Therapeutic communication, or interaction which provokes personal insight or reorientation, can be best understood as a transactive, rather than linear, interrelationship between people or groups. Two practical responses to "pathological" communication patterns illustrate the validity of the transactional communication theory: the psychiatric response, in which the patient manipulates the therapist through the strategic use of transactional processes, and the transactional-analysis response, in which interpersonal games are interrupted by the therapist's avoidance of complementary transactions. (KS)