If you already read ''I'm OK, You're OK'', skip th. Review on Staying OK - Thomas Harris

Transactional analysis is what this book is about. If you have read or heard about ''Games People Play'' by Dr. Eric Berne, or ''I'm OK, You're OK'' by Thomas A Harris, TA(Transactional Analysis) needs no introduction.

If not, well, TA is a technique for psychoanalysis that can be used by any layman.

Whereas Games People Play was a technical, in the sense that a lot of examples from daily life were used to illustrate the psychological patterns, called games, I'm OK You're OK was less so, and Staying OK leaves out a little more of the technicalities, and tries to explain the concepts in plain English, with the help of diagrams and photographs.

This book is not a fix-it book that claims to make everything OK ( OK in this context is different for ok, as are the terms Parent, Adult and Child).

It tries to explain using the PAC (Parent Adult Child) concept - the basic patterns of behavior.

The underlying thesis is that everybody has a little child inside them ( that is the Child), and a parent - may be two or maybe 6 - if you include grandparents ( that is called Parent).

Both the Parent and Child contain outdated data, whereas the Adult is the thinking person who has the ability to distinguish between right and wrong, using the relevant data, taking care not to bring anguish to the Parent and the Child inside.

Essentially, the book tries to drive home the message that change is possible in one's life if one lets the Adult take over. It doesn't matter what has happened historically, ie what the Parent and the Child thinks.

This is different from the traditional psychology schools which lay a lot of importance to historical data.

This book tries to show various patterns in most peoples' life and decision making strategies - for example, ''if only'' , ''yes but'', ''when x happens I'll do y''.

Instead of berating the users for having these scripts in their lives, the author tries to explain the origin of such scripts right from childhood, and then the author explains what can be done about them, how change is possible.

Basically the theme of the book is, ''We start living when we experience intimacy, and that happens when we stop playing games, and stop indulging in rituals, and this book helps you understand how to do that.'' In this context, the terms, intimacy, games, and rituals have a different psychological connotation, but the meaning conforms more or less to the colloquial usage of these terms.

Overall, a good book to read if you have an open mind and are looking for something with a scientific basis, and not just words.

Last, but not the least, this book is fun to read. The examples of behaviour are extremely amusing, but on introspection, they seem to have a relevance in one's own life and therefore appear less so.