The Angel, Bull and Lion, with the culmination of the Eagle. Early representation of the T.A. grid, Vatopedi Monastry, Mt. Athos (1213 AD). While early ideas of global youth culture centered around discussion of mass celebrations of mind-expansion followed by mind-contraction, it was later in the 1980s that a new way to analyse youth culture was found using the transactional analysis grid.
The transactional analysis grid was developed in the 1950s by psychologists such as Eric Berne, Thomas Harris and Timothy Leary. It grew out of a simple model from the past developed by Freud. However, its origins can be traced back thousands of years to Medieval art.
One of Freud's main contributions to psychology centre around his idea that we come through two main stages of development in infancy. He called these the Oral and Anal stages of growth. We enter the Oral (biosurvival) stage the moment we are born. It is known as the oral stage because the human baby (along with other mammals) hooks onto the teat for survival at birth via the mouth. We continue to exercise this system later in life through sucking pens, sweets, cigarettes etc. The most easily available tranquiliser is to simply suck on something.
The imprinting of this system early in life creates a one dimensional environment in which interaction with the outside world is largely based on attraction (mom's breast good) and repulsion (corner of the television not so good). As the baby moves into infancy the second system imprints itself. It occurs during the toilet training stage hence Freud's idea to name it the Anal system. It's at this point in life that we enter the family pecking order. As such we move towards either top of the pack or towards the bottom. Other mammals such as chimps and dogs go through the same learning process.Human 'top dogs' dominate other members of their tribe by staring at them overtly, squaring up the shoulders, puffing up the chest, pointing their fingers and using strong anal language. It's no coincidence that the imbalanced extremes of this system can be found within most armies, in which oneself and ones surroundings are described in overtly anal terms. Dominating chimps like to throw their faeces at their enemy while brutal human apes tend to drop bombs and call it 'dumping on the enemy'. 'Bottom dogs' submit by way of cringing, mumbling and crawling. Think of Private Eye's column, 'The Order of the Brown Nose'.
The imprinting of the Oral stage of growth is strongly influenced by the infant's mother, while the father is thought to have a strong influence on the second, Anal stage.
These two systems (in Jungian terms called, sensation and emotion) can be brought together to create the transactional analysis grid. The grid has four quadrants labeled as friendly weakness, hostile weakness, friendly strength and hostile strength. The following diagram shows the transactional analysis grid treated as a simple mandala. The circle in the middle represents an area of central balance which lies between the four different moods.
Although early psychologists based their ideas on Freudian analysis, it seems likely that Timothy Leary was the first person to notice the link between archaic symbolism and the transactional analysis grid.
The grid above shows the main characters used to personify the inner animal within Western culture. These four symbols of the Angel, Bull, Lion and Eagle first appeared in the book of Ezekial in the Christian Bible. Later they crept into other books and works of art such as the Celtic Book of Kells, the Bible Historiale and the mystical system of the Tarot in Italy.
The Gentle Angel represents friendly weakness; it is unearthly and 'fluffy'. The Sullen Bull represents hostile weakness; it shows sluggish stupidity and 'underdog' anger. The Noble Lion represents friendly strength; it shows 'good' strength and pride. The Mighty Eagle represents hostile strength; it is 'high and mighty' and shows its claws from above. Medieval artists had an endearing way of showing these four archetypes interacting with the four apostles (Matthew-Angel, Luke-Bull, Mark-Lion and John-Eagle) by displaying the apostles taking dictated guidance from their assigned animal friend.
In Medieval times the four elements were also assigned to the four transactional analysis archetypes. Water was assigned to the Gentle Angel to emphasise how this archetype, 'goes with the flow'. Earth was assigned to the earthy, cynical Bull. Fire was assigned to the powerful, warmhearted Lion. Air was assigned to the Eagle to emphasise this archetype's mightiness from above.We can see here that transactional analysis is not as new as some people might think. It has a romantic counterpart in the past. Usually, these yearnings to understand the animal or atavistic side of the human condition, would be clouded in mystery, and passed down from monk elders to younger clerks in the Christian tradition. Quite often the four archetypes have also popped up within folklore. For example the Irish tradition well understands transactional analysis and has long talked about the four bones: the tail bone of friendly weakness (the friendly weakling likes to sit around while others take the lead); the jaw bone of hostile weakness (the hostile weakling likes to complain and mouth off a lot of the time); the back bone of the friendly strength (the friendly strength moves between people offering support and help) and the elbow bone of hostile strength (the hostile strength takes the lead and elbows to the front).
In the 1950s Timothy Leary developed a complex system of analysis based on the transactional analysis grid. He noticed that each quadrant of the grid contained balanced and extreme attributes. From this he developed his Interpersonal Grid which divides the original raw grid into 16 quadrants. The extreme attributes of all quadrants are shown towards the outside of the grid and the more balanced attributes are shown towards the middle. When using this grid for self analysis it helps to remember that it was offered by Timothy Leary as a convenient guide to our inner animal and not as a rigid map.
Using the Interpersonal Grid for analysis we soon notice that most people have a favourite quadrant where they like to dwell. To become more fluid and happy in life we have to leave our favourite quadrant behind and develop the ability to move around the whole grid in a central manner.
Mystics in the past took the attitude of trying to meet the four animal 'guardians' of their personal mandalic grids. They thought they had to encounter and gain self-knowledge of their inner animal before they could be illuminated. Hence the pictures from the medieval period show the four apostles in dialogue with their inner guides. Other similar pictures pop up in the Buddhist tradition which show the four quadrants of the grid inhabited by four demons which evidently serve the same purpose. On a personal level we have to encounter and work through our instinctive and emotional extremes to become at peace with our animal within. This can be encouraged by a study and meditation on the archetypes which represent each extreme of the transactional analysis grid.
It could also be said that on a social level we also have to encounter and work through our collective instinctive and emotional extremes. The Hare hypothesis suggests that this subject can be studied by treating youth trends as transactional analysis grid archetypes, specifically those which are of a highly atavistic nature.
Youth Culture as a Guide to the T.A. Grid The Hare hypothesis suggests that the ongoing celebrations of mind-expansion and mind contraction are spinning off bestial archetypes which describe the transactional analysis grid. Here follows the four major youth trends to affect global culture since the mid-1960s, along with a guide to their extreme and balanced aspects:
Friendly weakness - the Flower Child (Gentle Angle). Extreme aspects - spineless, clinging vine, easily conned, self critical, easily ashamed, sickeningly passive, too dependent on others.
Balanced aspects - able to criticise self, can be obedient, grateful and appreciative, modest, respectful to others, trustful.
Hostile weakness - the Punk (Sullen Bull). Extreme aspects - rebels against everything, sarcastic, never trusts anyone, impatient with other people, frequently angry, petulant, stubborn, always complaining, bitter, easily hurt, touchy, fakes stupidity.
Balanced aspects - able to doubt others, good at complaining and righting petty injustice, verbally strict with others, very direct with people, healthy sceptic.
Friendly Strength - the Raver (Noble Lion). Extreme aspects - overtly empathetic, generous to a fault, 'loves' everybody, over protective, forgives and forgets anything, agrees with everyone, wants everyone's love, gushy.
Balanced aspects - helpful, considerate, cooperative, bouncy, alert, 'cuddly panda', reliable help when needed in crisis.
Hostile Strength - the 'Stormer' (Mighty Eagle). Extreme aspects - cold, dictatorial, conceited, snobbish, arrogant, selfish, shrewd, cuttingly nasty and dominating, wants submissive admiration, indifferent to other people's feelings.
Balanced aspects - business-like, self-reliant, able to give orders, self respecting, grudgingly well thought of and admired as a leader, forceful and self confident.
The three main youth currents fall neatly into place in the grid according to their atavistic mood. Obviously not all Punks were hostile weaklings or all Ravers friendly strengths; all we're doing is describing the predominant mood or 'spirit' of each atavistic youth current. The fourth youth current hasn't taken off yet and as such we're giving it the tag of 'Stormer' simply for the convenience of discussing the hypothesis.
The mind expansive currents give rise to friendly orientated celebration whereas the mind-contraction currents give rise to hostile orientated celebration. Neither form of celebration should be viewed as being anymore sought after than the other. Both forms of celebration complement each other neatly just as the pagan celebration of expansion and sexy love in spring time is complemented by the celebration of contraction and deathlike horror in very late Autumn, at Halloween.
Interestingly, the celebrations appear to be giving birth to a revival in seasonal orientated paganism, as evidenced by the phenomenal growth of neo-paganism since the mid-1960s. This has parallels with the expansive currents (Hippie and Rave) being described as, 'Summers of Love', and the Punk current having been described as the, 'Winter of Hate'. Summer is an expansive time of the year in the northern hemisphere while Winter is a time of contraction.
Over the next few pages we'll take a look at the four main atavistic youth currents and explore their psychological attributes as defined by the transactional analysis grid.
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