TA for Learners - 00.07 TA Script Theory
TA for Learners
00.07 TA Script Theory
Introduction
Berne mentions that "Script is a psychological force that propels people toward their destiny, regardless of whether they fight it or say it is of their own free will". Script is also a psychological compulsion to accomplish a predetermined life event.
Script is short for Life Script. Script is a self authored life plan, 'written' in childhood, under parental influence, reinforced in growing years and directed toward a predefined goal. The goal is called the script payoff.
Script is an intra-psychic mechanism. It is structured by childhood decisions. These get recorded as memories in the brain. Script becomes activated when a person's scripty view of reality is challenged. The affected person’s executive control of his faculties is taken over by the script mechanism. These include his thinking and feelings, perception, and capacity to assess and evaluate reality. It also affects the person’s capacity for generating appropriate responses and executing them sanely, safely, effectively and appropriately without resulting in harm to self or another. The person loses autonomy in the process.
Therefore, script is an intra-psychic, neuro-psychological mechanism which gets activated by stimuli that challenge the person's scripty frame of reference. As a result the affected person loses autonomy and is driven to execute the script directives.
Definition of Script
Berne's Definition: Script is defined as an ongoing program, developed in early childhood under parental influence, which directs the individual's behaviour in the most important aspects of his life. This definition is reduced by Berne into Formula S.
In Berne's definition 'ongoing' means always moving forward with an element of irreversibility; 'program' means there is a well laid out plan. Its anlage or skeleton can be found in a specific fairy tale; 'under parental influence' means during interactions with parents; 'directs' means is ordered to comply; 'important aspects' means significant events of life.
Parental Programming and Script
What forces the child to succumb to programming: The child succumbs to programming as it is a least resistance path aiding survival. This it adopts as a response to parental manipulation. The child picks it up as it steers its way through the maze of manipulation. Programming is not always forced. Why does the child do this?
1. The child is small, weak and helpless.
2. It lacks cognitive capacity. It fears it will not be loved.
3. It has no prior experience, and only few options to try out.
4. It is always at the receiving end.
5. It is as much challenged as its parents are.
6. The demands of developmental needs keep pushing it too.
7. It is frequently faced with do or die situations.
8. It has nowhere to go. There is no escape from its parents.
9. It is threatened, blackmailed, even physically abused by parents.
Parenting may be done consciously or without Adult conscious awareness. Parenting is structured by parents’ own script or trans-generational programming that has been handed down to them. Parenting may also be based on decisions parents make about how to bring up their children. Parental programming forces the child to think, feel and act per parental conditioning, while at the same time doing everything possible to successfully clear the developmental tasks thrown at it by nature.
Role of Parental Programming: Parental Programming plays a crucial role in script formation. It structures the script because the largely helpless child is forced to make compromises between urges and controls.
Meanings of Parental Programming: Berne writes: "Physiologically programming means facilitation", creating a path of least resistance. "Operationally it means that a given stimulus will evoke ......... an already established response." Phenomenologically it means that "by listening carefully to what goes on inside one's head" the recorded voices "can be heard."
How Programming Proceeds: Programming proceeds through stages of listening, accommodating, conditioning, programming, scripting. Scripted persons are ‘tamed’. It is based on the child’s early decision during nursing period. One of two positions / life orientations are taken up. They are hammer - one up, or anvil - one down. Children fed on a diet of care, attention, love, acceptance and permissions grow to be script free adult person.
Result of Parental Programming: Parental programming converts a prince / princess into a frog. The person as an adult acquires a tunnel vision about own capacities, capabilities, endowments and esteems. Life of a scripted person proceeds on a track determined by the installed programme. The person is largely unaware that life is going the wrong way. That script is structuring life and depriving the person of the capacity to be in charge. In case awareness arises it is taken to be one’s fate or destiny or karma.
Types of Scripts
Scripts are either winner, loser or banal scripts. Losers plan a lot about what they would do if they win, but do not know what they would do if they fail. Winners do not plan about what they would do if they win, but know what they would do if they fail. They have a Plan B in place all the time. People with banal scripts live uneventful lives.
Of concern are hamartic scripts. Hamartic scripts result in bodily hurt, injuries and in the extreme homicidal or suicidal acts or confinement to mental health facilities.
Script Matrix
This is a figure of the Script Matrix.
The Script Matrix maps messages installed by parents in their child’s neuro-psychological get up. Details about how these messages are planted is beyond the scope of this book.
Details about the origin and end of messages are shown in the figures below in two other dimensions.
Script Movement Diagram
The figure appearing below maps the different types of people who succumb to psychological stress right away or after a time lag. Six types of response systems are shown.
Script Initiators
Scripts of losers are activated by injunctions matched by corresponding (A-A) program and attributions. Injunctions are prohibitive, inhibiting ‘don’t messages’ resident in P1 (Parent in Child) of a person. They are felt messages. They ‘bodily’ hold back the person in relevant ways.
Scripts of winners are activated by counter-script messages (CSMs). Drivers are the behavioural manifestations of these CSMs. They result in compulsive behaviours. The CSMs are sitting in the PAC of parents in one’s Parent. The internal Parent directs the Adapted Child and that in turn forces the affected person to comply. When the affected person complies he / she feels a sense of comfort. It provides a sense of relief. Why one may ask. It is because they are less lethal than debilitating injunctions.
Injunctions
There are twelve injunctions. Their names and effects are listed here:
Don’t Exist: It deprives persons of the urge to live. Affected person may have suicidal tendencies. These show up when the person lands in‘presumed hopeless’ situations.
Don’t Think: Persons experience being confused and unable to problem solve. Their capacity to think is marred or affected when they need to think.
Don’t Feel: They fail to experience physical and other types of sensations.
Don’t be Sane / Don’t be Well: They are prone to go crazy or fall ill when life situation is challenging.
Don’t be you / belong to the sex you are born in: They are unable to enjoy their sexuality. Result - male body with a female voice or female body with a male voice. Person feels comfortable being dressed up resembling the opposite sex.
Don’t Grow up: Grown up person behaves in a childish manner.
Don’t be child: Person has a tendency to become grown up on fast track and take up life responsibilities soonest.
Don’t have fun / Don’t Enjoy / Don’t be happy: The person lacks the ability to implement these endowments.
Don’t Succeed / Don’t Make it: It is usually marked by self - sabotage. Person may work hard but panic at the moment of performance.
Don’t be Important: Persons panic when they are to take a lead role or be in control or stand on the stage and talk and the like.
Don’t be Close: Persons maintain physical distance from others. They don’t touch others or share their feelings.
Don’t belong: Persons experience being different from others in many ways. These are because of belonging to a particular family, class, community, nationality or similar other.
Don’t: Person is indecisive or wavering when making decisions or executing them.
Drivers
Description of drivers is given on page 72 and 73. There are five drivers. Their names and effects are given here:
Be Perfect: Persons are given to work hard, do things to perfection, be meticulous, give attention to details, are reliable, accurate, organised and good in forecasting. Lop Side: They cannot see the larger picture. They may miss out deadlines. They cannot rely on others.
Be Pleasing: They are inclusive, congenial, peace loving and encourage harmony. They are counted to be good team members and loop in others who may stay away. Lop Side: They are reluctant to express their needs or opinion. They do not upset others. They do their part quietly without taking initiative for assuming responsibilities in other areas.
Be Strong: They are a pillar of support in difficult, challenging times and in crisis situations. They are good in problem solving, have a strong sense of duty and are reliable. They are not hesitant to express their opinion or voice their critical views. Lop Side: They are unable to express their feelings. They are viewed as ones without emotions. They regard failure as weakness.
Try Hard: They invest energy in trying instead of in doing. They are good in seeing the larger picture. They go in for things new and interesting. Lop Side: They try very hard but are unsuccessful. They are unable to finish their tasks.
Hurry Up: They are efficient but not effective. They are quick in doing things and good at getting things done from others. They take things easy. Lop Side: They push others after delaying initially. They do not delve deep in learning, gaining knowledge or using knowledge for application. They are likely to make mistakes.
Process Scripts
While script determines human destiny, counter scripts determine style of life. Counter script messages impose restrictions on human lives too. The affected persons therefore adopt a way of living. The way of living is living with riders. These riders are Not Until, After, Never, Always, Almost I, Almost II and Open Ended. They generate a life course that is marked by again and again. The affected persons either express their helplessness or justify what they do is the right thing. Process scripts describe lives of people who are affected by drivers. Each process script has an associated Greek demi-god’s life situation as an example. The names and descriptions are given here:
Until: They cannot enjoy life until they have accomplished their tasks. Greek demi-god - Hercules. He was tasked with clearing a huge heap of dung to qualify to be a demi-god.
After: They fear that their happy times will be marred by difficult times later. Greek demi-god - Damocles. Damocles imagined a dagger hanging over his head by a thin horse hair.
Never: They cannot enjoy the fine things in life. They mostly find them out of their reach. Greek demi-god - Tantalus. Tantalus is pictured confined in a pool of water with attractive drinks and food items laid out on its edge. However, he cannot have and enjoy them.
Always: They are unable to enjoy the fine things of life. They drown themselves in activities. Greek demi-god - Archane. Archane had angered Minerva. Minerva turned her into a spider and thus she was condemned for life spinning webs.
Almost I: They fail to achieve success because things go wrong at the last moment. Greek demi-god - Sisyphus. Sisyphus was tasked to roll a huge boulder up a steep hill. The moment he reached the top, some unexpected event occurred, as a result the boulder rolled down to the bottom of the hill and he had to roll it up all over again.
Almost II: The affected persons are attracted to take up new tasks when they are nearing accomplishing jobs in hand. Thus they have many unfinished tasks in hand.
Open-ended: These people live uneventful lives. They have nowhere to go and nothing to do. They look forward from day to day as if it is another day to be lived like any other day that has passed.
The association of Process Script with Drivers is pictured in the table that appears here:
Script and Ego State Pathology
Script ridden-ness is due to a dysfunctional neuro-psychic mechanism. Ego State Pathology is also another aspect of the same mechanism. The figure of a coin on the next page picturises it. The coin’s head represents script and its tail personality resulting from ego state pathology. A double contamination in any one of the seven ego state structures (figure on page 18) causes this script activation.
Script and Rackets
We spend time in a variety of engagements. Some of them are thinking, feeling, experiencing emotions, expressing emotions, doing things, behaviour, speaking, listening, reasoning, behavioural expressions, doing things, interactions, working, perceiving, evaluating, assessing, responding / reacting and stroking. These could be script free or script ridden. If script ridden they constitute a racket. Whatever we may justify, protect and even profess by way of our thinking, reasoning, concluding, alleging constitutes a racket. Driver behaviours, passive behaviours, thinking disorders, game engagements, gallows laughter, scripty smiles and laughs, some types of crossed transactions and redefining transactions, inadequacy, incompetency and expression of helplessness, inattentiveness and withdrawal of attention, repeatedly committing mistakes and accident proneness, use of diversive tactics, postponing, bouncing off responsibility and manipulative behaviour, manipulative speech and expression, facial and bodily expressions, unhealthy postures and signs by hand are rackets. Responding to people, events, occurrences, happenings, situations, problems, difficulties, conditions and challenges in an unsafe, ineffective, inappropriate manner constitutes a racket. Displays that are stylized and repeating, fantasies and autistic thinking are also rackets. All these and very many more other types of unhealthy or dysfunctional activities, engagements or expressions are rackets.
Script System
Script System was formerly known as Racket System. It has two principal components - Script and Reinforcing Memories. Script is constituted of script beliefs and associated script feelings. Reinforcing memories are memories of the period of our life when script decision was made. The activation of script shows up as ‘rackety behaviours’. Reinforcing manifests as escalation of somatic ailments. The Script System appears below.
Racket Feelings, Racket Behaviours, Racketing and Racketeering
Racket is a word used to represent anything scripty. Rackets are repetitive, manipulative, dysfunctional and maladaptive to problem solving and ending situations. They are accompanied by discounting.
I borrow Berne’s analogy of roulette wheel for telling how generation of rackets occurs. A stimulus (internal or external) sets the roulette wheel in motion. The stimulus may be real or imagined or fantasised. It stops at a given number. The number represents the auto response accompanied by thinking-feeling lock-jam. The response is activated in an auto-mode and same type of response occurs in a variety of situations. This happens outside the person’s conscious awareness. The person experiences helplessness in coming out of the resulting situation. This constitutes a racket.
Racket Feelings: Transactional Analysis lists four feelings. They are feeling sad, feeling angry, feeling fear and feeling joy. These are to be expressed to end matters related to the past, present, future and generally respectively. If used appropriately in this manner they constitute authentic feelings. Expression of authentic feelings helps to end situations and solve problems. If one feeling is used as substitute for another feeling it constitutes a racket feeling. Racket feelings do not help to end situations or solve problems. Racket feelings have a manipulative quality. They are triggered automatically much like when a car is jump-started.
Racket Behaviours: The word behaviour means a set of verbal, action, facial, bodily, gesticulate expressions which are useful for identifying ego states. Definition of behaviour is given on page 5. Racket behaviours are behaviours which are repetitive, manipulative, dysfunctional and maladaptive to problem solving and ending situations. They occur outside conscious awareness. They are justified and protected as being necessary and appropriate by the person. They constitute a con to hook others to participate in games.
Racketing: Racketing is engaging in typical types of manipulative actions, behaviours or speech that is scripty in nature.
Racketeering: Racketeering is racketing as a manner of personality trait. It is second nature of a person. Being aggressive, manipulative, irrational, emotionally lock-jammed constitutes racketeering.
In Conclusion
TA Script theory gets us believe that either our parents or we ourselves are responsible for the life we live. It may be true or it may not be true. Trans-generational scripting does mischief too. It could become activated during our childhood or in adulthood or upon we reaching a certain age. The outcome could be beneficial or detrimental.
Be that as it may, script or no script we have plenty of opportunity in hand to remedy our life situation if it is bad. Berne mentions this in the Hello Book (Chapter 3-A - Case of Mary) and I quote: “A script requires (1) Parental directives. (2) A suitable personality development. (3) A childhood decision. (4) A real turn-on to a particular method of success or failure, and (5) A convincing attitude”. By making any one of these ineffective we can successfully become script free. Some suggestions are given here:
1. Parental directives can be made ineffective by disregarding them.
2. Personality can be changed by incorporating positive aspects of personality components.
3. Childhood decisions can be changed by revisiting the past and making new decisions.
4. Dealing with impulses by pulling back in awareness when they push us to do things in ways which result in self harm or other person harm.
5. Identifying and changing our attitudes toward ourself, others, society at large and circumstances of life which are detrimental to our own well being and the well being of others.
The way to act is not in remedying the dysfunctional system piecemeal. Script is a neuro-psychic mechanism which has its inertia (which resists change) and maintains its homeostasis (the system works to maintain a stable, relatively constant internal environment) though this is to our detriment. Therefore the system finds new ways to maintain its control. This does not mean that one should give up on hope, certainly not. The many ways in which we can defuse script, are given in the mind-map that appears on the next page.
It requires a multi-pronged approach. The steps in this approach are: promoting neuro-genesis, neuro-synthesis and neuro-plasticity, freeing the Free Child, planting a Permissive Parent, implementing patiently waiting, delaying and postponing responses to urges, drives and impulses, implementing telencyphalisation (pushing responses to stimuli from brain-stem to fore-brain through the mid-brain), creating the moment and using the moment every moment, using permissions and healing script on the go. Part II provides some 30 practices which when implemented certainly gives a chance to be free of script without much effort and labour. We need to bear in mind that Script is a survival mechanism and not something designed to kill or destroy us.
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(This Blog is a Chapter in 'My Little TA Book')
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The author can be reached at:
taforyouandme@gmail.com
ajitpkarve@gmail.com
+91 9822024037
The author can be reached at:
taforyouandme@gmail.com
ajitpkarve@gmail.com
+91 9822024037
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