TA Talks are a gift from IESA. This is an audio resource for increasing public awareness of social problems using the TA lens and the current state of knowledge in psychology. The TA Talks also focus on evoking empathy and help toward overpowered people.
By Lucy Freedman with Felipe Garcia
One of the most generous contributors to USATAA (now NATAA) and ITAA programs over a generation, George Grainger Weston, has passed away in his hundredth year at his ranch outside of San Antonio, Texas. Some of us know him as the founder and owner of Frenchman’s Cove, Jamaica, where we have held our winter Gatherings for about thirty years.
Grainger took the TA 101 course led by Felipe Garcia in 1982 in San Antonio and became a strong supporter of the dissemination of TA in various parts of the world.
In Jamaica, he not only welcomed us to hold Gatherings, he also sponsored a series of trainings for social workers and educators. These programs led to the development of the TA Practitioner program, which was then offered in Canada and the US, and is now a certificate program through the North America TA Association. People who attended the programs that Grainger sponsored are still learning and teaching TA.
Grainger, who had attended Oxford and spoke Russian, initiated trainings in St. Petersburg, Russia, at a time when the Soviet Union outlawed psychotherapy. He supported Russians to attend conferences in the US as well as sending trainers such as Tom and Delphine Frazier, Denton Roberts, Ruth McClendon and Les Kadis, Petruska Clarkson and Sue Fish, and Felipe Garcia. Dmitry Kasyanov wrote upon learning that Grainger had passed, ”As a result, Transactional analysis here is a popular growing branch of humanistic psychology which helps people live in harmony with themselves and the world. Amazing how one man did such a noble thing – in the right time and the right place!”
In recognition of his contributions, Grainger received the famed USATAA M&M Award in 2011, named after Muriel James and Mary Goulding.
From his obituary, we have learned much more about his colorful life, strong environmental values, and community support. Grainger lived in many parts of the US and around the world before establishing his Santa Clara Ranch outside of San Antonio which he grew to 4,000 acres, and has made available for community and youth groups, and now preserved as a natural Texas landscape in perpetuity.
From his wartime years in the Royal Canadian Navy, setting up a biscuit factory in India (where he met and corresponded with Mahatma Gandhi), starting a cookie company in San Antonio, and at one point owning The Jamaican Queen, a cruise ship, while developing Frenchman’s Cove Resort in Jamaica, Grainger lived a full and varied life.
He was an innovative entrepreneur throughout his life with a vision for the future. He adopted sustainable practices on the ranch ahead of his time. Grainger was a generous supporter of youth sports, art, and education, including creation of the Weston Soccer Fields, the Caroline Weston Performing Arts Center at Texas Lutheran University, and scholarships for students in Texas, Jamaica, and elsewhere. Once he was introduced to TA, Grainger provided TA training opportunities for his family and staff.
Grainger was always interested in learning about TA at the conferences and gatherings he attended. He will long be appreciated for his creative support and friendship to our community.
Our next TA Insight comes from Janice Dowson TAPI
Enjoy!
Ghan’s Smiles/Frown Frequency
Organization and group function have long been a cornerstone of transactional analysis theory and application. The late Leonard Ghan measured group effectiveness through the “smiles/frowns frequency” of group participants. In what Berne called “ailing groups,” Ghan argued that this smiles/frowns measure can be ignored by those in leadership positions, resulting in diminishing group membership and effectiveness.
Throughout my 45 years experience with transactional analysis, groups that “Get on With” the business at hand and accomplish goals have a higher number of smiles over the number of frowns and flat faces. Get on With groups create a culture of appreciation through diverse membership that is open to differing viewpoints, making time to establish clear contracts within the group and respectfully keeping contracts within the group.
With this foundation, group trust will grow and the frequency of smiles over frowns will increase, as with the positive strokes over negative strokes frequency.
Leonard Ghan, MSW, TSTA trained with Eric Berne in the early 1960’s and served on the ITAA Board of Trustees in 1965.
Janice Dowson is responsible for the wonderfully important Project TA 101, which you can see on YouTube, check it out!
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