Bern Biography briefly


Photo All Eric Bern - Biography Eric Bern - American and Canadian psychiatrist, writer, creator of the theory of transactional or scenario analysis. He held Freudian views in psychotherapy. Claude Steiner, Thomas Harris considered him his teacher. Childhood Eric was born in the year in the family of Russian-Polish emigrants in Canada. Father, David Bernstein, graduated from McGill University with a degree in medicine, worked as a general practitioner.

Mother, Sarah, was a successful writer and editor. She met her husband while studying at the university. Later, another child was born in this marriage - the daughter of Grace. Eric’s childhood can be called cloudless. He was very close to his father, often accompanied him on challenges in Montreal and environs. Their communication was very expensive for the boy. But in the year, David Burnstein died of tuberculosis, leaving his wife Sarah with two children in her arms.

Despite the difficult financial situation, she managed to raise her son and daughter without help from the outside, engaged in literature and editing other people's manuscripts. The education of the mother insisted that Eric become a doctor, continuing his father's work. At the end of general education, the young man went to the same University of McGill, where his parents studied.

At the local medical school, he first received a bachelor's degree, and then a doctoral, at the age of 25. After an annual internship, he went to the residency in the direction of psychiatry in the clinic at a medical school of prestigious Yale University. Here he spent the next 2 years. In the same period, he begins to work under a pseudonym, officially replacing his former name to a new one.

All his scientific works will come out on behalf of Eric Bern. In the United States, a young psychiatrist was not left without work.

Bern Biography briefly

At the end of his studies, he worked for 2 years - from software, as an assistant doctor in Massachusetts. The position in a rather calm sanatorium in Arlington Haits did not give much in practical terms, but allowed to successfully earn a living. Eric Bern, starting from the year, Bern becomes a private psychiatrist, while continuing to work in private and state institutions.

He served as a doctor in one of the profile sanatoriums of Connecticut, assisted Mount-Sinai in the New York legendary hospital. In the year, in the midst of World War II, Bern entered the Medical Corps of the American Army. Here he was a full -time psychiatrist. And by the end of the hostilities, he managed to go from the lieutenant to the major of the medical service. Demobilized, Eric Bern moves to California.

He chooses a small town of Karmel for life. In the United States, this place is especially known in that writers and artists loved to settle in it. Stevenson, Doris dect, Clint Eastwood, he even held the post of mayor. In a new place, Bern returns to study in the psychoanalytic community and the institute interrupted due to the war. In those years, he called Eric Erickson in those years.

In the year, Bern became a member of the American Association of Psychiatrists. Eric actively conducts private practice in two cities at once, goes to teaching. In the year, he also receives 2 positions: a full-time psychiatrist assistant at Mount Sion and a consultant working with the US Main Military Surgeon. And a year later, he became the attending physician and adjunct in the clinic for veterans in San Francisco.

More than 15 years of his life, Eric devoted his studies to psychoanalyst. But when in the year he tried to become a full-time psychoanalyst of the San Francisco Institute, Bern was considered not enough educated, proposing to continue education. He considered it an insult. And he devoted himself to writing scientific articles, not trying to continue his career in psychoanalysis. Since years, Bern chose to focus on literary and scientific work, practically pulling away from practice.

His own life during this period was far from ideal. But Eric withstood his frantic schedule. There were periods when Bern simultaneously performed his duties in the San Francisco hospital, gave lectures, led groups on psychoanalysis and therapy. The theory of transaction analysis during his studies Eric Bern attributed himself to the supporters of Freudism.

But he reviewed and transformed these ideas, creating his own theory of transactor or transactional psychoanalysis. It was based on the social interaction of the patient, and not on the analysis of his personality. Bern believed that any relationship is built on the basis of one of the 3 ego-condition: a child, an adult and a parent. The author of the theory called the interactions between them transactions.

And constantly arising patterns - games. For the first time, Bern put forward the idea of ​​transactional analysis in the year, in his 6 published articles on the study of intuition. In the future, he developed this theory. In the year, Bern finished an article on a transactional analysis, presenting it at the invitation of the American Association of Group Psychotherapy at the next regional meeting of society in Los Angeles.

The material was also later published in an authoritative profile publication. The new method has received official recognition.In the year, psychiatrists using transaction analysis founded the International Association. Interest in the method continued to grow. In the period from the mid -50s of the XX century, Bern held a series of seminars on its practical developments, and the new treatment method.

By the year, the first book dedicated to transactor analysis was ready. It was intended for a narrow circle of readers - professional psychotherapists. The subsequent work of Bern also touched on the topic of transactions, but in a deeper, expanded version. In fact, this method of analysis refers to classic examples of cognitive-behavioral therapy. Researchers argue that, when creating his work, Bern relied on the works of Federn and Weiss, as well as Penfield.

In total, Eric 8 full -fledged books, and another 56 scientific articles. On 10 of them he worked in co -authorship. Bern also personally edited the “Bulletin of Transaction Analysis” within 7 years of its existence. And only in his last year did he agree to go to the status of the editor of the consultant. The main book of the year Eric Bern publishes his fourth book, which suddenly became a bestseller.

Its name: “Games played by people” was directly related to those patterns that the author used in his work with clients. Despite the fact that the book was originally written for a professional community, it was to my liking the widest circle of readers. The publication received the status of a bestseller. In total, more than 5 copies were sold. The first describes the separation of the ego-roli in transactic analysis.

Here, questions are understood by how the adoption of a certain form of interaction affects communication between people. The second part of the book is devoted to the actual “intellectual games” or behavioral patterns, which often have hidden motivation. In fact, the whole theory is built on the fact that in any attempts to manipulate, a person should return to the position of an adult as early as possible, without falling into a child’s hysteria or the instructive tone of the parent.

In the names of games, quite long, Bern often uses abbreviations according to the first letters of words - acronymes. This, as well as the use of an informal language in the description of the patterns, has made the book so unusual, which is distinguished among other psychoanalysis works. And most importantly - accessible to understanding the mass reader. All games in the book are divided into several sections affecting the most diverse aspects of human being.

There are life and family patterns, sexy and parties, good and criminal. All games are applicable not only in the office of a psychoanalyst. They are also used for independent work with various behavioral problems. Pseudonyms in Eric Bern's biography have one remarkable fact - work under pseudonyms. There were several of them, most are quite ironic. For example, Cyprian Saint-Sir Cyprian is sincere.

The habit of taking pseudonyms appeared in a student. Below them there were publications of the future psychiatrist in local newspapers. That's just Eric Bern himself did not really exist. He officially took this name instead of his birth - Eric Lennard Burnstein, when a negative attitude towards the Jews arose in the United States. Under the new name, Bern hid his origin, continued to work successfully, publish books.

Traveling is indefatigable in his activities, Eric Bern spent a lot of time away from North America. He participated in the research and scientific work of hospitals, institutions, clinics around the world. He loved to travel, easily tolerated some hardships and hardships on the road. Most attracted by Eric of the country of the Middle Eastern region. Personal life, despite the fact that Bern easily taught others to achieve happiness in his personal life, his own biography does not look inspiring.

Eric entered into marriage 3 times.