Here is the third and final video I mentioned about Transactional Analysis. It explain what a “gimmick” is, and the author’s views about why he thinks it’s more important to focus on our own gimmicks, rather than other people’s games or ulterior motives.
Transactional Analysis 3:
If you want to read more about Transactional Analysis, the best places to start are with these books:
Games People Play by Eric Berne
Scripts People Live by Claude Steiner
TA Today by Ian Stewart and Vann Joinez
Those are less about therapy and more just about the theory of transactions and now to analyze them. (Although, ultimately Transactional Analysis was designed for therapists, so it’s all kind of geared around therapy to some extent.)
Some very good books specifically about therapy from a Transactional Analysis perspective (but also incorporating ideas from Gestalt therapy) are:
Changing Lives With Redecision Therapy by Bob and Mary Goulding, and
Born to Win by Muriel James and Dorothy Jongeword