Introduction
TA is a theory of life scripts. People need beliefs, myths and stories to live by. We as children are compelled by circumstances to make choices to aid our survival. The possibilities are limited. Elderly persons in the house, besides our parents tell us stories and fairy tales. We also get to read them from books and while watching TV and You Tube videos. We happen to choose our hero in those stories, fairy tales, videos, cartoons. The stories usually match our life situations. We 'in a way' decide what life is good to live - by fighting it out, by being manipulative, by being mischeavous, by being cunning, by taking life lying down, by being nice and complying among many other. The decisions get embedded in our psyche. They structure our life in adulthood.
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 adult life. ‘Ongoing’ means always moving forward with an element of irreversibility; 'program' means there is a well laid out plan. Its 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.
Berne asserts that "Script is the psychological force which propels the person toward his destiny, regardless of whether he fights it or says it is his own free will".
Relevance
TA is a theory meant to treat people afflicted by mental, emotional, behavioural, hurt and broken relationships, addictions and habits, aggressiveness and accident proneness, homicidal and suicidal tendencies, depression and related problems, adjustment and accommodating difficulties and socially unacceptable behaviours. Script is to be viewed in that context.
Script and Personality Anomalies
Script and personality are two faces of the same coin. Personality anomalies represent the manner in which the afflicted person perceives, evaluates, assesses and responds to the prevailing reality, events, people, and emerging situations, problems, difficulties, conditions and challenges in the instant of becoming script ridden. Stroking patterns, transacting, games and rackets are the manifestations observed in script ridden or script afflicted people.
Script has survival value and is psycho-cybernetic
Script leads people to achieve their life goal. It builds peoples' destiny. It is psycho-cybernetic, meaning that the goal (script payoff) determines the pace, direction and nature of events that contribute to it being achieved over a life-time.
Types of Scripts
Scripts are classified as being Winner, Loser and Non-winner Scripts People with winner scripts achieve their goals by actively pursuing them despite intermittent problems, difficulties and failures. People with loser scripts are driven to fail. They have no Plan B in place to pick up strings and proceed to achieve rewarding goals. Losers have hurt or painful relationships and ups and downs in life. People with Non-Winner Banal scripts live uneventful lives. They are neither high achievers nor are they pathetic losers.
Characteristic Features of Script-ridden people
Script prone people justify their views, perception, beliefs, values and judgements. They are also protective about them. Their behaviour escalates when questioned. They are quick to reach conclusions. They have fixed ideas about their life and the way it is moving.
Antonym of Script
Script-free people find themselves enjoying freedom and flexibility in their manner of thinking, feeling, behaving, as well as assessing, evaluating and responding to reality, people and life situations. They are driven to achieve sane, safe, effective and rewarding outcomes in life. They are able to forget painful, hurting, embarrassing, escalating events and outcomes resulting from interactions with persons. They are able to restore life on track the many times it slips.
Patterns that help identify script prone people
Thinking : Script prone people display thinking disorders and pursue fantasies. They frequently get log-jammed in down-spin thinking. Confusion, indecision and struggle to put life on track are other indicators.
Feeling : Script prone people express racket feelings and get log-jammed in escalated racket feelings converting them into psychological trading stamps. They find it difficult to revert to a stable emotional state after a particularly disturbing event or interaction.
Behaviours : Script prone people engage in behaviours that are inauthentic, manipulative, recurring and leading to self / other person mental / physical / emotional harm or hurt. They justify their actions and behaviour as being appropriate and the correct one.
Other Indicators :
Victimised by Injunctions Injunctions are don't messages. They stop the affected persons in their track. There are twelve injunctions that impact existence, being sane, thinking, feeling, being close, being loved, being successful, being important, being close, experiencing belonging and enjoying one's sexuality.
Compulsive Behaviours : Script prone people display some of these four behaviour patters. Being Perfect, Being Nice and Pleasing, Being Strong and Trying Hard.
Passivity and Passive Behaviours Script prone people display passivity and the many types of passive behaviours.
Rackety Behaviours Rackety behaviours are repetitive, intense, and escalated. They display stylised expressions of thoughts, feelings and emotions.
Escalation of Somatic Ailments
Justifies Behaviour as being the only correct and appropriate one
Implements Unicorn and Procrustes Procrustes is the tendency to use justifications to make reasoning fit one’s proposition. Procrustes - Britanica Unicorn is the tendency to expand the proposition to become applicable to every aspect of a topic, subject or hypothesis. Unicorn - Wikipedia
Multi-level Manifestations of Script
Script manifests at many levels. They are intra-psychic, intra-personal, psychological, emotional, interactional, social, behavioural and somatic levels.
Intra-psychic Manifestation Ego state pathology and discounting constitute occurrences at intra-psychic levels. Mind talk and lock-jams smarting in feelings and emotions also constitute intra personal manifestations.
Intra-personal Manifestation Intense mind talk constitutes its intra-personal manifestation.
Psychological Manifestation Affects of mind, altered thinking and feeling patterns constitute the psychological manifestations.
Emotional Manifestation Emotional disturbances and challenges concerning affects of mind, and its management constitute emotional manifestations.
Interactional Manifestation Unhealthy simple and complex transactions constitute its interactional manifestations.
Social Manifestation 'Pastimes', 'Games' and 'Racketing' constitute its social manifestations. 'Drivers', 'Process Script Patterns',
Behavioural Manifestation 'Racketing' and other observable activation across all the aforementioned levels constitute its behavioural manifestations.
Attributes of a Script-free Person
A script free person has the following attributes and qualities:
1. Autonomy: An autonomous person has capacity for conscious awareness, generating a variety of responses, choosing from options and capacity for intimacy - the ability to express one's thinking, feeling, opinion candidly, freely, openly and without put-down.
2. Script Free Living: Script free living is having capacity to be in control of one's life, have awareness for the surfacing of script directives as and when they surface.
3. Decision Making and Problem Solving: These are evident when a person is free of discounting.
4. Capacity for Adult Reality Testing: Reality testing is manifest when a person is largely free of pathology. The person is able to test subjective view of reality on the touchstone of objective reality.
5. Capacity to spend time in solitude and in the company of others with equal ease.
6. Attitude: The person is able to wait patiently for a better time when things are not favourable or going right. He is able to make haste when the time is opportune.
7. Free of Power Plays: The person upholds OK-ness in self as also in others during normal, stressful and challenging times.
8. Own good and general good: The person is conscious about his responsibilities toward himself, his family, his profession, his clan and his nation without overlooking his responsibilities toward others.
9. Upholds universal values: Two values are important. One is citizenship and the other is sustainability. He does work in ways which causes minimum ripples in the lives of others.
10. Freedom from Psychological Time Engagements, Thinking and Emotional lock-jams, Sense of Purpose: These attributes are self explanatory. He / she is also loving, considerate, inclusive in his approach to life and decisions.
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