Eric Berne and Effective Method of Group Therapy," which was presented by invitation at the 1957 Western Regional Meeting of the American Group Psychotherapy Association of Los Angeles. With the publication of this paper in the 1958 issue of the American Journal of Psychotherapy, Berne's new method of diagnosis and treatment, transactional analysis, became a permanent part of the psychotherapeutic literature. In addition to restating his concepts of ego states and structural analysis, the 1958 paper added the important new features of transactional analysis proper (i.e. the analysis of transactions), games, and scripts. His seminar group from the 1950s developed the term
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