Eric Berne

Eric Berne was born May 10, 1910 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, as Leonard Bernstein the son of David Hiller Bernstein, MD, a general practitioner, and Sarah Gordon Bernstein, a professional writer and editor. His only sibling, his sister Grace, was born five years later. The family immigrated to Canada from Poland and Russia. Both parents graduated from McGill University, and Eric, who was close to his father, spoke fondly of how he accompanied his father, a physician, on medical rounds.

Dr. Bernstein died of tuberculosis at age 38. Mrs. Bernstein then supported herself and her two children working as an editor and writer. She encouraged Eric to follow in his father's footsteps and study medicine. He received an M.D. and C.M. (Master of Surgery) from McGill University Medical School in 1935. 

Pre-War Years

Berne interned in the United States at Englewood Hospital in New Jersey. In 1936 he began his psychiatric residency at the Psychiatric Clinic of Yale University School of Medicine, where he worked for two years. Some time around 1938-39, Berne became an American citizen and shortened his name from Eric Lennard Bernstein to Eric Berne. His first appointment was as Clinical Assistant in Psychiatry at Mt. Zion Hospital, New York City, a post he held until 1943 when he went into the Army Medical Corps. In 1940 Berne had established a private practice in Norwalk, Connecticut. There he met and married his first wife, with whom he had two children. From 1940-1943 he also commuted from his Westport home to practice concurrently in New York City. In 1941 he began training as a psychoanalyst at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute and became an analysand of Paul Federn.

Army Medical Corps

Because of the demand for army psychiatrists during World War II, Dr. Berne served from 1943-46 in the AUS Medical Corps, rising from first lieutenant to major. His assignments included Spokane, Washington, Ft. Ord, California and Bingham City, Utah. During the latter two years he practiced group therapy in the psychiatric wards of Bushnell General Hospital.

When discharged from the army in 1946, Berne, now divorced, decided to relocate in Carmel, California, an area he had fallen in love with when stationed at nearby Fort Ord. Before the year was out he completed writing The Mind in Action and signed a contract for its publication with Simon and Schuster of New York. That same year he resumed his psychoanalytic training at the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute. In 1947 he became the analysand of Eric Erikson, with whom he worked for two years.

Family Life in California

Soon after beginning analysis with Erikson, Berne met a young divorcee whom he wanted to marry. Erikson said Eric could not marry until after finishing his didactic analysis, and so it was not until 1949 that Eric and Dorothy exchanged vows and set up home in Carmel. Dorothy brought three children to the marriage, and she and Eric eventually had two sons of their own.