Berne held the concept of analytic neutrality in high regard. His view was that the therapist needs to be neutral when it comes to the client’s internal conflicts. This means not only that the client is neither guided, controlled, or suggested to act a certain way, but also that the therapist refrains from overt support, comforting, or supplying the client with what they may have lacked in their past.

Berne’s view was that should the therapist deviate from neutrality, they would risk becoming parental, disavowing the client’s capacity for adult functioning (Berne, 1966). As such, Berne regarded approaches that rely on support as “intrinsically spurious” (Berne, 1966, p. 314), claiming that they carry “the deficit of over-looking or over-riding the archaic fantasies of the patient” (Berne, 1961, p. 21).

Because IDTAP focuses on bringing into awareness and working through the negative internal representations, and because therapeutic neutrality is essential in accessing these internal parts, IDTAP regards neutrality as one of the main elements of the therapeutic process.

Coming to Terms With Past Trauma and Unmet Needs

For Berne, the mechanisms of change were not in guiding the client, reassuring them, comforting them, or meeting their unmet needs—for instance, the need for recognition or to be ‘seen’, or the need to depend—but rather in facilitating the client to “give up his archaic gratifications” (Berne, 1966; p. 303).

Berne’s view was that the client needs to come to terms with the unmet needs rather than for them to attempt to have them met in their present relationships. This includes working through and eventually coming to terms with past injustices and traumatic experiences, which often entails a process of grieving. Such view of internal conflict resolution is one that is distinctly psychoanalytic and based on analytic neutrality.

IDTAP similarly stipulates that the therapist acts as someone who facilitates the client in the process of working through their past adverse experiences, rather than meeting the client's unmet needs, as that may, at times, leave the client feeling dependent, infantile, and potentially feeling incompetent and powerless.

The Focus of Change is Personality Functioning

Berne developed TA as a response to the shortcomings of psychoanalysis, one of which he saw in the long duration of psychoanalytic treatment. According to his initial theoretical thinking, the aim of transactional analysis was to achieve symptomatic relief, whilst he attributed the working through and change of the underlying internal conflicts to psychoanalysis. His view was that internal conflicts should be resolved through the psychodynamic interpretive process.

As such, his view was that the deeper change—the change which he referred to as deconfusion (Berne, 1961)—happens as the client becomes aware of their internal conflicts and works through them, a part of which is also them coming to terms with the unmet needs from the past. This is distinctly different from supportive psychotherapeutic approaches.

IDTAP, as an approach, similarly, focuses on facilitating change for the client by addressing the underlying internal conflicts rather than the symptoms, functioning, or relationship difficulties that may be caused by these internal conflicts. This does not mean that the client’s presenting issues are not addressed. It only means that they are addressed by focusing predominantly on their roots.

Attention to the Unconscious Fantasy

One of Berne's most potent theories is the theory on the unconscious fantasy, which he referred to as the Santa Claus fantasy (Berne, 1966). Berne (1966) stated:

“In the Santa Claus fantasy, the individual bases his behavior and his plans on the assumption that if he behaves a certain way he will eventually be presented with a unique object that will bring him the highest degree of happiness.” (p. 283)

Berne tried to use language in as descriptive a manner as possible in order to bring commonly inaccessible psychoanalytic terms closer to the layperson. However, what often occurred was quite the opposite: his simplification of language obscured the complexity of the concepts he was describing. This, unfortunately, also happened in the case of the Santa Claus fantasy.

What Berne referred to with the Santa Claus fantasy was the individual's unconscious fantasy; a fantasy that the individual aspires to achieve, believing it would bring them the ultimate satisfaction or attribute meaning to their life. This may, for instance, be a person searching for a soulmate, or another person searching for financial freedom, assuming that this would finally get them to where they always wanted to be. These are merely fantasies, the achievement of which may not serve a conscious practical purpose but rather an unconscious need fulfilment.

Berne’s Santa Claus fantasy doesn’t seem to have a parallel in object relations theory that would give it the respect it deserves. Celani (2016), who is a great interpreter of Fairbairn’s work came somewhat close with the following statement: “The exciting object acts as a point of hope in the individual’s bleak world” (p. 351).

The concept of the unconscious fantasy plays an important role in the IDTAP therapeutic process. An exploration of the client's unconscious motives in how they live their life and engage in relationships, and the resolution of such fantasies, is an important part of the client working through their internal conflicts.

Theoretical and Philosophical Foundations of IDTAP

IDTAP is based on some of Berne's initial theories, which were underpinned by psychoanalytic and psychodynamic theories and philosophy. This means that some of the core concepts in IDTAP are the respect for neutrality and its value in a clinical setting, the use of interpretive interventions in achieving the resolution of internal conflicts, and the psychodynamic clinical applicability of the concept of OKness.

This theoretical framework represents a good foundation for the integration of modern psychodynamic approaches. As such, IDTAP combines Berne's original theories with modern psychodynamic approaches, especially from the field of object relations. In this regard, going beyond Berne's initial theories of change which revolved around the interpretive process, IDTAP also includes relational elements introduced by Fairbairn, for instance, the use of the therapeutic relationship as the 'real' relationship.

IDTAP Contrasted With Other Transactional Analysis Approaches

Since Berne initially conceptualised transactional analysis, TA has evolved from a distinctly psychodynamic approach into a humanistic one. During this evolution, the psychodynamic TA approaches, especially those that may be more interpretive in nature, have not completely faded away, but they have faded into the background.

Nonetheless, the abundance of approaches practised under the umbrella of TA spans from those purely psychodynamic, at one end of the spectrum, to those distinctly humanistic, at the other. Additionally, cognitive-behavioural approaches have also evolved in the process.

This stipulates that psychodynamic TA approaches, which includes IDTAP, are paradoxically far less similar to their humanistic counterparts than they are to classical psychodynamic psychotherapy. Similarly, humanistic TA psychotherapy is theoretically and philosophically relatively closer related to other humanistic psychotherapies than it is to the TA approaches at the psychodynamic end of the spectrum. In fact, humanistic TA approaches are much more dissimilar to Berne’s original transactional analysis than they are to other humanistic psychotherapies.

Similar to Berne's initially conceptualised transactional analysis, IDTAP can therefore be regarded as a form of psychodynamic psychotherapy rather than humanistic. While it also incorporates humanistic elements, these elements do not prevail nor influence the underlying psychodynamic theoretical framework.

Ales Zivkovic, MSc (TA Psych), CTA(P), PTSTA(P), Psychotherapist, Counsellor, Supervisor

Ales Zivkovic is a psychotherapist, counsellor, and clinical supervisor. He holds an MSc in Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy awarded by Middlesex University in London. He is also a Provisional Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst (PTSTA-P) and a Certified Transactional Analyst in the field of Psychotherapy (CTA-P). Ales gained extensive experience during his work with individuals and groups in the UK National Health Service (NHS) and his private psychotherapy, counselling, and clinical supervision practice in central London, UK. He was also a member of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP). Ales works with individuals, couples, and groups. In clinical setting, he especially focuses on the treatment of issues of childhood trauma, personality disorders, and relationship issues. A large proportion of his practice involves online psychotherapy as he works with clients from all over the world. Ales developed a distinct psychotherapeutic approach called interpretive dynamic transactional analysis psychotherapy (IDTAP). More about Ales, as well as how to reach him, can be found here.

References:

Berne, E. (1961). Transactional analysis in psychotherapy: A systematic individual and social psychiatry. Grove Press.

Berne, E. (1962). Classification of positions. Transactional Analysis Bulletin, 1(3), 23.

Berne, E. (1966). Principles of group treatment. Grove Press.

Berne, E. (1972). What do you do after you say hello? The psychology of human destiny. Grove Press.

Celani D. P. (2016). Fairbairn’s theory of change. Psychoanalytic Review, 103(3), 341–370. https://doi.org/10.1521/prev.2016.103.3.341

Zivkovic, A. (2020). Developmental trauma and the bad object: Attachment, identity, reenactments. Transactional Analysis Journal, 50(3), 251–265. https://doi.org/10.1080/03621537.2020.1771033

Zivkovic, A. (2022). The use of interpretive dynamic transactional analysis psychotherapy (IDTAP) in facilitating structural integration when working with reenactments of developmental trauma in the psychotherapeutic setting. Transactional Analysis Journal, 52(2), 120–133. https://doi.org/10.1080/03621537.2022.2046318

Zivkovic, A. (2023). OKness Revised: Analysis and Evolution of Berne’s Concept of OKness, the Basic Positions, and the Related Reenactments of Berne’s Internal World in the Transactional Analysis Community. Transactional Analysis Journal, 53(3), 286–300. https://doi.org/10.1080/03621537.2023.2214420