This book takes the reader on a decolonising journey from the radical roots of transactional analysis to intersectional transactional analysis on the ground, challenging social constructs and constructed truths.
Contemporary Transactional Analysis Through an Intersectional Lens: Deconstruction and Reconstruction of Theory and Practice, is framed by social, cultural, political, and historical contexts, and accounts for systemic oppression – the onslaught of colonisation, supremacies, and systemic racism – which has not been adequately addressed in TA and psychotherapy. Victoria Baskerville draws on social justice and the role of activism, influenced by queer theory, critical race theory, and critical disability studies, to challenge binary social constructs and further contemporary practice. This book amplifies voices of the marginalised and the complexity of intersectional power dynamics, and honours our ancestry and the responsibility we hold as coloniser or colonised – and in many instances, both. Reflecting on the idea that 'all oppression is connected', it invites the opening up of mind and heart through the practice of radically open and non-defended dialogue, the call to move from 'I' to 'we' – a collective awakening – and asking, in each unique encounter: who holds the power? And, ultimately, what is my part in this intersectional dyad?
This book will be an important resource for psychotherapists, counsellors, transactional analysts, and other mental health professionals, students, and educators taking the decolonising journey.