Excerpt with permission: Psychological Précipice: The Psychological Pursuit To Find The Best In You
Dr. Eric Berne many of us are familiar with because of his development of the Psychological theory Transactional Analysis, Ego States, and publishing efforts Games People Play (1964).
Dr. Berne received a M.D., and then completed his Psychiatric residency at Yale University. Dr. Berne contributed to our current understanding of Psychology and dedicated a lifetime to his body of work. He worked to gain the status of Psychological Analyst and challenged Freudian concepts of the unconscious in his writings. When he began training in 1941 at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute, and later when he resumed his training at the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute, Dr. Berne obviously believed that becoming a Psychological Analyst was important. However, perhaps partly due to his aggressive challenging of Freud’s widely respected body of work, Dr. Berne’s membership application to become a recognized professional Psychological Analyst was declined. He was informed he was not ready, but perhaps after three or four more years of personal analysis and training he might reapply.
As told, the rejection was galvanizing, spurring him to intensify his long standing ambition to add something new to the field of Psychoanalysis. In the end, Dr. Berne suffered a massive heart attack while completing galleys of his new manuscript he was editing from the comfort of his hospital bed.
Also in the end of his life’s work, Dr. Berne searched for a mate, for love, the never ending pursuit of accomplishing intellectual recognition from peers, in contributing to new levels of intellectual thought in society, and to establish a balance between his life work and finding love, once all seemed within his grasp.
We all play Psychological theatrics with our lives. We hold so tightly either to a plan, or a goal, that we in the process forget the importance of finding balance in our lives even more so for those of us who have grand plans of changing the world somehow. There is a saying that Psychological Growth is not for the selfish because we must always give up something familiar, change significantly, be of service to others, and have a strong commitment to contribute.
Notwithstanding, one will also run the risk of neglecting other important areas of ones life such as the struggle of finding balance, or maintaining important relationships in conjunction with other very important significant goals.
Think about it, this same dilemma is all around us. How many times have you heard the phrase if I would have known this was going to happen to me I would have done things differently. Even our brightest contributors to Psychology are not immune.
