His ideas
Five decades of thinking about people
Claude Steiner spent his career developing practical theories about how people feel, how they relate to one another, and how they can change. His ideas drew on Transactional Analysis, radical politics, and thousands of hours of clinical work. They remain widely used in therapy, education, and organisational development around the world.
Emotional Literacy
Steiner's most distinctive contribution: the ability to understand your own feelings, empathise with others, and express emotions in ways that improve rather than damage relationships. More specific and practical than emotional intelligence.
Learn moreThe Stroke Economy
Why do people withhold warmth and recognition from each other? Steiner argued that societies impose artificial rules that create emotional scarcity, and that breaking those rules is both possible and necessary.
Learn moreLife Scripts
The unconscious life plans people adopt in childhood, based on early messages from parents and caregivers. Steiner expanded Eric Berne's original concept into a comprehensive theory of how scripts form, operate, and can be changed.
Learn moreTransactional Analysis
Steiner was one of the founding figures of TA, working alongside its creator Eric Berne. He helped shape the theory from its earliest days and extended it in directions Berne himself had not explored.
Learn moreRadical Psychiatry
In the late 1960s, Steiner co-founded a movement that challenged mainstream psychiatry's assumptions about mental illness, power, and the role of the therapist. Its principles still resonate.
Learn moreAlcoholism
Steiner applied Transactional Analysis to understanding and treating alcoholism, arguing that it is curable rather than merely manageable. His approach challenged the disease model and emphasised personal agency.
Learn moreWarm Fuzzies
A deceptively simple parable about a village where people freely share warmth, until a stranger convinces them that kindness is a scarce resource. Translated into dozens of languages and read by millions.
Learn morePower
Steiner's analysis of how interpersonal power operates in everyday life: how people control one another, why they do it, and how cooperative alternatives can replace dominance and manipulation.
Learn moreLooking for something specific?
If you are a therapist, counsellor, or TA student, the practitioners' page links to Steiner's published articles and academic resources.