In Memory of Ken Mellor

Abstract

This article is dedicated to the memory of Ken Mellor, a teacher and a supervisor of Transactional Analysis in psychotherapy, who passed away in July 2023 in Australia. Ken Mellor made a great contribution to the development of Transactional Analysis and to the emergence and development of a new field Spiritual Transactional Analysis. He published many of his papers in professional journals including the Transactional Analysis Journal of the International Transactional Analysis Association (ITAA). This article focuses on his contributions to the expansion and development of Transactional Analysis and on the connection that he saw between the foundations of Transactional Analysis theory and spirituality. It describes his ideas and additions to Eric Bernes ideas on autonomy. In one of his articles published in the Transactional Analysis Journal (TAJ), Ken draws on his spiritual experiences and practices to suggest specific steps that can be taken to arrive at autonomy. To the well-known components described by Eric Berne awareness, spontaneity, and readiness for intimacy Ken added another important component that Eric Berne had not written about.