As a young psychotherapist, Eric Berne and his work represent to me a contribution to the endurance of the ego construct—not free from conflict, as postulated by Sigmund Freud (1910, 1922, 1937, 1938)—within contemporary psychotherapies. Transactional Analysis (TA) places the ego among its central constructs. This is systematized differently from Freud, thanks to the contributions of Paul Federn (1952), who was Berne's analyst, and Edoardo Weiss (1950). Significant passages in Federn's (1952) work clearly reflect Berne's way of thinking about the ego. However, the Bernean ego remains Freudian and psychoanalytic (Novellino, 1998).

Berne outlined his conceptualization of ego states in various publications (Berne, 1957, 1961, 1964), having previously considered the ego in psychoanalytic terms throughout his early writings. In dynamic psychology manuals, Berne is not always associated with Freud, likely because TA differs from psychoanalysis in its methodology and therapeutic process. However, reading Berne reveals the clear origins of the transactional analytic idea. To date, Berne has successfully ensured that the richness of Freud's ego remains a central part of psychotherapy.

With his theory of ego states, Berne provided a broad interpretive framework through profound descriptions of a person's developmental stages. From a theoretical standpoint, this allows for an understanding of the psychoanalytic metaphorical psychic system, including the deep non-representational unconscious, the past unconscious (Sandler & Sandler, 1987), the present unconscious (Grispini, 2018), and the conscious mind. TA can be considered preparatory to psychoanalysis and fits within various psychotherapy contracts, such as psychoanalytic, expressive, and supportive psychotherapy, as outlined by Wallerstein (2012) and Kernberg (2004). Furthermore, TA itself encompasses several orientations: psychoanalytic, integrative, relational, body-relational, co-creative, and narrative (Grégoire, 2009).

The versatility of Berne's theory and his conceptualization of the ego allow psychotherapists to use it for both adaptive and transformative psychological work on the internal world. In short, it enables work aimed at eliminating symptoms as well as transformative therapeutic work focused on the meaning of the symptoms and the internal psychic structure (Blandino, 2009). Therefore, Berne's psychoanalytic ego remains actively present within various forms of contemporary psychological and psychotherapeutic work without bypassing psychoanalysis.

To me, Eric Berne represents an authentic link between contemporary psychotherapy and the Freudian psychoanalytic ego, allowing the construct to remain alive across different clinical perspectives and therapeutic goals. As psychotherapies achieve increasing scientific validation, I find it vital that psychoanalytic depth remains present beyond strictly Freudian approaches. Berne profoundly details the importance of each ego state. I am particularly struck by his description of the psychodynamics of intuition (Berne, 1962) and how he defines the Child ego state as the most valuable part of the personality (Berne, 1972). Ultimately, Berne is one of the authors who best enables the integration of Freud's ego into modern psychotherapy, presenting a powerful opportunity for anyone willing to seize it.