I'm OK--You're OK

Thomas Harris

HarperCollins, Jul 6, 2004 - Body, Mind & Spirit - 320 pages

Transactional Analysis delineates three observable ego-states (Parent, Adult, and Child) as the basis for the content and quality of interpersonal communication. "Happy childhood" notwithstanding, says Harris, most of us are living out the Not ok feelings of a defenseless child, dependent on ok others (parents) for stroking and caring. At some stage early in our lives we adopt a "position" about ourselves and others that determines how we feel about everything we do. And for a huge portion of the population, that position is "I'm Not OK -- You're OK." This negative "life position," shared by successful and unsuccessful people alike, contaminates our rational Adult capabilities, leaving us vulnerable to inappropriate emotional reactions of our Child and uncritically learned behavior programmed into our Parent. By exploring the structure of our personalities and understanding old decisions, Harris believes we can find the freedom to change our lives.

What people are saying

Review: I'm OK - You're OK

User Review  - Mike Barretta - Goodreads

This is a quick-ish introduction to Transactional Analysis and its Parent-Adult-Child "ego-state" model. The model is simple, but strangely powerful in its explanatory power.

Review: I'm OK - You're OK

User Review  - Monica - Goodreads

This book really helps me to change my points of view in 360°... I adore this book, I took me some time to go over but I did carefully because It made positive changes in my life and I could understood things that I never did before.

Contents

• Freud Penfield and Berne: 1
• Parent Adult and Child: 18
• structural Diagram of the Personality: 21
• The Child: 27
• Gradual Emergence of the Adult Beginning at Ten Months: 32
• The Adult Gets Data from Three Sources: 33
• The Updating Function of the Adult Through Reality Testing: 35
• The Four Life Positions: 39
• Births of the individual from Conception to Age Five: 43
• we Can Change: 57
• Prejudice: 61
• Analyzing the Transaction: 69
• ParentParent Transaction: 72
• AdultAdult Transaction: 75
• ChildChild Transaction: 76
• ChildParent Transaction: 81
• ParentChild Transaction: 82
• ChildAdult Transaction: 83
• AdultParent Transaction: 84
• Crossed Transaction: 85
• Crossed Transaction: 86
• PatientNurse: 87
• TherapistPatient: 88
• ManAttendant: 90
• Adolescent ClrlFriend: 91
• Little BoyLittle Girl: 92
• veronaBabbitt: 93
• HusbandWife: 94
• HusbandWife: 95
• HOW we Differ: 102
• Contamination: 104
• ParentContaminated Adult with a BlockedOut Child: 106
• ChildContaminated Adult with a BlockedOut Parent: 107
• The BlockedOut or Decommissioned Adult: 110
• How we use Time 11 s 8 PAC and Marriage: 128
• PAC and Children: 146
• PAC and Adolescents: 179
• When is Treatment Necessary?: 202
• PAc and Moral values: 220
• Social implications of PAc: 250
• index: 275
• SonFather 88: 284

About the author

The late Thomas Harris was a Navy psychiatrist and a professor at the University of Arkansas. He practiced psychiatry in Sacramento, California and directed the Transactional Analysis Association.

Bibliographic information

• Title: I'm OK--You're OK
• Author: Thomas Harris
• Edition: reprint, illustrated
• Publisher: HarperCollins, 2004
• ISBN: 0060724277, 9780060724276
• Length: 320 pages
• Subjects: Body, Mind & Spirit / General; Psychology / Personality; Self-Help / General