Memories of a Young Man: A Witness to the Hearings About Jacqui Schiff

Abstract

This article chronicles the experiences of one witness involved in the hearings conducted by the ITAA Board of Trustees in response to ethics charges brought against Jacqui Schiff in the mid-1970s. It describes her refusal to accept that the charges had any relevance and her belief that the matter was a groundless political vendetta. Going to extreme measures, the board, and then ITAA President Ruth McClendon, in particular, made every attempt to hold fair hearings. In the end, Schiff was found culpable of ethics violations. She refused to admit the validity of the board’s findings and also the conditions they set out for her remaining a member of the ITAA. As a result, she terminated her membership by default.

Keywords:

• Transactional analysis
• reparenting
• Cathexis Institute
• Jacqui Schiff
• Ruth McClendon
• ethical standards
• ITAA Board of Trustees
• 1978 Montreal TA Conference
• ethics hearing
• transactional analysis

Disclosure statement

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

John R. McNeel

John R. McNeel, PhD, MDiv, is a licensed psychologist practicing in San Jose, California. He is a Teaching Member of the ITAA, a past member of the ITAA Board of Trustees, a recipient of the Eric Berne Memorial Award, and a past editor of the Transactional Analysis Journal. He was on the faculty of the Western Institute for Group and Family Therapy in Watsonville, California. The history of his training with Bob and Mary Goulding can be found on his website (www.aspiringtokindness.com) along with other unpublished articles on redecision therapy. John can be reached at 1268 Prevost St., San Jose, CA 95125, United States; email: [email protected]. Any errors of factuality or timeline that this memory piece may contain are the sole responsibility of the author.