I'm OK... You're OK - Criticism

Criticism

Several decades have now elapsed since Harris published I'm OK, You're OK, so inevitably some of the cultural references which might have seemed new and relevant when the book was first published may now seem dated and less accessible to contemporary readers who do not remember the 1960s. In some places the book also has a US-centric view of the world. Finally, Harris' optimistic projection of TA as a near-universal panacea has not been realised (the panacea may have also been his attempt at finding a suitable ending to his book. A person of his experience - as in the observations of human nature he mentioned in the book—would very well know that a concept such as TA would not be sufficient to heal the entire world).

The work of Wilder Penfield concerning human memory, which appeared to Harris to give TA special credibility because it inferred a direct association with neuroscience, has not proved readily repeatable.

Harris's assertion that a child does not mature with the life position I'm OK - You're OK without therapy has been criticised as positioning TA as a quasi-religious soteriology. However the assertion is counter to other TA authorities. Harris' assertion that all children start out with an I'm not OK, You're OK life position was contested by his friend Eric Berne, the originator of TA, who believed that the natural state of a child was feeling I'm OK, You're OK.

Against these criticisms, this book is not intended as an academic or theoretical introduction to Transactional Analysis. Nor is it an attempt to deal with advanced topics of psychopathology. Rather, Harris emphasizes that his ambition is to offer a popular science interpretation of TA.

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