Thomas Anthony Harris (April 18, 1910 – May 4, 1995) was an American

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...

and

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

who became famous for his self-help manual ''

I'm OK – You're OK ''I'm OK – You're OK'' is a 1967 self-help book by psychiatrist Thomas Anthony Harris. The book presents transactional analysis as a method for addressing personal challenges. The book made the ''New York Times'' Best Seller list in 1972 a ...

'' (1967).THOMAS A. HARRIS Psychiatrist and Author
obituary in

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

, May 7, 1995 The book was a bestseller and its name became a

cliché A cliché ( or ; ) is a saying, idea, or element of an artistic work that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning, novelty, or literal and figurative language, figurative or artistic power, even to the point of now being b ...

during the 1970s.

Career

Harris received his Bachelor of Science degree from the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States. It is the Flagship campus, flagship campus of the University of Arkan ...

in 1938, and his M. D. from the Temple University School of Medicine in 1940. After graduation, he joined the Navy as a medical intern. He was aboard the submarine tender when it was attacked at Pearl Harbor in December 1941, and sustained permanent hearing loss as a result. Upon completion of his internship in 1942, Harris began his training in Psychiatry at

St. Elizabeth's Hospital St. Elizabeths Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in Southeast Washington, D.C. operated by the District of Columbia Department of Mental Health. The hospital opened in 1855 under the name Government Hospital for the Insane, the first federal ...

Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

He returned to the Navy after completing his residency. Toward the end of the war, he served as Chief Psychiatric Officer on the hospital ship . Harris ultimately became Chief of the Psychiatry Branch of the Navy, and ended his service as a Commander in 1954. Following his retirement, Harris became Chief of the Department of Institutions in Washington state. During this time, he played a critical role in defusing a riot at the maximum security prison in Walla Walla. However, he soon grew tired of bureaucratic work, and opened a private psychiatric practice in

Sacramento, CA Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...

in 1956. Harris was a long-time friend and associate of

Eric Berne Eric Berne (May 10, 1910 – July 15, 1970) was a Canadian-born psychiatrist who created the theory of transactional analysis as a way of explaining human behavior. Berne's theory of transactional analysis was based on the ideas of Freud an ...

, the founder of

Transactional Analysis Transactional analysis is a psychoanalytic theory and method of therapy wherein social interactions (or "transactions") are analyzed to determine the id, ego, and superego, ego state of the communicator (whether parent-like, childlike, or adult- ...

, beginning when both men were among the few psychiatrists in the

U.S. military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. U.S. federal law names six armed forces: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and the Coast Guard. Since 1949, all of the armed forces, except th ...

. He was also a founding member of Berne's San Francisco Transactional Analysis Seminar, which met weekly for over a decade, and which developed the main concepts of TA. A Teaching Member of the International Transactional Analysis Association, Harris was an early advocate for

group therapy Group psychotherapy or group therapy is a form of psychotherapy in which one or more therapists treat a small group of clients together as a group. The term can legitimately refer to any form of psychotherapy when delivered in a group format, i ...

and TA in preference to traditional

psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious mind, unconscious processes and their influence on conscious mind, conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on The Inte ...

, for which he was trained by

Harry Stack Sullivan Herbert "Harry" Stack Sullivan (February 21, 1892 – January 14, 1949) was an American neo-Freudian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who held that "personality can never be isolated from the complex interpersonal relationships in which person liv ...

Publications

During 1985, Harris published ''Staying OK'', a sequel to ''I'm OK – You're OK'', written with his wife, the journalist and lecturer Amy Bjork Harris (born 1929).Keeping the Adult in Control
by John Leo in

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

, May 27, 1985

Sources

External links

Information on Dr. Thomas A. Harris and I'm OK – You're OK
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Thomas Anthony 1910 births 1995 deaths American psychiatrists 20th-century American physicians Transactional analysis Temple University School of Medicine alumni American self-help writers

Career

Publications

See also

Sources

External links