Cultivating Cultures of Courage with Transactional Analysis

The author maintains that the heart of transactional analysis is in helping people develop the courage to risk positive change, not only at the individual level but also at the collective cultural level. Focusing on the cultural level, he views some authoritarian cultures as derivatives of restrictive family structures bound by scripts and compares these to a therapeutic group culture that can serve as a model for how modern egalitarian cultures can allow for positive social change. With a social structural analysis, he identifies impasses to such change, distinguishing some differences between cultures of fear and cultures of courage. Listing the different forms of courage needed for countering injunctions that impede such change, the author accounts for the reality of authority structures and power influences. He describes some of the ethical dilemmas we face when we encourage cultural change, citing recent research in courage, including its role in organizational change.