Transactional analysis: analysis of the murder of the MIT physics professor

 Claudio Neves Valente, the suspect in the Brown and MIT shootings, had flashes of temper; former classmates describe him as confrontational and socially awkward

Twenty-five years ago, two promising physicists graduated from a prestigious science university in Lisbon. On Monday, one gunned the other down at his home outside Boston after firing on a classroom of Brown University undergrads, authorities say.

Claudio Neves Valente, the suspected shooter, once had a bright future. He graduated at the top of his college class, ahead of classmate Nuno Loureiro. But by the time Neves Valente confronted Loureiro at his Brookline, Mass., apartment building this past week, Loureiro’s career had soared while Neves Valente’s withered.

Loureiro was an acclaimed nuclear scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, leading one of its largest labs. Neves Valente had been living in an unassuming home in Miami, far from the academic grandeur for which he’d once seemed destined.

Analysis:

Transactional Analysis (TA) can offer a structured way to “map” the reported pattern (flashes of temper, confrontational style, social awkwardness, long-standing comparison with a more successful peer, and a final violent act) without claiming to diagnose motives. TA would frame this as a script-driven sequence: repetitive games, role switches on the Drama Triangle, rackets (familiar, overlearned feelings like rage/helplessness), and a final payoff that fits an old life thesis rather than the here-and-now facts. This is a conceptual lens, not a clinical diagnosis or a justification. [5][6]

How TA would parse the pattern described above

• Likely “script world” indicators vs “real world” Adult functioning:

  • Recurrent, disproportionate anger episodes (flashes of temper) look like “racket anger” triggered by electrodes (high-sensitivity cues), with afterburn (lingering arousal) and reach-back (old scenes intruding), signaling past decisions and injunctions steering present behavior. [5][6]
  • Confrontational/socially awkward style suggests time structuring by pastimes/games rather than intimacy, plus Parent/Child contamination of Adult (rules and archaic conclusions driving behavior over data). [6]
  • Chronic social comparison (classmate’s success vs one’s “withering” career) fits a script thesis/antithesis (e.g., “I must be the top” vs “If I’m not, I’m nothing”), keeping a fixed life position that can flip under stress from I’m not-OK/You’re OK to I’m OK/You’re not-OK. [5][6]

• Game analysis using Berne’s formula (Con + Gimmick = Response → Switch → Crossup → Payoff):

  • Possible Con (come-on): perceived slight, unfairness, or status threat tied to the peer comparison.
  • Gimmick (hook): an internal vulnerability such as a Be Perfect/Be Strong driver or “If I’m not first, I’m worthless” belief.
  • Response: escalating confrontation/hostility.
  • Switch: role flip from Victim to Persecutor (Drama Triangle), often sudden.
  • Crossup: the moment of shock when the interaction becomes dangerous/irreversible.
  • Payoff: the grim, script-expected feeling (e.g., vindication, revenge, or nihilistic collapse), not problem resolution. This is classic “Now I’ve Got You, You SOB”/“See What You Made Me Do” game territory when rage is the racket payoff. [5][6]

• Script apparatus and matrix clues TA would look for (hypothetical, based on your description):

  • Injunctions like Don’t Feel/Don’t Fail/Don’t Be You; counterscript drivers such as Be Perfect, Be Strong, Try Hard, Hurry Up; thin permissions to feel, ask for help, or reappraise. These increase “velocity” (compulsion) and reduce choice. [6]
  • External cutoffs (ending dialogue) and internal cutoffs (shutting down empathy/thought) right at the point where new data could alter the outcome. [6]
  • Persona/role rigidity under stress (e.g., rigid Hero/Persecutor stances), with “sweatshirts” (front vs back messages) that invite predictable payoffs. [5]

• Outcome pattern through a TA lens:

  • A long arc of stamp collecting (accumulating grievances) followed by a violent “cash-in” for a pre-set payoff; this amplifies the sign that the old script, not the current situation, controlled the endgame. TA reads this as script world primacy over reality testing. [5][6]

Important caution

• TA is a framework to analyze patterns; it cannot establish motive or excuse harm. Any such mapping is hypothetical, based on public descriptions, and must be held lightly. [6]

Sources

1 Games People Play: The Basic Handbook of Transactional Analysis. Paperback – August 27, 1996 by Eric Berne (Author)

2 Genogram with Transactional Analysis in Coaching: A Road Map for Counseling & Coaching - An intuitive visual approach to unlock your clients' self-awareness to achieve personal & professional growth Paperback – December 16, 2023 by Claudia Musicco (Author

3 Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy: A Systematic Individual and Social Psychiatry Hardcover – September 10, 2021 by Eric Berne (Author)

4 Beyond Games and Scripts Hardcover – January 1, 1976 by Eric Berne (Author)

5 Scripts People Live: Transactional Analysis of Life Scripts Paperback – January 26, 1994 by Claude Steiner (Author)

6 Born To Win: Transactional Analysis With Gestalt Experiments Paperback – Illustrated, August 30, 1996 by Muriel James (Author), Dorothy Jongeward (Author)