Transactional analysis: Eric Berne

Abstract

Eric Berne was born Eric Lennard Bernstein in Montreal, Canada, in 1910. He grew up in a poor Jewish quarter of Montreal, where his father was a GP and his mother a professional writer and editor. He studied English, psychology and premedicine at McGill University, Montreal, gaining a BA in 1931. He obtained his MD and Master of Surgery degree in 1935 from the same university. He then went to the School of Medicine at Yale University, where he became a psychiatric resident. He changed his name to Berne to avoid the anti-Semitism of the period and began a private psychiatric practice in Norwalk, Connecticut. He served as a psychiatrist in the Army Medical Corps during the Second World War, after which he went to California and resumed his practice. He also accepted a position as consultant in psychology and neurology to the US Army. He began working on group therapy during the 1950s, and underwent training analysis with Erik Erikson. He continued his writing and private practice until his death in 1970.