The Three-Cornered Contract in Psychotherapy of the Adolescent and their parents

Abstract

Transactional analysis has made an indisputable contribution to thinking about the contract, its formulation, and its importance in the process of psychotherapy. The article presents the con- cept of contract and the process of contracting in the perspective of transactional analysis and its implications in the field of psychotherapeutic practice, with particular emphasis on individual psy- chotherapy of adolescent patients. Erik Berne’s (1966) classic concept of the contract and Fanita English’s (1975) three-cornered contract are discussed, together with a special focus on the anal- ysis of overt and covert processes leading to success and failure in adolescent therapy from the perspective of relational transactional analysis (Hargaden, Sills, 2002). The article also describes the specific problems a psychotherapist may encounter in therapeutic work with an adolescent and their parents from the perspective of the developing tripartite relationship.