Bert Hellinger Depth Psychology). He completed his training at the Münchner Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Psychoanalyse (Munich Psychoanalytic Training Institute) and was accepted as a practicing member of their professional association. In 1973, he left Germany for a second time and traveled to the United States to be trained for 9 months by Arthur Janov. There were many important influences that shaped his approach. One of the most significant was Eric Berne and Transactional Analysis. Nearing age 70, he had neither documented his insights and approach nor trained students to carry on his methods. He agreed for German psychiatrist Gunthard Weber to record and
Eric Berne said that ‘any social intercourse (…) has a biological advantage over no intercourse at all’, so, people need any form of ‘stroking’ (a physical contact, e.g., exchange) to live. In 1943 he changed his legal name from Eric Lennard Bernstein to Eric Berne. Berne had an irrepressible sense of humour, which was particularly evident in his writing. For example, in his article entitled "Who was condom?" Berne wrote about the contraceptive, the condom, and whether a man named "Condom" ever existed. While at McGill he wrote for several student newspapers using pseudonyms. He continued to write under pseudonyms such as