Claude Steiner, Emotional Activist

From the first pages of this book, I felt moved by the honest self-biography of Claude Steiner, put together in a beautifully co-creative edition by Keith Tudor, who himself contributes a number of chapters and also integrates chapters written by other colleagues. Some of the contributors review and critique different aspects of Claude's contributions to transactional analysis, while others share their own experiences of Claude's passionate interest for radical psychiatry, which inspired his life and work. I found this book very interesting, being eager to continue reading till the end. Through this book readers will also learn about and understand the influence that Claude had, not least in the evolution of transactional analysis in Latin America - he himself was fluent in Spanish and able to speak like a native, and, indeed, most of his books and many of his articles have been translated into Spanish. It is very interesting to understand how the life story of famous authors in psychology influenced their theories, either consciously or unconsciously. For Claude, beyond his own family history, the influence of Eric Berne as his mentor was decisive in his life, as well as the sociopolitical context of the San Francisco Bay area in the 1960s. This is an extraordinary book; one that provides the background to understanding the life and work of a great man, as well as the transgenerational script of transactional analysis itself, through at least three generations. --Gloria Noriega, Winner of the Eric Berne Memorial Award 2008, Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst, Mexico City, Mexico My gratitude to Keith for bringing together this excellent volume. Claude had a rare ability to talk to many different audiences while never compromising his essential political values. Relating the different pieces of his legacy to the varied voices collected here gives us a portrait of Claude infused with his commitment to cooperation and his talent for relationship. --Beth Roy, San Francisco, USA I am excited that Keith Tudor has invested such a huge amount of time and energy to put this great book together to make the challenging ideas of the emotional activist Claude Steiner about power, love, and emotional literacy known to a broader audience. The theory and practice of emotional literacy have had a great positive influence on my professional life as a psychotherapist working with couples and groups as well as on my personal relationships. Keith Tudor's book will provide a stimulus for engagement with and intensive discussion concerning these important concepts and Claude Steiner's life and work. --Anne Kohlhaas-Reith, Medical Doctor, Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst, Waldkirch, Germany Structurally, this work is fascinating. There are thematic seams that thicken and then narrow throughout the book, and Steiner's voice is (unexpectedly) intensified through the interpolations of other voices. The best way to see one colour is to contrast it with others, and in a sense, that is what the editor has achieved here. The biographical (and autobiographical) material on Steiner is obviously part of a mosaic that combines with his ideas and perspectives. This approach works exceptionally well. Like all mosaics, up close it can appear fragmented, but there is a definite method in the organisation of those fragments, and that shines through clearly. This is a daring, and most evocative of someone's life. Professor Keith Tudor and his fellow-travellers have served up an extraordinary rendition of an even more extraordinary individual. Claude Steiner features prominently in this book, both directly in his own words, and refracted through the recollections of those who encountered this unique individual. The enormously diverse perspectives that are offered on Steiner's life and work achieve - through skilful editorial alchemy - a lasting impression of an author, activist, psychiatrist, and above all, someone who ceaselessly explored what it meant to be all too human. --Professor Paul Moon, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand While providing us with many authors' plentiful reviews of his work in transactional analysis, radical therapy, emotional literacy, power, and other important areas of human behavior, what is extraordinary about this book is how my colleague Claude, following his dictum of no lies , candidly and unabashedly reveals to the reader, his Confessions of a Psychomechanic in many intimate aspects of his life. Not only does the reader get excellent summaries of Claude's timeless contributions from various authors, but also interspersed among them are autobiographical details, such as his death with dignity, that humanize both him and his legacy. --Leonard Campos, PhD