SCRIPT AND COUNTERSCRIPT

Claude Steiner, Ph.D.

Will power is a concept meaningful to individuals who find themselves
driven to some form of VHOIdestruction. (VVHQWLDOO\will power is the contra-
position of the Parent agamst the demands of the smpt.
Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) considers will power a relatively useless
ncept. Living "a day at a time" is seen as far more effective, and from the
FRQFHSWo f view of script psychology this approach makes good sense. living a
day at a time reduces life to a long series RIshort term episodes Zhich deprive
the script of a matrix for_ development. _This aYHQVout the odds m the contest
between the script and will power and gives will power an even chance.
Experience with well advanced alcoholics indicates that the tragic ending
of the script has usually been temporarily interdicted by periods during which
will power seems to triumph over the script. The unfolding of this apparent re-
versal of the script can be called the counterscript. The counterscript as well as
will power have their origin in the Parent.
On the stage, a tragedy to be intuitively effective depends on the reflection
of both these elements: the script, and a period during which the hero seems to
avert the tragic ending. In addition it seems essential for intuitive effectiveness
that neither the hero nor the audience believe that the tragic ending has been
truly averted.
To the therapist, whose task is to avert the tragie ending, it is important
to be able to distinguish between the unfolding of the counterscript, and a cure.
Structurally, script and counterscript are Parental precipitates, and therefore
superficially indistinguishable, but closer scrutiny reveals important differences.
In the case of a non-masculinity script the structural analysis is as follows.
Consistent with the simplest Oedipal identification scheme in which, for a boy,
mother tells him what to do and father shows him how, it is mother's Child
(Cm) (Figure IA) who "calls the shots". To Cm masculine behavior is an
omen of desertion. As a protection against the threat of loneliness she marries
a non-masculine male with whom she plays IFWY. As their son begins to ex-
hibit masculine behavior, Cm will react with swift disapproval. From the point
of view of learning-psychology this reaction is seen as negatively reinforcing.
Negative reinforcement is known to be most effective in shaping avoidant be-
havior extremely resistive to extinction.
Thus, mother's strong negative injunction ("Don't be a man") causes the
boy to avoid masculine behavior. The alternative to masculine behavior is fath-
er's demonstration of how to be a non-man. Mother's Child (Cm) becomes the
boy's Parent (Pl), and father's Adult ("Here is how") becomes the boy's
archaic Adult (Al) (Figure IC).
During puberty and after, both mother's and father's Parents (Pm and Pf)
develop expectations of manhood of from the boy ("Be a man"). In the full
grown offspring this expectation becomes the Parent ( P2) while the earlier
parental injunction ("Don't be a man") is lodged in C2 as Pl.
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 11
8e a man 11 11
8e a man"

"Here is tl!CMN'"
11
Be a man"

"Don 1 t be a man"

Hot her
Father
"Don ''t be a man 11

11
Here is how"

Figure 1
Full grown offspr ing

The script is determined by Pl and the counterscript by P2. The script

is pre-Oedipal, non-verbal, preconscious, visceral (gut level) while the countet-
script is post-Oedipal, verbal, conscious; and the former preempts the latter.
The counterscript usually unfolds in early maturity; in the case above
described it takes the form of fairly successful sexual and athletic activity. But
this counterscript lacked conviction and soon succumbed to mother's injunction.
In the case of alcoholics the script and counterscript alternate with every binge.
It is important to emphasize the non-verbal nature of the script. Typically,
patients will deny that their parents gave them certain injunctions. Typically,
again, they will agree as soon as it is mad.e clear that these injunctions were prob-
ably non-verbal. The non-verbal nature of the script dictates the basis for anoth-
er important therapeutic maneuver: when a patient is playing out a counter-
script and is making a bid for its validity as a cure ("Honestly Doc, ·I'll never
touch another drop") the response of choice is not verbal denial, but non-ver-
bal head shaking.
The theory implies that there is a deep, primitive, visceral discomfort as-
sociated with counterscript behavior, often placed by alcoholics in the pit of the
stomach. Consistent with this there is a deep primitive visceral comfort associa-
ted with script behavior, Thus at the worst point of alcoholic withdrawal one
man heard his mother;s voice saying: "Isn't this fun, Jerry?". The postulate
that the hangover is the alcoholic's payoff fits squarely into script psychology.
During the hangover the individual is given temporary respite from the de-
mands of his parent's Child; the hangover is the epitome of acquiescence to the
parental ( P2) in junction.
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 As far as A.A. is concerned alcoholism is an incurable disease; to the tran-
sactional analyst alcoholism is a script, and unless the show is shut down it will
draw to its inevitable tragic ending, whether the person drinks himself to death
or becomes a "dry alcoholic" whose every waking breath is drained of life by
the relentless application of will power. Sobriety is A.A.'s goal, but to the tran-
sactional analyst sobriety may mean "making progress"; five years of progress
are nullified in one binge.
For a cure to occur two elements seem of importance. Permission to the
Child not to follow the parental injunction, which in the case of the alcoholic
means permission not to drink, and decontamination of the Adult.
Jn the case of a 17 year old girl with a script that demanded that she be-
come pregnant and drop out of high school as an adaptation to the injunction
("Don't outdo me"), permission was given "not to get pregnant and to outdo
mother" through a strong, supportive, parental statement from the therapist.
Decontamination of the Adult was accomplished by cutting through a number
of erroneous ideas about the facts of conception by obtaining a prescription for
birth control pills. Almost immediate, joyful relief followed. For the next weeks
depression was evident but it slowly yielded as the patient developed a course
of life to replace the abandoned script. ·
A well elaborated counterscript can become the nucleus of the new course
of life making it possible for some patients to go through this therapeutic pro-
cess with a minimum of depression.
Dr. Steiner is Co-ordinator of group therapy, Center for Special Problems, S.F.

* * *
A LIVING PROBLEM
(We present as a guest contributor Cyprian St. Cyr's nephew, Sebastian )
"SELF-ACTUALIZATION"
Sebastian St. Cyr
On his way through the Ozarks, Donald Dare, who had braved innumer-
able dangers in his lifetime, paid a visit to R. Horseley, the sage. Mockingly,
Dare asked: "Tell me, old man, since you say you can read the future, will I
achieve psychic self-actualization or will I wind up in the gutter, haha?" Horse-
ley hesitated briefly and said: "You will live a long agony of self-destruction."
Don was struck with awe and terror and that very day he got drunk and
stayed drunk for a week. Twenty years later as he lay in the gutter, he saw the
face of Hor:;eley reflected in a puddle. "Old man," asked Don, "How did you
know?" "I didn't know," said Horseley, "it was just a lucky guess." "How can
you be so cruel?" cried Don, "Had you guessed that I would lead a life of self-
actualization, I would not be lying in the gutter today!" Horseley shook his
head sadly and disappeared.
Questions: (1) Was it a lucky guess? -(2) If Dare had not visited Horseley,
would he have become an alcoholic? ( 3) Had Horseley predicted self-actualiza-
tion, would Dare have realized it?
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