TA and Astrology:
Nurture and Nature in Health and Pathology
Mavis Klein
Abstract
The author describes her intellectual
development through her allegiances to
psychoanalysis and operant conditioning
and the conceptual reconciliation in TA of
these superficially incompatible theories. The
powerful impact of astrological data on the
author's mind led her to realize the huge
importance of genetics as well as environ-
mental causes in the formation of people's
personalities and characters. Astrology is
nowa regular adjunct to her daily work as a
psychotherapist and has also added a spiri-
tual dimension to her life.
Psychoanalysis and Operant Conditioning
When I was a psychology undergraduate,
among the plethora ofmirror-drawing, statistics,
and cat physiology-all ofwhich were anathema
to my quest to learn about the human m-
ind-there were two theories that made it all
worthwhile: the basic Freudian theory of child
development, personality, and pathology, and
the reinforcement theory (operant conditioning)
ofB. F. Skinner. Recalcitrant student that I was,
I sought to appease my teachers by expressing
enthusiasm for both of these theories of mental
functioning, whose truths, it seemed to me,
happily coexisted, each available for providing
appropriate understanding in different contexts.
But bearing this dual allegiance only increased
the irritation of my teachers toward me. These
two theories, I was peremptorily informed, were
totallyincompatible with one another, and I had
better make up my mind to "believe in" one or
the other or I would probably fail my exams.
The true believers in psychoanalysis dismissed
Vol. 25. No. I. 1995
operant conditioning as dangerous, mechanistic,
simplistic, dehumanizing, trivial nonsense, while
the committed experimentalists went to consid-
erable lengths to persuade me that psycho-
analysis was pernicious, unscientific, tautologi-
cal, mythological rubbish. I got my degree by
the skin of my teeth, breathed a sigh of relief,
and from then on have happily defined myself as
an antiacademic intellectual.
Transactional Analysis
Then in 1972 I discovered transactional
analysis, which instantly became the third psy-
chological enthusiasm ofmy life. It was so clear,
so precise, so concise, so tangible. I took up its
practice as a serious hobby and two years later
became a qualified transactional analyst and
practicing psychotherapist, which I have been
ever since. Only some time into my training in
TA did I suddenly realize that it was the brilliant
amalgamation of psychoanalysis and operant
conditioning that my unconscious had been
patiently waiting to find.
The concept ofego states and their delineation
is undoubtedly the central genius ofTA theory.
But what makes TA more than "psychoanalysis
without the unconscious" is its concept of
strokes. Strokes are reinforcement, and a singu-
larly powerful component ofTA as theory and
therapy is its understanding of positive and
negative strokes and their equal potency in
reinforcing behavior. That is, contrary to com-
mon sense, TA recognizes that punishment does
not work; it merely suppresses undesirable
behavior momentarily while it is being inflicted;
in the long run, however, it increases the fre-
quency and intensity of the behavior it seeks to
eliminate. This is pure operant conditioning, the
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MAVIS KLEIN
learningtheoryofB. F. Skinner. TA is a brilliant
blend of psychoanalysis and operant condition-
ing, one that overcomes their individual limita-
tions and makes sane the previous fragmentation
of psychology into theories that were either
precise and meaningless or profoundly true but
inoperative. TA is both "hard" and "soft,"
diagnostic and prescriptive, subjective and
objective, holistic and atomistic.
And so it was that I settled down to be a TA
psychotherapist, with a deeply satisfying con-
ceptual frame of reference that gave me the
professional confidence of knowing what I was
doing and of being able to justify my taking
money from people for doing it. Until I had my
mind blown again.
How I Discovered Astrology
One day in 1978 a man who had been in one
of my therapy groups for two years came to a
session and said he had just consulted an astrol-
oger. He had made a tape recording of the
session and wanted me to listen to it. Skeptically
but indulgently I agreed and turned it on, listen-
ing with half an ear. Within five minutes I was
astounded. The astrologer, with no knowledge of
my patientother than his time, place, and date of
birth, had already said everything-and more-
about him that it had taken me two years of
laborious analysis to uncover. I consulted the
same astrologer for myself and was over-
whelmed by the authenticity and depth of what
he told me about my character and life experi-
ences. My mind was "blown" and my whole
attitude to life transformed.
In the following weeks and months I devoured
shelves of books on astrology. I had never
before been so excited, and everything was
changed. In my excitement I could not but share
my revelation with everyone with whom I came
in contact, including my patients. Those who,
from past experience, trusted the efficacy of my
understanding and methods, tended smilingly to
indulge this amusing aberration in me. Others,
who newlyconsulted me, often expressed anger
that they had been misled into thinking they
were consulting a competent psychotherapist
only to find themselves in the presence of a
mumbo-jumboist.
68
The Conflict
I was embarrassed by myself, and (not-
withstanding that I had to earn my living) I
seriously considered that, in all conscience, I
could not continuethe hypocrisy of practicing as
a psychotherapist. Now, it seemed to me, genet-
ics (as delineated in the horoscope) determined
everything; the supposed influence of early
experiences was a total lie.
And yet, and yet ... I could not deny that in
my work I was still experiencing daily the
tangible and metaphorical consequences ofthe
imprinted experiences of the first few years of
life, and especially the profoundly formative
influence of the Oedipus complex in the years
between three and six, which I saw, in practice
as well as in theory, not only molds the shape of
individual sexual propensities, but also acts as a
crucial determiner of one's worldview. The
eternal triangle of mother, father, and child
struggling together through the issues of sex,
aggression, rivalry, jealousy, blame, identifica-
tion, and responsibility makes us all alike and all
different. All this, too, made comprehensive
sense and worked. But how could we be com-
prehensively understood both in terms of the a
priori determinism of our natal horoscopes,
defined at the moment we take our first breath,
and as the consequence of the contingent, fortu-
itous experiences of our first six years of life?
From being a thorough-going environmentalist
(nurture), committedto the view of the newborn
brain as a tabula rasa, I had crashed headlong
into "nature."
The Resolution of the Conflict
Thus I had nature versus nurture as the two
opposite endpoints ofthe baseline ofa triangle.
I realized I would have to find a third point that
would form the apex of the triangle and would
harmoniously contain these opposites at a
higher-level unity. The struggle to reconcile
these apparently incompatible opposites led me
into many byways, some of which turned into
the cul-de-sacs of various timeless philosophical
problems. But I am now at ease in using TA and
astrology side by side, slipping from one to the
other whenever I feel like doing so, because I
now understand them to be two languages. My
knowledge of both, rather than one, extends the
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 TA AND ASTROLOGY: NURTURE AND NATURE IN HEALTH AND PATHOLOGY
boundaries of what I am able to think and say.
I now realize that, within broad limits, any
human language is capable of expressing any
thought that any human being wishes to utter;
we are all one species. However, environmental
conditions, both physical and psychological,
have created differences in the relative impor-
tance and pertinence of various elements in
different peoples' experiences oflife. And these
differences are reflected in the vocabulary of any
given culture/language. A centrally important
issue invokes the creation of minutely discrimi-
nating words to match the need to perceive vital
distinctions. Thus the Eskimos, I am told, have
many words for the one English word "snow";
and the little Yiddish I know enables me, for
example, to describe varieties of fools with a
subtlety and gusto that English cannot match.
Withinthis frame ofreference I realize that all
theories-that is, conceptualizations of cause
and effect-are languages, and all are true so
long as they are comprehensive enough to
account for all relevantly observed facts. That is,
all theories of personality-or anything else
-are true until such time as they will not bend
to some data which refuses to be ignored. Then
the theory must be elaborated or replaced.
My own personal truth-until something
comes along and blows my mind again-is that
one's character and destiny are essentially
determined by genetic inheritance (represented
by our horoscopes).And genetic makeup predis-
poses one in childhood to perceive, be affected
by, and remember certain conditions and events
rather than others. But this does not invalidate
one's script. The perceptions (messages) and
interpretations (decisions) we each made in
childhood are our truths, irrespective of any
contrary objective data or any contrary subjec-
tive data of our parents, say, or other witnesses.
In this light, the horoscope can be seen as a
tangible map of an individual's known truths
about himselfor herself, and it is also the means
of bringing into awareness those potential parts
of this truth that are not yet actualized.
It simply doesn't matter that environmental
events in our early childhood are not really
causes, but are actually subsumed under the
deeper determinism of our genetic program-
ming. (And, for that matter, perhaps genetics are
Vol. 25, No. I, /995
subsumed under another, even deeper reality,
which in tum is subsumed under an even deeper
one, until we stop and call the final cause
God-or His equivalent.) It is as ifthe imprinted
recollectionsof our childhoods are causes, even
iftheyare not. Freud himself ultimately realized
that it didn't matter that the recollected child-
hood seduction stories of his hysterical patients
were not factually true; they were true in the
psyches of his patients, and therein lay their
potency.
In fact, at the time I discovered astrology-or,
more accurately from a deterministic point of
view, when astrology made itself known to
me-I was becoming increasingly uncomfort-
able with the glaring reality of the huge variabil-
ity in people's responses to externally similar
facts. This implied the existence of a powerful
constitutional factor in operation in people's
lives. I needed a new and intelligible theory to
read and interpret this constitutional factor, and
I found it in astrology.
The Combination of Nature and Nurture
Having said that I now believe that genetics
(as delineated in our horoscopes) essentially
determines our characters and destinies, I also
realize that there are undoubtedly environmental
conditions (especially in the formative years of
childhood)which can and do modify our genetic
programming, as evidenced, for example, by the
increased height attained by recent generations
of children through improved nutrition. But by
and large, we accept that there are actually very
narrow limits written into our genetic inheri-
tance, beyond which no environmental factors
are likely to be effective. We accept that we
cannot change our individually inherited physi-
cal characteristics, such as the color of our eyes
or our fingerprints, nor our collectively inherited
characteristics(within quite narrow limits), such
as when we will get our teeth, reach puberty, go
gray, and die. No more or less is implied in the
determinism of astrology. Both individually and
collectively, we implicitly accept that much of
what pertains to our physical existence is prede-
termined and outside our essential control.
Astrologyhas made me aware that this is proba-
bly true for much of what pertains to our psy-
chological experiences as well.
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MAVIS KLEIN
Whatever combination of genetics and envi-
ronmental influences determines our characters
and our lifeexperiences, one universal condition
is inviolable-the repetition compulsion, which
dynamically rules our lives. That is, we are
bound to the repetition compulsion by our
universal, congenital need to make sense of our
experiences in order that we may interact with
the physical world and the world of people with
the safety derived from predictability. The
repetition compulsion enables us to "prove" that
the sense we make of our earliest experiences
(whatever their cause) is "necessarily" true, and
we cling to this, our personal truth, in the name
of sanity. (However, the fact that some mani-
festly sane people are able to remain open-
minded about the nature of reality and are even
willing, in extremis, to have their earliest deci-
sions overturned, bears witness to our also
innately programmed quest for excitement and
uncertainty, which enables us to keep our minds,
however slightly, open.)
The Use of Astrology in Therapeutic Practice
My first therapeutic use of astrology was with
a 49-year-old man who had been in a group of
mine for about a year. He was a virgin, and for
the whole time he had been in the group he had
been trying hard to lose his virginity and form an
intimate relationship with a woman. While we
had a clear understanding, through his script
matrix, of the messages and decisions pertaining
to his sexual inhibitions, I was beginning to
wonder if, at the deepest level of his being, he
really did want an intimate relationship with a
woman or whether, in fact, he was looking for
permission to disavow society'S norms and to
remain happily celibate. I was looking for some
data that would enable me confidently to know
which way he really wanted to be pushed, and I
looked at his horoscope for any possible clues.
I immediately saw the factors pertaining to his
sexual inhibition and a very powerful ''transit''
(transitory planetary configuration) currently
effective that implied a now-or-never opportu-
nityto change his liferadically. On this basis, all
my tentativeness in working with him was
dissolved. A year later he was cited as cor-
respondent in a divorce case, and he is now very
happily married.
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A few years ago a young woman in one of my
therapy groups, then working on some problems
in her relationship to her mother, one day ex-
pressed a feeling of profound depression that
had suddenly descended on her with no obvious
external cause. A glance at her horoscope re-
vealed that Saturn (signifying, among other
things, heaviness, burdens, obligations, duty,
inhibitions, and restrictions) was currently
transiting her natal moon (the moon signifying,
among other things, emotional reactivity, mother
and other females in one's life, and deepest
emotional conditioning). The ephemeris of the
planets' positions told me that this transit would
last for approximately another six weeks. With
this knowledge of when her depression was
likelyto lift, she was not only greatly reassured,
but was also able to see this transit as a golden
opportunity (which would not recur for another
29 years!) to choose this combination of ener-
gies appropriately and productively to confront
issues concerning her mother that she had been
evading. Incidentally, she also returned to the
group the following week highly encouraged
that she had broken through a creative block in
her artistic work as a sculptress by discovering
some new materials with which to express her
creative impulses. She had no knowledge of
astrology,but the astrologer in me was delighted
with the instinctive way in which she had thus
translated her previous negative depression
associated with Saturn transiting the moon into
something positive, but equally apposite to the
essential symbolism. Saturn also represents
substance, structure, form, and reality, and the
moon also refers to artistic creativity!
Astrology and Religion
Astrology has been a serious field of study
throughout recorded history and by nearly every
known civilization, which bears witness to its
capacity to express universal constructs of the
human mind that cannot be expressed in ordi-
nary spoken language. In Western culture, until
the rise of scientific materialism in the seven-
teenth century, astrology's truth was never
questioned. It was consistent with every per-
son's understanding of himself or herself and of
his or her life as participating in the cosmos as
a whole, in accordance with God's immutable
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 TA AND ASTROLOGY: NURTURE AND NATURE IN HEALTH AND PATHOLOGY
will. However, by the beginning of this century,
sciencecould apparently account for everything
in materialistic terms. The earth was no longer
the center of the universe and humankind no
longer a special species. Indeed, humans were
not even able to know the depths of their own
mind. Thus, the belief in God-in man's image
-sitting super-powerful on a throne in the sky
was undermined. So, too, was astrology, which
became increasingly marginal and
unrespectable.
But in the course ofthis century the existential
consequences of Heisenberg's uncertainly
principle, Einstein's theory of relativity, the
concept of black holes, and now chaos theory
have permeated the everyday consciousness of
large numbers of people. Without God to fall
back on, we are left trembling at Nothing. The
responsehas been the quest for renewed collec-
tive certainty (analogous to the individual need
for certainty expressed by our script decisions)
through allegiance to old and new religious
cults. Even the communications of the most
widely acclaimed scientists are, ironically,
sounding more and more like the most arcane
speculations of academic philosophers.
My own prediction is that within the next
century astrology will be understood in terms
that are compatible with materialistic science. It
will also be the algebra used to better under-
stand subject matters as diverse as genetics,
earthquakes, and the stock market, as well as, of
course, the psychology of the individual, in
which field it is presently most commonly de-
ployed.
Astrology has added a pervasive religious
dimension to each of my ego states. I now sub-
scribeto the assumption that the chief condition
for achievement of contentment in our lives is
Vol. 25, No. I, 1995
our choice to go with and appreciate whatever
we are and whatever befalls us out of our belief
that there is a positive meaning and purpose in
everything that is, even though it is beyond our
limits fully to apprehend it. Astrologers are
deeply religious people full of awesome wonder
at the order in the universe and appreciation of
even the smallest details of our lives as manifes-
tations ofthe work of the Whole.
Conclusion
Perhaps the time is not far off when human-
kind will achieve, with the aid of astrology, a
new left/right brain holism that transcends the
mind/matter divisiveness bequeathed to us by
Descartes. Meanwhile, in my present practice of
mundanely counseling people who come to me
for help, astrology has proved itself to me to be
a magnificent diagnostic asset and a profound
reassurance to those in distress. Astrology
raises me-and helps me raise others-to a
greater degree of self-knowledge and serene
acceptance of what befalls us than I have found
possible within any other frame of reference.
And it enormously enhances my ability effec-
tively to counsel people in how to transform
"this moment of stress" into "this moment of
specificopportunity" by illuminating the deeper
meaning of this moment and confidently predic-
ting its duration.
Mavis Klein is a psychotherapist in private
practice in London, England. Her book, Pain
and Joy in Intimate Relationships, includes a
section on the astrological stages ofdevelop-
ment in adult life. Please send reprint requests
to Mavis Klein, 1 Estelle Rd., London NW3
2J)(, England.
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