The Goal of TA: Autonomy
By Karen Minikin, CTA TSTA (P) is a UKCP registered psychotherapist, Head of Psychotherapy at the Iron Mill College, Exeter and TA/psychodynamic supervisor
In the BACP code of ethics, Autonomy is cited as one of the important principles to hold in practice. The definition being:
"Autonomy: respect for the client's right to be self-governing."
In addition, autonomy was named - by Eric Berne in 1964 - as the goal of TA in practice. In the 1990s, as a counselling student, I accepted that autonomy was something good to strive for. The word had associations for me with independence and freedom. So, perhaps the word itself spoke to my struggles of that time.
However, as a generic goal for humanity, the word and meanings evoke other associations. The more I learnt from the fields of counselling and psychotherapy, the more I began to question the ethics and value of "autonomy”. Is the word, "autonomy" too singular, individualistic and western in its premise? I wasn't sure about it.
Some years later, I actually read what Berne had written on it. Three pages are devoted to the subject of autonomy in his best selling book, "Games People Play".
Despite the success of this book with its catchy title, "Games People Play" is my least favourite of Berne's books. The language is pejorative - though reflective of its time. However, within that book, the penultimate chapter describes autonomy. Three pages of concise, and meaningful description.
Autonomy is broken down into three components:
- Awareness;
- Spontaneity; and
- Capacity for intimacy.
These three words add something important to the meaning of autonomy. They convey and validate consciousness and relationship. Let's consider each in turn.
- Opening up the section on Awareness, Berne writes:
"Awareness means the capacity to see a coffeepot and hear the birds sing in one's own way"
(1964, p.158)
It is one of the few times that Berne takes liberty to be more soulful in his writing. He explains the kind of free joy with which a young child can hear the birds, before it gets spoilt by adults who might point out the names of the species they are listening to.
Berne always stipulated that the most important thing in working with patients/clients was awareness. Without that, consciousness is not alive to experience. In other words, coming to know your own mind can be a vital, life-giving experience. To know what we feel, think, need, desire is a path to something. Berne reminded me that having mind is a precious thing.
Furthermore, by adding spontaneity and capacity for intimacy, Berne stated that our minds do not exist in isolation, they relate to the environment and they need others to relate back.
- Berne's spontaneity is a free response to something. Part of Berne's writing on our troubles convey how much they are rooted in children having to adapt and conform to the grown-ups; in other words, the more powerful others. Spontaneity is about breaking free and being alive to nature, to others - to whatever inspires us. Spontaneity as free energy allows expression of our minds, talents our feelings. This is different from automated reaction or impulses, rather spontaneity is an expression of vitality; a responsiveness to the environment.
- Finally, intimacy is what so many of us long for. We are born knowing little else. Then we learn that intimacy bears risk, it becomes what we long for, yet fear. We fear intimacy because we have suffered pain from wanting closeness yet experiencing rejection. To long for love, a closeness in all our open vulnerability and then to be rejected can feel close to unbearable before we have formed our defences. This can be the cause of a deep sense of shame despite our longings being quite natural. So, we spend the rest of as lives trying to achieve the very thing we are born with.
The irony of this was never lost on Berne and this comes through in much of his writing - the paradoxical nature of our quests. And so, although autonomy captures a premise of individualism, its fuller meaning speaks to relatedness and is perhaps why many TA authors these days, (e.g. Keith Tudor) always pair autonomy with homonomy - the need to feel a connection, a similarity with, so that we can belong.
Written November 2024
