TTN Autonomy & Script-Compressed

TA FROM THEN TO NOW
- AUTONOMY & SCRIPT
THE DEVELOPMENT OF
TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS
CONCEPTS OVER TIME
Julie Hay has been active within the transactional analysis community for many years. She is
a Teaching & Supervising Transactional Analyst in all fields of specialisation – Counselling,
Organisational, Psychotherapy and Educational – which she writes in that order so that she
can use the abbreviation of TSTA COPE! She has taught TA in over 40 countries, and has been
providing advanced TA training, supervision, coaching and psychotherapy online since 2015.
Julie is a past president of both the European and the International Transactional Analysis
Associations (EATA and ITAA). She served as Vice Chair of the UK-based Institute of
Transactional Analysis (now UKATA) and was one of the three founders and then
inaugural chairperson of the Institute of Developmental Transactional Analysis (IDTA
– closed in 2023). She is also one of the five original founders of the European
Mentoring & Coaching Council and then inaugural President 2006-2008 of the first truly pan-
European EMCC Board. She is delighted to see that it has now become EMCC Global.
In 2009 Julie founded the International Centre for Developmental Transactional Analysis and
alongside it the International Centre for Developmental Super-Vision. Since attaining her TA
Psychotherapy qualifications, she has added the International Centre for Transactional
Analysis Psychotherapy, and combined all of these approaches into the International Centre
for Transactional Analysis Qualifications – ICTAQ https://ictaq.org. ICTAQ operates
qualifications and awards at a range of levels, many of which fit around or are equivalent to
the qualifications established by ITAA and EATA.
Whilst in leadership roles within EATA, ITAA, EMCC, IDTA and ICTAQ, Julie introduced the
TAlent scheme which provides discounts for those living in economically-disadvantaged
areas of the world, based on relative purchasing powers. She operates the same system for
her own non-profit educational foundation. She is also a keen supporter of making
information freely available – in addition to issuing this book she is the inaugural and current
Editor of the International Journal of Transactional Analysis Research & Practice
(https://ijtarp.org/) which is published as an open access journal (free access to all and no
fees to authors, who retain their copyright).
Julie has been a Visiting Professor at Middlesex University and is now Visiting Professor at
the University of Chester. She has an M. Phil for research into the competencies of effective
managers, an MSc in TA Psychotherapy, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Management
Studies.
In addition to many years of experience within public and private sector organisations as an
employee, manager and internal consultant, Julie has run her own organisational
consultancy business since 1986. She also has many years’ experience of designing and
running assessment and development centres, and of setting up in-house mentoring and
coaching schemes. She is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel
Development (CIPD) and a Chartered Manager within the Chartered Management Institute
(CMI). Her experience as a psychotherapist includes pro bono work within high security male
prisons in the UK and she is an Accredited European Counsellor, Member BACP (Accred), and
Psychotherapist Member UKCP. She is also a Licensed NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming)
Trainer with Richard Bandler and the Society of NLP.
Books by the same author
Transactional Analysis for Trainers

1st edition McGraw-Hill 1992 republished Sherwood Publishing 1996.
also published in French
2nd edition Sherwood Publishing 2009
published in Polish, Russian and Turkish
Chinese, Korean, translations in progress.
Working it Out at Work - Understanding Attitudes and Building Relationships

1st edition Sherwood Publishing 1993
also published in Dutch, Persian, Romanian and Slovenian
published in Chinese; Korean translations in progress.
Donkey Bridges for Developmental TA: Making transactional analysis memorable and
accessible
1st edition Sherwood Publishing 1995
Japanese translation in progress
Reflective Practice and Supervision for Coaches
Open University Press 2007
Transformational Mentoring: Creating Developmental Alliances for Changing

Organizational Cultures
McGraw-Hill 1995, Sherwood Publishing 1999; 2nd edition re-titled and published as
following:
Transformational Mentoring Through Alliance Coaching: Creating Developmental

Alliances For Organisational Cultures
Sherwood Publishing 2021
Action Mentoring
The Gower Assessment and Development Centre
Gower 1997 – translated into Dutch 1999 and Polish 2003
Simulations for Assessment, Training and Development
Gower 2002
Mission to Enernova – Assessing Potential & Developing Performance

Gower 2002; republished Sherwood Publishing 2017
Dealing with Difficult People - Workbook and Tape Set
Transactional Analysis Introductory Course – Workbook & Tape Set
Neuro-Linguistic Programming Practitioner Course – Workbook and Tape Set

Julie Hay's Ideas Blogs
Julie Hay's Ideas Blogs & Associated Articles

TA from Then to Now: The Development of TA Concepts over Time - A series of books
- Core Themes 2022 (2021 version had typos)
- Professional Identity 2022
- Contextual Considerations 2022
- Professional Intervention 2022
- Organisations & Institutions 2024
- Leadership & Power 2024
Sherwood Publishing
TA From Then to Now
- Autonomy & Script
The Development of
Transactional Analysis
Concepts over Time
Julie Hay
HERTFORD UK
Sherwood Publishing - published on behalf of the International Centre for
Transactional Analysis Qualifications
Wildhill, Broadoak End, Hertford SG14 2JA United Kingdom
Websites: https://sherwoodpublishing.com, https://ictaq.org

Emails: sherwood@sherwoodpublishing.com, ictaq@ictaq.org
Copyright © Julie Hay 2024
TA from Then to Now – Autonomy & Script by Julie Hay is licensed under CC BY-NC-
SA 4.0. To view a copy of this licence, visit
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 #
#
A brief explanation of CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
This licence requires that re-users give credit to the creator. It allows re-users to
distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, for
non-commercial purposes only. If others modify or adapt the material, they must
license the modified material under identical terms.
BY: Credit must be given to the creator.
NC: Only non-commercial use of the work is permitted.
SA: Sharing Allowed - Adaptations must be shared under the same terms
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-907037-62-7 for this book as a paperback and PDF

ISBN 978-1-907037-63-4 for this book as Kindle and ePub
We are making this book available free – you pay only printing and postage costs for
the paperback, and Amazon fees for the Kindle. Other versions are free to download.
We invite you to make a donation at https://ictaq.org/donate_to_ictaq if possible,
as that will contribute towards keeping it free for those who are financially-
disadvantaged, and will support the other ICTAQ initiatives including the TA
Proficiency Awards (https://taproficiencyawards.org) and the International Journal
of TA Research & Practice (https://ijtarp.org).
Contents i
Contents
Tables ....................................................................................... ii
Figures ..................................................................................... iii
Introduction to this Series....................................................... vii
Introduction to this Book ........................................................ xv
Chapter 1: Autonomy.............................................................. 17
Chapter 2: Life Positions ......................................................... 34
Chapter 3: Do Scripts Exist? .................................................... 53
Chapter 4: Scripts - Berne, Steiner, Erskine ............................. 74
Chapter 5: Script Theory 1972-1987 ........................................ 97
Chapter 6: Script Theory from 1988 ...................................... 112
Chapter 7: More Script Diagrams .......................................... 126
Chapter 8: Cultural and Transgenerational Scripting ............. 145
Chapter 9: Elements of Script ................................................ 173
References ............................................................................ 207

ii…TA from Then to Now: Autonomy & Script
Tables
Table 1: Most Frequently Mentioned Item Cited in the Transactional Analysis
Literature As Related to the Four Aspects of Autonomy (van Beekum and Krijgsman,
2000, p. 53) .............................................................................................................. 26
Table 2: White's 7 Life Positions .............................................................................. 42
Table 3: Life Position Matrix (Milnes, 2017, p.35) ................................................... 43
Table 4: Comparison of steps to success (Hay, 2009) and dynamic thinking
(Kouwenhoven, 2011) .............................................................................................. 59
Table 5: The 7 dimensions in detail (Benedetti at al, 2020, p.18) ......................... 143
Table 6: The Transgenerational Script Questionnaire Questions (Noriega Gayol, 2019,
extracted from p.282-3) ......................................................................................... 161
Table 7: Greek and Chinese Script Myths (amended from Chan, 1991, p.222) .... 170
Table 8: Survival Injunctive Messages (McNeel and McNeel, 2019, p.1) .............. 177
Table 9: Attachment Injunctive Messages (McNeel and McNeel, 2019, p.2)........ 178
Table 10: Identity Injunctive Messages (McNeel and McNeel, 2019, p.3) ............ 179
Table 11: Competence Injunctive Messages (McNeel and McNeel, 2019, p.4) .... 180
Table 12: (Sense of) Security Injunctive Messages (McNeel and McNeel, 2019, p.5)
............................................................................................................................... 181
Table 13: Summary of Gere's Development of the OK Miniscript ......................... 193
Table 14: Survival Process and Allower (Capers and Goodman, 1983, p.147) ...... 194
Table 15: Script Themes, Drivers and Sentence Patterns (summarised from Kahler,
1975b). ................................................................................................................... 196
Table 16: Process Scripts and Drivers (Kahler, 1978, p.220).................................. 197
Table 17 Drivers, Assets, Fears (based on Klein, 1987).......................................... 199
Table 18: Summary of Drivers Interventions (Johnson, 1997, p.72) ..................... 201
Contents iii
Figures
Figure 1: Autonomia (Oxford Languages Dictionary, 2022, online)......................... 18
Figure 2: Degree of Autonomy (Berne, 1972, p.155) ............................................... 21
Figure 3: Autonomy Matrix (amended from Hay, 2012, p.19) ................................ 32
Figure 4: Summary of the OK Corral (Ernst, 1971, p.39/237) .................................. 36
Figure 5: The OK Corral and Warm Faces (Ernst, 1971, p.41/239) .......................... 37
Figure 6: Interpersonal Patterns in Relationships (Boyd and Boyd, 1982, p.59) ..... 38
Figure 7: Projection onto Two Dimensions of Diagnostic Space of 5 Okay Diagram
(Groder, 1977, p.163)............................................................................................... 40
Figure 8: Energy Diagram (Groder, 1977, p.165) ..................................................... 40
Figure 9: Life Position Matrix (Milnes, 2017, p.35) .................................................. 42
Figure 10: Hungers and Levels of Transactions on Script Drama Diamond (Barnes,
1981, p.26) ............................................................................................................... 44
Figure 11: The Six Script Drama Diamonds (Barnes, 1981, p.26) ............................ 45
Figure 12: Disposition Diamonds (Hay , 2009, p.46, 47) .......................................... 45
Figure 13: Windows on the World (Hay, 2000a, p.15) ............................................ 46
Figure 14: More Windows on the World (Hay, 2012, p.25)..................................... 47
Figure 15: Extended Windows on The World (Hay, 2014b, p. 13 ............................ 47
Figure 16: Extended Windows on the World - an Alternative Diagram .................. 48
Figure 17: Windows on the World and Internal and External Environments .......... 48
Figure 18: The Identity Matrix (Felton, 2015, p.8) ................................................... 49
Figure 19: Relationships Between Types and Modes of Discounting (Schiff, 1975,
p.16) ......................................................................................................................... 54
Figure 20: Steps to Success (Hay, 2009, p.130 updated with Sabotage) ................. 55
Figure 21: Structure and Dynamics of Frame of Reference (Schiff, 1975, p.51) ..... 60
Figure 22: The Heuristic Systems Model of TA (Hewson, 1990, p.5 – reproduced as a
tidier diagram in Newton, 2007, p.200)................................................................... 71
Figure 23: : The Resilience Cycles (Newton, 2007, p.201) ....................................... 73
Figure 24: : Script Matrix (Berne, 1966b, p.172)...................................................... 80
iv…TA from Then to Now: Autonomy & Script
Figure 25: Script Matrix (Berne, 1966a, p.172) ........................................................ 83

Figure 26: Origin and Insertion of the Script Injunctions [as the Electrode] (Berne,
1972, p.116) ............................................................................................................. 83
Figure 27: Script Matrix of Hard-Working Winner (Berne, 1972, p.128). ................ 85
Figure 28: A Blank Script Matrix (Berne, 1972, p.281 .............................................. 85
Figure 29: A Family Parade (Berne, 1972, p.284) .................................................... 86
Figure 30: Cultural Transmission (Berne, 1972, p.286)............................................ 86
Figure 31: A Script Matrix (Steiner, 1966a, p. 134) .................................................. 88
Figure 32: Script Matrices (Steiner, 1971, p.57) ...................................................... 91
Figure 33: The Script Matrix and The Script (Steiner, 1974, p.67). .......................... 93
Figure 34: The Script System (O'Reilly-Knapp and Erskine, 2003, p.170) ................ 95
Figure 35: Part of a Script Matrix (Stuntz, 1972, p.59) ............................................ 97
Figure 36: Current Ego States (Stuntz, 1972, p.60) .................................................. 98
Figure 37: Second order Structure of Parent (Stuntz, 1972, p.61) .......................... 98
Figure 38: A Child Under 5 (English, 1972, p.65) ................................................... 100
Figure 39: English's Script Matrix (English, 1972, p.69) ......................................... 101
Figure 40: Double Script Matrix – Behaviours (Matuschka, 1972, p.81) ............... 102
Figure 41: Double Script Matrix – Injunctions (Matuschka, 1972, p.82) ............... 102
Figure 42: Layers of Personality (White and White, 1974, p.14) ........................... 105
Figure 43: Frame of Reference (Schiff, 1975, p.50) ............................................... 107
Figure 44: The Script Cycle (James, 1977, p.75)..................................................... 108
Figure 45: The Script Process (James, 1977, p.77)Redecision ............................... 108
Figure 46: A Script Matrix (Goulding and Goulding, 1978, p.118) ......................... 109
Figure 47: Script Imago (White, 1984, p.88) .......................................................... 110
Figure 48: Mutual Vectors in Script Development (Cornell, 1988, p.277) ............. 118
Figure 49: Genogram/Script Matrix of a Woman Sexually Abused as a Teenager
(Massey, Comey and Just, 1988, p.330-331) ......................................................... 120
Figure 50: An Experiential Learning Cycle (Napper and Newton, 2000, p. 1.6)..... 122
Figure 51: The Learning Spiral (Napper and Newton, 2000, p.1.6) ....................... 122
Figure 52: Script Formation as a Learning Cycle (Newton, 2006, p.191) ............... 122
Figure 53: Script as a Dynamic Learning Process (Newton, 2006, p.194) .............. 123
Contents v
Figure 54: Composite Decision Scale (Woollams, 1979, p.212)............................. 127

Figure 55: Existence Decision Scale after Treatment (Woollams, 1979, p.212). ... 127
Figure 56: A Three-Year Old Diagram (Woollams, 1973, p.34). ............................. 127
Figure 57: Revised Script Matrix Diagram (Woollams, 1973, p.36) ....................... 128
Figure 58: Second Order Structural Diagram of Same Man (Woollams, 1973, p.36)
............................................................................................................................... 129
Figure 59: Script Matrix Diagram (Holloway, 1977, p.197) .................................... 130
Figure 60: Structural Script Matrix (Kahler, 1978, p.225) ...................................... 130
Figure 61: Functional Script Matrix (Kahler, 1978, p.228) ..................................... 131
Figure 62 Structural and Functional Matrix of Script Process and Content (Kahler,
1978, p.231) ........................................................................................................... 131
Figure 63: Systematic Approach to Learning (Sills and Salters, 1991, p.11) .......... 133
Figure 64: The Comparative Script System (Sills and Salters, 1991, p.12) ............. 133
Figure 65: The Assessment Form (Sills and Salters, 1991, p.13) ............................ 134
Figure 66: Script Matrix with Aspiration Arrow and Inner Core (Clarkson, 1992c, p.98)
............................................................................................................................... 135
Figure 67: Depression-Social isolation Vicious Cycle (Widdowson, 2014, p.199) . 136
Figure 68: Angry-depressed Vicious Cycle (Widdowson, 2014, p.9) ..................... 136
Figure 69: Cocreative Script Matrix (Summers and Tudor, 2000, p. 33) ............... 137
Figure 70: Script Helix (Summers and Tudor, 2000, p. 34) .................................... 137
Figure 71: Ego States shaped by others including family, organisations and cultures.
(Napper, 2010, p.198). ........................................................................................... 138
Figure 72: Script Matrix (amended from Hay, 2012, p.18) .................................... 139
Figure 73: Autonomy Matrix (amended from Hay, 2012, p.19) ............................ 139
Figure 74: Genogram With Episcript Transmission in Kara’s Family (Shustov and
Tuchina, 2019, p.298) ............................................................................................ 141
Figure 75: A Selection of Script Drama Triangles (Karpman, 2019, p 21-23)......... 142
Figure 76: The three-dimensional Heptagon (Benedetti at al, 2020, p.18) ........... 143
Figure 77: Life Script Heptagon (White, 2022, p.54).............................................. 144
Figure 78: Primary Injunction in Ethnic Boundary (Roberts, 1975, p.30) .............. 145
Figure 79: Boundary Categorisations (Hay, 2018, p.54) ........................................ 146
vi…TA from Then to Now: Autonomy & Script
Figure 80: Preservation of Culturally Accepted script Message (White and White,
1975, p.14) ............................................................................................................. 150
Figure 81: Therapeutic and educational process in a therapeutic community. (White
and White, 1975, p.22). ......................................................................................... 151
Figure 82: A Family Parade (adapted from Berne, 1972 p. 284) (Noriega 2009 p. 9 )
............................................................................................................................... 155
Figure 83: Transference Psychodynamics (adapted from Moiso, 1985) (Noriega 2009
p.11) ....................................................................................................................... 155
Figure 84: Projective Identification (Noriega 2009 p. 11) ...................................... 156
Figure 85: Role Diagram (Karpman, 1968, p.39) .................................................... 165
Figure 86: Drama Triangle (Karpman, 1968, p.40) ................................................. 166
Figure 87: Location Diagram (Karpman, 1968, p.41) ............................................. 166
Figure 88: Positive Triangle of Social Roles (le Guernic, 2004, p.220) ................... 168
Figure 89: Revised origin and insertion of script injunctions (Holtby, 1976, p.372)
............................................................................................................................... 175
Figure 90: Permission Wheel (Jaoui, 1988, reproduced by Hawkes, 2007, p.211 . 186
Figure 91: The Circle of Interconnectedness (Papaux, 2016a, p.338 – referenced by
her to Papaux, 2015) .............................................................................................. 187
Figure 92: Permission Wheel (Papaux, 2016b, p.108) ........................................... 188
Figure 93: Not-OK and OK Battery Charging (Kahler and Capers, 1974, p.27 -and
corrected in Errata issue, 1974) ............................................................................. 190
Figure 94: Miniscript Formula and Triangle (Kahler and Capers, 1974, p.31) ....... 190
Figure 95: Miniscript Positions and Life Positions (Kahler and Capers, 1974, p.32).
............................................................................................................................... 191
Figure 96: Not-OK and OK Miniscripts (Kahler and Capers, 1974, p.34) ............... 192
Figure 97: Interlocking Miniscripts (Kahler and Capers, 1974, p.38) ..................... 192
Figure 98: The Survival Process (Capers and Goodman, 1983, p.143). ................. 193
Figure 99: The Living Stairs (Capers and Goodman, 1983, p.145). ........................ 194
Introduction to this Series vii
Introduction to this Series

This series of books is based on training workbooks I have been developing over
several years. Previously issued only as handouts on workshops and webinars I have
been running, they are intended as reviews and critiques of existing TA (and
appropriate non-TA) literature. They have always been issued free - payments are
only for attendance and even they are often reduced to reflect the TAlent - the
scheme introduced when I was president of ITAA, EATA, EMCC to provide discounts
for those in economically-disadvantaged areas of the world. This series is my way of
contributing to the spread of TA knowledge, especially to those who lack access to
TA books and journals. At the same time, I hope that reading what I have written
will prompt readers to go back to some of the original publications rather than
relying only on my interpretation of what another author has written.
A few years ago (Hay, 1997) I flipped the script matrix that we usually draw in TA to
produce an autonomy matrix, which showed the ego state circles of the parents on
a lower level of those of the child. This meant that the arrows from the parents to
the child all pointed upwards, to provide an illustration of the way in which most
parents want to support their children rather than pathologise them. The change
was prompted by a story in Women who Run with the Wolves (by non-TA author
Clarissa Pinkola Estes, 1992) in which an older woman is asked why she is working
to help a younger woman instead of expecting the reverse, and responds that the
point of each generation is to facilitate the growth and development of future
generations.
I tell this story because I am relying on my colleagues in the TA community to have
a similar perspective. In this series I am collecting together a selection of what my
colleagues have written, and sharing it with the next generation of TA practitioners.
Because I am writing reviews and critiques, and doing so as a non-commercial
activity, I am not required to seek permissions about copyright. Experience tells me
that many of the authors will have lost their copyright to publishers anyway, and
were I to be doing this as a commercial activity, those publishers would be asking
me for permission payments. Lest you doubt this, I was once quoted a special
reduced rate of only US$ 1500 per year to put a link on a website for a published
article (that I and a colleague had written!) about a voluntary TA social action
initiative with children. The publisher reduced it from $2500 when I protested there
was no money!
On the other hand, I know from previous experience that whenever I have asked for
permissions to reproduce material, my colleagues have always provided it.
Whenever a publisher is a TA association, permission has also been given readily. I
am therefore trusting that my colleagues will feel the same about this series – that
it is an opportunity to introduce their work to many others, and especially to those
who live in areas of the world where economic and/or political circumstances make
it difficult for them to access the original materials.
viii TA from Then to Now – Autonomy & Script
The books within this series are being set up to use print-on-demand services and e-
books, so it is straightforward to change the contents. Hence, if anyone whose
material I have referred to does not want this shared with future TA practitioners in
this way, just email me at julie@juliehay.org and I will make the necessary deletions.
The same applies, of course, if you think I have misunderstood your work – feel free
to provide me with alternative content.
For Practitioners
The contents of the series are written with students of TA in mind - in the
expectation that readers want to become TA practitioners who work with clients,
whether those clients are individuals, couples, families, teams, groups,
organisations, institutions or even governments. The series is intended to be an
accompaniment to serious professional study of TA. It is not intended to be an
introduction to TA for the layperson, nor does it concentrate on a narrow context.
When I first learned TA in the 1970’s, we trained together so that we knew how
others used TA in ways that were different to our own professional application. This
made it easier to identify boundaries to our roles, as well as easier to know when to
refer clients elsewhere if we were not competent to offer what they needed.
Back in 2004 I undertook a project for EATA to compare the competences that had
been developed for different fields of TA application. I did this because I felt, even
then, that we are all transactional analysts. Therefore it seemed logical that we
would need the same TA skills and knowledge, albeit that we might need additional
and different non-TA skills and theory. Having now been accredited by my
colleagues across the four fields of TA that are operated by ITAA and EATA, I am
even more convinced that we are more similar than different. During the project I
compared the four sets of competences and showed that they could all be
incorporated into one set - only the evidence we display varies.
Since then I have mapped (compared) that collated set of competences with various
other approaches to psychology, including those used by some UK universities for
master's programmes, and have been using them as the basis for a series of TA
qualifications under the auspices of the International Centre for TA Qualifications
(ICTAQ - https://ictaq.org). Alongside that, I have developed an outline of a
programme that leads through a series of TA qualifications - TA Practitioner
(Certificate), TA Advanced Practitioner (Diploma), and TA Master Practitioner
(Advanced Diploma). Master Practitioner is at the same level as the ITAA/EATA CTA
(Certified Transactional Analyst) but is based on continuous assessment rather than
one final written and one oral examination at the end of several years. This allows
students to leave with accreditation at the level they have reached, and avoids them
leaving with nothing if they do not stay in the system until CTA level.
At the same time, I have developed a framework of modules that serves as the basis
for a teaching programme as well as a structure for assessment (see
https://ictaq.org for details). This framework can be used in many ways. There is
Introduction to this Series ix
nothing to stop students on other TA programmes from using the series to

supplement their knowledge, and nothing to stop other TA trainers from using
whatever they find useful from the series (but please acknowledge the source if you
reproduce rather than write your own version, in line with the open access licence
explained below). Also, please continue to credit originators of ideas as well as
authors who may have developed such ideas; I have given full academic-style
references so you can do this - and so you can go back to the sources if feasible.
Acknowledgements
Over the years, and especially in the past, many of my TA colleagues have produced
overviews of the TA literature. I want to acknowledge and thank in particular Ted
Novey for a database he produced in 1987, and which has been invaluable to me
over the years in terms of establishing who was first to contribute what. I am sorry
that Ted is no longer with us and hope that over the years he got many thanks for
all his hard work.
There have also been several books/booklets that provide useful information, such
as a reference list of the TA Bulletin and Journal 1962-1974 edited by June Ellis
(1975), and a guide to TA literature by Michael Brown and Taibi Kahler (1978) which
also includes several diagrams. Plus some articles: an annotated bibliography by
Robert Cranmer (1971) of Berne's work from 1939 (as Bernstein) through to 1971
(still in press then), where the annotations give short descriptions of the content
(e.g. "1972, Allen: Expansion on men's banal scripts; stroke economy and sex role
modelling." (p.368); references to material about script published between 1958
and 1976 by Joseph McGrory (1976); Bill Cornell (2014) with a list of TA books
published 2009-2014 (where the comments appear to be quotes from the book
covers); and Gloria Noriega Gayol (2015) who summarises the history of TA into a
PowerPoint, including photos of significant contributors.
Review and Limitations
As the editor of a TA research journal (https://ijtarp.org), I expect authors to include
in their articles both the review of previous relevant literature and a section on the
limitations of their results or conclusions. Because this series includes many reviews
of the work of other authors, interspersed with my own ideas [often included in
square brackets like this], the limitations are the same for every book in the series
and are:
• the reviews are my interpretations of what others have written – and I could be
misinterpreting;
• they are my selections of what to include – and I will inevitably have missed
material;
• I have not had access to everything ever published about TA – particularly in
non-TA publications and particularly in languages other than English;
x TA from Then to Now – Autonomy & Script
• what I write is not intended to be all you read – it is meant to stimulate you to
go back to the sources whenever possible;
• my focus has been on what has been written, especially on the 'Then' – because
you can access current publications more easily;
• the 'Now' means when I was writing each book and not necessarily now you are
reading it;
• I am not attempting to teach you how to apply all of the many TA-related
approaches – only to introduce them to you so you can decide if you want to go
further, in which case I expect you to seek training with current proponents of
such approaches.
Diversity and TA literature from the past
It is no secret that much TA literature was written many years ago when awareness
of diversity, in its many forms, was not as high as nowadays. It is easy to criticise
early TA authors, including Eric Berne, for being sexist, racist, and/or homophobic.
However, it is clear in his books that Berne kept developing his ideas, so it seems
likely that he would have moved on if he had not died in 1970.
Also, much TA literature has been written from the perspective of psychotherapy.
For instance, Berne's (1963) book with the word 'Organizations' in the title
contained only a few pages about an organisation, and that was a mental hospital
so not typical of organisations that many people work within or come into contact
with. The book was based on a séance, which again makes it hard to recognise the
relevance to educational, commercial, corporate and other institutions.
In spite of these potential difficulties caused by writing styles so many years ago,
most of the concepts and models are just as relevant to other contexts and non-
psychotherapy applications. Therefore, unless I am quoting verbatim text from one
of the earlier publications, I will change mentions of psychotherapist into
practitioner, and sentences about he or him will become plural, and therefore
'neuter' in English. I will also change she, her, when those are being used to indicate
what used to be a typical female role or activity (secretary, housewife, etc).
Open Access and Copyright
Those who know me are also aware that I am a fan of open access publishing. You
will see that this book contains the usual copyright statement to prevent you from
copying large amounts of it and making money from doing that. However, it also
contains a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0
International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) # Licence. It is my intention that you can extract
from the book as much as you wish, and hopefully share it with others, as long as
you do so without charging them for it.
Introduction to this Series xi
Please make sure also that you do that in a way that serves as review or critique, so
that you do not infringe the copyright ownership of any diagrams by others that I
have myself reviewed or critiqued within this publication.
#
A brief explanation of CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
This licence requires that re-users give credit to the creator. It allows re-users to
distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, for
non-commercial purposes only. If others modify or adapt the material, they must
license the modified material under identical terms.
BY: Credit must be given to the creator.
NC: Only non-commercial use of the work is permitted.
SA: Sharing Allowed - Adaptations must be shared under the same terms
Steve Karpman (2019) told us that Eric Berne had "Five Rules of Theory-Making [of
which the first was] Don't say anything that you cannot diagram;" (p.7). He went on
to tell us that during the Tuesday evening seminars that Berne led "One of the
seminar rules was that anyone speaking of their new idea was required to get up
and walk to the blackboard and diagram it." I have therefore included diagrams as
part of my reviews – as Karpman would paraphrase Berne and say - no diagram
means no TA.
However, do not reproduce diagrams in this book by other authors unless you are
producing a review/critique and are maintaining the appropriate Creative Commons
licence. If you are publishing something within a journal, book or other format that
involves a fee for readers, you need to follow normal permission procedures with
the author and/or the publisher of what you want to reproduce.
If you want to reproduce my diagrams, you can already do that in line with the
licence and we will be happy to provide permission for commercial publications. We
are gradually building up a library of my diagrams, complete with suitable
statements that say you are reproducing them with permission, so feel free to
contact us if you want to use any of those. Just email julie@juliehay.org and tell us
the title of the diagram, the book title and page number where it appeared, and
what format you need (pdf, jpg, etc). If we have updated the diagram you want, we
will also send you the new version.
xii TA from Then to Now – Autonomy & Script
Translations
I am very aware of how privileged I am to have grown up in a country where my
language is known in many other countries, is the same language that Eric Berne
and his many colleagues used when they were developing TA, and is the language
often used by professionals in non-English-speaking countries. Within the TA
community, I am particularly aware of the increased difficulties for students who
cannot read the wide range of original materials in English – and of course who will
not be able to read this series of books. Over the years, much of my material has
been translated in countries where I have been running training programmes. I
hope at some point in the future to make that more widely available. In the
meantime, if you are interested and willing to produce translations of any of the
books within this series, please contact me. Whatever you produce can then be
widely available free with your name on the documents, and you will be helping the
TA community of which you are a part.
If you are still a student, I will be delighted to show my appreciation of your work by
providing you with free training and supervision. If you are already a TA trainer, I will
be happy to invite you to join the team at ICTAQ if you would like to provide a similar
programme of staged qualifications to your own students.
Attributions
I learned many years ago, after my first TA book was published, that I should not
have assumed that readers would know when I included non-TA material. I have
seen the same problem elsewhere – for example, Tuckman (1965) was not writing
about TA groups, Bowlby's (1969) attachment is not a TA concept, Hersey and
Blanchard's (1969) situational leadership model is not based on TA. To avoid this
continuing to happen, you will see the abbreviation NTA beside some author names
within the text of the books in this series – NTA stands for non-TA author.
Different perspectives and repetitions
Many TA concepts are applied for different purposes, and within different
approaches. You will therefore find similar material under different headings, albeit
usually written with a different focus. I have done this so that each book will be as
self-contained as possible. I did not want to keep telling you that you needed a
different book for more information.
The overall structure of this series is based on the modules against which students
are assessed for ICTAQ Practitioner, Advanced Practitioner and Master Practitioner
status. Master Practitioner aligns with CTA, albeit with more focus on TA research
than is currently required by ITAA/EATA.
The structure is that Practitioners are expected to submit a Learning Journal plus
evidence of their work that matches a Professional Intervention module (contracting,
ethics); then they choose depending on their own practice from Individual
Introduction to this Series xiii
Development (childhood, script), Interactions & Relationships, Group Processes and

Organisations & Institutions, with an option also to choose Core Themes. At
Advanced Practitioner/Diploma level, they must submit evidence to cover Process
Skills, Research, Context and Professional Skills. At Master Practitioner level they
submit a case study that brings together TA theory, TA practice and research.
The books in this series are designed against the qualification modules, although
some may extend because there is more material than will fit into one book. There
will also be additional titles/topics to reflect the Master Practitioner level
requirements, although all of the books are written to be interesting and
understandable (I hope!) for TA students at all levels.
Indexing
We were spending a lot of time deciding which terms in these books to index. It was
particularly problematic when the same terms have been used by different authors
with different meanings – and when some of them are everyday words as well.
Also, an index is only needed for the paperback version of the book. In the PDF,
Kindle and EPUB versions, the reader can search for whatever they would like to find.
As we are providing all versions of this book free (you pay only Amazon costs for the
paperback or Kindle), we hope that you will download the PDF or EPUB if you want
to search for anything. You can obtain these at:
https://juliehay.org/free-downloads-books-workbooks/
If you do not have access to a computer on which you can download and search a
PDF or EPUB, then please write to us at ICTAQ, Wildhill, Broadoak End, Hertford,
SG14 2JA, UK. Tell us your search items and your address and we will write back to
you with the relevant page numbers.
Donations
Even though this book is free (apart from unavoidable production costs for some
versions), open access publishing still costs money for administrative and IT support.
However, such expenditure by me as the author means that many people can have
access to TA material that they might otherwise be unable to afford. I invite those
of you who could afford to purchase this book at a regular price to make a donation
- at https://ictaq.org/donate_to_ictaq - so that I can continue to produce such
material. Any income left over after the book costs have been covered will go
towards the publication of the open access International Journal of TA Research &
Practice (https://ijtarp.org) for which I am the volunteer Editor. For that journal, all
authors, reviewers and translators are volunteers (see https://taresearch.org for
translation of the Abstracts); we still have to cover significant costs for IT, internet
hosting and administration.
xiv TA from Then to Now – Autonomy & Script
Feedback please
This book is one of a series that will be published over a period of time. They are
based on my training workbooks, which I update as new material is published.
Please send me feedback about any areas that you would like me to cover in future
- and anything you think I may have missed or misunderstood . . .
You can contact me at julie@juliehay.org
Finally - apologies if you have found this Introduction too long – when you purchase
more books in the series, you will not need to read it again. I expect it to be the same
each time.
References
This list refers to this Introduction to the Series only; each book will contain relevant
references, in alphabetical order, at the end of the book.
Bowlby, John. (1969). Attachment: Volume 1 of Attachment and Loss. London: Tavistock
Institute of Human Relations.
Brown, Michael & Kahler, Taibi. (1978). NoTAtions: A Guide to TA Literature. Dexter, MI:
Huron Valley Institute.
Cornell, William F. (2014). Transactional Analysis: 50 Years Later in Theory and Practice.
Transactional Analysis Journal, 44(3), 226-236.
https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0362153714554188
Cranmer, Robert M. (1971). Eric Berne: Annotated Bibliography. Transactional Analysis
Journal, 1(1), 23-29. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F036215377100100105
Ellis, June B. (1975). TA Tally: A quick reference of articles in the Transactional Analysis
Bulletin and Journal 1962-1964. USA: Child and Family Consultants, Inc.
Hersey, P., & Blanchard, K. H. (1969). Life cycle theory of leadership. Training and
Development Journal, 23(5), 26–34.
Karpman, Stephen B. (2019). "Don't Say Anything You Can't Diagram." The Creative
Brainstorming System of Eric Berne. International Journal of Transactional Analysis
Research & Practice, 10 (1), 4-20. https://doi.org/10.29044/v10i1p4
McGrory, Joseph E. (1976). Script Theory in Transactional Analysis: An Historical Review.
https://doi.org/10.1177%2F036215377600600402
Noriega Gayol, Gloria. (2015). La Evolución Intergrado del Análisis Transaccional.
Conference presentation. Lima, Peru: Conglat XXXII, Congeso Latino Americano de Análisis
Transaccional.
Novey, Theodore. (1987). An Advanced Reference Guide to the Transactional Analysis
Literature. Glenview IL: TA Associates.
Pinkola, Estés, Clarissa. (1992). Women who Run with the Wolves: Contacting the Power of
the Wild Woman. London: Rider.
Tuckman, Bruce. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups Psychological Bulletin,
63(6), 384-399.
Introduction to this Book xv
Introduction to this Book

When I pulled together what I had been teaching about Individual Development, I
realised there was a lot of content. I therefore decided that I would need to split it
up and I have finished up with three books in this series that each relates to the
ICTAQ (International Centre for TA Qualifications) module on Individual
Development.
I have structured them as follows:
• Ego States – the contents of this will be fairly obvious but please note that I stay
with various models that incorporate ego states apart from transactions, where
I only consider people's initial preferences (i.e. their open doors) – the main
material about transactions is in the Interactions & Relationships book;
• Autonomy & Script – again the contents will be fairly obvious - in addition to
autonomy and script I also cover life positions;
• Individual Development – basically what was left over after I covered ego states,
autonomy and script ☺– this includes some challenges to how we think about
the various TA concepts, material about childhood experiences and childhood
developmental stages, passivity and symbiosis (there are mentions of this in
Autonomy & Script but there I leave it to you to assume the usual meaning of
those words and now I write more about this as a specific TA concept); material
about rackets and the racket system; a chapter about emotions; and I conclude
with the non-TA topic of attachment because it is increasingly being
incorporated into TA approaches.
I have written in each of the three books to be self-contained but if you have not
read any of them yet, I would suggest reading them in the reverse order to how I
have described above. This is because the Individual Development book contains a
first chapter about challenges – if you read that first you can keep the challenges in
mind as you read more material about TA. However, within TA we do plenty of
reflection, so you can read the books in any order and then reflect on them after
you read the chapter with the challenges.
As you are now reading this particular book, the content here is divided into several
chapters with self-explanatory titles::
1. Autonomy
2. Life Positions
3. Do Scripts Exist?
4. Scripts – Berne, Steiner, Erskine
5. Script Theory 1972-1987
6. Script Theory from 1988
xvi TA from Then to Now – Autonomy & Script
7. More Script Diagrams

8. Cultural and Transgenerational Scripts
9. Elements of Script
A note about metaphors and diagrams
As you read on, you will see that I describe how scripts are metaphors, in terms of
stories, characters, animals – diagrams are also metaphors and the following
chapters contain a multitude of diagrams for how scripts can be illustrated. Each
diagram and metaphor therefore:
• embodies something – it has an impact on you;
• entails something – there are ‘hidden’ messages;
• encompasses something – they differ in how much they include;
• empowers in some way – you can choose which works best for you – or you can
invent your own.
As I say in the Series Introduction, I welcome feedback, especially about anything

that you think I may have missed or misunderstood . . . just email me at
julie@juliehay.org
Formatting Reminders
As explained in the Introduction to the Series, please note the following:
• [square brackets are used to indicate my own comments when I have
interspersed them as I am summarising or reviewing the work of others]
• NTA = non-TA author
• " " indicates a quotation from another publication or is used to identify speech
References – are at the end of the book in alphabetical order.
Introduction to this Book 17
Chapter 1: Autonomy
As I have written in the previous Introduction to this Book, I have decided to make
this first chapter about autonomy because it is in many respects seen as the purpose
of applying TA – to help ourselves and others to achieve autonomy instead of
existing within a script.
I will begin with some NTA definitions that invite you to think about what the term
actually means, before continuing with a review of what has been published about
autonomy since Eric Berne introduced the idea. I will then suggest some ways in
which we might need to update the term.
In the book entitled Individual Development, I have invited you to consider and
reflect further upon the term, by presenting some challenges to the concept,
including how it sits alongside homonomy, or connection to others, or ubuntu, as
some TA authors suggest. In this book I mention some of these considerations briefly
at the end of this chapter.
Definitions
Look online and the Oxford Languages Dictionary (2022) provides what is often
quoted by others, in that the word comes from early 17th century Greek
- autonomia, from autonomos ‘having its own laws’; and from autos ‘self’ + nomos
‘law’. They show Figure 1 and add that:
1. “noun: autonomy
the right or condition of self-government.
"between the First and Second World Wars, Canada gained greater autonomy
from Britain"
o a self-governing country or region.
plural noun: autonomies
"the national autonomies of the Russian Republic"
o freedom from external control or influence; independence.
"the courts enjoy a considerable degree of autonomy"
Similar:
self-government independence self-rule
home rule sovereignty self-determination freedom
autarchy self-sufficiency individualism
18 TA from Then to Now: Autonomy and Script
2. (in Kantian moral philosophy) the capacity of an agent to act in accordance with
objective morality rather than under the influence of desires.
Figure 1: Autonomia (Oxford Languages Dictionary, 2022, online)
Look further and a ‘philosophical’ definition is provided by the Internet Encyclopedia

of Philosophy (2022): “Autonomy is an individual’s capacity for self-determination
or self-governance. Beyond that, it is a much-contested concept that comes up in a
number of different arenas. For example, there is the folk concept of autonomy,
which usually operates as an inchoate desire for freedom in some area of one’s life,
and which may or may not be connected with the agent’s idea of the moral good.
This folk concept of autonomy blurs the distinctions that philosophers draw among
personal autonomy, moral autonomy, and political autonomy. Moral autonomy,
usually traced back to Kant, is the capacity to deliberate and to give oneself the
moral law, rather than merely heeding the injunctions of others. Personal autonomy
is the capacity to decide for oneself and pursue a course of action in one’s life, often
regardless of any particular moral content. Political autonomy is the property of
having one’s decisions respected, honored, and heeded within a political context.”
(online).
TA Autonomy over the Years
In 1987, a guide to TA literature produced by Novey (1987) had no separate entry
for autonomy, listing it only on page 34 under the heading of Script vs autonomy.
Within the Transactional Analysis Bulletin there are occasional mentions of
autonomy but the word appears to be being used in its normal sense rather than
having a specific transactional analysis definition. The only exception appears to be
Mannel (1968) who refers specifically to it as the equivalent of being in Adult ego
state, commenting that Parent represents conformity and Child is about social
cooperation.
I notice that Kristina Brajovic Car (2018) has also summarised early TA literature on
autonomy from the point of view of its focus on the relationship. She refers to using
excerpts but it is not always clear when she is quoting the original author – she often
gives page numbers but there are no inverted commas to show where the citation
begins. She also uses the technique of a word or text cloud to show the most
frequently used words by various authors; again this is unclear as she does not
provide any information about which material these clouds have been based on.
Further, she does not include any reference list, mentioning only the author name
and year within the text: Allen and Allen, 2005; Berne, 1961, 1964, 1966a, 1977;
British Association for Counselling, 1992; Cornell, 2008; English, 1971; Erskine, 1997;
Holloway, 1974; James, 98; James and Jongeward, 1971; Lapworth, Sills and Fish,
1993; NTA John Stuart Mill, 1962; and Sills, 1997. [see original article if you wish to
follow up any of these references].The word clouds provided are not particularly
useful as the respective key entries appear to be: for Steiner (who is not referenced),
Berne, Adult, social; for Steiner also but probably incorrectly labelled and really for
James or for James and Jongeward, with James, person, autonomy; for English, with
child (no initial capitals), English, and feel; for Erskine it says Stage (with initial
capital), autonomy, parents, patient, Erskin [sic]; for Sills it is autonomy, script; for
Cornell it is personal, autonomy; and for Allen and Allen it is autonomy. There are of
course numerous other words in each word cloud that are not as prominent.
Even in a more recent publication, billed as a comprehensive textbook on TA, the
editors Cornell, de Graaf, Newton and Thunnissen (2016) have produced something
that has only a few mentions of autonomy rather than being included as a concept
alongside ego states, strokes, script and so on.
Eric Berne and Claude Steiner
Berne (1964a) did not index autonomy in Games People Play but had a 3-page
chapter entitled Autonomy and a 1-page chapter entitled Attainment of Autonomy
(4 pages out of a total of 173 pages in the book). He wrote that:
• “The attainment of autonomy is manifested by the release or recovery of three
capacities: awareness, spontaneity and intimacy.” (p.158)
• He described awareness as the “… capacity to see a coffeepot and hear the birds
sing in one’s own way, and not the way one was taught … requires living in the
here and now, and not in the elsewhere, the past or the future” (p.158)
• “Spontaneity means option, the freedom to choose and express one’s feelings
from the assortment available (Parent feelings, Adult feelings and Child feelings).
It means liberation, liberation from the compulsion to play games and have only
the feelings one was taught to have.” (p.160)
• “Intimacy means the spontaneous, game-free candidness of an aware person,
the liberation of the eidetically perceptive, uncorrupted Child in all its naivety
living in the here and now.” (p.160). This definition appears to define intimacy
in terms of awareness and spontaneity, rather than as a separate construct.
Berne also wrote here about one-sided intimacy, giving as an example the behaviour
of professional seducers.
A few years later, Berne (1970) indexed the topic in Sex in Human Loving as
Autonomy, illusions of. He wrote that: “ … man is born free, but one of the first
things he learns is to do as he’s told, and he spends the rest of his life doing that.
Thus his first enslavement is to his parents. He follows their instructions
forevermore, retaining only in some cases the right to choose his own methods and
consoling himself with an illusion of autonomy … the road to freedom is through
laughter – no joke magazines in slave-holding countries like Nazi Germany. Sun Tzu
demonstrated military discipline by beheading harem girls who giggled so the rest
obeyed orders … This freedom to select methods for arriving at the predetermined
goal helps to support the illusion of free choice or autonomy. e.g. Cinderella scripted
to be a winner, sisters to be losers but all did it in their own ways. … It is built-in that
the Parental instructions will work like an electrode, so that the person will end up
following them almost automatically with little or no chance to decide for himself.
It is also built-in that he will think he is exercising free will. … Some people know
their behaviour is determined by what parents told them at an early age.” (p.177)
Steiner (1971) in Games Alcoholics Play did not index autonomy and referred on
page 125 to awareness, spontaneity and intimacy without mentioning autonomy.
Berne (1972) did not index autonomy in What do you say after you say Hello? but
he referred to the uncontaminated part of Adult in his diagram of contaminations
as the “true autonomous area … [which] is actually free to make Adult judgements
based on carefully gathered knowledge and observation. It may work efficiently in
a trade or profession, where a mechanic or a surgeon uses good judgment based on
previous education, observation, and experience.” (p.154).
Berne went on to say that “Insofar as he recognises and separates these three areas
[uncontaminated parts of P, A, C] he is autonomous; he knows what is Adult and
practical, what he accepts that came from others, and what he does that is
determined by early impulses rather than by practical thinking and rational
decisions.” (p.155)
Berne also suggested that we should regard only the area of Adult without
contaminations as the ‘True Autonomous Area’ and not the area of the complete
circle of Adult that includes the shaded parts of the contaminations. He described
dividing the smaller area of true autonomy by the larger area that includes
contaminations to produce a figure that he proposed be known as the Degree of
Autonomy. This is somewhat confusing because it seems that the delusions and
illusions are the same as the contaminated areas in the right-hand diagram – Figure
2.
Steiner (1974) indexed autonomy in Scripts People Live. He commented that
“Decisions which lead to healthy personality development must be both timely and
autonomous. Thus, in proper script-free ego formation, the date of decisions is such
that it provides for sufficient information, lack of pressure, and autonomy.” (p.85).
He includes a chapter entitled Child-Rearing for Autonomy, wherein he commented
about raising children to have a maximum amount of autonomy, bringing them up
to discover what it is they want, not interfering with their spontaneity, awareness
and intimacy, suggesting an example of letting the child decide its own bedtime and
letting them learn that autonomy does not include the freedom to cause
inconvenience to others; and that raising children for autonomy requires a larger
community which is supportive and understanding of the process.
Figure 2: Degree of Autonomy (Berne, 1972, p.155)
He went on to provide 10 Rules, for which I quote the rules themselves although he
added explanations of each:
1. “Do not have a child to whom you can’t extend an 18 year guarantee of Nurturing
and Protection …
2. Provide the child with freedom to fully exercise the faculties of intimacy,
awareness, spontaneity ...
3. Intimacy is defeated through the Stroke Economy …
4. Awareness is defeated through Discounts ...
5. Do not lie to your children, ever, either by omission or commission …
6. Spontaneity is defeated by arbitrary rules applying to the use of the body …
7. Do not Rescue and then Persecute your child …
8. Do not teach children competition …
9. Do not allow your children to oppress you …
10. Trust human nature and believe in your children …”. (p.368-370).
Reflection Questions: Autonomy and Ego States

Berne appeared to equate autonomy with Adult ego state only, and specifically with
the uncontaminated area of Adult. However, he also referred to uncontaminated
parts of Child and Parent ego states.
Review examples of when you believe you have been autonomous and consider to
which ego state these might relate.
Other TA Authors on Autonomy
Holloway (1974a) wrote that “Autonomy can be described as the ultimate
individuation and implies that the person is capable of the full use of options in
attaining strokes from multitudinous others and that specifically excluded is the
option of a single fixed dependent relationship (including a fantasised dependency).
Ongoing dependency, especially beyond childhood, is only granted in exchange for
obligation. Obligation is accompanied by resentment and resentment prevents
intimacy. Autonomous functioning, therefore, is the condition which permits of
intimacy while dependency precludes intimacy between adults.” (p.15-16).
Holloway goes on to suggest two broad categories of contracts, for social control
and for autonomy, referring to redecision therapy as an approach to achieve the
latter. Holloway (1977) suggested that we stop lines short of Child in the script
matrix to indicate that parents do not ‘insert’ messages but the child decides.
Baute (1975) introduced the idea of the ‘autonomy chair’. Writing of how some
clients announce they are leaving a therapy group before the therapist believes they
are ready, Baute explains that confronting this may be seen as the therapist
attempting to block the client’s autonomy. The technique of the autonomy chair is
that the group member sits in the particular chair and asks the group whether they
believe he/she is free of whatever was the subject of the therapeutic contract. “The
group and the therapist confront the person in the "autonomy chair" with
observations, impressions and questions concerning his behavior.” (p.181).
Meanwhile, the therapist is alert to whether any games are being played around the
chair technique, by the group members or by the therapist themself. For instance,
group members may be angry at someone getting well if they have not done so
themselves, or the therapist may not want to part with a group member who seems
to be doing well and for whom the therapist feels ‘Pygmalion pride’. Baute explains
that the use of the chair is voluntary. No personal attacks are allowed but challenges
are encouraged, as are ‘I’ rather than ‘You’ comments. The focus is on the person
in the chair and they are expected to respond to each question or statement; any
processing of transactions is done with others later.
Goulding and Goulding (1978) wrote that when a child makes a decision to accept
information, they forfeit their autonomy. They described their goal as immediate
[their italics] autonomy for the patient, with patients making their own decisions
rather than relying on the therapist in the role of the parent. In Goulding and
Goulding (1979) they added that they ask the client to claim their autonomy
whenever they give it up, by owning that “Each person makes himself feel and that
no-one makes another person feel.” (p.5). They also identify on page 85 some words
that deny autonomy: try; can/can’t versus will/won’t; make feel, discount when
applied to discounting others – each of us decides whether to consider ourselves
discounted; it instead of I; you instead of I; we instead of I; maybe, perhaps.
Baute (1979) claimed that autonomy had come to mean individualism and privatism,
with transactional analysts being blind to the oppressive conditions and personal
alienation that mean that much of the human race has no opportunity of achieving
autonomy. He proposed that two concepts, a sense of community and human
responsiveness, are needed beyond intimacy and autonomy, and commented that
“as long as TA is a belief system that does not recognize its own loopholes, it
functions as a middle-class tranquillizer and an endorsement of the status-quo.”
(p.170)
Bary (1979) also wrote about the way in which TA therapists emphasise that freeing
up “process, autonomy and spontaneity, is touted as entirely positive. In rebuttal,
many accuse TA of encouraging hedonism at the expense of values and value-
oriented living. Much of the current popular press is devoted to critiques of the “me
generation” and the fads, such as TA, which contribute to the phenomenon of the
“me generation.” (p.179). She goes on to explain the desirability of youthful
hedonism and the need to relinquish it in a way that promotes stability of the life
plan and joy and satisfaction in living, which requires autonomous choosing of
values and life plans as opposed to submission to others’ values. She describes how
the natural Child operates out of a me-first orientation, tied to the moment, and
that “this autonomous but diffuse and hedonistic orientation gradually adapts to
varying degrees to others’ rules for living as the adapted Child and Parent ego states
are formed. In adolescence, when the cognitive machinery has matured to an
adequate degree, making a fully functional Adult available, the person is ready to
throw off this parental programming, re-evaluate and question old beliefs and
attitudes, and after a period of turmoil and doubt, make new, personally-derived
choices about previously held positions.” (p.179).
Bary likens this to Erikson’s (1968) ‘identity crisis’, or turning or choice point, of
adolescence. She went on to refer to Marcia’s (1964) expansion of Erickson’s work
into four categories of approach to the situation of adolescence:
• Diffusion – where there is no identity, all decisions are in the moment, here-and-
now. When extended beyond childhood this means that the person seems weak,
easily influenced and immature;
• Foreclosure – where the person is prematurely closed off from the choice process
and instead incorporates and accepts their parents’ choices unquestioningly. The
compliant adapted Child and the Parent ego states are in alliance. This may be
functional if the parents had good beliefs and opinions but is no help when change
in the world occurs;
• Moratorium – this is the process of re-evaluating old beliefs and weighing
alternatives, which can occur rationally and calmly but often instead involves
rebellion and upheaval because the previous programming needs major
opposition to shake it loose. The rebellious adapted Child and the natural Child
provide the impetus and motivation whilst the Adult is used to re-evaluate and
re-decide. This is what adolescence so often appears to be about but is a problem
if the process occurs later in the life cycle or not at all;
• Achieved Identity – major choices have been made by the individual and they are
now ready to tackle the other adult life crises which will follow, such as “the
intimacy crisis of who and how to love; the generativity crisis of who, what, and
how to produce, create, serve, and contribute to the world; and eventually the
integrity crisis of how to view the totality of one’s life.” (p.180).
Whitney (1982) challenges the use of the concept of autonomy as if it characterises
personhood, albeit that he then went on to say that personhood is not easily defined.
He pointed out that “The word autonomy has its derivation in the Greek word
autonomia. With reference to a person it means the power or right of an individual
to live according to his own will; to govern himself according to his own reason. An
autonomous individual is one who has the right to self-government. The biological
connotation is that of a separate organism which is not dependent on any other.
This information is from Webster’s Dictionary.” (p.10). From this, he emphasised
that there are two elements: individual human rights and power; and the person not
being dependent on any other.
In terms of the first, he argued that, although the right to autonomy may exist, it has
no meaning for a new-born baby or for someone with disabilities who cannot live
independently of others - these do not have the power to be autonomous and this
means that within TA we are using a term that does not apply to all people. In terms
of the second, this would appear to contradict the ways in which we need to be in
relationship to others, as indeed is presented within TA in terms of the theory of
strokes. Whitney pointed out that when Berne (1964a) refers to autonomy in terms
of awareness, spontaneity and intimacy, he is contradicting the meaning of
autonomy.
Another example of a contradiction pointed out by Whitney is that within a society
that bases its values on Christian doctrine, no-one has a right to live according to
one’s own will. “This is based on the work of Jesus who, when tempted, prayed to
the Father, “Not my will, but Thy will be done” (Mk.14:36).” (p.211).
Denton (1982) contrasted the Adlerian (NTA Simoneaux 1977) concept of
‘Gegenspieler’ - the one against whom one’s life is played – with that of
‘Folgenspieler’ - the one after whom one models one’s life. Denton explained that
the child measures themself against their parents or siblings, who may therefore
fulfil the role of Gegenspieler [to oppose]. He cautioned that the therapist may then
become the Folgenspieler or ‘player to follow’ on the way to autonomy. This may
be a necessary part of the process but it is also important that the client goes beyond
the need for a Folgenspieler if they are to complete the journey to autonomy.
Several years later, Kandathil and Kandathil (1997) also related autonomy to
Christianity, commenting that “The Christian perspective, as represented by
Protestant theologian Paul Tillich and the ecumenical council of Vatican 11,
converge in their understanding of what is meant by “autonomy”. Both agree that
autonomy is possible only within the framework of God’s law written in the heart of
man” and quoting the second Vatican Council (1962-1965) “For man has in his heart
a law written by God.” (p.24).
More recently, Kouwenhoven (2011) suggested that “we are autonomous when we
are competent (think logically), confident (manage our emotions), committed (take
care of the needs of ourselves and others), and in control (act effectively).” (p.77) and
has developed a variation of the discount matrix which I will describe in Chapter 3. He
writes of autonomy involving thinking logically to collect relevant facts; managing
emotions in order to analyse problems; defining goals and taking care of our own
needs; and acting effectively.
Reflection Questions: The Concept of Autonomy
How might you define and/or explain the TA concept of autonomy to a client (or
colleague)?
Within your professional work, what do you see as the advantages and
disadvantages of having such a concept?
Research into Autonomy
Van Beekum and Krijgsman (2000) reported on a six-year research project in the
Netherlands in which they had used factor analysis to seek confirmation of Berne’s
hypothesis that autonomy is manifested through awareness, spontaneity and
intimacy and the additional concept of responsibility proposed by Bonds-White
(1995) and Van Beekum (1995). A questionnaire was developed based on
statements about autonomy within TA books and journals and this was piloted with
advanced TA students. The final questionnaire was then used over a period of six
years with 74 Dutch adult students, and the results were factor analysed using SPSS
(Statistical Package for the Social Sciences – www.SPSS.com)
Whilst recognising the limitations of numbers involved and nationality, the authors
concluded that “This research supports the hypothesis that operationalization of
these four capacities based on transactional analysis literature is worthwhile but not
in its original meaning. The empirical data from this research sample revealed that
the original four capacities could better be described by two components that cover
contact with self and contact with others: I and I-You as described by Buber
(1923/1970). In addition, this meaning bridges the gap between transactional
analysis and English. The results suggest that the transactional analytic concept of
autonomy actually consists of the two basic components related to the gestalt
concept of contact.” (p.56)
As part of their research, they had sampled the Transactional Analysis Bulletin,
Transactional Analysis Journal 1970 to 1994, and about 20 of the most important TA
books. They were able to provide the interesting Table 1 which showed the most
frequently mentioned items relating to the four aspects of autonomy.
Awareness Spontaneity Intimacy Responsibility

eidetic options liberation holds position
perception
independent perceptive challenges
transcends authority
expresses respect
classification
feelings has own thoughts
works from
no hiding away
expresses proximity maintains own
no symbiosis thoughts behavior
complementary
access to internal does not play subjective
pure
dialogue games
interpretation
dilute
interpretation chooses freely
active
encouraging
creates realities rises above
does not take
programming mutually free
intuition of over
possible open mind gives permission
stands for own
perception of rebellious contact needs
present stimulation individuation
puts into order recognition separateness
deals with
space
complexity
expresses
newness
Table 1: Most Frequently Mentioned Item Cited in the Transactional Analysis Literature As
Related to the Four Aspects of Autonomy (van Beekum and Krijgsman, 2000, p. 53)
Developmental TA and Positive Psychology

Several years ago, Bill Holloway (2010) began a discussion on LinkedIn about
happiness and the link between that and TA, autonomy and OKness. He referred to
the different ways in which Berne and Bob Goulding regarded autonomy – being
attained either through a script release or a through the redecision process, and
pointed out that neither of them seemed to link autonomy to happiness, although
he did point out that Berne had commented that a ‘happy’ person is one with their
ego states being syntonic with each other (no reference given). Holloway also
pointed out that until then the TA literature had focused on “fixing that which is
broke.” (online), and suggested that positive psychology had something to offer.
However, this prompted me to recognise that his statement was inaccurate. Many
years before that Muriel James (1985) had written a book about being happy, and
she had of course always been taking a positive view in the TA material. When NTA
Martin Seligman chose positive psychology as is theme for his term as President of
the American Psychological Association in 2018, this was many years after James
and also several years after I myself had introduced developmental TA (Hay, 1995a)
with its focus on non-pathology.
Seligman went on to produce much material about what he describes as teaching
people to be optimistic, for which they need PERMA: Pleasant emotions;
Engagement or ‘Flow’; Relationships which are positive and supporting; Meaning
and Purpose; and Accomplishment for its own sake (Seligman, 2018). Over the years
he has also (e.g. Seligman, 2012) described how these ideas are being applied to
developing optimism within the U.S. Army, where many experience post-traumatic
stress disorder and depression. For this, he comments on how it is possible to teach
optimism to those who do not have it already – he describes how about a third of
animals and people included in his research seem to have this naturally.
Seligman describes the important components of what he refers to as ‘master
resilience training’ as building on mental toughness, building signature strengths,
and building strong relationships. We might look to NTA Peter Clough (Clough and
Strycharczyk, 2012) for ideas about mental toughness, which Clough describes as
consisting of:
• control – by which he means a ‘can do’ attitude plus control of our emotions;
• commitment – or ‘stick-ability ‘and the extent to which you make and keep
promises to others or to yourself;
• challenge – or ‘drive’, in terms of how you see challenges, change, adversity and
variety as opportunities rather than threats;
• confidence – your ‘self-belief’ in terms of your confidence in your abilities to deal
with what you may face, and your interpersonal confidence to deal with
whoever may get in your way.
More recently, NTA Oishi and Westgate (2021) have written about ‘psychological
richness‘. They report on research with students in the US, India and Korea which
found that psychological richness was associated with unexpectedness, novelty,
complexity and a change in perspective, and was not the same as feeling happy.
Within the research, they also found that there was another factor for ‘meaning’. A
significant minority (7-17% depending on country) defined a good life as a
psychologically rich one rather than a happy or meaningful life.
They also found that socioeconomic status was not connected to psychological
richness although it was linked with happiness and meaning. Students who went
abroad to study then scored higher for psychological richness although their scores
for happiness and meaning did not change.
Reflection Questions: Autonomy and Psychological Richness
What level of psychological richness exists within your life? How much are you
experiencing novelty and complexity such that you are changing your perspective
often?
How might your sense of autonomy be linked with the psychological richness of your
life?
How significant for you are your sense of happiness, and your sense of meaning?
Autonomy - Expanded
Berne (1964a) described autonomy as a combination of awareness, spontaneity and
intimacy. His rather strange use of the word spontaneity is misleading as he
described it as being aware that we have options for how to behave, whereas that
word is often taken to mean that we do something ‘spontaneously’ when we exhibit
some kind of Free Child behaviour without stopping to think about the likely impact.
I prefer to think of this as options, rather like Karpman (1971), who pointed out that
we always have five different ego state options to choose from. We have many other
TA concepts that we can use to identify a range of ways in which we can choose to
behave. I also tend to use the term ‘attachment’ rather than intimacy, partly
because attachment is well recognised outside the TA community and partly
because it avoids the sexual connotations that are often attached to Berne’s labels
for time structuring. To provide a memory aid (in English only – sorry), I change the
‘spontaneous/options‘ to alternatives so that I have a run of awareness, alternatives
and attachment.
In addition to rewording, I added authenticity to Berne’s awareness, spontaneity
and intimacy (Hay, 2012), to represent the fact that we are OK even though we will
not be perfect – we can be ourselves ‘warts and all’ and be accepted by others; and
accountability to emphasise the fact that we are responsible for the choices we
make (at least, we are once someone has taught us about the TA concepts of script
and autonomy). Hence the four elements to autonomy at that time were:
• “awareness - being in the here-and-now, knowing who we and others really are;
• alternatives - having several options for how we might behave, being able to
choose what to do;
• authenticity - knowing that we can be our real selves and still be OK, not having
to wear a mask;
• attachment - being able to connect and bond with other people.” (p.16)
When considering the addition of authenticity, I took into account Ken Mellor’s
(2008) suggestion that we need to add integrity to Berne’s original three elements.
However, I decided against this because Mellor himself wrote that it would require
that “All aspects of ourselves and the world would become a blended, cooperating,
harmonious whole. Realizing this is, of course, a huge undertaking and, realistically,
it is perhaps impractical if not impossible for most people.” (p.194). He also credited
his awareness of this to his involvement over the years with spiritual masters, and
referred to it as “motherhood, Christ consciousness, Krishna consciousness,
Paramount man, Nirvana, all the inner guru, referencing Chandran (2007) who was
writing about supervision in the Indian context.
However, I was prompted into another addition by material by Pearl Drego and Ken
Moodie to add a fifth that reflects ‘responsibility’ (and by Frances Bonds-White,
(1995), mentioning it at a conference). Drego (2006) had commented in a workshop
that had been run by Moodie (2005) about the way that early social responsibility
had developed in Scotland, and wrote that Berne's (1972) three-handed position of
"I'm, OK, You're OK, They're OK" envelops both individual and social freedoms. It
spans both individual wholeness and mutual responsibility [italics added] between
individuals and between groups. (p.90).
Hence, I (Hay, 2014a) added:
• accountability – accepting responsibility for our own behaviour, recognising that
we act based on our own decisions (and that we can change previous decisions).
In 2018 I put out a blog that said a colleague had mentioned how NTA Richo (2002)
and NTA Yacovelli (2008) present the components for mindful loving and emotional
fulfilment (respectively), and that had prompted me to think that we need to add
more about ‘the other side’ of autonomy. In his original description of autonomy,
Berne mentioned spontaneity, awareness and intimacy - only intimacy has a focus
on ‘the other’.
I can see that a more cocreative view of autonomy might include:
• for attachment (Berne’s intimacy) we need affection and appreciation (Richo
and Yacovelli) and acceptance (Richo);
• for awareness, we need attention (both authors) from others, meaning they are
aware of us;
• for authenticity, Richo has allowing and Yacovelli has acceptance and approval
(although her descriptions of these sound very similar to each other).
I prefer not to use appreciation or approval, as both of these imply that our sense
of OKness is dependent on the opinion of someone else. However, affection,
attention, and acceptance seem to me to be useful additions to how we think about
autonomy.
These ideas stimulated me to look at the five elements I had already to think about
how each of these might be presented in a cocreative manner – below is the result:
• awareness/attention - to indicate that others are aware of who we really are in
the same way that we need to be aware of who they really are;
• alternatives/accountability – to recognise that we are responsible for how the
options we choose have an impact on others;
• authenticity/acceptance – to emphasise that we can be our real selves, faults
and all, and still be accepted by others;
• attachment/affection - to reinforce the two-way dynamic of how attachment
operates.
More recently, I have added:
• appropriate – the choices we make in order to function safely in whatever
context within which we find ourselves.
This addition is prompted by examples such as how:
• people ‘disappear’ if they express opinions that challenge despotic regimes;
• someone who believes ‘thou shalt not kill’ may have to kill those who would
otherwise kill others;
• those who ignore laws they consider bad are likely to be arrested;
• those who act outside cultural norms are likely to be ostracised;
• in individual cultures those who prefer to be in groups accept such opportunities
are limited;
• in group cultures those who prefer to remain alone accept that such
opportunities are limited;
• at a time of covid, those who want to hug accept that it would be misadvised;
• at a time of global warning, those who want to travel do so only when essential.
The key is that the person chooses to fit in with the context rather than believing
they have no choice. They have awareness, know there are alternatives, chooses
with whom to have and not have attachment, are authentic without the need to
insist that others know their faults, and accept accountability for choosing to behave
in appropriate ways.
Autonomy Matrix
For me, the point of applying TA is to help clients to move from a deterministic script
so that they can attain increased autonomy within the framework of a
developmental script. The script provides us with structure – without that, we would
have to re-think our identity each morning as we wake up. Fanita English (1988)
wrote of improvisation theatre – we have an overall structure but we know that we
can make our own choices within that – and indeed, we have made the choice of
the overall structure. For instance, when I realised that my script character is Robin
Hood (Hay, 1995b) I was able to choose which aspects of the story to keep. The way
in which ITAA, EATA, EMCC and my own non-profit business all provide discounted
rates to those in financially-disadvantaged areas of the world exist because I
introduced these policies as a way to ‘rob the rich and give to the poor’ just as Robin
Hood did in the story.
Instead of focussing on script as pathological, I have developed an autonomy matrix
(Hay, 1997a, 2012) as reproduced as Figure 3; this presents an interpretation based
on the notion that parents/caregivers generally want to support their children to
reach their potential, however much the parents/caregivers may be limited by their
own scripts. Hence, in this diagram the aspiration arrow that represents physis
(Berne, 1968) extends above the stacked circles of the parents. Also, I have
developed Holloway’s (1977) suggestion about the lines not reaching the little
person so that the gap represents how the little person interprets the messages
from the big people. I have also made the lines dotted to show that the messages
may exist only at the psychological level i.e. the big person may never have overtly
expressed whatever the little person has interpreted.
Reflection Questions: Identifying Autonomy
Identify two or three examples of when you believe that you were behaving
autonomously and use the questions below to review your ‘evidence’. As you do so,
consider the impact of consciousness – how were you conscious of these examples
during this activity, and how were you conscious of them at the time at which they
occurred?
• Awareness - How did you know that you were in the here and now? Who else
was there? How confident are you that they were not reminding you of
someone else? Was any of your behaviour influenced by your expectations
about how they might behave?
• Alternatives - What alternatives were you aware of in terms of how you might
behave? How do you go about deciding which option to choose? Did the
option you choose turn out to be one that led to an OK-OK outcome?
Figure 3: Autonomy Matrix (amended from Hay, 2012, p.19)
• Authenticity - How much did you feel able to show your real self? Were you
able to show your feelings, even if these were negative? Did you feel that it
was important for you to hide your reactions? How open did you feel able to
be?
• Attachment - How close did you feel to whoever else was involved? Were you
able to feel close to them without any need to experience dependency or
symbiosis? How genuinely did you feel an attachment to whoever else was
involved? Did they respond in a way that indicated they too were feeling close
to you?
• Accountability - Did you accept responsibility for your own behaviour, in that
moment and, if appropriate, for what had gone before? Did they do the same
(or was this a one-sided moment of autonomy)? How aware were you that
your behaviour (alternatives) was being chosen by you as the best option in
the circumstances?
• Appropriate - have aware were you that you were choosing to fit within the
culture or context? What alternatives did you consider and how did you assess
the risks to you and others? How did you decide with whom to have and not
have attachment? How did you maintain your authenticity without letting
others know about your faults? How comfortable were you about accepting
accountability for choosing to behave in ways that matched the context you
were within?
Some Challenges to the Concept of Autonomy

I have already mentioned that various TA authors appear to challenge the construct.
Years ago, Baute (1979) pointed out loopholes in the sense that belief in self-
autonomy needs to be challenged; Bary (1979) suggested it may seem like hedonism
and the me-generation; Whitney (1982) emphasised how no one is independent of
others. Whitney also pointed out the clash with Christianity, as did Kandathil and
Kandathil (1997). Denton (1982) queries whether we can ever not follow a role
model.
We might also consider whether we should be talking instead about: self or our
essence rather than autonomy; hippies and how TA was developed in 1960's
California; the role of the conscious/unconscious and how Berne changed this to
psychological level; what we know nowadays about the brain, and how we are still
learning, especially about how the amygdala operates; what happens because we
exist within the Universe;
It may be that having a concept that emphasises making our own decisions
overlooks the need for, and the existence of, relationships with others. Increasingly,
material is appearing within the TA literature about homonomy, where it is
presented as our need to be part of a whole instead of individualistic. Much was
written about this in terms of the South African term of ‘ubuntu’, – A person is a
person because of other people.” (Salters, 2006, p.1). Karen Pratt (2019) wrote
about teaching about ubuntu in Japan, where the culture is also more about
‘we’ness’. Keith Tudor (2016) illustrates a similar point with examples such as a now
extinct tribe in the Amazon rainforest who had no word for 'I' in their language, and
by NTA Winnicott's (1947/1957) well-known phrase about there is no such thing as
a baby. Tudor describes the need for a 'we psychology' rather than the 'me
psychology'.
I have reviewed some of these and other ideas in the book entitled Individual
Development. I invite you to keep them in mind whilst reading about script.
Chapter 2: Life Positions

Having written about autonomy in the previous chapter, I am now choosing to write
about life positions because this is a similar concept in that it underlies the TA
concept of script. This is especially so because the specific position of I’m OK, You’re
OK is regularly presented as one of the key principles of transactional analysis, and
as what we are believing when we are out of script and being autonomous. You will
see as you read on that I question this, after I have presented material from Franklin
Ernst, Fanita English, Martin Groder, Laura and Harry Boyd, Tony White and Graham
Barnes (with brief mentions only about Berne, Steiner and Thomas Harris). I
conclude with some more recent ideas from Mo Felton and Keith Tudor.
Terms and Symbols
Treva Rose Sudhalter (1977) told us that OK “ … began as the name of a political club
in the Presidential election of 1840. … The “O.K. Club” was in support of Martin Van
Buren’s re-election. The meaning of “O.K.” was at first a well kept secret, then
revealed as standing for Old Kinderhook, Van Buren’s birthplace near Albany, New
York.” (p.85).
In the earlier literature, the references were to positions; the addition of the word
‘life’ appears to have become common by the time that numerous authors included
mention of them as life positions in the book edited by Graham Barnes (1977).
Symbols – Berne (1972) used plus and minus signs to indicate OK and not-OK. He
also wrote of three-handed positions, adding They, and suggested that a question
mark might be used to indicate difficulty in functioning in relation to other people.
Later, Tony White and I have used the question mark to represent someone being
irrelevant – not even significant enough to us to be regarded as not-OK.
Steiner (2012) provides a useful account of the way in which the familiar OK concept
developed within transactional analysis. He references Berne (1962a) as writing
about existential positions in an attempt to produce some universal form of
classification of games. Berne wrote of four positions, which he said were all based
on a simple predicative absolute such as those beginning with always or never. The
positions were the permutations of OK and not-OK, with I and You but also with We
and They i.e. I am OK, or We are OK, You are OK or They are OK, etc. Berne also
pointed out that only one of the four was intrinsically constructive, one was futile
and probably terminated in schizophrenia, one was intrinsically paranoid and one
was intrinsically depressive. Steiner goes on to explain that OK/OK became part of
the oral tradition at Berne’s San Francisco seminars, and that he (Steiner) developed
the view that it was based on the initial, unconditional responses of a mother to a
child.
By writing a book with the OK concept in the title, Thomas Harris (1967) ensured
that it became widely identified with transactional analysis. Harris disagreed with
Berne that the original position of a baby is I’m OK, You’re OK, believing instead that
Chapter 2: Life Positions 35
the shock of being born meant that all babies arrived feeling that they were not OK.
Steiner points out that even though the birth may be stressful for a baby, they are
hopefully then provided with a nurturing experience, although he did accept that
child-rearing practices of Western, white, middle-class families and the Catholic
notion of original sin might well have led to more negative occurrences for many
babies.
OK Corral
Probably the best-known concept associated with life positions - the OK Corral - was
produced by Franklin Ernst (1971), using a label that at the time would have
resonated with people who were familiar with it as the place of an historical cowboy
gunfight in the USA that became the subject of a film called Gunfight at the OK Corral
– which seems a rather unfortunate connection.
Although a simplified version of the grid developed by Ernst has become ubiquitous
within the TA community, it is important to note that the positions shown by Ernst
are significantly different to the way in which Berne had referred to life positions.
The implication of the grid is that the positions can be identified by observing the
behaviour of the individual: indeed, Ernst indicates that the behaviour, or what he
calls the operation, actually results in the position in terms of OKness. Berne (1972),
on the other hand, refers to the positions as based on “deeply ingrained convictions,
a position which involves a view of the whole world and all of the people in it” (p.85),
so for him the position came first and the behaviours followed.
Ernst began with an OK Corral that showed only the Operations and the Positions
Resulting, which were then included into the extended version reproduced here as
Figure 4. He explained that the emphasis was on “Get-on-With” and pointed out
that, using Adult, could result in “… using each one of these methods at least once a
day …” (p.34) (italics in original). His examples were:
• Get-Nowhere-With – they ask you to do something and you respond that you
need to think about it so you can’t do it right now.
• Get-Away-From – they ask to talk to you and you say you have an appointment
to get to so can’t talk now but maybe later.
• Get-Rid-Of – you say something that covers everything, such as – see you next
week – goodbye for now.
• Get-On-With – Let’s sign the papers so the work can start.
He explained that these four positions that he said were the result of “… dynamic
operations going on in the person which can bring about a chosen resolution for
himself, his inside view, and his view of the particular companion in each encounter.”
(p.33). (Italics in original).
Figure 4: Summary of the OK Corral (Ernst, 1971, p.39/237)
Note about referencing – the TAJ has two sets of page numbers for Ernst’s 1971 article so I
have shown both for the figures but only the lower one for quotations. I assume the lower
one was used in the original issue and the higher one was applied when the annual volume
was produced.
Ernst explained that it is the favoured Childhood Position that brings clients to
therapy, in the sense that people limit themselves to one of the options only. He
labels social processes as: evolution – getting on with; revolution – getting rid of;
devolution – get away from, being rejected; and obvolution – getting nowhere with,
encrustation, spinning your wheels. He also linked the Corral to time – using,
suspending or making time (get on with), killing time (get rid of), passing time (get
away from), or marking, wasting or dead time (get nowhere with) and to
experiencing someone’s warm face as shown in Figure 5.
A couple of years later, Ernst (1973) linked the OK Corral to rackets. He proposed
that racketeering can only happen from the lower half of the Corral, in that the
message is “Either way you come back to me, you are not OK with me until I get
what I demand. I may be OK with myself, or I may not, but either way you are not
going to get the best of me.” (p.20) (italics in original). Hence, racket anger gets rid
of the other person, and the suffering racket means getting nowhere as the suffering
cannot be stopped.
Finally, in a handout dated 1990 (presumably prepared by Ernst before his death in
1989), he comments that:
Figure 5: The OK Corral and Warm Faces (Ernst, 1971, p.41/239)
• The OK Corral measures and sorts behaviours.

• The diagram is drawn as boxes to indicate we are limited by reality.
• Transactional reciprocity means outcomes are for me AND for you.
• “None of these outcomes (GOW, GAF, GNW, GRO) is neither good or bad. The
healthy person uses each of these at least once a day. You can’t Get-On-With
everybody.” (p.3).
• The OK Corral allows you to see ‘emotional blackmail’. “”You hurt my feelings.”
“You’re confusing me.” “You’re scaring me.” “You make me feel guilty.” “You
made me cry (burst into tears).” “You’re making me angry (mad, nervous,
desperate, tired.”, etc.” (p.4) are dramatic displays with the goal of control of
and enforcement of demands on the other party.
A few year after Ernst’s TAJ publications, Swede (1978) produced a table
summarising ego states, games, payoffs, strokes, slogans, activities and the
characteristics of the person for each of the four positions on the OK Corral. The
table is not reproduced here because it would mean copying almost the entire
article, which consisted of two pages of the table with less than half a page for the
short introduction and conclusion. Apart from the items about strokes, each
category has a long list of contents so would require considerable familiarity for use
in diagnosis.
Laura Boyd and Harry Boyd (1982) provided a variation on the OK Corral that they
related to their work in crisis intervention with couples, where they pointed out they
had observed the typical behavioural patterns that corresponded to the Not-OK
quadrants, as shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6: Interpersonal Patterns in Relationships (Boyd and Boyd, 1982, p.59)
I'm OK, You're OK - For Real

Fanita English (1975) suggested that there should be a fifth position, which she
referred to as I'm OK - You're OK - For Real. She described how Berne had used the
word OK in relation to an individual's existential position, which was therefore an
ongoing stance rather than a fleeting here-and-now feeling. She pointed out that
Berne had not introduced any particular order for the positions although he had said
that we begin with I+U+ (using the now commonly used abbreviation for the
positions). English stated her disagreement with Harris's (1969) proposal that we all
go through I-U+ because we judge our worthlessness compared to our parents, on
the grounds that children do not think that logically. English went on to say that she
does not think that adults were able to get back the magical, euphoric OK feelings
that they will have had as children, except perhaps during meditation. She describes
it as a feeling of bliss such as will have been experienced by a well-cared-for infant
who believes it is at one with the universe.
She continues that in the first year of life babies will be feeling OK at times and not
OK at other times, such as when they are hungry, have uncomfortable diapers, have
teething pains, and will sometimes be ill. The child may go through these instances
of pain rather like an animal may do in terms of crying but may then come to believe
that magic happens because someone comes to attend to them. And then sooner
or later the magic fails as well – no one comes or the person who comes makes the
child feel worse such as by forcing bad tasting medicine into them or because they
cannot get rid of the pain. Hence, by the time the child is old enough to distinguish
themselves from others, they will have experienced I+U+ and I-U-; she points out
that these can become We+ and We- respectively. Then, depending on what
happens to them in their environment, the child settles on which of these

perspectives seems most common.
She goes on to agree with Berne setting the position at age about three, and adds
that the position is likely to be the opposite of that held by whoever is the primary
caretaker. She comments that if the mother is overbearing and controlling, the child
will develop an I-U+ defensive position because of over-adapting, whereas if the
mother is fussy and overprotective, and therefore I-U+, the child will develop an I+U-.
There are of course many possibilities in between these two, and not everyone will
have a defensive position to the same degree. They are both defending against the
I-U-. For each position, an individual will change sometimes, such as when playing a
psychological game. They will also seek a partner who has the opposite defensive
position, so that they can between them maximise the number of transactions and
game payoffs that will be mutually script-reinforcing.
English explains that when someone is moving towards an I+U+ For Real position,
they may seem worse because they move to I-U-temporarily. They might also move
towards the other unhelpful life position temporarily. She concludes with comments
about needing the Adult to survey our limitations and those of others without
involving any magic fantasies, so that I+U+ For Real can be experienced rather than
expecting a global euphoric OKness.
More Life Positions
Martin Groder (1977) wrote of a 5-OK analysis by claiming that "To be really, really,
really OK, one must pass the test of an "I'm, You're OK, We are OK, They're OK, It's
OK" analysis. (p.162). He suggested that we might draw a histogram and rate
ourselves on each of those dimensions. He also described how he had conducted
some investigations with a group of people, by looking at each person's transactions
over a given period of time and producing a two-dimensional curve on which can be
shown the 'OKness spaces' of various classifications. This is shown in Figure 7, where
it can be seen that 'Normals' are low energy, which Groder explains by pointing out
that it would take a lot more energy to behave as a creep or a slob. He goes on to
explain that normals are almost untreatable as it refers to banal scripting and is
reinforced by the culture.
As you will see in the figure, monsters are high-energy, as are entrepreneurs and
myth makers. Groder then presents another diagram (Figure 8), which he refers to
as an energy gradient map. In this it can be seen that monsters and entrepreneurs
are at similar levels of energy. Groder points out there may be 'spark-gapping' across
the gap – a small change in circumstances might make the difference between
whether someone becomes a high-energy, high-leadership psychopath or a high-
energy, high-leadership entrepreneur. He comments that "I have found it much
easier to train convicts to cure psychopathy than to train graduate students to cure
psychopathy. One reason is that the leap across the spark gap is mortally frightening
and bitterly resisted …” (p.166), requiring faith in the leader and the support of the
therapeutic community. It is much more difficult to push down the energy of

psychopaths into ‘normality’; it is easier to help them cross the gap to a 3+ and then
help them give up the drama.
Figure 7: Projection onto Two Dimensions of Diagnostic Space of 5 Okay Diagram (Groder,
1977, p.163)
Figure 8: Energy Diagram (Groder, 1977, p.165)
Tony White (1994, 1995, 1997) produced a series of articles in which he suggested
seven life positions. In the first (White, 1994) he referred back to Berne and how
much had been written since then, before proposing a two-level model to allow us
to consider what Berne regarded as the basic position and which is so often thought
about as the moment by moment position introduced by Ernst. His diagram for this
is simply showing the words 'Surface, Minute-By-Minute Life Position', above the
words 'Character Life Position'. He points out that they are not mutually exclusive
and that one can impact on the other level. Doing things differently in everyday life
will tend to slowly alter the character position.
White goes on to comment about the lack of agreed definitions for OKness before
stating that he is regarding it as the value someone feels about self and others. He
does not reference Barnes (see below) but suggests that feeling and thinking value
aspects might be thought of as a more basic position than behaviour [Barnes, 1981,
would have thinking as attitude, behaviour as behaviour, and feelings as
psychological level]. White goes on to propose that the OK corral should not be
symmetrical and balanced. He suggests that I'm OK, You're not OK should actually
become I'm not OK, but You're worse, because someone who thinks someone else
is not OK cannot believe they are OK themselves. [Later told to me as the typical
Chinese life position – see below.] White also points out that confronting a client
with a view of I'm OK, You're not OK may mean that they are satisfied with that,
whereas if it is presented as I'm not OK, But You're worse, they may become more
motivated to change.
White then adds two new positions, which he says are adopted in the first two years
of life – I'm OK, You're Irrelevant and I'm not OK, You're Irrelevant. This is where he
uses the question mark, although he does not mention that this symbol was also
included by Berne. [The reader will see below that I have also been approached by
someone who suggested that there is a position of I'm Irrelevant, You're OK.] Finally,
White questions the I'm OK, You're OK position and proposes that to get our needs
and wants met, we need a life position of I'm a Bit More Okay Than You Are. He
illustrates this by the example of someone enjoying a holiday feast when there are
starving millions around the world. He points out also that small children do not
naturally see other children as OK and need to learn this from adults.
White’s list of seven life positions and the symbols he uses for them are shown in
Table 2.
Subsequently, White (1995) wrote that he wished to clarify the ++ + in the previous
article. He had recognised that if we consider life positions to be thinking, feeling
and behaviour, then there are going to be differences in terms of our positions
towards those we are close to and those who are more distant. For example, we
might give up our own possessions for someone close to us but only a few people
give up their current lives to go and volunteer to help needy people in other
countries. He therefore concludes that we might have both positions – + + for those
close to us, and ++ + for the rest of the world.
In a third article (White, 1997) he includes details of how to relate the life positions
that include Irrelevant to personality diagnoses and points out that the practitioner
will need to consider the relationship with the client at both the basic and the
character levels.
I'm OK, You're Irrelevant +?

I'm not OK, You're Irrelevant -?
I'm not OK, You're not OK --
I'm not OK, But You're Worse - --
I'm a Bit More Okay Then You Are ++ +
I'm OK, you're OK ++
I'm not OK, You're OK -+
Table 2: White's 7 Life Positions
Peter Milnes (2017) extended White's material and proposed that there are 11 life
positions. He added four more by using I'm Irrelevant, which may be I? U+, I? U-, I?
U?; He also added I'm OK, You're Terrible as + --.
He proposed that we might locate a person's Life Character Position and then
identify their three most commonly used Surface Life Positions. He provided what
he referred to as the Life Position Matrix for this (Figure 9), with an accompanying
Table (Table 3).
Figure 9: Life Position Matrix (Milnes, 2017, p.35)

Key
I’m OK, You’re Irrelevant (I+U?) Narcissist
I’m OK, You’re Terrible (I+U--) Bigot
I’m OK, You’re not-OK (I+U-) Where’s my Escape hatch (GRO)
I’m OK, You’re OK (I+U+) “Everybody’s beautiful”
I’m a bit Better than You are (I++U+) Assertive Winner (GOW)
I’m not-OK, You’re OK (I-U+) Inferiority complex (GAF)
I’m not-OK, You’re not-OK (I-U-) “You’re my last resort and you probably
aren’t any good (GNW)
I’m not-OK, You’re Worse (I-U--) Fellow prisoner/ The “helper” who helps to
feel better about him/herself
I’m not-OK, You’re Irrelevant (I-U?) Psychotic
I’m Irrelevant – You’re Wonderful (I?U+) Overawed
I’m Irrelevant – You’re Irrelevant (I?U? Suicide
or I?U-)
Table 3: Life Position Matrix (Milnes, 2017, p.35)
[Note: for escape hatches, see the book on Practitioner Skills or William Holloway
(1973a)]
Disposition (Drama) Diamond
Graham Barnes (1981) provided a useful model for understanding, and hence
resolving, some of the confusion that is caused when authors refer to different
theoretical constructs. Barnes presented what he referred to as the drama diamond,
in which he illustrated that a different life position could apply to an individual’s
attitude, behaviour and psychological/emotional level. He referred to roles as
coherent patterns of behaviour, suggesting that the social level role is given to the
child at birth by the parents and then reinforced through strokes. As the child is
responding to parental injunctions, it assumes a psychological level role which will
be related to how feelings are exhibited, adapted or substituted. The third role is at
the existential level and is therefore the attitude. As shown in Figure 10, Barnes
linked these levels to hungers: stimulus hunger relates to transactions; position
hunger is the existential level; structure hunger creates the social level; and
recognition hunger determines the psychological level.
Barnes suggested some questions that might be used to elicit clients' roles:
• Social role – Why did your parents have you?
• Psychological role – What was the worst thing your parents ever said or did to
you – and what did you feel?
• Existential role – What did you say in your head?
Figure 10: Hungers and Levels of Transactions on Script Drama Diamond (Barnes, 1981, p.26)
He went on to show six drama diamond options, inserting within them the roles of
Persecutor, Rescuer and Victim from the drama triangle, as shown in Figure 11.
Although it does not mention it in the article, at a conference in 1983 when Graham
Barnes was presenting, he pointed out that many psychotherapists adopt the first
of these options – their attitude is that they believe they know better than the client;
their behaviour is definitely to look after the client even at their own expense; and
at the psychological level they feel despair because there are so many needy clients
that they cannot help. He pointed out that a particularly famous TA therapist had
been seen as unacceptable to the TA community because at the behavioural level
they had been more like Persecutor, in that they had insisted that they knew better
than their colleagues.
I (Hay, 1992) renamed Barnes’ model as the disposition diamond and provided
several examples of the various possible combinations, as shown in Figure 12, such
as the archetypal bully whose existential life position, or attitude, may well be I’m
not-OK, You’re OK, whereas their behaviour is an over-compensation of I’m OK,
You’re not-OK, and at the psychological level , out of awareness, the bully feels that
no one is OK. Barnes had commented in a personal communication to me that he
no longer believes his idea are as useful as I believed them to be - but I still think the
notion of the levels is enlightening!
Figure 11: The Six Script Drama Diamonds (Barnes, 1981, p.26)
Figure 12: Disposition Diamonds (Hay , 2009, p.46, 47)
Windows on the World

I (Hay, 1992) proposed that OK Corral was now a very dated term and suggested
that life positions might be referred to as windows on the world. I pointed out that
many people were not familiar with American cowboy films; also it reminded people
of the American origins of TA, leading them to dismiss it in other cultures. A year
later (Hay, 1993) I added in an idea from John Wilson (1975) that we could call
people IOKYOKs or SHNOKs (somebody here is not okay). I also showed the four life
positions and drew a blob that covered some of each of them to indicate that we
spend time looking through different windows.
Later (Hay, 1995a) I linked the windows to words that were non-pathological:
healthy, hostile, helpless or hopeless; and proposed that we needed four rather than
three ways of describing assertiveness: assertive, aggressive, over-adapted or
apathetic – or constructive, contentious, compliant or cynical.
I had always wondered whether the four life positions described by Berne were at
the same logical level. I had found myself explaining that I’m OK, You’re OK was the
reality whereas the other three positions were perceptions. I had also found that
people in some religious groups firmly believed that the reality is that only God can
be OK, and we are on this earth in order to overcome our essential not OKness.
Furthermore, a colleague, Corinne Gledhill, had pointed out that I’m OK, You’re OK
can be negative when it leads someone to trust others inappropriately. Added to
this, the prompts by Groder (1977) and Tony White’s (1994) suggestion about the
question mark and about the double plus sign, led me to start thinking about (and
teaching) that the four positions might be shown as having distorting glass in the
windows, with the fifth option of an open window which I labelled simply ‘I, You’, as
shown in Figure 13 (Hay, 2000a).
The distorting window panes The open window
I’m not OK I’m OK
You’re OK You’re OK I am
I’m not OK I’m OK You are
You’re not OK You’re not OK
Figure 13: Windows on the World (Hay, 2000a, p.15)
Later, I (Hay, 2012) extended this to Figure 14 to add in the extra shaded windows,
commenting that this is “… to allow for a perspective that all we really know is that
I exist and you exist – and even that may be in doubt if you have seen the film ‘The
Matrix’” (p.45)
Figure 14: More Windows on the World (Hay, 2012, p.25)
After running some advanced TA workshops in Shanghai , I produced Figure 15 (Hay,

2014b), within which I credit the group for suggesting that:
• A closed window reflects how someone with autism may not have the ability to
perceive whether they or others are OK or not.
• Chinese culture may be represented by a window that contains -, --; 1 not OK for
me and 2 not OKs for you - as in the attitude that I am not OK but I feel better
because you are more not OK then I am!
• There could be a window with double question marks - for those who believe that
neither they nor anyone else has any significance in the world.
?? ?+ -+ ++ ++ + IU
Closed
window Open
(autism) window
-? - -- -- +- +?
Figure 15: Extended Windows on The World (Hay, 2014b, p. 13
We might also show this as in Figure 16, where the first row is what people tend to
be familiar with because of the OK Corral, the second row incorporates the question
mark of irrelevant, and the third row shows what happens with a double plus or
minus.
A session with a group in the Netherlands has prompted me to extend the closed
window to include any time someone is shut down, such as through stress and/or
trauma .
-- -+ +- ++ I YOU
Open window
?? -? ?+ +?
Closed window
(autism, stress,
- -- -- - + ++ ++ + trauma)
Figure 16: Extended Windows on the World - an Alternative Diagram
Finally, Figure 17 shows how I add in how the window we look through may be
influenced by our inner and outer environment. Below the windows are some
metaphorical spectacles that represent our script - have we resolved that to have a
current, reality-based story that provides structure and allows improvisation (as
suggested by Fanita English (1988) and see Chapter 5) or are we still subject to
internal psychological processes that distort what we perceive and may even consist
of impasses that leave us with conflicting impulses. In terms of the external
environment, we might consider these historically and currently, and metaphorically
or in reality - are we experiencing good or bad weather, are volcanoes erupting or
earthquakes occurring, or are the distressing circumstances being created by
humans rather than nature, such as wars and terrorism.
Figure 17: Windows on the World and Internal and External Environments
The Identity Matrix

In the second of a series of three articles describing how script patterns are passed
on, Mo Felton (2015) presents an ‘identity matrix’ on which she has linked the first
four stages of development in the model provided by Pam Levin (1988). Her final
diagram is shown as Figure 18 because there she includes also the feelings,
attachment style, game roles and who is eliminated within the family system. In
terms of the stages of development, she comments that:
• Being – 0-6 months – hopefully a secure base is experienced so that the infant
develops “… a secure attached relationship with caregivers … [that incorporates]
connectedness, grandiosity and … the first experience of falling in love with the
other “ (p.5);
• Doing – 6-18 months - an appropriate balance of protection and permission to
explore is needed, with close parenting to manage the increased risk;
• Thinking – 1½ -3 years - parenting now needs firm boundaries and control so the
child can test their power and learn to think about what they do – Felton
comments here particularly on how the child may appear to be a mini tyrant and
express anger;
• Identity 3-6 years - a stage of coming to terms with reality, with the frontal
cortex now available for reflection, so sadness becomes a foreground emotion
and parenting changes to being available to support instead of protecting or
rescuing.
Figure 18: The Identity Matrix (Felton, 2015, p.8)

Note: in her diagrams, Felton reverses the positions of +- and -+ from those used by Ernst and
other authors; she also adds the infinity symbol to represent “The concept of recycling and
the concept of physis … The dynamic cycle of development and integration, or linkage of
differentiated parts …” (p.6).
We Are OK
In a very thorough review of previous literature, Tudor (2016) examined the ways in
which TA authors had used different variations of I, You, We, They and It when
writing about life positions, before introducing 'we psychology'. He attributes the
term to a religious psychology developed by NTA Fritz Künkel (1984), which Tudor
illustrates with examples such as a now extinct tribe in the Amazon rainforest who
had no word for 'I' in their language, and by NTA Winnicott's (1947/1957) well-
known phrase about there is no such thing as a baby. Tudor also illustrates how
couples may need a 'we psychology' rather than the 'me psychology' that applies
when they are expecting each other to understand them.
Tudor continues by writing about how there is little within the TA literature to define
OK, pointing out that in general parlance it is often used to say that something is
little more than adequate or acceptable. He reminds us that Berne (1966a) and
Harris (1967) disagreed about the order in which the different life positions
developed, that Ernst (1971 described them as shifting from moment to moment,
and that White (1994) described an additional three life positions. He also reminds
us that different authors are writing about existential versus behavioural life
positions, and regards Barnes (1981) as writing about them as an attitude or
existential stance [appearing not to pick up on the way in which Barnes was
proposing attitude/existential, behavioural, and emotional/psychological positions.]
Tudor continues by describing how the TA concept is a statement of essence that
affirms humanity and therefore essential. He disagrees with Stewart's (1992) and
Clarkson's (1992a) claims that Berne adopted the idea from Melanie Klein as he sees
significant differences between Berne and Klein, arguing instead that Berne was
citing Klein more generally.
Tudor then presents 16 life positions based on I, You, We and They: when all four
have the + this represents democratic communities; when They have - it fits
dominant cultures and cults ; when both I and They are - it describes a client who
was socially phobic but joined a therapy group out of desperation; I-You-We+They-
is the position of terrorists and/or suicide bombers.
A more recent article by Anita Mountain (2017), albeit based on material that had
appeared first several years before (Mountain and Davidson, 2011), also points out
that we need to consider, I, You and They (although with no acknowledgement to
Berne, 1972). Mountain links the four positions on the OK Corral to four effective
modes of communication: supportive, structuring, cocreative and playful; and adds
six more ineffective modes: criticising, inconsistent, interfering, over adapted,
oppositional and reckless. She describes the ego states associated with these; this
material is covered in more depth in the book in this series on Interactions &
Relationships.
TA in the TA Community
In an article which shows very few references to authors mentioned in this chapter,
Ales Zivkovic (2023) suggests that OKness can be “understood as Berne’s way of
contending with the complexity of anything outside of TA (especially psychoanalysis)
for the purpose of his own narcissistic defense, a righteous rebellion culminating in
his devaluation of the added value of complexity and an attempt to be distinctly and
foremost different, then one may better understand what on the surface seems like
a paradoxical contradiction between, on the one hand , Berne’s statements and, on
the other, his actions—for instance, his devaluation of psychoanalysis, on the one
hand, and the actions of his use, even idealization, of it, on the other.” (p.287). This
somewhat complex sentence is typical of the article, in which Zivkovic goes on to
point out that Berne’s material on positions as subjective experience was
substituted misleadingly by Ernst as inherent worth—without apparently
recognising the others have recognised this already within the TA literature.
Zivkovic also wonders whether what he regards as Berne’s disavowal of
psychoanalysis and identification with a new ideal (of TA) might be matched by the
TA community in the way that sub-approaches have developed in isolation. When
he writes that “ … reenacting the residuals of Berne’s internal struggles … while we
bask in our collective self-idealization … (p.298), it seems to me that this might also
explain why the leaders of major TA associations (ITAA, EATA, UKATA) adopted such
unhealthy dynamics towards volunteers, and towards their members’ money, when
they refused to allow a rescheduling of the 2020 TA World Conference after COVID
emerged. (Hay, 2017).
Reflection Questions: Windows on the World
1. Review the ideas above about life positions with particular reference to your work
as a practitioner and the likely relevance to one of your clients. This might be a
‘typical’ client or a client where you would benefit from an analysis of their ways
of perceiving the world.
2. Make a sketch that includes however many positions you have decided to work
with, and add the appropriate plus signs, minus signs and/or question marks.
3. Draw a blob across as many windows as necessary to represent what you believe
are your own combination of windows. In other words, shade in parts of those
windows through which you now recognise you perceive the world. Match the
amount of shading in each window to the amount of time you spend perceiving
the world in that way.
4. Note some examples of what happens for each of the windows that you have a
tendency to look through. Include the open window in this step.
5. Use a different pen or a different form of shading to add your understanding of

the windows through which your client views the world, again matching the
amount of shading in each window to the amount of time you think they spend
perceiving the world in that way.
6. Consider how the similarities and differences in the shadings for you and the client
may be impacting within the professional relationship.
7. Plan any changes that you might make in order to enhance your professional
activity with the client.
8. Optionally – consider how you might use this material in order to increase the
self-awareness of your client e.g. prompting them to make their own analysis,
exploring with them how childhood events have impacted on their own positions,
encouraging them to identify changes they might make in attitudes and/or
behaviours, etc.
Chapter 3: Do Scripts Exist? 53
Chapter 3: Do Scripts Exist?

I follow the previous chapters on autonomy and life positions with some other
underlying processes that may be in operation for us when we appear to be existing
within our own script. The main of these is discounting - how we do not know what
we seem to not know. I then go on to extend this into consideration of our frames
of reference, and those as metaphors, to invite you to consider as you read further
chapters whether your script might be just a sequence of ways that your brain and
body are accustomed to applying to your processes of thinking, feeling and behaving
(in any order ).
Note: Jacqui and other people named Schiff, and their Cathexis TA school , have
been introduced in the book in this series called Core Themes; many of their ideas,
including passivity, symbiosis and grandiosity, are covered in the Individual
Development book.
Discounting
The discounting phenomenon explains why we maintain our frame of reference
even when it is apparent to others that we are overlooking significant aspects of
reality. Jacqui Lee Schiff (1975) defined discounting as “an internal mechanism
which involves people minimising or ignoring some aspect of themselves, others, or
the reality situation. Our position is that there is a consensually definable reality,
and that discounting involves a frame of reference which distorts or is inconsistent
with that reality. By discounting, people make can maintain and reinforce a
dysfunctional frame of reference, play games, and further their scripts, while
attempting to enforce or confirm symbiotic relationships with others. Discounting
is not operationally observable.” (p.14)
Ken Mellor and Eric Schiff (1975) gave a simpler description that “The person who
discounts believes or acts as though some aspect of the self, other people, or reality
is less significant than it actually is.” (p.295)
Schiff (1975) classified discounts into:
• three areas – people discount themselves, others and the situation;
• three types – of stimuli, problems, and/or options;
• four modes – the existence, significance, change possibilities, or that self or others
can do something different.
Both Schiff (1975) and Mellor and Schiff (1975) presented what has become known
as the Discount Matrix (Figure 19) to show how the modes and types can be
combined into a table. They comment that generally a discount in any of the four
modes involved discounts in all of those below it on the chart, and a discount of any
type involved discounts of all types to the right. These are indicated by the vertical
and horizontal arrows shown in the diagram. They also comment that discounting
at any point in the table involves discounting in the row below it in the type to the
left and in the row above it in the type to the right; these are illustrated by the short
diagonal arrows.
Each box is numbered in order to show how treatment needs to proceed in a
directional stepwise manner. The characteristic issues that are likely to need dealing
with are: T1 – awareness; T2 – significance of awareness, problem definitions; T3 –
awareness of change, defining problem significance, awareness of and defining
related options; T4 – awareness of personal abilities to change, defining problem
solutions, selection of possible options for action; T5 – awareness of personal
problem-solving ability, selection of options; T6 – awareness of personal action
potential, action itself.
Figure 19: Relationships Between Types and Modes of Discounting (Schiff, 1975, p.16)
Hence, the focus of treatment tends to move from the top left-hand corner of the
table to the bottom right-hand corner.
Steps to Success
I (Hay, 1995a) simplified the discount matrix by converting the six treatment levels
into metaphorical model which I call steps to success, and for which I use a memory
aid of having each step named with a word with the initial letter S (although this aid
is of course lost when the material is translated). The steps are shown in Figure 20,
with Sabotage included within the diagram (this addition first appeared in an
unpublished workbook - Hay, 2021):
Step 1 – Situation – what is happening?
Step 2 – Significance – how is it a problem?
Step 3 – Solutions – what might be done?
Step 4 – Skills – can the individual make the necessary change, or how can they
acquire the skills to do so?
Step 5 – Strategies – how will the individual implement the change?
Step 6 – Success – do they have the necessary commitment?
Figure 20: Steps to Success (Hay, 2009, p.130 updated with Sabotage)
In order to help others, we need to recognise first that they are discounting and
identify at which level or step this is occurring. We then need to metaphorically join
them on that step, metaphorically hold their hand, and metaphorically lead them
up the remaining steps at their own pace. Clients (or ourselves) may need particular
prompting to avoid Step 6 becoming Sabotage instead of Success. Also, it is often a
useful precaution to begin at Step 1 even if the client seems to be at a higher level
because they may be attempting to solve an issue that belongs to someone else;
once a discount has been identified, the client may then proceed up the remaining
steps without any more assistance.
Reflection Questions: Dealing with Discounting using Steps to Success
You may want to work with a colleague for this because it is not easy to spot your
own discounting. Alternatively, review how you might use the prompts questions
with a client, and consider how many of the questions you can answer based on
what you already know of that client.
If based on your own work, you will need to pick an issue where you are already at
level 2 – if you have not recognised the significance of whatever is occurring, you
will not know to choose it as an example.
After you have worked through the levels, you might like to think about how the
example you have chosen (apparently spontaneously) to work on may reflect your
wider script patterns.
Having identified an instance of potential discounting, drop back to level 1 and climb
up the steps using the following prompts:
Level 1: Situation
1. What is happening?
2. Who is saying and doing what?
3. What expressions, gestures, body movements are there?
Level 2: Significance
4. What might the situational evidence mean?
5. If there is an issue or problem, what might it be?
6. How is any of this significant?
Level 3: Solutions
7. What solutions are available (if you could achieve anything)?
8. What options might lead to better outcomes?
9. What options might lead to worse outcomes?
Level 4: Skills
10. What skills do you need to implement various solutions?
11. What relevant skills do you have already (including those you have previously
used only in different circumstances)?
12. How can you acquire any additional skills needed?
Level 5: Strategies
13. How will you plan to implement solutions?

14. What help or support might you get from others?
15. How might others get in your way – and what will you do about that?
Level 6: Success
16. What is your rationale for not taking action?
17. What are the benefits from not taking action?
18. What are you afraid may happen when you take action – and how will you deal
with that?
And maybe sabotage
19. Even at this stage, how might you sabotage yourself?
20. How might someone else sabotage you – and how might you collude with that?
Note that at any level, it may be necessary to re-work previous levels as it becomes
apparent that the ‘wrong’ issue is being progressed, or the significance has shifted,
and so on.
Note also that once discounting ceases, progress through the remaining levels may
become straightforward.
Note also my earlier suggestion – does your apparently spontaneous choice of topic
give you any ideas about what the pattern of discounting might be within your own
script?
Dynamic Thinking
A similar approach was developed by Kouwenhoven (2011) in terms of linking the
discount matrix directly to autonomy, in terms of dynamic thinking. He wrote that
that “we are autonomous when we are competent (think logically), confident
(manage our emotions), committed (take care of the needs of ourselves and others),
and in control (act effectively).” (p.77) and describes a coaching matrix for use when
clients seek development of competencies rather than cure of a disease. He
presents a variation of the discount matrix, in which the client is helped to:
1. think logically so they can collect relevant facts;
2. manage emotions so they can analyse the problem;
3. define their goals and take care of their needs;
4. act effectively.
Kouwenhoven shows these as four boxes, although he refers to them as steps so
they could be shown on my steps to success version of the discount matrix if we add
extra steps between 3 and 4: 4 becomes acquiring skills, 5 is a strategy or
implementation plan, and 6 becomes the action step, albeit needing attention to
achieving success and avoiding self-sabotage.
Kouwenhoven goes on to link types of thinking to his model:
• Feedback thinking is when we note feedback signals, or ‘symptoms’, and is
prompted by asking about the facts and the problem (i.e. the situation and
significance in Hay’s model).
• Feed-forward thinking is about imagining the future, and is prompted by
considering talents and how to develop them (so solutions and skills in Hay’s
model).
• Logical thinking adds cause and effect to the error identification of feedback
thinking and to the fantasies of feed-forward thinking. To illustrate this,
Kouwenhoven shows how it might be necessary to decontaminate and integrate
Adult by checking: that facts are not assumptions; whether problems are
individual, relational or systemic; that goals are SMARTEL (specific, measurable,
acceptable, realistic, timetabled, plus Kouwenhoven adds ethical and lovable);
and that the actions include consideration of steps, sequence and how organised
(Hay’s strategies level).
• Dynamic thinking, which is based on chaos theory and takes into account
complexity and unpredictability. Kouwenhoven gives the example of how good
cooks are artists because the ingredients they use are never identical. He also
quotes the butterfly wings to tornado example, which has of course since been
debunked; he might however have referred to Black Swans (Taleb, 2007) as a
reminder of how unpredictable the world can be – although that may be less
relevant when we consider how much the limited range of process scripts and the
repeating dynamics of games so often allow us as transactional analysts to predict
likely events fairly accurately.
Although in his Abstract Kouwenhoven refers to using the coaching matrix to
stimulate autonomy, he addresses this only indirectly through examples about
leadership, group dynamics and teambuilding. He does include some thoughts on
the importance of attachment, detailing how this requires a balance between
attachment to matter (e.g. salary, job, car) and attachment to people (e.g. family,
colleagues). He also refers to ego states, suggesting that:
• Adult is stimulated by differentiating facts from assumptions;
• Child is engaged by managing feelings about the problem;
• Parent is involved in choosing goals and actions;
• And all three are integrated as a strategy is developed. Kouwenhoven states that
Effectiveness = Adult multiplied by Child multiplied by Parent (E = A x C x P).
Combining Kouwenhoven’s material on types of thinking with Hay’s steps to success,

we arrive at Table 4, with logical thinking applying to all levels and particularly to the
dynamics across the levels.:
situation feedback
significance feedback
solutions feed-forward
skills feed-forward
strategies dynamic
success (sabotage) dynamic
Table 4: Comparison of steps to success (Hay, 2009) and dynamic thinking (Kouwenhoven,
2011)
Frames of Reference
There are several ways in which we can think about the script as a frame of reference.
This was a particular approach adopted by the Cathexis Institute. They related this
particularly to life positions and provided a diagram that related it to ego states. I
have included some more information from them in Chapter 5.
Jacqui Schiff and Aaron Schiff (1975) produced an article, in which they commented
that it was expanded in the book in the same year by Jacqui Schiff (1975). [Although
the references for this book show Jacqui as the only author, it is clear that the book
was written with contributors.] In the book, they commented that “An individual’s
frame of reference is the structure of associated (conditioned) responses (neural
pathways) which integrates the various ego states in response to specific stimuli ...
[which] ... provides the individual with an overall perceptual, conceptual, affective,
and action set, which is used to define the self, other people, and the world, both
structurally and dynamically .… learned from the parents.” (p.49-50).
Pointing out that the frame of reference is both transactional and psychodynamic,
they provided a diagram of the three stacked ego state circles with a skin drawn
around them (see Chapter 5 for more about this.) However, they then provided
another diagram (Figure 21) to show the dynamics between two individuals, and for
this the ‘skin’ is missing and Natural Child is shown as a 4th ego state drawn
separately to the three stacked circles, which are now named P, A and AC (Adapted
Child).
They went on to point out that changes in the frame of reference may result from
the Child becoming uncomfortable with it and seeking Adult information, the Child
becoming uncomfortable with it and seeking new permissions, or an external Parent
Figure 21: Structure and Dynamics of Frame of Reference (Schiff, 1975, p.51)
structure “imposing” a change. Reparenting will involve a significant reorganisation

of the frame of reference but less complex changes may be accomplished through
redecisions based on new information. In the article only there is mention of
internal and external frames of reference, with an internal frame being seen when
the person does not attend to the external situation, and an external frame involving
over-emphasis on other people or the reality situation.
In both publications, the authors explain how redefining is the mechanism through
which people maintain their frame of reference; that symbiosis is the cause and
effect of redefining; and that the three components of these mechanisms are
discounting, grandiosity and thinking disorders, all operating simultaneously. In a
separate chapter, they write that passivity results from symbiosis, discounting is the
mechanism, and grandiosity provides the justification.
Merle Friedman and Diana Shmukler (1992) reference NTA Loevinger (1966) for use
of the term ‘frame of reference’ to refer to what other authors were calling
character, ego identity, worldview or a representational world. They write that
“Every person has his or her own frame of reference, through which he or she filters
perceptions and experience. This frame of reference is founded on the experiences
each person has had in the world. These experiences form the basis of the
organizing matrix that determines a person’s view of life. It is through the
idiosyncratic filter of this view that the outer world is perceived. We contend that
the internalised, abstract organizing matrix is the inner psychic reality. This reality
is projected onto the immediate surroundings.” (p.83-84). They go on to contrast
script and frame of reference, pointing out that script is more deterministic than
frame of reference, and that “Script options are determined by frame of reference
and rely on initial learning from parents. The frame of reference determines the
structure of thinking, problem-solving, and other adaptive behaviours.” (p.86). Like
Schiff, they suggest that regression and redecision methods can help those with a
positive transitional space, or organising matrix, but that when the organising matrix
is severely impaired then more lengthy treatment is required.
We can consider frame of reference also in terms of the constructionist approach
described by James Allen and Barbara Allen (1997). They point out that many
familiar TA methods were based on a modernist belief in a consensual reality – in
other words we expect to make diagnoses, compare what is happening with what
we believe should be happening based on our models of the world, and then make
interventions accordingly. This is based on the assumption that what we are
noticing and how we are interpreting it is somehow consistent and not dependent
on the particular observer. Allen and Allen point out that there has long been an
alternative perspective that there are many ways to understand the world, and that
we are in fact constructing our consensual reality due to our shared conventions of
discourse. Hence, we need to be just as challenging about our own frame of
reference as practitioner as we are about the frame of reference of a client.
Using Metaphors
Many TA concepts are metaphors - ‘stroke’ is a metaphorical way of referring to a
unit of human recognition, ‘ego states’ are metaphors even though Berne said we
can find them in the telephone directory, and script is a particularly obvious
metaphor because it extends into the notion that we can use fairy stories to
represent our lives.
The following material is extracted and amended from material I have published
previously, such as in Hay (2002, 2004).
A project manager announces to anyone who will listen that “Time is money.”
A trainer tells participants “I know no-one enjoys it but don’t be too nervous about
us videotaping the role-play.”
A co-ordinator of a mentoring scheme for refugees states that “Mentors don’t need
cultural awareness training because the aim is to have the refugees adopt the norms
of this country now.”
What do these three have in common? They each have within them an implicit
assumption that the speaker’s map of the world is the one that matters – they
discourage the listener from even thinking about the underlying pre-suppositions
within the statements. They have an hypnotic effect – the project manager is likely
to find that people focus totally on time, probably at the expense of quality; the
trainer finds that at least one participant in each group will become so nervous that
they actually refuse to do the role-play; and the co-ordinator runs a scheme where
the mentees’ distress at being refugees is compounded by culturally insensitive
mentors.
We can get a better understanding of how the statements create the impact they
do by considering them as metaphors and paradigms. An Internet search for
dictionary definitions of these labels gives us:
Metaphor – the role of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or
action that it does not literally denote in order to imply a resemblance.
Paradigm – a pattern or model; a typical or stereotypical example.
Scripts are metaphors that are also paradigms because they become the model
through which we interpret our world. We can better understand the ways in which
metaphors impact on us by considering some examples from non-TA authors. [see
also TA author Lankton, 1980].
“The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in
terms of another.” (NTA Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, p.4). This is similar to the way
in which we recognise that maps are metaphors - we represent the reality of
mountains, seas, roads and so on by drawing onto paper, and menus are metaphors
for meals.
Metaphors add richness to our maps, enabling us to convey a lot of meaning in a
few words. At the same time, our metaphors are representations of paradigms, in
which exist some powerful but implicit boundaries. Again, the paradigm enables us
to convey these boundaries in a few words. Put the two together and we create a
map of the world that has much implicit meaning within it and clearly implied
boundaries around it.
Taking our three examples:
• Time is money – so be careful how we spend it; we need to budget time carefully;
the faster we work, the more profit we make; don’t waste it by spending time
with people who will not contribute; we must keep an account of what gets
spent and why . . . and we can view everything within this framework so we
neglect aspects such as taking time to build in quality; to ensure optimal health
and safety procedures; to build relationships with colleagues, customers,
suppliers, etc. Maybe we feel that we’re living on borrowed time!
• Nervousness and videotaping – telling someone not to do something causes
them to think about and often to do it – as in “Don’t think about blue rabbits” –
so the trainer mixes nervousness and videotaping together in a way that makes
it hard for participants to separate them again . . . and then sets a boundary that
encompasses all participants by saying that no-one enjoys it. Only the rebels
will now feel able to enjoy being videotaped without getting nervous!
• Cultural awareness and norms of the country – not needing cultural awareness
training implies: that mentors already know all they could possibly need to know;
that the cultural norms of the refugees are unimportant and irrelevant; that
refugees can somehow acquire new cultural norms without mentors needing to
be trained to help them with this . . . and sets a boundary against any
possibilities that the existing cultural norms might be enhanced by the addition
of norms brought by the refugees or that mentors might also learn from their
mentees.
We may think of metaphor only in the context of stories yet metaphors abound in
everyday life, generally without us being conscious of them. For example, we talk
of arguments as if they are wars, using phrases such as: attacking the weak points;
being right on target; demolishing the other person’s argument; winning and losing;
and having our arguments shot down. We often overlook these 'meta metaphors'
that are so all-encompassing that we take them for granted. For example, a
persuasive metaphor in many cultures is that time is money!
NTA Molden (1996), gives several examples relating to time, including the
'metaphorical presuppositions' or limitations built into each version:
• I haven't got time for that (time is a possession - something you have or haven't
got).
• I can't make time to do that (time can be manufactured).
• There's never enough time (time is a commodity which is always in short supply).
• Time is against us (time has physical form and energy).
• Time is on our side (time can choose to take sides).
• We have all the time in the world (time is contained by the world and we can own
it).
• Time waits for no-one (time is inconsiderate).
However, Molden also suggests that time could be redesignated as an investment
portfolio so we might instead think of the gains to spending/investing our time for
rewarding outcomes.
Script as Metaphor
Script is a particularly obvious metaphor because it extends into the notion that we
can use fairy stories to represent our lives.
Metaphors each have within them an implicit assumption that the speaker’s map of
the world is the one that matters – they discourage the listener from even thinking
about the underlying pre-suppositions within the statements.
We might think of script as an identity metaphor, such as thinking about self as a
leader, a professional (accountant, therapist, teacher), a friendly person, an ugly
duckling, or a frog or a prinz. All these are metaphors - they represent a reality that
may seem very different to different people. They will also contain implicit
limitations if we take the metaphor too literally.
Using different identity metaphors can be an effective way to increase self-

awareness. For example, you could ask clients: If you were an animal, which animal
would you (or your organisation) be? Alternative options for the metaphor include
which: bird, TV programme, film, sport, book, play, etc.
In the same way that individuals have identity maps that are often out of awareness,
so do organisations. [More about this in the book on Organisations & Institutions.]
Prompting a group of managers and/or employees to draw a picture of their
organisation and its culture can provide some significant insights. A powerful
example occurred with one organisation, where four different groups attending the
same team building event were asked to do this. Working quite separately, three of
the groups came back with drawings that showed a train going into a tunnel – the
facilitator pointed out that none of the tunnels had any light at the end of it!
CEO’s attending an open programme in India (Hay, 1995c) were asked to describe
their organisations as if they were animals. This resulted in the following:
• our company is like an elephant - we start moving slowly but then no-one can stop
us - but we don't have a good idea of what is happening behind us!
• our company is like a snake - we can progress a long way without being noticed,
then pop up in the right place - but we may get stepped on before we get there!
• our company is like a horse - very fast and moving forward - but we're not sure
who the jockey is - we think they fell off a while ago!
The same can be applied to families, of course. Berne referred to our use of fairy
stories - people unwittingly become characters such as Little Red Riding Hood, Robin
Hood, Prince Charming or Cinderella. We may instead become one of the other
players in such stories, especially if we have decided not to be too important. Having
heard the story that seems to fit our experiences of the world at a young age (before
seven), we decide to be that character and then grow up with no conscious
awareness of our decision. Nowadays, it might be that children base their scripts on
TV programmes or Disney films. When we refer within TA to frogs and
princes/princesses, like Berne (1970) we are referring to a German fairy tale (Grimm
and Grimm, 1812) and Berne himself was referring to NTA Donald Young (1966),
who in turn was referring only to a cartoon many years before the Disney film
appeared in 2009.
‘Cinderella’ may well work hard for many years while her (or his – these are unisex)
manager (wicked stepparent) and colleagues (ugly siblings) take all the credit – until
one day a mentor (fairy Godmother/Godfather) ensures that Cinders gets to present
at the annual conference (ball) and the senior manager (Prince/Princess) finally
recognises just how good Cinderella is and promotes her/him (marries and takes to
castle). Or Robin Hood may adopt a role as official or unofficial staff representative
(outlaw) and spend time arguing (fighting) with a manager (Sheriff of Nottingham)
on behalf of the workforce (peasants), both overtly through open attacks and
covertly by awarding perks that are outside the rules - until one day the Chief
Executive (King Richard) makes a visit and sees what has been happening and
demotes the manager and promotes Robin. Berne wrote about fairy stories that will
be known in the English-speaking world but referenced NTA Joseph Campbell
(1949/1968) for his findings that the themes of fairy stories are consistent
worldwide even though the stories and characters appear to be different.
Campos (1972) referred to frogs and princes whilst commenting that therapy can be
seen as clients changing unhealthy metaphors to healthier ones. He proposed the
first stage as identifying which metaphor the client chooses, before having the client
act out the metaphor so that they can then change the metaphor. He gave several
examples, including being lost in a forest and being attacked by a bird, where the
client realised that she was the bird herself and could consider why she was angry;
another who realised that Sleeping Beauty could decide to wake up; and another
who believed he had been paying off a debt and had been doing so long enough that
it was now paid in full.
Like all metaphors, the content of our life story will include limitations as well as
permissions.
The elements to consider, for ourselves as practitioners as well as to ask clients, are:
• embody - what do you feel when you think of or tell this story, what impact does
it have kinaesthetically?
• entail - what are some of the 'hidden' consequences of living as if this story were
true?
• encompass - how widely does this story extend into your existence; what areas
of your life does it encompass?
• empower - what 'power' does the story provide; how could you adjust the story
to make it (even) more empowering?
The Monkey, the Parrot and the Bubble
The following material is extracted from Hay (2012, 2022) and updated when a
participant on a webinar pointed out that the stories reinforce the belief of clients
that their practitioner will provide a miracle cure. The stories can therefore be
adjusted to show that the final doctor (practitioner) provides the necessary
implement to the client; I have added the appropriate alternative ending to each
story.
Whenever we apply TA, our hope is that people will become more autonomous.
There are two stories in the early TA literature that are particularly relevant. They
convey similar messages - that we can change more quickly and more easily than we
imagine.
Eric Berne’s (1968) version refers to a monkey.
There is a young boy (or girl, or child) whose parents tie a monkey onto his chest
when he is very small. They do this to be helpful - indeed most of the friends do the
same thing for their children. It restricts the boy’s movement so there are some
things he cannot do. However, he trusts his parents so he learns to work around the
restrictions or to fit in with them. And the monkey keeps him safe and stops him
doing things that his parents believe are dangerous.
However, when he grows up he begins to notice that some people seem to have no
monkey. They can do whatever they like. So he thinks he will see about getting the
monkey removed.
He goes to a doctor, who looks carefully at the knots in the string holding the
monkey in place. The doctor then says that the knots are very complicated and will
take many months to unravel. The man decides that sounds too expensive and
decides not to bother.
Time goes by and the man gets more and more uncomfortable about the restrictions
imposed by having the monkey. So he goes to another doctor.
This doctor examines the knots very thoroughly. The doctor then says that the knots
are very complicated, and have been there a long time. They may even take years
to unravel. Again, the man decides not to bother, although this time he feels
disappointed.
More time goes by. Eventually, the man goes to yet another doctor. This one takes
out a large pair of scissors and cuts the string. The monkey bounds free.
Alternative ending - the practitioner hands the client a large pair of scissors and the
person cuts the string and the monkey bounds free.
Brian Allen (1971) provides a similar story, except that instead of a monkey there is
a parrot.
Suzy (or Shipra, or Sophie) was a small girl who had an older brother Simon (or
Servaas, or Suliman). Suzy’s parents were busy so they told Simon to take care of
her. Simon was still quite young himself so this was a big responsibility. So he
listened carefully to what their parents said to Suzy about how she should behave.
He then taught the parrot to say the same things, such as “Don’t answer back”,
“Look after other people” and “Be a good girl”.
Simon then put the parrot onto Suzy’s head. Now he could play and read and do
whatever he wanted to do without having to pay attention to Suzy all the time. The
parrot did it for him.
When Suzy grew up, she still had the parrot on her head telling her what to do and
what not to do. This interfered quite a lot with her life. The parrot often objected
to her making friends or being confident or enjoying herself. Suzy often felt
miserable when she followed the parrot’s instructions.
One day, Suzy went to a doctor and asked for help. The doctor told her it would
take many years to cure her and gave her some pills. Suzy felt even more depressed.
Eventually, Suzy went to another doctor for help. This time, the doctor said all Suzy
needed to do was get rid of the parrot. Suzy was doubtful about this because she
was used to having the parrot there. She thought also that the parrot’s claws were
tangled into her hair and it would be painful to pull them out.
However, this doctor smiled and said Suzy just needed a little help. Then the doctor
reached out, grabbed the parrot and threw it out the window. It squawked once
and flew away for ever.
Alternative ending - the practitioner smiled and gave the client some bird seed,
which the person sprinkled through the open window and the parrot flew after the
food and then flew away.
And I could not resist adding this cartoon from https://www.bizarro.com/ - enjoy.
Berne’s story has a kinaesthetic base - the monkey metaphor invites the listener to
connect the story to the way they feel. Allen’s story relates directly to our auditory
channels, as we recognise the voices in our heads that we replay from the past. A
visual version might be to have the grown-ups keep the child in a special protective
bubble. This bubble is intended to ensure that the child does not have to face
unpleasant facts of life. Although done originally to keep the child safe, the bubble
means that vision is interfered with. Sometimes the bubble will make things look
nicer than they are but most of the time it will distort the view.
In this story, the first doctor would want a lot of time to work out how to remove
the bubble. They will need to look at it from many different angles, and to
understand the potential consequences of removing it. The second doctor would
know that the bubble can be burst without any ill effects. The person will then be
able to see reality clearly, good and bad.
Alternative ending - the final practitioner has a protrusion from the wall and invites
the person to lean against it so the bubble bursts.
Note that for a story to represent the casting aside of script messages, we need
something that does not belong. The monkey, parrot and bubble are obviously not
naturally attached to people. If the visual story were based on special spectacles, or
even a hood, it would not be as effective because people do really wear these.
It is also important to word the stories so that the grown-ups are providing these
imaginary objects to be helpful and protective. However unskilled and misguided
parents are, they do the best they can. We can help people feel free of the
limitations without any need to blame someone for what happened in the past.
Responsibility for Change
Consider the following story (Hay, 1997b). How does it influence the way you
respond to the stories about the monkey, the parrot and/or the bubble? How might
you tell this story to help a potential client know that they can use you to help them
change themselves.
There once was an old person who lived in the same house that they had been born
in. They had lived there for many years.
One day, it started to rain. It rained. And it rained. And it rained. And the land
around started to flood.
After a while, a farmer came along on a tractor. The old person could hear the noise
of the tractor coming closer. When it was near the house, the farmer called to the
old person “I’ve come to save you from the flood”.
But the old person said “I’ve lived here all my life. This is my home. My God will take
care of me. I’m staying here.”
So the neighbour went away in the tractor. The sound of the tractor faded into the
distance. And it rained. And it rained. And it rained. And the flood grew deeper.
And after a while, a police officer came along in a police rescue launch. The old
person could hear the noise of the police sirens coming closer. When the launch was
near the house, the police officer called out to the old person “I’ve come to save you
from the flood. Come with me.”
So the police officer went away in the police launch. The sound of the police sirens
faded into the distance. And it rained. And it rained. And it rained. And the flood
grew deeper.
After a while, a pilot came along in a helicopter. The old person could hear the noise
of the helicopter coming closer. When it was near the house, the pilot called to the
old person “I’ve come to save you from the flood. Come with me.”
So the pilot went away in the helicopter. The sound of the helicopter faded into the
distance. And it rained. And it rained. And it rained. And the flood grew deeper.
And the old person drowned!
And so the old person met their God. And the old person complained to their God
“Why did you let me drown? Why didn’t you help me?”
And the old person’s God said “I sent you a farmer in a tractor. I sent you a police
officer in a launch. I sent you a pilot in a helicopter. Why didn’t you use them?”
Alternative ending - their God says also says “Why did you stay with the same
behaviour?”
Reflection Questions: Your Life Script Metaphor
Analyse your own life script metaphor.
1. What was your favourite fairy story when you were a child? (or TV programme)
2. Tell the story to others from the point of view of the character to which you
most relate.
3. Listen to ideas from others on how they remember that story - they may well
have different recollections of it. Update your version only if it seems
appropriate to do so. You might have some interesting insights at this point –
pay careful attention to your reactions as others share different versions of the
story.
4. Incorporate any insights and analyse your story in terms of it as a metaphor –
what does it embody, what does it entail, what does it encompass and how does
it empower?
5. Consider its relevance in your life nowadays. Change it in whatever ways will
make it more empowering.
The Health System
Several years after the material above had appeared, Trudi Newton (2007) wrote an
extensive article about the use of metaphor within transactional analysis, quoting a
recent conference participant for describing it as "a collection of metaphors that
don't quite fit together" (p.195). She referenced Bruce Loria (1990) for his claim that
TA was too tightly tied to visual metaphors and stressed the danger that as
metaphors passed down through the generations, we may forget that they are
metaphors and argue about whether they are true or false, right or wrong. She goes
on to comment on how new diagrams were being introduced into TA, with particular
reference to the way in which people unconsciously believe that 'up' is better than
'down', using as examples Summers and Tudor (2000) for the script matrix with
horizontal lines, and my own autonomy matrix (Hay 1997a) [which she reproduces
on page 199 with the addition of aspiration arrows for both parent figures].
Newton then goes on to suggest what she refers to as the Resilience Cycle, (for
which she was given the Eric Berne Memorial Award (EBMA) in 2023) with an inner
circle in that diagram based on a model developed by Julie Hewson (1990), and
Newton reproduces a much neater version of Hewson's diagram as shown in Figure
22. Hewson used her own metaphor of a jigsaw as descriptive of her efforts to show
linkages and progression of how the script is created and maintained. Hewson
described eight sections:
1. the original symbiosis, where she suggests questions about the family structure
at the time of conception, the story surrounding the birth, what was happening
in society at the time (e.g. World War 2).
2. the stroking environment – proportions of positive to negative strokes, stroke
filtering, sources of strokes.
Figure 22: The Heuristic Systems Model of TA (Hewson, 1990, p.5 – reproduced as a tidier
diagram in Newton, 2007, p.200)
3. attributions – "those powerful messages which can be like psychological

straight-jackets and are often to be discovered as part of the script matrix." (p.3).
4. Frame of reference and existential position – which will be the result of what
has gone before and which Hewson suggests can be diagrammed
[metaphorically] as a searchlight that limits the range of view that the child
expects to have – under this heading she refers to contamination, life positions
and the drama triangle.
5. script decisions – she points out that such decisions may have been made at any
point before now but that this is the stage at which the practitioner can begin
to consider the factors leading up to the decisions, and can invite the client to
make a redecision. Hewson extends her metaphor about the searchlight at this
point by saying that the frame of reference searchlight is in a small boat which
is floating on an "underground stream with lots of tributaries and possible
directions but the searchlight only sees one way and the script flows relentlessly
ever onwards unaware of lakes, streams, rivers and deltas as possible outlets for
its energy." (p.4). She also suggests that this is the point in the system where
deconfusion might take place, and that drivers and miniscript might be
addressed at points 4 or 5.
6. adaptations – for which she references Paul Ware (1983) and the DSM [III at that
time, American Psychiatric Association, 1980], seems to select only three of
them, and links those to Adapted Child, Critical Parent and Overnurturing Parent.
7. Self-perpetuating strategies – in which she includes games, transactions, time

structuring, discounting, passive behaviours and thinking disorders, and
suggests the use of Kahler's [not referenced] process communication model.
8. rackets and the racket system – which she describes as "a system in its own right
and helps to fuel the feelings, beliefs and rackety displays that maintain the
script, the frame of reference, the contaminations and the existential position"
(p.5).
In the Resilience Cycle (Figure 23), Newton then described again the stages
proposed by Hewson whilst adding the alternative concepts that make up the outer
line of the resilience cycle [note that the items in the outer circle are not numbered
in the same way so I will include the letters used under each stage]:
1. the original symbiosis – (a) normal dependency - we might look at helpful
interdependence on people other than the mother; (i) interdependence as an
alternative to symbiosis is summarised in the diagram of all transactions.
2. the stroking environment (see 3).
3. attributions – Newton combines stages 2 and 3 by proposing that strokes can be
positive, affirmative messages and affirmations, provided to suit the various
stages of development as described by Levin-Landheer (1982).
4. frame of reference and life positions – in addition to showing ++ for I'm OK,
You're OK at (b), Newton shows physis at (c). She relates the latter to resilience,
which she has previously said she prefers to use instead of the word power, and
describes it as "a key factor in a person's ability to regulate emotions and the
sense of self and value." (p.202).
5. Life script – she refers here to my autonomy matrix (Hay, 1997a) with physis
arrows in each set of ego states (d) and the cocreative matrix from Summers
and Tudor (2000) (e).
6. personality adaptations – (f) - Newton refers here to working styles as the
strengths of drivers, referencing Clarkson (1992b) and me (Hay 1996) [although
the correct reference to working styles is Hay and Williams, 1989]
7. games [Newton selects this rather than Hewson's original self-perpetuating
strategies] – (g) is described by reference to Choy's (1990) winners triangle, Hay
(1995a) turning the triangle on to its base, Barrow (2006) overlaying it to show
how clear contracts can prevent games, and relating it to le Guernic’s (2004)
triangle of social roles.
8. Rackets and the racket system – (h) the illustration is of a positive learning
system (Newton 2006) [and we might also substitute PRO - positive beliefs,
reactions of others, okay outcomes (Hay, 2009)]
Newton then describes the two inner circles:
• the preventive cycle is described as applying from "birth to age 7, or from

symbiosis to script formation" (p.203) and is offered as guidance for parents and
caregivers on how to achieve healthy early development.
• the restorative cycle is "based on a belief that damage can be repaired and
developmental gaps filled" (p.204) and Newton explains that the spiral (j)
represents the Levin-Landheer (1982) recycling diagram.
Figure 23: : The Resilience Cycles (Newton, 2007, p.201)

Chapter 4: Scripts - Berne, Steiner, Erskine

The originator of the TA concept of script was of course Eric Berne. In 1971, after
Berne’s death, the first Eric Berne Memorial Scientific Award (EBMSA) was awarded
to Claude Steiner for his material on Script and Counterscript. Over the years, other
ITAA Awards have been awarded for various elements of script and then in 2018
Richard Erskine was given an EBMA based on life scripts and unconscious relational
patterns. This chapter therefore contains a summary of the materials of those three
authors, and some reactions to Berne’s material by later authors. I begin with
material about protocol because this, like the contents of Chapter 3, raises questions
about the nature and impact of script.
Protocol
Berne (1961) described the protocol as “played out to an unsatisfactory conclusion
in the earliest years of life … repressed in later years. Its precipitates re-appear as
the script proper, which is a preconscious derivative of the protocol.” (p.117) (italics
in original). If we consider the structure of the brain, our protocol might be thought
of as how we form our basic life position, depending on the ways in which we are
treated. Then, as our neocortex grows and we begin to think logically, we may
choose, or create our own special version, of a fairy story that seems to us to explain
the way we are feeling within our emotional brain. Recognising that protocol and
script are both metaphors, it does seem that neuroscience is now confirming what
Berne surmised. We can also link this to structural ego states, in that the emotional
brain corresponds to Child with some overlays of Parent, the neocortex might be
thought of as Adult, and more structural Parent may be created as our brain
continues developing through to adulthood and hopefully for the rest of our life.
Michael Matze (1988) queried Berne’s comment that the protocol was based on
programming, mainly by the mother, during the first two years of life. He agreed
that it was formed during the first two years but argued that it resulted from
intrapsychic experiences and thus was “… formed out of the actual intersubjective
experience of the infant with the primary caregiver. This implies that caregiver and
infant mutually shape each other’s experience …” (p.305) (italics in original).
Erskine (2009) also stressed that Berne had emphasised script in terms of being
created when children were old enough to have explicit memories whereas he
referenced Cornell (1988) for pointing out that more attention was needed on the
earliest relationships in life. Erskine went on to remind us that he had provided the
first operational definition of script (Erskine, 1980) “as a life plan based on decisions
made at any developmental stage” (p.209), before going on to point out how his
own words also gave the impression that script is formed from conscious decisions.
He then suggested that we needed a broader definition “to include the subsymbolic,
pre-linguistic, and bodily reactions of infancy and early childhood that are not
available to symbolic mentalization …” (p.209).
Chapter 4: Scripts – Berne, Steiner, Erskine 75
I previously have used positioning protocol and script within the brain in this way to
distinguish between counselling and psychotherapy – if the damage was done
before the child was about three years old, it is likely to be contained within the
emotional brain and therefore within Child, so it will be a second or third degree
impasse (Goulding and Goulding, 1976) to be resolved through deconfusion. [See
the book on Ego States for more about impasses.] However, if the experiences of
the little person were generally positive in the very early months of their life, then
the protocol may be largely one of OKness and hence any script may be amenable
to decontamination because it is accessible to their structural Adult. Deconfusion
often requires longer-term and deeper therapeutic work whereas decontamination
may be achieved whilst the client remains in the here-and-now – hence counselling
or coaching may be the appropriate approach.
A technique described by Greve (1976) is also helpful in considering how the
protocol/script connection might enable us to decide whether the work fits within
the boundaries of counselling/coaching. Greve describes a technique she refers to
as a fantasy. Pointing out that adults cannot remember scenes when they were still
very young, she suggests that clients can develop a fantasy of what may have been
happening to them as they developed their protocol, based on what they have
recognised as their script. She describes a couple of client cases: in one case the
client got in touch with the early emotional experiences that she had been
repressing and was then able to move on; in the other case imagining the protocol
fantasy resulted in the client recalling a later scene and completing a redecision on
the basis of that. It seems to me that, because the client is aware that they are
creating their own protocol fantasy, this provides a useful technique for clients to
‘keep one foot in the here-and-now’ as they explore how they may have ‘laid down’
their original life position at the basis of their script.
It is now generally accepted that the brain develops from the bottom up, so
whatever labels we use, we begin life with a brainstem or reptilian brain that will
operate the fight-flight-freeze responses; above that will be the limbic system or
emotional brain; and above that will develop the layers of the cortex. This process
of development is why it is also recognised that the younger the brain, the more
vulnerable it will be to the effects of the environment.
However, the above does not take into account genetic dispositions or other
theoretical explanations about autonomy and script. As I pointed out in Chapter 3,
maybe we are biologically ‘scripted’ so the way in which Berne described the script
as a development of the protocol might just be that we interpret what happens to
us in line with however our genetic composition determines.
Script – Berne's Contributions
Within this chapter, I am reviewing the material that Berne provided us with about
script. He did of course also write about the protocol, and I have included ideas
about that because it raises questions about how much of the script is the result of
what happens to children during their childhood, and how much might be
biologically predestined.
When writing about script, Berne (1972) acknowledged, without specific references,
the contribution of Adler (1927a, 1927b, 1931), commenting that “Of all those who
preceded transactional analysis, Alfred Adler comes the closest to talking like a script
analyst.” (p.58). [Note: Adler believed that the earliest memory is most significant,
that what we choose to remember is significant because they represent the “Story
of My Life” (Adler, 1931, p.75), and that memories can include stories told by
parents.] Berne also referred to script analysts of ancient India, and to NTA
Huescher (1963) about the use of tales in psychiatry.
According to Cheney (1973a) the first introduction to script analysis appeared in an
article by Berne (1958); although it has not been possible to obtain a copy of that
paper, it was included as Chapter 7 in Berne (1977). He wrote that script is a
"transference drama, often split into acts, exactly like the theatrical scripts which
are intuitive artistic derivatives of these primal dramas of childhood." (p.156). He
went on to refer to a common tragic script about a woman marrying an alcoholic
but also wrote of practical and constructive scripts which may lead to great
happiness. He referred to the analysis of scripts as the ultimate goal of transactional
analysis.
However, before that Berne (1957), in an updated version of a much earlier book
(Berne 1947) had mentioned script briefly as the name for a life plan but it is not
clear whether this appeared in the original 1947 version.
In the 1957 version Berne also introduced physis, referring back more than 2000
years to Zeno [a 5th century BCE Greek philosopher] who, according to Berne, talked
about physis as "the force of Nature, which eternally strives to make things grow
and to make growing things more perfect." (p.98). Berne wondered if physis might
be an inwardly-directed libido but referenced other authors’ ideas (NTA Murray,
1955; NTA Bergson, 1965 – in the 1967 edition). Berne continued to link physis to
the ways children develop their bowel habits such as withholding or having
'accidents' as a pattern or response to a parent's expectations. Furthermore, he
linked blocked physis to alcohol addiction and claimed that physis is what will "direct
the individual towards the opposite sex of adult human beings as his [sic] libido
object." (p.247), and that "Homosexuality nearly always means a thwarted physis
and a troubled Superego." (p.250) (italics in original). These somewhat negative and
definitely inaccurate characterisations of physis do not appear to be included in
Berne's later books: he references it only in Berne (1963a) where he mentions only
'Physis of the Stoics' and a reference to an earlier book by Murray (1915).
Clarkson (1992a), although mentioning Berne's focus on psychopathology, still
emphasised the positive elements of physis only. I (Hay, 2012) proposed a metaphor
of physis as what enables a daisy (and of course human beings) to grow, with the TA
practitioner wielding the 'practitioner's pickaxe' to form cracks that allow the
metaphorical plant to grow towards the sun from below the metaphorical concrete
that has been poured over it.
A few years later, Berne (1961) explained that “more complex operations [than
games] are based on an extensive unconscious life plan which is called a script, after
the theatrical scripts which are intuitive derivatives of these psychological dramas.”
(p.23) (italics in original).
He went on to comment, referring to therapy groups, that “Script analysis, whose
aim might be called “life plan control,” is so complex that this stage may never be
reached in many therapy groups, but ordinary social control is possible without it.”
(p.91). He also wrote that “Scripts belong in the realm of transference phenomena,
that is, they are derivatives, or more precisely, adaptations, of infantile reactions
and experiences. But a script does not deal with a mere transference reaction or
transference situation; it is an attempt to repeat in derivative form a whole
transference drama, often split up into acts, exactly like the theatrical scripts which
are intuitive artistic derivatives of these primal dramas of childhood. Operationally,
the script is a complex set of transactions, by nature recurrent, but not necessarily
recurring, since a complete performance may require a whole lifetime.” (p.116).
After describing a common tragic script, Berne also points out that “A practical and
constructive script, on the other hand, may lead to great happiness if the others in
the cast are well chosen and play their parts satisfactorily.” (p.116). He also writes
of the quest for characters to fit the roles demanded by a script, presaging his later
material on group imagoes (Berne 1963a), and including the seating diagram of a
therapy group within the chapter on scripts.
He makes a brief mention, in Notes at the end of the chapter, of how scripts have
prototypes in Greek literature, and of the common script of Little Red Riding Hood.
Later, he adds mention of the Greek tragedies and how Oedipus "comes to life in
script analysis not only as a characteristic personality, but as one moving inexorably
towards a pre-ordained destiny." (p.164).
Later, in the section on therapy of marriages, Berne writes of the contract of
marriage with a formal contract (meant to be Adult to Adult but not always
maintained); a relationship contract which he describes as an unstated psychological
contract (often between Parent and Child); and the "secret contract between the
two Children, the contract of the script." (p.214-215) (initial capitals and italics in
original). He goes on to refer to two casting directors and a leading man and leading
woman, with partners "drawn together by the intuitive assumption that their scripts
are complementary." (p.215).
Following his 1961 book, there are a number of mentions by Berne of script within
the Transactional Analysis Bulletin. Berne (1962b) wrote of how a sophisticated
group had understood how despair arose as a phenomenon due to the failure of
games and particularly scripts in terms of the non-arrival of Santa Claus, giving the
examples of a woman who “could not decide whether or not to stay with her
boyfriend because to decide would mean to see the world as it was and to relinquish
hope of Santa Claus. … (and of a man who) … “could not commit himself to marriage
because he had to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice with his Santa Claus, a
buxom motherly woman who might appear at any time.” (p.20). In the same issue,
(p.23) he pointed out that every script (and game and destiny) is based on one of
the four basic (life) positions.
In Berne (1963b) he presented a tape recording and reported on how he had been
trying to clarify the script of each member of a private therapy group at the second
meeting, insofar as that was possible from the material available, in order to predict
the course of therapy and script terms “so that the members could take up right
now at the point they would not otherwise have reached until after several months
or years in the group. This aborted such games as See How Hard I’ve Tried.” (p.44).
No information is given beyond this comment.
Haiberg, Sefness and Berne (1963) provided a story of the patient who had come for
an emergency appointment after hours and then told the doctor that he had come
to kill a psychiatrist. The patient had already been diagnosed as paranoid
schizophrenic and had been isolated for combativeness in several state hospitals.
The doctor told the patient that his job was to get people better and asked him if he
would stop acting oddly during working hours so that he could work to get money
to pay for his treatment. The patient agreed that was possible but later that night
committed suicide. It is explained that with hindsight it can be seen that, if it had
been possible to analyse the patient’s script, which the patient had previously told
the doctor was the dying cowboy from Laredo, then the patient could have been
told about the five alternatives “in language his Child can understand (since the Child
is the master of his destiny): (1) “Get better” (2) “Get rid of people” (3) “Go crazy”
(4) “Knock yourself off” and (5) “Play the same old games.” Only by a clear
understanding between the patient’s Child and his Adult can the march towards
doing sometimes be reversed by the Adult taking control.” (p.59).
Although not written by Berne, he was the Editor of the Transactional Analysis
Bulletin (TAB) when Jiminez (1963) reported on student nurses receiving psychiatric
training with the aged, describing the men involved as ranging in age from 40 to 100
and all having “completed their scripts and were waiting patiently for Santa Claus
and felt no need of further social action. They had done what their parents told
them to and the tranquillity of the old people’s home was their just reward, a
temporary limbo in which they could wait for Santa Claus – death. … When a
member of the group died, the men treated it as a news item.” (p.56).
Berne (1963c), in the section entitled ‘Recent Observations’, mentioned the
Cinderella Script, commenting that “The scenes in this script are now becoming
clearer. For example, at the end we find that Cinderella has fired all the servants on
various pretexts so that she can go back to cleaning toilet bowls. In this situation
she has many advantages over the boring life of the Princess.” (p.74). In the next
issue (of the TAB), he (Berne, 1963d) adds that “Cinderella's basic games are: "If It
Weren't For Them" and "Ain't It Awful." Red Riding Hood's are "Rapo" and "Let’s
You and Him Fight."” (p.88).
Berne (1964b), in a review of a book on fairy tales, where he is dismissing that book
as useful for understanding scripts, commented that the Brothers Grimm “were
more aware of the realities hidden in their tales. [the author of the book reviewed]
quotes one of them as noting privately that after the Prince married Briar Rose, he
became bored with her trivial talk and began to philander. That sounds more like a
script: Briar Rose’s script (to be boring and betrayed after sleeping for 100 years),
and the Prince’s script (to be bored by his wife after getting all torn up rescuing her,
and to look for more ladies to rescue).” (p.141).
Berne (1965), under the heading of ‘Evolution of a Script‘, commented that his
“patient recollected her moment of script decision at the age of six, after she heard
her mother in effect describe her own script to a lady friend. This involved a bad
marriage and a rescue by a better second husband. Patient made a marriage which
her mother told her would be bad, but found she loved her husband. The conflict
which resulted when her script impelled her to provoke her husband into being
"bad," while she really thought he was good, brought her into therapy in order to
prevent the divorce which her script called for. The script had previously been
unconscious, and she did not at first realize that her "marital troubles" were
provoked for the purpose of obtaining a divorce and getting rescued. Patient now
giving up her script felt empty and was asking "What do I do instead?"” (p.49).
Berne (1966b) made a number of comments about script during the preliminary
orientation to the ITAA summer conference, including presenting the diagram of the
script matrix shown as Figure 24. He went on to comment that “A script is essentially
a series of parental injunctions and every script can be found in Greek drama or
myth. When a patient’s favourite fairy tale is reduced to a series of transactions it
is possible to predict where the patient started and where he is headed. In
considering script such as Cinderella, it is well to ask such questions as “What went
on when the fairy godmother got all the kids and the stepmother out of the house
so that she was alone with father?” It is also worth examining the script of
Cinderella’s stepmother, a lady who always found a way to make herself
comfortable and who, after the wedding, probably said to her own daughters, “I
always knew Cinderella would amount to something – if you two slobs had done
what I told you, you could have married the Prince.”” (p.171).
When commenting on the diagram, he pointed out that P2 “is derived from the
Parents of mother and father; these, in turn, were derived from the Parents of their
parents. Thus, the concept of “cultural transmission” (or “how parental prejudices
get spread around”) can be expressed in terms of specific transactions at specific
times between child and parent over the course of generations. In contrast, the
source of P1 is the Child of the patient’s parents. This is usually mother’s Child,
Figure 24: : Script Matrix (Berne, 1966b, p.172)
because of mother’s overriding importance during the early years of life, and is
perceived as a witch, a troll, or a good fairy. The effect of this parent is like that of
an electrode: it can make the patient jump to obedience. … The therapist must be
more potent than mother’s Child. … It is now widely recognised that almost all
psychiatry disabilities are closely allied to somatic disabilities. The whole muscle
tone of the body tells you when a patient is cured. So much of the patient’s energy
has gone into controlling certain physiological reflexes that an appropriate motto
might well be, “Think sphincter.”” (p.171-172).
In a book published in the same year as the above article, Berne (1966a) reiterated
his view that scripts may not become apparent in therapy groups. He also wrote that
people with constructive scripts did not come for therapy, and that others need to
stop believing that Santa Claus will bring a major gift. If not, the options are suicide,
state hospital or prison, or getting rid of other people through divorce, homicide or
sending children to boarding school.
He went on to describe, with an example, the process of the protocol as the original
version of the script, the palimpsest as it plays out in adolescence, and the
adaptation as it plays out now. He likened this to Freud's (1922) repetition or destiny
compulsion but said that some scripts may last too long for a repetition to occur. He
then wrote of infinite regressions, as scripts are run over a lifetime but also over
each year, each month, each week, and even in a single group session. He used the
metaphor of fleas with little fleas on their backs – ad infinitum. Later in the book he
refers to "The script theme "Rush, Stumble, and Quick Recovery," which may be
stretched over months or years in everyday life, can be inadvertently but
convincingly enacted in a few seconds in a treatment group." (p.313).
A few years later (Berne, 1970) he wrote about winner and loser scripts, referring to
frogs as losers and princes or princesses for winners. He acknowledged Young (1966)
for this idea, pointing out that he (Berne 1966a) had already recognised it as relevant
for TA theory generally. (As previously mentioned, Young referred only to a cartoon
of a frog with a maiden but the Frog Prince is a German fairy tale from the Brothers
Grimm (Grimm and Grimm, 1812). Berne classified scripts as:
• winning script – the individual achieves what they set out to do, whether this is
to become a millionaire, a great leader, a hermit or an infamous criminal;
• losing script – the individual fails to achieve their apparently desired aims e.g.
they get arrested while attempting to be a successful bank robber, they lose all
their money gambling in an attempt to become rich. Losing scripts that involve
serious consequences are also called hamartic scripts;
• non-winning script – the individual finishes up somewhere between winning and
losing – not too much achieved but not too much lost either. Non-winning
scripts are also called banal scripts.
Berne then described what are usually nowadays referred to as process scripts,
which he related to time structure and proposed six main classes with reference to
the appropriate Greek myths:
• the Never script theme relates to Tantalus, for whom the things he wants are
always just out of reach;
• the Always script theme is from Arachne, who was condemned forever to spin
a web, so must always continue with what she started;
• the Until script theme is based on Jason, who was not allowed to relax until he
had completed his many tasks, or Hercules who only became a God after 12
years as a slave;
• the After script theme is based on Damocles, who has a sword hanging over him
so he may enjoy life now but will pay for it later;
• Over and Over [sometimes referred to as Almost] is based on Sisyphus, who rolls
a stone to the brow of the hill, lets it go and it rolls back down so he has to start
all over again;
• Open End refers to Baucis and Philemon, who lived blameless lives and were
rewarded by being turned into trees that will live forever, albeit not doing
anything much.
Berne went on to describe the sexual aspects for each:
• Never – forbids love or sex or both, so promiscuity (e.g. sailors, prostitutes) or
celibacy (e.g. priests, nuns);
• Always – punished forever for their sins (e.g. thrown out of home by parents);
• Until – no ABC is allowed before XYZ (e.g. no marriage before you finish caring
for your mother);
• After – once ABC is over, the negative XYZ will follow (e.g. once you marry your
troubles will begin);
• Over and Over – never quite succeed in making it (e.g. always a bridesmaid,
never a bride);
• Open End – content with reminiscing about past conquests (e.g. ageing men and
women waiting to the end of their sexual obligations).
Applying these patterns to organisms, Berne proposed that: Never – no organisms,
impotent; Always – nymphomaniacs and Don Juans; Until – can't have sex until all
tasks are done; After – fear of pregnancy, coitus interruptus; Over and Over – Berne
refers only to women who fail to have orgasm before the man does so; Open End –
sex was an obligation or effort so no longer required.
In addition to the linking of script and games, Berne also wrote here of trading stamp
books as needing to be filled so script payoffs can be collected, usually at the ending
of a game.
Berne's (1972) final book was published posthumously and pulled together much of
what he and Steiner had already published. Berne reproduced a similar diagram to
Steiner’s (1971) version, but with the addition of the arrow from the Adult of the
Father to the Adult of the young person, as shown in Figure 25.
Berne also introduced a significant change in that he showed the arrows as coming
from inside the circles of the parents and finishing inside the circles of the young
person, whereas Steiner had drawn the arrows from and to the boundaries of the
ego states. Berne’s diagram contains an implicit message that the script messages
are actually inserted into the young person by the parents, which presents an
unconscious invitation for individuals to believe that they had no choice and to
blame their parents.
In connection with this, Berne now indexed the electrode, which he described as
the 'come-on' – the Parent's voice, or demon whispering to the Child at the critical
moment and therefore acting like an electrode that stimulates an automatic
response. Berne said that this was the alternative name for the Parent in the Child
and provided the diagram shown as Figure 26. He added that injunctions are also
electrodes, and pointed out that if the injunctions involved parental rage when
inserted, it requires enormous therapeutic power to neutralise them.
Figure 25: Script Matrix (Berne, 1966a, p.172)
Figure 26: Origin and Insertion of the Script Injunctions [as the Electrode] (Berne, 1972, p.116)
Robert Goulding (Goulding and Goulding, 1978) makes clear his disagreement with
his friend Eric Berne about the electrode, because Goulding believed that the power
was in the patient rather than Berne's idea that parents inserted electrodes and that
the script determined the person's life plan. Fanita English (1987) also challenged
the notion of the electrode, pointing out that she believed he would have updated
it had he lived longer because it conflicted with his previously more positive
description of script.
More recently, Novellino (2010) considered how the concept of the Demon has been
neglected in post-Berne literature, and suggested that it should be linked with the
'sloppiness' that he believes is intrinsic in our work as practitioners when we are
negotiating within an "intersubjective framework, unconscious and defence
mechanisms expressed through transference and countertransference ... [and
needing to consider] the psychological level ... in terms of the microevents
described by intersubjective psychology." (p.292). Novellino quoted Berne (1972)
for the way in which the Demon appears to fight the script but reinforces it before
emphasising that the therapeutic alliance needs us to recognise that "The Demon
should be viewed as a psychological force, the understanding of which leaves us to
accept the unpredictability of the therapeutic encounter and to use it [in] a way that
helps the therapist to operate effectively … an unconscious force that is linked not
only to the daunting and destructive onslaught described by Berne, but also to the
physiological transmission of preverbal and intuitive information that can help
therapists learn more about their patients." (p.293).
Berne added the aspiration arrow in his diagram of a Hard-Working Winner as
shown in Figure 27, although he does not explain this in the text and he omits this
arrow in another script matrix diagram on page 281 (Figure 28). He drew the
aspiration arrow so that it stops just above the three stacked circles of the little
person, giving another psychological level visual message that physis will not take
us above the levels that our parents have reached.
Interestingly, Berne also presented diagrams with the three stacked circles shown
side-by-side to illustrate messages being passed on from grandmother to
granddaughter, as shown in Figure 29, as well as providing Figure 30 to show cultural
transmission. In a section titled Family Culture, he claimed that all culture is Family
Culture.
He went on to tell us that the script analysts’ slogan should be “Think Sphincter!”,
adding that Freud (not dated by Berne but presumably 1962 translation of 1905)
and NTA Abraham (1948) put forward the idea that character forms around bodily
orifices. Berne added that the family conversations at the dinner table concentrate
on one of the external sphincters - oral, anal, urethral, vaginal – families talk of food
and digestion, or bowel movements, or in long streams, or about sex.
Figure 27: Script Matrix of Hard-Working Winner (Berne, 1972, p.128).
Figure 28: A Blank Script Matrix (Berne, 1972, p.281

Figure 29: A Family Parade (Berne, 1972, p.284)
Figure 30: Cultural Transmission (Berne, 1972, p.286)

This 1972 book is where Berne also included the oft-quoted story about the splinter
in the toe leading to major problems with the whole body unless someone realises
that the splinter needs to be removed. Berne explained that the same things happen
due to closed sphincters, and therapists can diagnose based on clients’ physical
signals (e.g. squirming in the chair, legs tightly crossed, facial expressions).
He also included in this book a script checklist, followed by a condensed check list
with 51 questions.
McGrory (1976) produced a helpful historical review of the development of script
theory up until 1976. This shows that only Berne was writing about script from 1958
until 1966, at which time Steiner also began to publish his significant contribution.
Hungers
Although Berne wrote about hungers in many of his books, the term ‘hungers’ was
not referenced in the indexes until his last book (Berne, 1972), where he refers to
stimulus or sensation, recognition, and structure hungers. In Berne (1966a) he had
added to those three some mentions of leadership (as a derivative of structure
hunger) and tactile (as touch which seems to be a variation of sensation or contact
hunger. However, in Berne (1970) he mentioned the following six: stimulus,
recognition, contact, sexual, structure and incident.
Quoting from the latter, he writes that “If we take all these things together, we can
call them hungers, and sex is the most exciting way to satisfy all of them at once. (A)
Stimulus hunger, for sensory stimulation of sight and sound and touch, with smell
and taste as a bonus for gourmets. (B) Recognition hunger, for a special kind of
warmth and contact in deeds or words. (C) Contact hunger, for physical stroking,
although some people settle for pain, or even come to prefer it. (D) Sexual hunger,
to penetrate and be penetrated, which ratifies the other hungers while it happens.”
(p.191-192). He goes on to describe structure hunger as about how do we fill our
lifetime of 24 hours every day, and incident hunger as acute structure hunger when
we get into trouble just to relieve our boredom
I mention hungers here because they are clearly significant in terms of scripts, but I
have already mentioned how Graham Barnes links them to life position (in Chapter
2) and will cover them in more detail in Chapter 5 in terms of how Fanita English
called Sleepy, Spunky and Snoopy. Plus in the Interactions & Relationships book,
they are often written about as strokes, time structuring, and so on.
Script – Steiner's Contributions
Steiner (1966a) introduced the first attempt at drawing a script diagram, which he
later developed as the script matrix. In this first diagram (Figure 31), Steiner showed
the familiar three stacked circles for each parent on either side, and somewhat
higher than the three stacked circles of what he labelled ‘Full grown offspring’ and
for which he included the second order structure of the Child (i.e. P1, A1, C1 within
C2).
Figure 31: A Script Matrix (Steiner, 1966a, p. 134)
Steiner began his 1966a article by commenting that will power [sic] “is a concept
meaningful to individuals who find themselves driven to some form of self-
destruction. Essentially, will power is the contra-position of the Parent against the
demands of the script.” (p.133). He added that Alcoholics Anonymous considers will
power a relatively useless concept and that living one day at a time deprives the
script of a matrix for development and evens out the odds in the context between
the script and will power. This means that the tragic ending of the script is
temporarily interrupted by periods during which will power seems to triumph over
script. Steiner referred to this as the counterscript, adding that counterscript and
will power both have their origins in Parent.
He went on to explain that, for an example of a non-masculinity script, mother tells
the boy what to do and father shows him how. It is therefore mother’s Child (Cm)
who ‘calls the shots’. She marries a non-masculine male and reacts with swift
disapproval if the son begins to exhibit masculine behaviour; hence the boy copies
father’s demonstration of how to be a non-man. Mother’s Child becomes the boy’s
Parent P1 and father’s Adult becomes the boy’s archaic Adult A1. Both mother’s
and father’s Parents (Pm and Pf) become the boy’s Parent P2, with the injunction of
‘Don’t be a man’ lodged in C2 as P1.
Hence, “The script is determined by P1 and the counterscript by P2. The script is
pre-Oedipal, non-verbal, pre-conscious, visceral (gut level) while the counterscript
is post-Oedipal, verbal, conscious; and the former pre-empts the latter.” (p.134).
Steiner went on to comment that a well elaborated counterscript can become the
nucleus of a new course of life, giving examples of how an alcoholic needed
permission not to drink, and a girl needed permission not to get pregnant and to
outdo mother, plus both needed decontamination of the Adult which for the girl
included correcting erroneous ideas about conception and providing birth-control
pills.
Steiner (1966b) provided introductory remarks as a Guest Editor to a section in the
TAB on Script Analysis. He began by commenting that “Script analysis is the most
advanced and complex stage of transactional analysis, and because of this it has
been relatively inaccessible to most people. Recently there has been a surge of
interest in this subject, resulting in an increased sharpening of perception in concept,
and a deeper understanding of the development and dynamics of scripts.” (p.150).
He went on to comment that, before giving permission (as is described in the next
article which is the Eric Berne Memorial Scientific Award winning article by
Crossman 1966), the therapist “should know what the parental Child’s injunctions
are and which parent they come from … at what point in life the script was adopted
and what position it involves … in what way the games played by the patient
promote the script and should be able to estimate from the existence of the
counterscript how profound the depression will be, following the renunciation of
script. The mythical character and the personalised version of the fairy-tale which
the patient’s Child is living out should be known. If a sudden tragic ending is part of
the script it should be known to avoid “Now He Tells me”, and the role the therapist
is expected to play in the script should be clearly distinguished from his role as a
therapeutic agent. The personal myth (Robin Hood, Snow-white [sic] should be
distinguished from the basic, existential life-course of which there are probably only
a handful.” (p.150). Steiner concludes his introductory remarks by raising some
questions about three client examples where the work done by the therapist had
been unsuccessful in terms of the treatment provided.
Note: Both Steiner and Crossman (1966) linked material about protection and
permission to script, with Crossman commenting that "The therapist can give that
permission, but can do so effectively after he has understood something about the
script, and has got to know the patient's Child and "undercover" Parent, and what
they are up to." (p.152). Crossman emphasised the need for protection whenever
permission was being given; her material is included within Chapter 9.
In the following year, Steiner (1967a) provided a script checklist in the order in which
the items seem to be most easily obtained:
• Life course – this is an outline of the patient’s life, should be stated in the first
person singular and language understandable to an eight-year-old, and in a
succinct sentence e.g. ‘Going crazy’, ‘Never having fun’.
• Counterscript – activities which seem to be escaping the script but represent
acquiescence to a cultural and/or parental demand, such as an alcoholic being
on the wagon.
• Life course sub-items – the time of the decision, the [life] position, the mythical
hero and the physiological component.
• Parental injunctions – in two aspects: the enjoiner [not explained but
presumably what must be done] and the injunction, which is always an
inhibiting statement. Steiner added attributions in 1974.
• Program – the manner in which the parent of the same sex has taught the
individual how to comply with the injunction.
• Game – for every script it appears there is one basic game that produces the
payoff which advances the script.
• Pastime – the social device whereby those with similar scripts will structure
time, and during which gallows transactions are likely to take place.
• Payoff – which may be in terms of stamps, rackets or the sweatshirt.
• Tragic ending – which is usually specific as to time, place and method; a script
antithesis may buy time for treatment but does not dispose of the script.
• Therapist’s role – the role which the patient expects the therapist to play.
In the same year, Steiner (1967b) advised colleagues that the meaning of counter-
script had changed. "At first it seemed to mean the good things accumulated in the
intervals between script activity, or while carrying out the script: e.g., a PhD
candidate with a "failure" script gathered a lot of knowledge while he was engaged
in failing and this could be put to good use even if he failed, and especially if he
stopped failing." (p.66). However, Steiner went on to say that it was now understood
that the apparent breaking of the script might well be spurious, as when alcoholics
stop drinking and everybody pretends that the alcoholic will not start drinking again.
Four years later, Steiner (1971) showed more script matrix diagrams, again with the
three lots of three stacked circles and the second order structural diagram of C2 for
the individual, and this time showing arrows from the Parent ego states in both
parents to the Parent ego state in the individual, plus as previously an arrow from
the Child in the parent (this time the Mother) to the Child in the individual. However,
as can be seen in Figure 32, he chose to illustrate script matrices for a homosexual
and an alcoholic; as with Berne before him, the implication is that such factors are
the result of how the parents have scripted someone rather than recognising, as we
do now, that there are biological origins for these features.
In 1972 there was a special issue of the TAJ about scripts (more about this in the
next Chapter), for which Claude Steiner (1972) wrote a special editorial comment.
He pointed out that transactional analysts should have the dual role of scientists and
practitioners of psychotherapy, so that the articles in the issue should be judged on
whether they are scientifically superior in terms of the concepts, and were about
applications which would increase therapeutic potency. He added that Berne had
Figure 32: Script Matrices (Steiner, 1971, p.57)
"provided one of the most concise and accurate models of human behaviour since
human beings rather recently began to understand how and why they do things. ...
The Script Matrix is an example of such a model which synthesises complex
knowledge into simple understanding. It concisely states the manner in which
people pass their heritage on to their children." (p.83). Steiner also points out that
the script matrix could not have been developed without the model of ego states;
he describes how he constructed the script matrix based on the three channels of
communication between parents and offspring: 1. Parent and Parent for the
counterscript which contains conventionally and openly held views about what
people should do; 2. Adult and Adult for the program which is how people teach
children how to do things; and 3. that he named specifically as Parent in the Child
and Parent in the Child for the script, which he said was what parents really wanted
their children to do, with covert injunctions and attributions that are often
disavowed by the parents.
However, Steiner also pointed out that all models become obsolete and although
the TA diagrams were the most accurate methods currently, he expected that they
would become obsolete within the next 50 years.
He identified an existing difficulty around the best placement of the critical,
oppressive Parent, commenting that it could not be a joint tenant with the Nurturing
Parent because it was transmitting at a very early age. He proposed that it came
from a "crazy" Child or pseudo-Parent and proposed that it results in injunctions
which become part of the individual that is called the electrode, the Adapted Child,
or the Critical or Pig Parent [which are all shown within the Child ego state of the
little person]. He wrote that this was why the channel carrying the script messages
has been drawn from the Child of the parents to the first order Parent of the
offspring, added that "… it becomes complicated to have the Nurturing Parent in the
second order Parent and the Pig Parent in the Child as the first order Parent." (p.84).
He warned that some transactional analysts would likely cling tenaciously to the
original models and went on to indicate his agreement with some of the articles in
the special issue, to criticise one of them, and to claim that one of them paralleled
his own views which were not referenced. He also pointed out that he believes that
script matrices and checklists had only an archaeological importance and warned
against rebuilding and revamping old models.
In Steiner (1974), he pulled together the material that had been published so far in
the book entitled Scripts People Live. He credited Berne’s initial thoughts and
positioned his own work as a continuation of that. He recognised his own focus on
tragic scripts whilst also pointing out that banal scripts mean that people's
potentialities have been defeated. He picked up on the point that he had made in
1966 about counterscript [now spelt without the hyphen] being only activities that
appear to be departures from the script, and added attributions to his earlier script
checklist. He then wrote about how people are trained in lovelessness, mindlessness,
joylessness or powerlessness.
The book also includes two chapters by Hogie Wycoff (1971a, 1971b) on sex-role
scripting before including his own chapter on the banal scripts of men. Also included
in the book are several chapters about providing therapy and it concludes with a
section about cooperation, autonomy and sex-role liberation.
It is interesting to note that, two years after Berne's (1972) diagrams appeared,
Steiner still presents script matrices that are similar to the diagrams he presented in
1966 (Steiner, 1966a), still referring to Father, Mother and Offspring, and now
showing a single unlabelled arrow from Father’s Child to Offspring’s Child, as shown
in Figure 33.
Figure 33: The Script Matrix and The Script (Steiner, 1974, p.67).
Script - Erskine's Contributions

Richard Erskine (2019) wrote an acceptance speech on receiving the Eric Berne
Memorial Award in 2018 for his contributions to the psychotherapy of life scripts.
The award was based on three of his publications – Erskine, 2008, 2009 and 2010.
The nomination for the award (De Micheli, undated). describes how:
• in 2008 Erskine defined levels of unconscious processes and the behavioural
effects of such pre-symbolic and implicit memories;
• in 2009 he used NTA Bowlby's (1969, 1973, 1980) theory of attachment to
scripts and how disorganised attachment patterns need to be addressed by
practitioners to provide clients with a sense of safety, stability and
dependability in relationship;
• in 2010 he illustrates how the model in therapy needs to match the way in
which the script was formed, which may be in either Child or Parent or in the
interaction between them.
Before commenting more on Erskine's material, it is worth noting that many years
earlier he had received an Eric Berne Memorial Scientific Award, with Marilyn
Zalcman, in 1982 for their article about the racket system and racket analysis
(Erskine and Zalcman, 1979). The racket system was later renamed by Erskine and
Morsund (1988) as the script system. However, it continues to be referred to
generally as the racket system, and Erskine and Zalcman at a conference in 1976
(described by Arlie D’Angelo, 1976) referred to it in a way that made it link more to
interactions between people, by referring to 'reinforcing experiences’ rather than
the 'reinforcing memories' that they included in their later article. The racket system
will be described in more detail in the book in this series that is related to
Interactions & Relationships, but Figure 34 shows the script-related diagram
presented by O'Reilly-Knapp and Erskine (2003).
Erskine (2008) considers how advances in neurological research has led him to
conclude that unconscious experiences were not necessarily repressed into the
unconscious as Freud had proposed. He reminded us that Berne made several
references to unconscious processes but wrote of the psychological level rather than
unconsciousness per se. Erskine went on to describe several forms of unconscious
memory, including: preverbal which may be experienced as relational patterns but
not thought about; never verbalised, where the child lacked the concepts to describe
feelings or needs for which they lacked someone to provide; unacknowledged
because emotions or needs were never acknowledged within the family;
nonmemory [sic] when the child never had significant relational contact; avoided
verbalisation because there was no conversation at the time or because of shame
or guilt; prereflective patterns which consist of attachment styles, patterns of self-
regulation, lack of satisfaction of relational needs, script beliefs, and introjection of
significant others.
Figure 34: The Script System (O'Reilly-Knapp and Erskine, 2003, p.170)
Erskine provides examples to indicate the therapeutic approaches that might be

needed for the various forms of 'unconsciousness'. Erskine (2009) followed this with
a thorough review of material on attachment (NTA Bowlby 1969, 1973, 1980, 1988),
commenting that "each of the four insecure attachment patterns – ambivalent,
avoidant, disorganized, and isolated – results in an accumulation of emotional
experiences and the creation of script beliefs about self and others and the quality-
of-life that serve to shape ensuing perceptions and affect about relationships."
(p.214). He linked this to the protocol and palimpsest and suggested several ways in
which the primal protocol is expressed with others including the psychotherapist:
through behaviour, affect, physiology, stories and metaphors, fantasies, hopes and
dreams, interruptions to contact, and the emotional responses triggered in others.
In the final publication for which the EBMA was awarded, Erskine (2010) again
referred to Bowlby (and others) to point out that many authors had described some
aspect of life scripts as unconscious relational patterns. Erskine pointed out that he
believed that script cure needs an integration of affective, behavioural, cognitive
and physiological dimensions so that there is an internal reorganisation and a new
integration. He described injunctions and decisions as explicit memory and
cumulative misattunement as experiential conclusions and therefore implicit
memory. He went on to write about cumulative trauma and how this leads to 'body
scripts', with automatic psychological survival reactions, before reminding us that
integrative psychotherapy aims at the integration of affect, cognition and physiology
so that the unconscious becomes available to consciousness.
In his acceptance speech on receiving the EBMA, Erskine (2019) repeats his
conclusion that a life script is represented by the script system of repressed needs
and feelings, beliefs, repetitive behaviours, fantasies and physiological experiences,
and reinforcing experiences. He therefore puts back in the reinforcing experiences
that were there in 1976.
He goes on to remind us that different clients may need different approaches,
including a body-oriented approach, a developmentally-based and relationally-
focused therapy, an active redecision therapy, or therapy with the client's Parent.
He points out that clients may have scripts that were formed in more than one
circumstance, and at various developmental ages, so they may need a multifaceted
approach.
Reflection Questions: Protocol and Script
Keeping in mind that this chapter contains material that was presented many years
ago, reflect particularly on the ideas of protocol and script and consider:
• How much do you think we are genetically predisposed to feel think and behave
in certain ways versus we respond in ways that are reactions to our context and
the people who populate it?
• How do you deal with distinctions about areas of difference/diversity that we
are born with (e.g. skin colour), aspects that may come from what happens in
the womb (e.g. thalidomide), how we are treated by parent-figures and others
as we grow up, events including accidents that occur when we are choosing how
to spend our time (e.g. broken leg while skiing), and accidents that just happen
to us (e.g. we are just in a particular place when something unexpected
happens).
Chapter 5: Script Theory 1972-1987 97
Chapter 5: Script Theory 1972-1987

There was a special issue of the TAJ in 1972 that contained many articles about script.
This included an editorial by Dusay (1972) which described the "hand-painted script
matrix that Eric Berne had nailed to the back of the swinging door at his Collins Street
office." (p.57). Dusay went on to point out that Steiner's matrix had been published
in its most recent form in Dusay and Steiner (1971), and to explain that the journal
had been receiving articles about script with different viewpoints and it had
therefore been decided to publish a cross-section of these in this issue. This chapter
begins with these and continues until just before the next special issue of the TAJ in
1982.
Second Order Structure
Stuntz's (1972) article appeared first, containing his version of the second order
structure and showing how (Figure 35) he believed that the Child of the parents put
the whole program (good and bad messages) into the Parent of the child and at the
same time taught the Child of the child how to adapt to that program. Stuntz wrote
that when the child has grown up and something happens to trigger anger, her
influencing Parent tells her adapted Child what to do – hence her active Parent (with
nurturing and prejudiced messages) repeats what mother told her, her adapted
Child hides the anger of her expressive Child, as shown in Figure 36. Finally, in Figure
37, he summarises this into a second order structural diagram that shows a Parent,
Adult and Child within the Parent and within the Child. He summarises that the Child
in the Parent influences or activates the Parent in the Child, with the Adult in the
Parent and the Parent in the Parent having less influence.
Figure 35: Part of a Script Matrix (Stuntz, 1972, p.59)

Figure 36: Current Ego States (Stuntz, 1972, p.60)
Figure 37: Second order Structure of Parent (Stuntz, 1972, p.61)

Early Decision
Stuntz's article was followed by one by Robert Goulding (1972a), who in the same
year (Goulding 1972b) published material that will be covered in a later section
about injunctions. In the TAJ article, Goulding begins by describing an incident at an
airport when a small child of about 9-10 months old was repeatedly throwing away
his bottle so that his mother had to fetch it and scold him, which Goulding
interpreted as the child learning that only negative strokes are available from the
mother. Goulding then wrote that we do not use fairy tales to establish a script but
we use them to give us support for the decisions we have already made. He referred
to this as the Early Decision "made in response to both stress and the way to get
strokes in order to survive in this place at this time; that movement of the script is
due more to following a pattern of Games and strokes, not so much to pre-selected
stories and identification with the hero or heroine." (p.63). Goulding lists some
questions that could be asked of clients, such as about the myth of the birth, their
view of the future, and working backwards into the history. He also referred to using
a two-chair dialogue based on the earliest memory. Goulding appears to recognise
that small children are not told fairy stories until long after they have experienced
the stroking patterns made available to them.
Spunky, Sleepy, Spooky
English (1972) proposed alternative names for the second order structural elements
of the Child. She pointed out that the psycho-biological hungers identified by Berne
(1961) were recognition hunger, stimulus hunger and hunger for time structure.
Saying that recognition hunger could be identified through transactions and strokes,
and that time structuring could be examined through game and script analysis, she
felt that stimulus hunger still needed more attention. She suggested that this hunger
is expressed by curiosity, which continues in the Child throughout life. She suggested
that it is manifested by crawling and touching and later by becoming Columbus or
one of the Wright brothers. She went on to point out that some parents would see
displays of curiosity as playfulness or intelligence whereas others would regard it as
problematic or disobedient. She positioned it within the Adult in the Child and called
it Spunky, as a new name for the Little Professor. She then renamed the Parent in
the Child as Spooky, and the Child in the Child as Sleepy. She provided a diagram
(Figure 38), explaining that she was showing the Parent and the Adult with dotted
circles because they were not yet operational for a small child.
We can summarise how she described each part of the Child:
• Spunky writes the script and is the hero of fairy tales and myths;
• Sleepy is necessarily physiologically passive and must rely on parents until old
enough to survive alone;
Figure 38: A Child Under 5 (English, 1972, p.65)
• Spooky will usually be a collection of good and bad giants or fairies based on
how the messages from the parents are interpreted by the small child.
English then use these ideas to provide her own version of the script matrix, as
shown in Figure 39, pointing out that it differed from the diagram provided by Berne
(1966a) because of:
1. the importance of the survival message given by nurturing Parents;
2. the non-verbal conditions for survival that come from the Child of the parents,
and which English labels the episcript as in her 1969 article;
3. how the Adult and Parent of the parents are internalised in Spooky, usually in a
confused and primitive manner;
4. how the 'You should' messages from the Parent of the parents to the Parent of
the child are overt verbal instructions which become the counterscript.
Figure 39: English's Script Matrix (English, 1972, p.69)
Double Script Matrices

Matuschka (1972) uses diagrams of double script matrices so that partners in a
marriage can study the influence of their respective parents. The diagram shown as
Figure 40 is shown so that the husband and wife can imagine a 'fantasised marriage'
between the modelling parents, based on the idea that the person will have
modelled their own behaviour on the parent of the same sex. In the next stage,
Figure 41 is used so that the fantasy marriage is imagined between the injunction-
giving parents, who are assumed to be the parents of the opposite sex to the
individual.
The example shown illustrates how John received an injunction from his mother and
copied his father’s behaviour to respond. Hence, when Mary behaves like her own
mother, and her mother’s mother, John responds like his father, and his father’s
father. Matuschka points out that Mary’s injunctions from her father need still to be
explored, but the key message is that the client couple may now choose not to
follow the patterns of their own parents’ marriages.
Figure 40: Double Script Matrix – Behaviours (Matuschka, 1972, p.81)
Figure 41: Double Script Matrix – Injunctions (Matuschka, 1972, p.82)

What else in the 1972 Special Issue

The following have brief mentions only because the topics are included elsewhere
within this book.
Brian Allen (1972) provided a paper about male scripting in which he showed that
the Child in the parents gave messages about being strong and not losing control to
the Child in the child, with the Adult in the mother also passing on a message about
being rational and not trusting feelings. He gave an alternative explanation of it
being the contamination of the Adult by the Parent in the Child.
James and Barbara Allen (1972) provided an article about the role of permission,
including how they believe that permissions must be received within a hierarchical
series, beginning with permission to exist and ending with the eighth permission of
finding life meaningful. More information about this will be given in Chapter 8
Campos (1972), as mentioned in Chapter 3, suggested that we might use metaphors
to identify life script changes, emphasising the metaphorical significance of using
words like patient, illness, sick.
Jongeward (1972) suggested how 'Mrs Average' may have an Open Ended script
based on Sleeping Beauty, in which she sleeps instead of self-actualising herself. She
believes that she does not need an education because she is going to be married
and have children, marries someone who reinforces messages about a woman's
place and function, and then faces an existential vacuum once her children are 15-
16 years old. Jongeward cautions that having another baby will not provide a
solution, and neither will feeling resentful about sacrificing self for husband and
children. What will be needed will be a new lifestyle and some constructive goals,
and maybe attendance at similar programs to those run for men whose scripts end
at retirement.
1973 and onwards
Frumker (1973) wrote a one-page article that explored the meaning of the word
hamartia and compared it to peripeteia and anagnorisis, as three terms used by
Aristotle to describe tragedy. Pointing out that all seem to have been used
incorrectly, he explained that peripetia occurs when human effort produces the
opposite result to its intention; is followed by agnorisis which is the realisation of
the truth; and hamartia is then the Tragic Error or the mistake that comes from
walking in blindness. In terms of hamartic script, therefore, it refers to "a tragic error
that comes from the subconscious following a tragic script." (p.30).
Cheney (1973b), in a paper that he had presented at the ITAA Summer Conference
in San Francisco in 1972, began by referring to life scripts as a new construct in
psychology and psychiatry before pointing out that it is more than a collection of
injunctions games, rackets, sweatshirts, fairy tales and so on. He writes that he filled
a 20 foot long blackboard with a list of script components and realised that the script
was a "system built around a script decision motivated by a desperate need for ego-
defenses." (p.11). He provides examples of this: a woman of 41 still a virgin who
decided at the age 4 to never ask for love or affection; and a man at the age of 33
still a virgin who decided at the age of 5 to never risk being rejected again like he
had been by his mother. Cheney continues by describing how these decisions show
up as:
• a defensive function of games, where even those who seem to be attacking are
hiding pathological insecurities;
• the defensive function of sweatshirts, where he references Berne (1972) for
pointing out that we need to look at the back of the sweatshirt;
• stamp collecting and rackets generated to collect the stamps, which provide
support and ego-protection;
• defensive manoeuvres of ego states, with intrapsychic warfare between them,
or obvious defensiveness in terms of behaving in any of the three ego states
(Cheney includes Adult being defensive when someone else seems to be more
intelligent or better educated).
Cheney then quotes NTA Fenichel (1946) for believing that there is an unconscious
belief based on a defence established in childhood. Cheney comments that Adult
awareness can be very helpful but that the Adult may need time to "coax the
unconscious into risking another hurt by experiencing a transaction, confrontation
or dialogue of a kind which in the past had been painful" (p.15). There may well need
to be a number of such experiences before the client can give up the old defences
permanently.
Patterns of Mothering
White and White (1974) refer to patterns of mothering (NTA Brody and Axelrad,
1970) and how these translate into particular script messages. They refer to
symbiotic manipulation as the child begins to initiate patterns of behaviour; to the
intense energy that characterises how the baby experiences the discharge of the
mother's electrode; how negative injunctions predominate because they are
expressed with more energy. They continue with many non-TA references, including
several for Spitz (1945, 1946, 1950) [which indicates that the research studies they
rely on may not have been conducted in ways that would be acceptable nowadays
- Spitz regarded the time spent being breastfed as an insignificant extraneous
variable]. They also refer to autism as a "rejection of dependence on the outside
world .... marasmus ... as a choice by children" (p.13).
In spite of some outdated comments, White and White include a useful diagram of
layers of personality as shown in Figure 42. This contains [some have been added
because they are on the diagram but were not listed in the table provided by the
authors]:
Figure 42: Layers of Personality (White and White, 1974, p.14)
• rudimentary protocol – deep regression feelings;

• protocol – early memories, rubberbands and decisions;
• script proper – the fairy tale or TV programme, and the game played most
commonly;
• 2nd degree script – favourite story or TV programme post-puberty;
• now – how you are now, including strokes;
• immediate future – presumably what you expect to happen soon;
• death – what the mourners will be saying at your funeral, what is on your
tombstone;
• post-death – what have you arranged for your loved ones to be told (e.g. in your
will);
• post-post-death – 5 years after your death, what are loved ones thinking about
you, who is visiting your grave, what do your children tell your grandchildren
about you?
Cathexis
A different approach to scripting was proposed by Schiff and Schiff (1975) and by
Schiff (1975); I have given some information about this in the Chapter 2 because
they regard script as a frame of reference. (The first reference is to an article that
appeared in the TAJ with a footnote that said it appeared in expanded form in the
second reference.) The authors explained that the Cathexis Institute, and the
resulting TA approach, worked towards reorganisation of personality structure and
major rescripting. For that they use frame of reference and redefining as their
perspectives within which to incorporate ideas about passivity, developmental
theory, the structure and dynamics of different pathologies, and general TA
personality and communication theory.
They commented that "Some individuals, because of biological deficiencies,
limitations in environmental stimulation, or exposure to incorrect learning have
been unsuccessful in achieving socially functional thinking. " (p.22). Hence, for many
people their thinking disorders are script issues due to misinformation, often
accompanied by excessive or improper demands from others. The authors consider
that Adult begins to operate as an autonomous ego state between the ages of two
and three, which lines up with anal resolution.
They considered that infants learn that they exist during the first six months of life
and learn whether their activity produces the desired responses, thereby laying the
foundation for their script. Later, during the 'terrible twos', script issues include
decisions about how much the child will give, what they expect to get, and how
much they expect to have to think. This stage is separating the Adult in the Child
from the Adult (A1 from A2). A lot of scripting about doing things and skills come
during the period from 8 to 12 years old.
They regarded frame of reference as the ways in which the individual's ego states
"are connected structurally and integrated functionally into a whole which is
characteristic of the overall person" and provide a definition of "the structure of
associated (conditioned) responses (neural pathways) which integrates the various
ego states in response to specific stimuli." (p.49). This provides an overall perceptual,
conceptual, affective and action set within which the person answers questions such
as how do they know they exist and who are they. They diagrammed the three ego
state circles as shown in Figure 43, by adding a 'skin' around them that binds them
together but also acts as a filter on reality [although as I mentioned in Chapter 3,
they omitted the skin when they drew a diagram to represent to people interacting].
They went on to explain that redefining is the mechanism people used to maintain
their frame of reference in order to advance their scripts; hence they appear to be
using frame of reference in the way that other authors use script. Commenting that
"whenever people redefine, their behaviour is gamy or scripty; and, on the other
hand, when people are not redefining but are acting and reacting to stimuli as they
are in reality, they may be behaving autonomously." (p.55), they add that people
employ passive behaviours to engage in symbiotic relationships in order to advance
their scripts, and to limit options. They describe how autonomy is undercut by
'parental scripting' when the symbiotic relationships are maintained beyond the age
at which the child needs them. They also add that some people may drop out of the
game if the stakes are too high for the script.
Figure 43: Frame of Reference (Schiff, 1975, p.50)
They also described the Redefining Hexagon, for which they showed six roles, typical
games for each role, and how these align with the roles on Karpman's drama triangle.
This model will be described in the book in this series related to Interactions &
Relationships.
The Script Cycle
Muriel James (1977) referred to script analysis as the analysis of life traumas that
people act out without awareness, adding that the scripts might be constructive or
destructive, or banal. She refers back to Berne (no clear reference given) for the
comment that people believe there is some kind of Santa Claus and fall into despair
about his nonappearance. She goes on to illustrate script theory by relating it to the
scripts that therapists have, adding that it is very much like a dramatic stage
production and providing Figure 44 to illustrate how the Script Cycle process begins
even before birth.
James goes on to comment about subcultural impacts, listing geography, language,
religion, age, sex, race, ethnic grouping, political parties, religious, socio-economic
and racial groups as well as families being their own small subconscious. She adds
that even professional associations may influence as much as parents do, adding
that many psychotherapists are impacted upon by Freud although she does not
explain how other would have an impact because she also writes that the scripts of
form by the time we are six years old. She illustrates this process as shown in Figure
45.
She suggests several ways of analysing scripts in addition to mentioning the
extensive questionnaire provided by Berne (1972), such as having people draw
simple diagrams at various periods of life as if they are on a stage with other
characters, followed by considering how the characters are interacting, who is the
Figure 44: The Script Cycle (James, 1977, p.75)
Figure 45: The Script Process (James, 1977, p.77)Redecision
star, and what kind of show it is – comedy, tragedy, melodrama, adventure,

pilgrimage, farce, or something else.
In Goulding and Goulding (1978), Mary Goulding comments that they have come to
understand that the script, games and rackets are all to support an injunction the
child has been given and the decision the child made as a result with that injunction.
The authors explain that injunctions given to people when they were children were
the real force behind the scripts. They are of course well known for their
identification of injunctions, which will be covered in detail in Chapter 8. In
summary, they describe the First Act of the Life Drama as "the person gets an
injunction from his parent, which is reinforced by strokes (positive or negative,
conditional or unconditional); he makes a decision around that injunction; and
develops a script to support the injunction." (p.28). They go on to explain how they
tend to work with other therapists rather than more psychotic patients, but even
those with many years of psychoanalysis or Gestalt or TA therapy still have
injunctions and a script.
They go on to describe how a client in a Cinderella script had an injunction to drop
dead but a counterinjunction about working hard and magically being rewarded.
They point out that fairy tales have phony endings so the client needs to realise that
the therapist is not going to provide any magic. Instead, the client needs to work
through an impasse – to redecide and to feel the redecision. The client will need to
give up the script payoff.
The authors describe how they help clients by drawing the script matrix on the
blackboard and helping the client to fill in the details, as in the example shown in
Figure 46, so the client realises what needs to be redecided.
Figure 46: A Script Matrix (Goulding and Goulding, 1978, p.118)

They also describe how they use gestalt two-chair work, and how they allow group
dynamics to proceed so they can use it, when appropriate, to illustrate game playing.
They also describe how they believe that the child made the early decision, so it is
the Child in the client which needs to make the redecision. They will accept the
redecision from Adult for a while but a cognitive redecision will not be enough.
Script Imagoes
Tony White (1984) suggested that we might use the imago diagram to represent
script, as shown in Figure 47. He described that self was placed in the middle and
then the parents were placed higher as transference figures, that siblings were also
transference but were alongside the self as peers, and he described those below as
less powerful figures and labelled those as counter-transference slots. White
appears to be using the term counter-transference to mean someone who is on the
receiving end of transference, as elsewhere he writes that the self is in counter-
transference with the parent figures.
He also comments that individuals may appear at different places within the script
imago at different times. A parent figure may seem the more likely sibling; a boss
may sometimes seem more like a colleague or may even be in the lower position
because the individual regards the boss as incompetent.
Figure 47: Script Imago (White, 1984, p.88)
Clutter as a Script Signal

Novey and Novey (1987) identified the level of 'clutter' in a person's life as a script
signal. Classifying clutter as about "things, relationships, feelings, internal dialogues,
and behaviors" (p.146), they commented that it may be positive or negative. They
went on to link it to entropy, which they regarded as "a measure of disorder and
inefficient utilization of energy" (p.147). They quoted the Encyclopedia Americana
(1985) for the working hypotheses that there is an unchangeable amount of energy
in the universe that gets transformed into various forms, and that the universe
continually evolves towards disorder – i.e. entropy applies.
They used the example of the energy needed to keep a house in order, extending
this to relationships and personal lives, before writing of how efficiently energy is
employed or wasted. They provide some examples of problematic clutter:
• collecting things may interfere with our dwelling spaces;
• collecting people/relationships may avoid closeness;
• collecting feelings and internal dialogues may contribute to games and rackets,
and internal clutter may interfere with the-and-now;
• collecting behaviours refers to compulsions that reinforce injunctions.
They conclude that reduction of clutter by clients can be a significant change
intervention.
Reflection Questions: Script
Keeping in mind that this chapter contains material that was presented many years
ago, reflect particularly on the ideas of how ego states models are amended and
extended into second-order to explain scripting.
Chapter 6: Script Theory from 1988

In 1988 a special issue of the TAJ was published on the topic of scripts. The following
summarises some of what was written, and continues with what appeared
afterwards that I have not already mentioned in earlier chapters.
Four Conceptualisations of the Concept of Script
Allen and Allen (1988) began their Abstract with the comment that “In the years
since Berne’s death so many connotations and relatively unexamined assumptions
have accrued to key transactional analysis concepts that their original meanings are
often obscured …. [and continued that] Clinicians and script theorists use the term
“script” with very different implications and connotations.” (p.283). They went on
to point out that that the term was being used in three or four different ways, raising
the question of whether script should be regarded as a hypothesis that could be
evaluated by scientific studies or should be better understood as a metaphor whose
efficacy can be determined in clinical practice. They also queried whether we
needed one universally accepted definition or was it better to maintain and use the
ambiguity and richness of the term with different meanings.
The four conceptualisations they proposed were:
1. Script as a basis for therapeutic interventions;
2. Script as a theory of development;
3. Script as a framework for organising one’s life;
4. Script as projection of the past and the future.
They pointed out that, whichever conceptualisation is used, the concept becomes
limiting when it is accompanied by one or more of the following incorrect
assumptions:
• Theories of development are also theories of change;
• Theories of change are also theories of development;
• Childhood experience as recounted by adult patients is the same as their actual
experience as children;
• The script is static;
• Major script decisions can be made only in childhood;
• Scripts are necessarily only rigid and dysfunctional.
Going back to the origins of the concept as a tool for organising substantial clinical
information that would allow some predictions to be made and some therapeutic
interventions to be developed, they pointed out that it is premature to make an
assumption that there is accuracy in this process. They referred to people who had
Chapter 6: Script Theory from 1988 113
changed their lives and attributed this to learning transactional analysis, yet such
people had often completely misunderstood what they had read. They liken this to
an example of Milton Erickson healing someone by implanting a conflict through
hypnosis and then helping the patient to uncover this conflict and deal with it, after
which the patient was cured. Allen and Allen speculated that in these cases, what
made the difference was the belief that the person was taking control of their lives
and it was irrelevant whether the script as they believed it to be was accurate or not.
They go on to consider what the concept of script contributes to developmental
theory, pointing out that because script theory is concise it does not address many
issues, including the discontinuities between childhood and adulthood. Referring to
the lack of statistical evidence to link delinquent children with antisocial adults, or
continuities in criminal records from childhood to adulthood, they identify four
issues:
• the role of vulnerability – how early experiences may predispose or protect us
from later emotional problems through influencing later susceptibilities to
stressors rather than through any direct effect;
• the role of sensitive periods of development – apart from the development of
core gender identity and social bonds in early childhood, empirical data does not
indicate that events have a greater effect at one stage of development rather than
another;
• the role of ‘sleeper’ effects – it seems clear that prior experiences of success or
failure influence how people respond to future events;
• the role of psychosocial context – in addition to a child’s temperament
determining how that child responds to particular situations, it may also change
the environment through an effect on other people.
They go on to emphasise that human beings actively interpret and evaluate their
environment and internalise experiences in ways which influence later behaviour;
this means that the outcomes are not always predictable. As a powerful example,
they quote a study by NTA Krell (1987) on how massive trauma in early life exerts its
effects across the lifespan. In this case, child survivors of the Holocaust were studied
almost 40 years after the event and it was found that the majority of them had not
succumbed to the dire predictions that would have been made for them by
knowledgeable professionals had they been studied earlier.
Allen and Allen also pointed out that using script as a developmental theory is
problematic because what the adult remembers are actually reconstructions of
what may or may not have happened in childhood. Also, what is reconstructed also
serves as maps and models for the world that the person then creates and what they
project onto the environment; having ‘decided’ how we will be, we then interact in
ways which will confirm our decisions. Hence, we cannot assume that the events in
childhood are actually causing what happens and how we behave in the future.
They wrote “We live in the present. This is our “lived time.” Our remembrances we
create in the present and project into the past. Our futures we imagine in the
present and project into the future. If our past and our futures are projections from
our present, then our script is also a projection.
The script has often been regarded as something immutable rather than something
that is created and recreated in the present. However, if we conceptualize it is
created in the present, then it is highly changeable over time. It is not fixed in
childhood. It is a way to make meaning of our existence. In order to preserve a
sense of continuity and sameness, the facts need to remain more or less the same;
however, their availability, interpretation, and synthesis can be changed markedly.”
(p.288).
Working with scripts is therefore really analogous to working with metaphors and
dreams.
They went on to comment that script may also be seen as addressing the sources of
anxiety identified by NTA Tillich (1952), writing that he proposed that “non-Being
manifests itself in Being in three major ways: (1) the threat of death or fate, (2) the
threat of meaninglessness and emptiness, and (3) the threat of self-condemnation
and guilt. These create three sources of anxiety: (1) ontic, in the sense of a threat to
our being itself; (2) cognitive, in the sphere of meaning; and (3) volitional, in the
sphere of choice and action. Depending on an individual's interpretation, script can
be seen as addressing any of these sources of anxiety. It can be interpreted as a
"fate" imposed upon us, or as a way to make meaning of our day-to-day lives, or
used to inform or justify our choices and to determine the most appropriate action
at any point in time.” (p.288).
Allen and Allen conclude their article with some comments on the loose hierarchy
of permissions that they had delineated in their Allen and Allen (1972) paper, and I
will include this material in Chapter 8.
Note: the material above appeared in Hay (2015a).
Reflection Questions: Script Conceptualisations
Apply Allen and Allen’s conceptualisations to review your own applications of the
concept with clients. Note that although they refer to therapeutic interventions, the
same conceptualisations may apply to coaching, counselling and similar professional
activities.
Consider how you use, or might use, each conceptualisation, and note the
advantages and potential pitfalls for each. Consider whether you wish to make any
changes.
• Script as a basis for therapeutic [or coaching or similar] interventions;
• Script as a theory of development;
• Script as a framework for organising one’s life;

• Script as projection of the past and the future.
Script or Existential Pattern Therapy
English (1988) also presented a critique of script theory within the special issue of
the TAJ from which the material above from Allen and Allen (1988) has been drawn.
Like them, she began her Abstract with a clear criticism, writing that “Script theory,
on careful examination, has become restrictive, simplistic, and inaccurate.” before
going on to comment also that she has “noted with concern how many TA therapists
are shackled to a procrustean bed of unproven beliefs that suggest that injunctions
determine narrow linear scripts which patients are expected to rid themselves of
through therapy. When held by therapists, such beliefs often generate self-fulfilling
prophecies for suggestible patients or lead to false “script cures” involving problems
that did not exist in the first place!” (p.294).
She goes on to comment that, while she agrees that psychological formation can be
better understood by considering healthy development, we do still need theory that
helps us understand distortions. Pointing out that the resilience of children, and
humans of all ages, must not be underestimated, she uses her theory of Existential
Pattern Therapy (EPT) (English, 1987) to describe how the three drives for survival,
creativity and rest “have their own dynamic power and participate in establishing
existential patterns which interweave with and affect our life course or script (in my
definition). They also affect us with bursts of energy or fatigue and/or urges to “do”
or “not to” that are totally unrelated to strokes in the past or the present.” (p.296)
(Italics in original). We feel OK when our drives interact with each other
harmoniously, and not OK when one drive pulls against another or one or two drives
compete for conscious awareness and energy. Hence, self-help and/or therapy
needs to be concerned with how the drives interact and how they inhibit each other.
She regards this as an alternative to using the concept of script.
When writing of the survival drive, she refers to survival conclusions which we learn
in order to acquire and maintain approval and new skills, and which become ‘second
nature’. Many of these are necessary and beneficial throughout life – she gives the
example of not gulping down hot liquid before testing it – and others have important
socialising value – not defecating on the living room floor. Some will have only
temporary value and may then not be reinforced and become latent. However,
once survival conclusions have been set, the survival drive continues to operate
them without discriminating between those that have life-saving or socialising value
and those that no longer apply. We collect thousands of survival conclusions at
different stages and most remain useful or even essential but others may be in the
form of phobias, obsessions, etc, for which therapy is appropriate. She emphasises
that our thousands of survival conclusions affect specific issues so they are therefore
unlike the more generalised concepts of injunctions or attributions.
Before going on to give a case example, English comments on what she regards as
the reasons for Berne’s narrow view of script. Admitting that these represent her
personal bias and referring to his brilliant discovery of TA, and to the fact that she is
sure he would have continued revising his thinking had he not died when he did, she
nevertheless challenges the concept of the electrode or the Little Professor as well
as his linear concept of script, which she believes was done in order to justify his
analysis of games. She points out that he used pejorative terms such as racket and
games, together with names of games that ridiculed the players, and suggest that
this was because of his own frustrations with patients who continued with
‘repetition compulsions’ in spite of confrontation. She also wonders how he arrived
at such a fixed notion of script when previously he had thought of scripts as more
fluid, children as full of curiosity about their relationship to the world, and had been
fascinated by the broad parallels between fairy tales and myths and his patients’ life
stories.
English emphasises instead that when children between the ages of four and seven
begin developing their life stories, they are not constricting but offer “a light draft,
a sketch designed to be carried along, refined, transformed, adapted, tailored,
stretched, reprocessed, recycled, and reconstructed in multiple ways. In fact, our
ability to conceptualise and generate scripts is one of the exciting manifestations of
being human and having a creative drive.” (p.297).
English does not dismiss scripts altogether but proposes that instead the emphasis
be on awareness, general insight, recognition, and improved harmony among drives.
“Many presenting problems are related to the overuse of the survival drive in
childhood and/or the present, with corresponding repression of the creative drive
and repression or misuse of the drive to rest. There are also often conflicting
survival conclusions related to different stages of development or dormant
conclusions that are revived by certain events and take on dysfunctional power.”
(p.299). She offers her own definition of script as “Script contains genetic elements
and patterns related to past experiences, fantasies, and beliefs that are woven
together into the fabric of a personal mythological story with many possible
variations. Such patterns can lead both to positive and negative outcomes according
to the manner in which they intermesh and evolve, so scripts have non-specific
endings. A script is valuable as an organising support structure originating in
childhood. It enables us to “play” with various options in fantasy before converting
them to actual life. Thus our scripts contribute to the articulation, actualisation, and
evolution of our innate potential.” (p.302). She goes on to propose that we use the
analogy of theatrical script but think of improvisation theatre rather than a pre-set
play.
In the example that English gives, she refers to George, a 45-year-old university
professor brought to her by his therapist whom he had been seeing for six months.
He had sought treatment because he suffered from constriction of the throat
whenever he was about to deliver a lecture, even though he had previously lectured
for 13 years with no problem. The therapist believed he had an injunction against
success but he had a history of being successful since childhood, including the
publication of a successful best-seller more recently. He was wondering whether he
needed to shift to research work where he would no longer need to make
presentations, but which would mean that he would fail to get tenure at the
university. When asked for a description about the onset of the symptom, he
remembered that he had first felt it when he had been invited as a guest speaker at
a banquet. He had been asked to speak whilst the waiters were still setting out
dessert and coffee, had felt the throat constriction and slightly faint, and had
steadied himself by reaching out for his wife’s hand - and had given a speech which
was well received. Suspecting a dormant survival conclusion, English had asked him
whether as a child he had been allowed to speak at the dinner table. He had grown
up in a very formal household in which no-one except the parents were allowed to
speak at the table, although he had once been encouraged to recite a poem he had
learned, and had later been beaten by his brothers to teach him that the rules should
apply to him as they did to them.
Taking his wife’s hand had also corresponded to another survival conclusion, as it
was associated with him having an overprotective mother. Continuing to have a
problem in his throat meant that he could parallel the situation in childhood of
needing protection even though he had wished at that time to manage on his own
and had indeed had to emancipate himself from his mother at adolescence.
English points out that she was lucky in George’s case because the buried survival
conclusion was fairly easy to uncover. She likens the process to Berne’s anecdote
about someone getting a splinter which generates other problems and leads to
complicated treatment because no one thinks to simply remove the splinter.
Reflection Questions: The Three Existential Drives
Use the following quotations to consider how English’s theory of drives might be
applied instead of script theory to analyse an issue brought to you by a client (or
that you have observed in yourself or a colleague if you have not yet undertaken
professional practice with any clients).
Consider both the impact of individual drives as well as the interactions and conflicts
that may be occurring between them.
Quotations taken from English (1987)
Survival Drive – “The function of this drive is to attend to the individual's self-
preservation. Each person is born with the innate wish to life and fear of death, but
without the capability to care for oneself or (when we become mobile) sufficient
innate instincts to prevent danger to oneself. Instead, as Berne showed, we have
the ability to experience strokes as messages for protection, and later we learn to
exchange strokes. We establish "survival conclusions" through their original
association to strokes exchanged in childhood, thereby compensating for our lack of

specific instincts.” (p.93).
Creative Drive – “The creative drive involves the preservation of the species. Freud
limited this drive to sexual interest, which is its obvious biological manifestation.
However, the human species would not have survived without other important
attributes of this drive, including curiosity, playfulness, excitability, adventurousness,
and risk-taking, all of which have furthered discovery, invention, and creativity.
These attributes contribute to our progress as a species, even though
adventurousness and risk-taking can lead not only to discovery and progress, but
also to disaster. Thus this drive, just as the other two, can lead to both positive and
negative outcomes.” (p.94)
Sleep/Rest Drive – “The most important attribute of this drive is the "letting go" that
allows a person to sleep peacefully and restore energy for the other two drives.
Although sleep can be associated with death, in the course of living the sleep drive
teaches one how to relax to offset stress. In fact, modern therapeutic practice
recognizes the value of various stress-reducing relaxation and yogic breathing
techniques which contribute to life and peacefulness rather than death.” (p.94)
Level Circles and Double-Headed Arrows
Cornell (1988) presented Figure 48 which showed the three sets of stacked circles
level with each other, [like Woollams, 1973] and used double-headed arrows for the
Adult and Child connections with an indication that the Parent connections arrow
would become double-headed by adolescence.
Figure 48: Mutual Vectors in Script Development (Cornell, 1988, p.277)

Cornell drew double-headed arrows between the Parent and Child ego states of the
parties without commenting on this in the text. Later, Cornell (2010) produced a
diagram similar to my autonomy matrix (Hay, 2012,-see Chapter 1), calling it an
Inverted Script Matrix, although Cornell indicated that his diagram was the result of
supervising practitioners in Romania where it seemed that children have become
"responsible for the emotional stability and cohesion in the family system" (p.6)
because of the impact on the parents of Ceausescu. [Coincidentally, I ran TA training
programmes in Romania from 2004 until 2006.] Another difference was that Cornell
omitted the aspiration arrow although he did mention this in the text, and later in
the same article he included a diagram for a 'hard-working winner' in which he went
back to Berne's (1972) diagram with the short aspiration arrow.
Genograms
Also in the special issue of the TAJ, Robert Massie, Susan Comey and Robert Just
(1988) highlighted the need to take into account multigenerational information
about families. They suggested a way to do this would be to combine script matrices
with the genograms used by family systems therapists. They described these two
options as providing overlapping yet distinct information, as “A genogram depicts
the social-psychological environment within which scripting communications and
decisions occur and encapsulates perceptions about others and self-in-relation-to-
others. On the other hand, the script matrix shows the personal processing of
socialisation influences. It records perceptions of the impact of others on oneself
and personal responses to these. The dynamic thrust of a genogram generates a
social-psychological relationship blueprint. A script matrix portrays the psychosocial
context of decision-making.” (p.326) (italics in original).
They provided examples, although the way that their examples required two pages
to contain the details may explain why their idea has not gained wider use (although
I did include one of their example diagrams in the Contextual Considerations book
in this series). I am enclosing the other diagram as Figure 49 here but reduced to fit
one page as the details in it are of less interest than the format, which is to show
several generations and indicate: general points (e.g. how people behaved, where
they met); to give ages or dates of death; to indicate male/female [presumably this
needs to be extended nowadays – and other forms of diversity could be added]; and
the authors also indicated miscarriages. [and presumably this could be extended to
abortions, medical and psychological illnesses, etc.]
Relational TA
Relational TA appears to concentrate on other concepts rather than script.
Hargaden and Sills (2002) include mentions of script only, apart from their material
on the comparative script system and this again is only a reference to the original
publication of this model . In a later publication, edited by Fowlie and Sills (2011),
script does not appear in the index.
Figure 49: Genogram/Script Matrix of a Woman Sexually Abused as a Teenager (Massey,

Comey and Just, 1988, p.330-331)
Note – in Chapter 7 as Figure 74, I have included a much simpler genogram provided
by Shustov and Tuchina (2019).
Script, Psychological Life Plans, and the Learning Cycle

Newton (2006) showed how the experiential learning model, generally credited to
NTA Kolb (1984) although acknowledged by Newton to be based also on the work
of others, can provide a model for “understanding both script formation in
childhood and the updating and changing of script throughout life from a
constructivist/cocreative perspective.” (p.186). Newton began by reviewing
previous TA literature on script, describing how the view of the concept has changed
from a negative, deterministic form of limitation that appears to be imposed by
parents into something that children and those around them cocreate, as a
necessary human process of making meaning, and which includes positive, useful
elements as well as some limitations. “In summary, we can say that everyone
creates, sometime around the age of 3-7 years, a meaning-making story about
himself or herself and his or her place in the world; this story, the psychological life
plan, will be flexible and will change as information is gathered and considered,
sometimes as the result of significant and unexpected events, sometimes by
refreshing earlier beliefs. Some people, though not everyone, include in the story
decisions that can seriously damage their health; even so, the story will also include
strategies and beliefs that promote survival and keep the little person safe.” (p.197).
Newton went on to provide her own summary of the current state of thinking about
script within the TA community, pointing out that chemical and neurological
research on the brain now support the notion that the child is an active agent in
script formation, which occurs through interaction and dialogue; script is each
child’s way of problem solving and constructing meaning out of the information
available; the context that applies is much wider than the immediate family; and
because metaphors are culturally determined, the range of options available within
the script will reflect the particular culture within which it has been created.
Newton then described how Kolb (1984) proposed a four-part cycle of experience,
reflection, conceptualisation, and experimentation, emphasising that learning
involves transactions between the person and the environment. She included
Figures 50 and 51 drawn from her work with Napper (Napper and Newton, 2000),
making the point that the end of each cycle becomes the start of another cycle so
that this might be thought of more accurately as a spiral.
As illustrated in Figure 52, Newton proposed that each section of the cycle can be
related to a stage in script formation:
• Early experiences of internal and external stimuli from the child to build up
patterns of expectation and response; these begin to group into ‘blueprints’ or
the generalised representations (RIGS) proposed by NTA Stern (1990). These little
individual ‘springs’ come together to make an ongoing spiral that forms the matrix
within which a coherent story can begin to develop.
Figure 50: An Experiential Learning Cycle (Napper and Newton, 2000, p. 1.6)
Figure 51: The Learning Spiral (Napper and Newton, 2000, p.1.6)
Figure 52: Script Formation as a Learning Cycle (Newton, 2006, p.191)

• With repetition and appropriate approval, these narratives become theories

about how the world works. In other words, children “proceed like scientists –
they observe what happens, think about it (reflect), come up with an idea, and
devise experiments to test it out. After a number of these mini learning cycles
have confirmed the hypothesis, it becomes a general theory that is a reference
point for dealing with new information. In transactional analysis language, this is
what we call script: a theory that we carry around with us to provide explanations
and blueprints that tell us how to behave, think, and feel.” (p.192).
• Having arrived at a theory, the child can now experiment and also make
predictions about what will happen. The child may revise their theories in light of
new evidence but they may also ignore or filter evidence that does not fit.
Newton concludes by emphasising that “what has been constructed can be both
deconstructed and reconstructed. We can change reality by re-describing it.”
(p.194). She illustrates this with Figure 53, credited as an adaptation of the diagram
developed by Napper (2005) to show script as a dynamic learning process.
Figure 53: Script as a Dynamic Learning Process (Newton, 2006, p.194)
I (Hay, 1997c, 2007) writing about reflective practice and supervision for coaches,
refers to the learning styles questionnaire produced by Honey and Mumford (1986)
with its four options of activist, reflector, theorist and pragmatist.
Originally based on the work of NTA Kolb (1984), NTA Honey and Mumford point
out that the ideal learning cycle is that we go around all four positions but that most
of us tend to develop preferences so that we do not make full use of the learning
opportunities. It is interesting to speculate whether those restricted preferences
are innate or whether they are influenced by the experiences we have as children
as we seek to move around the cycle described by Newton.
These preferences become readily apparent during training events, when the
activists learn best through activities and like to try things out, the reflectors like
time to review and assimilate available information so prefer to take the time to
discuss things or read up on them; the theorists are more focused on abstracting
the lessons as a basis for future action and they enjoy theories and frameworks; and
the pragmatists are those who are most interested in the application of the learning
so will prefer a trainer/teacher who gives them tips and techniques that are directly
relevant to their work. The preferences will also impact on the way individual
coaching or psychotherapy clients are likely to respond to the practitioner. Activists
will expect to be given 'homework' and will be the most likely to experiment with
new ways of behaving; reflectors will much prefer to sit with the practitioner and
reflect on what is happening, and will be the ones who are willing to keep a journal;
theorists will be those who are most interested in learning TA theories for
themselves and will then revise the ways they interpret the world; and pragmatists
will have a tendency to expect the practitioner to tell them what to do – and then
they will do it.
Reflection Questions: Script and the Learning Cycle
• Consider your preferences during training events – which are the learning styles
you prefer? (or you may wish to do this for one of your clients.)
• Having identified your preferences, consider whether you are likely to have had
similar preferences when you were a child and developing your script. If so, how
might that have influenced the stimuli that you paid attention to in your
environment? What impact might that filtering process have had on the script
that you devised?
• What changes might you now wish to make to create yourself a more positive
and empowering script than you have already? Pay particular attention to the
potential impact of incorporating the full set of four learning styles.
Script in 2020
Publishers Routledge began a new series entitled Innovations in Transactional
Analysis: Theory and Practice in 2020. The following summarises the mentions of
script (or lack of) in some of these books.
• Landaiche (2021) has an impressive 14.5 pages of references but 'script' does
not appear in the index.
• Mellacqua (2021) mentions script once only, when he writes that "Berne (1975
[1972], pp. 202-205) introduced the idea of the script-set dream and presented
dreams in terms of images of a fairy-tale world that are also rooted in early
childhood." (p.192). [The reference is given as the Corgi publication of What do
you say after you say hello? with the original work published 1972. In a reprinted
version in 1979 of the Corgi edition published in 1975, page 202 is blank and
there is no indication of any content about dreams in the following pages; the
only reference to 'dreams' in the index is to page 267 where Berne explains
briefly that dreaming is a normal mechanism and people who do not dream
eventually go into a state resembling psychosis.]
Chapter 7: More Script Diagrams

This chapter is included so I can put the focus on script diagrams. Several have
already been included in previous chapters, where I was providing a review of the
development of theory. I have already explained how diagrams are metaphors and
hence carry messages. I invite you to consider how the ‘nature’ of script changes as
the diagrams change.
I have already included in Chapter 5 the diagram that Ernest Matuschka (1972)
suggested. I mention it again here because this makes it clear that the common
attitude at the time was that ‘bad’ parents ‘put’ the script into the child. Matuschka
wrote that the point of using the upside-down script matrix was so that the client
could “… send each script message back to its originating parent in a straight, defiant,
oppositional way … Barbara sent the messages back to the parent(s) with a great
deal of emotion punctuated with profanity. …. The child was cramming some of the
script messages back down the throat of the originating parent.” (p.276). This
provides quite a contrast in belief about script in terms of the Autonomy Matrix I
have shown in Chapter 1.
Woollams’ Contributions and the Decision Scale
Woollams (1973) presented several diagrams, beginning with the typical structural
diagram at that time and followed by Figure 54 indicating how that applied to a
three-year-old. He continued in 1973 with three script matrices, of which the first
showed three sets of stacked circles level with each other (Mother, Son, Father),
albeit only showing arrows for counterscript. The second (Figure 55) showed all
arrows from the parents going to P1 in the little person, and the third (Figure 56)
demonstrated how the script messages are replayed internally by using a second
order structural diagram of ego states with appropriate arrows added from the
separate P, A and C of mother and father within P2 carrying the messages to P1
within C2 of the little person.
A few years later, Woollams (1979) commented that Steiner's (1966a) script matrix
accentuates the negative and does not indicate the severity of the decisions or of
the client's strengths. He therefore suggested that we might use a decision scale
using a score from 0 to 10 for various decisions – he illustrated them based on
existence, sensation, age acceptance, feelings, allowers-drivers, and culminating in
a composite decision scale followed by an existence decisions scale after treatment.
He provides examples to show how these might be worked through:
• for existence the client marks the positions of various family members e.g.
mother, father, sister, brother, plus a composite decision on a scale from OK to
Exist to Don't Exist.
Chapter 7: More Script Diagrams 127
Figure 54: Composite Decision Scale (Woollams, 1979, p.212).
Figure 55: Existence Decision Scale after Treatment (Woollams, 1979, p.212).
Figure 56: A Three-Year Old Diagram (Woollams, 1973, p.34).

• for sensations the client marks the positions of significant family members (in
the example given the brother and sister were omitted as irrelevant) on the
scale from OK to Have and Be aware of Sensation versus Don't Feel Sensations.
• for age acceptance this is related to whether it is OK to Be a Child or not, and
whether it is OK to Grow Up or not.
• for feelings, Woollams shows a series of scales relating to whether the client has
decided to feel pleasure, anger, fear, sadness, or emotions [presumably
emotions generally].
• For the allowers-drivers scale (referred in the text as injunctions, allowers) the
five drivers are indicated with a score for each, and are paired as follows:
Consider and Respect Yourself versus Please Me; Do it versus Try Hard; Be
Yourself versus Be perfect; Take Your Time versus Hurry Up; and Be Open and
Get Needs Met versus Be Strong.
Woollams goes on to say that the scales then provide information in terms of from
whom came the most significant negative messages, and from whom there were
positive messages that can be regarded as permissions. He shows an example of
such a Composite Decision Scale as shown in Figure 57, together with Figure 58 to
show an example of an Existence Decision Scale after treatment. He concludes with
a comment about choosing the scales of most interest to the client or the ones which
may clarify impasses.
Figure 57: Revised Script Matrix Diagram (Woollams, 1973, p.36)
(Note: this diagram was reproduced by Brown and Kahler (1978) with the arrows
shown entering the ego state of the little person.)
Figure 58: Second Order Structural Diagram of Same Man (Woollams, 1973, p.36)
Holloway's Contributions
Holloway (1977) made a significant change (Figure 59) by showing the arrows
stopping short, to emphasise the fact that the child makes an interpretation of the
interactions from the parents, and hence makes a decision, albeit without the
benefit of enough knowledge of the world. This prompted me (Hay, 1995a, 2012)
to extend this idea by using dotted line for the arrows, to depict that the child makes
decisions based on his or her perception of what is going on. The Autonomy Matrix
shown in Chapter 1 is a further extension of Holloway’s original idea, intended to
demonstrate how most parents genuinely want to support their children.
Functional and Structural Script Matrices
Kahler (1978) explained that injunctions, counterscripts and injunctors (his label for
the structural counterpart to functional script) are structural and functional
counterparts to our stoppers, drivers and allowers, and rackets and stamps. He
pointed out that Steiner's script matrix is a structural diagram; if it were functional
then we would need to do transactional diagnosis of words, tones, gestures,
postures and facial expressions. Kahler explains that the importance of
distinguishing between structural and functional is that we can never prove or
disprove that groups are held structurally; we can only see how they are created
functionally. He goes on to add that the functional analysis is now possible as a result
of his work with drivers, sentence patterns and the miniscript.
Figure 59: Script Matrix Diagram (Holloway, 1977, p.197)
He emphasises that script can be OK or not OK, pointing out that when you are in an
OK ego state, you cannot be reinforcing a not OK script. He points out some of the
confusions in the existing script matrices, such as mixing structural and functional,
writing of an electrode whilst saying that it is the child who creates their own script,
that correlations do not prove cause and effect, and that the diagrams need to show
the Adult must be contaminated. He provides his own diagrams of a structural script
matrix (Figure 60) and a functional script matrix (Figure 61). He then adds a
combination diagram (Figure 62). In each of these he uses the familiar roles of the
drama triangle – Persecutor, Rescuer for the parent figures, and Victim for the young
person.
Figure 60: Structural Script Matrix (Kahler, 1978, p.225)

Figure 61: Functional Script Matrix (Kahler, 1978, p.228)
Figure 62 Structural and Functional Matrix of Script Process and Content (Kahler, 1978, p.231)
The Comparative Script Matrix

Sills and Salters (1991) introduced a different way of looking at script to show how
they had synthesised the major theories in TA at the time. They began with a
systematic way of understanding how children learn, showing as in Figure 63 how
children have experiences, learn to interpret them, adapt to them and then
manipulate their world – although it says this in the text the diagram gives less detail.
They give an example whereby A is a child expressing their hunger and being fed, so
the child interprets that to mean that their needs will be met. The child therefore
develops patterns of thinking and feeling based on those beliefs and then continues
to use the same behaviour.
Sills and Salters then develop that diagram into something more complex, as shown
at Figure 64. They now use only a negative example and show how each section will
be analysed using concepts from the classical, cathexis and redecision schools. We
can see in the diagram:
• the original failure to meet the child's needs is seen as a re-enactment of the
protocol which becomes the palimpsest and results in the racket system; which
in the cathexis approach would be regarded as symbiosis; and in the redecision
school would be considered the original relationship experience.
• The meaning making is then seen as the creation of the script within the classical
school; regarded as about frame of reference for cathexis school; and triggering
thoughts of closing escape hatches in the redecision school.
• The internal process for maintaining the beliefs is allocated to the Influencing
Parent, miniscript and transference within the classical approach; thinking
disorders, grandiosity and discounting contributed as concepts by the cathexis
school; within the redecision school the focus is on impasses.
• The external manifestations were outward behaviour that follows and that can
be analysed in terms of transactions and games within the classical school; as
redefining and passive behaviours within the cathexis school; and as games
again for the redecision school.
Around the edges of the diagram it can be seen that the authors have identified a
sequence of script analysis, structural analysis, functional analysis, TA proper which
relates to transactions, and game analysis.
They conclude by suggesting that the diagram can be used within supervision and
training to bring together TA theories and emphasise the systemic nature of TA.
They go on to provide a blank version of the model, as shown as Figure 65, that can
be used to record details for specific clients. As noted underneath that figure, they
indicate their willingness for the diagram to be reproduced.
Figure 63: Systematic Approach to Learning (Sills and Salters, 1991, p.11)
Figure 64: The Comparative Script System (Sills and Salters, 1991, p.12)
Figure 65: The Assessment Form (Sills and Salters, 1991, p.13)
In their article the authors point out that the diagrams were designed by them and
drawn by Leo's Graphic Design – the diagrams may be copied for use and remain the
intellectual property of the authors.
Aspiration Arrow as Inner Core
Within a chapter about the psychology of the self, Petrūska Clarkson (1992c)
provided the diagram shown as Figure 66 to illustrate how she combined the
aspiration arrow and the ‘inner core’. She explained the inner core as healthy,
energetic and joyous, and likened the aspiration arrow to physis, which she
described as the natural aspiration for growth and development tool that was held
that was transcendent of ego states
Figure 66: Script Matrix with Aspiration Arrow and Inner Core (Clarkson, 1992c, p.98)
Vicious Cycles
We might compare the Sills and Salters comparative script matrix with Widdowson's
(2014) concept of vicious cycles. He comments that "Each aspect of transactional
analysis theory can complement other aspects, all of which can be considered to
hinge on the concept of life script. For example, an individual may use mechanisms
of discounting to reinforce and maintain his or her script. Similarly, people get into
games that also reinforce the script and lead to racket feelings. Individuals have a
series of complex and mutually supporting intrapsychic and interpersonal processes
that maintain and entrench their script." (p.5). Widdowson shows an example of the
vicious cycle based on depression as shown in Figure 66, although when he then
gives examples, he adds a fifth element into the cycle as shown in Figure 67. He
suggests that a process of systematic experiential disconfirmation is needed to bring
about lasting change, and compares that to the classical (Berne, 1964a) antithesis
intervention or spell breaker, and the cathexis use of confrontation, before pointing
out that both the redecision and the relational schools use systematic experiential
disconfirmation.
Figure 67: Depression-Social isolation Vicious Cycle (Widdowson, 2014, p.199)
Figure 68: Angry-depressed Vicious Cycle (Widdowson, 2014, p.9)
Cocreative Script Matrix

Returning to script matrices, Summers and Tudor (2000) referenced Cornell (1988)
[but not Woollams, 1973] when they produced their diagram of a cocreative script
matrix as shown as Figure 69. This has the three sets of stacked circles level with
each other, and with double arrows between each set of ego states. In the same
article, the authors also provided the diagram shown as Figure 70, which they
referred to as a script helix. They used as an example the polarities of a black child
brought up in a predominantly white culture, to which they added additional
polarities about a child brought up by gay, lesbian, or bisexual parents.
Figure 69: Cocreative Script Matrix (Summers and Tudor, 2000, p. 33)
Figure 70: Script Helix (Summers and Tudor, 2000, p. 34)
Commenting that one of the strengths of TA is the clarity in its diagrams, Napper
(2010) developed the Summers and Tudor diagram to show “ … how the ego states
of the individual are both significantly shaped by, and in turn may have some impact
upon, both individual others and family, religious, ethnic, organisational, and other
cultures that they interact with." (p.198). Reproduced here as Figure 71, Napper
commented on how it shows introjects of some significant others within Parent, and
the "somatic, the intuitive, and the fantasy/phantasy aspects" (p.199). She also
indicates that others impact upon what she refers to as the here-and-now Adult.
She uses linked series of three ovals to indicate the 'systems' of individual dynamics
combining with structures to form contextual cultures.
Figure 71: Ego States shaped by others including family, organisations and cultures. (Napper,
2010, p.198).
Script Matrix and Autonomy Matrix

As I have mentioned previously, I have produced a script matrix and autonomy
matrix that extends the idea by Holloway (1977) of not having the lines entering into
the child whose script is being diagrammed. In addition to stopping the lines short,
I have converted them into dashed lines as we typically use to indicate psychological
level transactions. This is meant to represent that what we may recall may never
have been said or done – what we have is our interpretation of what happened –
the meaning that we applied at the time. The script matrix is shown in Figure 72,
and is followed by a repeat of the autonomy matrix as Figure 73. I am repeating this
figure because I invite you to consider the visual impact of seeing a diagram where
the parents or caregivers appear to be supporting the child instead of pushing the
child down. Drawing the diagram in this way also means that the aspiration arrow is
clearly indicating that the child can go on to develop their potential beyond the
aspiration arrows of the parents or caregivers – a significant difference visually from
previous diagrams where the aspiration arrow never reached above the level of the
Parent ego states of the caregivers.
In the autonomy matrix, instead of the arrows representing counterscript,
programme and injunctions/attributions, they can be considered as:
Figure 72: Script Matrix (amended from Hay, 2012, p.18)
Figure 73: Autonomy Matrix (amended from Hay, 2012, p.19)
• working styles – the strengths associated with drivers when these are no longer
operating out of awareness;
• programme – in terms of the positive life skills that have been modelled by
parental figures – note also that this process continues throughout life as we learn
new skills in adulthood;
• permissions – what we were encouraged to believe about ourselves and how we
might develop to our potential – those things that reinforced the operation of the
aspiration arrow, which is of course based on our innate physis.
Charusmitha Rao (2020), who quoted NTA authors who had emphasised positive
scripts, included the diagram of my autonomy matrix (Hay, 2012), to introduce what
she referred to as the Positive Memories Discovery Tool. This was a list of questions
designed to invite individuals to explore the positives in their childhoods, and to use
these as a foundation on which to build their new life. I will not repeat the tool here
as there are 35 questions which cover: favourite memories, experiences of being
loved, how you were comforted when upset or scared, how you were shown interest,
who had positive influences on you, your positive memories in school, your
memories as a teenager, family conversations. Rao cautions us against using this
with clients who may not have any positive memories and at the same time
emphasises that being a loser in one dimension does not make someone a loser as
a whole. She concludes with a suggestion from another trainee that we consider
ourselves as half a frog and half a princess.
Genogram and Episcript
I have commented on the way in which Massey, Comey and Just (1988) suggested
we combine script matrices with genograms, and pointed out that their way of doing
this required a very large piece of paper. However, I also mentioned that Shustov
and Tuchina (2019) had produced a simpler version so I am including that as Figure
74. They explained that this was used to illustrate how an unfortunate injury to a
grandmother, followed by an unsuccessful operation (by a veterinarian!) had
resulted in disfigurement and a lifetime impacted by withdrawing from society and
hiding her face, had been passed on to a granddaughter who ended up having a
similar, unnecessary, operation – and was ostracised by her family when she realised
the scripting and refused to have further medical procedures.
Script Drama Analysis
Steve Karpman (2019) reminds us that the drama triangle was originally developed
to explain the script drama, and provides numerous other suggestions. Many of
these are based on his familiar Persecutor-Rescuer-Victim triangle; as the article is
published open access I will not summarise it here but quote his own description of
it as “… 15 new scripting drama triangles including the Palimpsest, Redecision,
Transference, Freudian, Existential, Miniscript, Biodynamic and Darwinian … A
family games analysis including the child’s Redecision Triangle, the Script Game,
Script Scene, Script Scene Imagoes and Dysfunctional Family Analysis …” (p.21) – and
several more.
I reproduce some of his diagrams as Figure 75, to illustrate how he captures the
different dynamics in the ways he connects the two triangles. He produces many of
these by nesting a smaller triangle to represent family drama inside the larger
triangle to represent script and games, using different symbols to link the corners of
the triangles.
Figure 74: Genogram With Episcript Transmission in Kara’s Family (Shustov and Tuchina,
2019, p.298)
Figure 75: A Selection of Script Drama Triangles (Karpman, 2019, p 21-23)
Script Heptagons
More recently, two publications have appeared that were prompted by authors
extending the racket system (Erskine and Zalcman, 1979) to have more corners, and
to have those seven corners connecting with each other.
Gianpaolo Benedetti, Enrico Benelli and Mariavittoria Zanchetta (2020) developed a
diagnostic tool for burnout and identified the ‘corners’ shown in Figure 76, and
described in Table 5.
Figure 76: The three-dimensional Heptagon (Benedetti at al, 2020, p.18)
Diagnostic areas Signs
Suicidal ideas, lack of concentration, lapses of memory, difficulty with

Cognitive
complicated assignments.
Being extremely active, impulsivity, elevated utilisation of illicit drugs and

increased consumption of caffeine, tobacco, alcohol, renunciation of
Behavioural
recreational activities, uncontrollable need to criticise, accuse or
disapprove.
Motivational Loss of enthusiasm, giving up, discouragement or apathy.
Desolation, mood swings, weepiness, emotional exhaustion, accumulation

Emotional
of stress or apprehension or concerns.
Chronic fatigue, nausea, headache, faintness, vertigo, muscle pain, sleep

Somatic
and gastrointestinal disorders.
Relational Cynical toward others, withdrawing from society.
Existential Deficiency in the personal-existential primordial motivation, alienation.
Table 5: The 7 dimensions in detail (Benedetti at al, 2020, p.18)

Tony White (2022) had been working on a similar diagram, as shown in Figure 77,
which was published two years later in the same journal. The labels for the corners
are self-explanatory; White comments that “As soon as one corner changes, effort
and attention is automatically required by all six other corners to change and of
course under normal conditions that will automatically be resisted. This highlights
the homeostatic basis of the life script. In childhood when the life script is forming
all seven corners, or aspects of human personality, reach an equilibrium, even if it is
a pathological equilibrium.” (p.54).
Figure 77: Life Script Heptagon (White, 2022, p.54)
Reflection Questions: Script Diagrams

This chapter has presented several different diagrams associated with script. Why
not use each in turn to map out your own script, and see how each one generates
insights for you, or fails to do so.
Chapter 9: Elements of Script 145
Chapter 8: Cultural and Transgenerational Scripting

Cultural Considerations
Within the book on Professional Identity within this series, I have described how
Denton Roberts (1975) suggested that we have a nested set of boundaries, ranging
from the personal through sexual [although at that time he suggested only that we
might be male or female], family, ethnic, provincial, social class, to cultural. I also
used his diagram in the book on Contextual Considerations and I am reproducing it
here (Figure 78) because it prompted me to produce my own diagram) and because
both are highly relevant when we consider cultural scripting (as well as when we are
thinking about the contexts of us and our clients and our own professional identity).
Roberts described how distortions within inner circles would lead to distortions in
the outer circles. It seemed likely to me that this could work in both directions – with
cultural norms impacting on the person throughout their childhood. It is also
possible to consider that ethnic origin, provincial and social class are all likely to be
cultural.
Figure 78: Primary Injunction in Ethnic Boundary (Roberts, 1975, p.30)
Roberts included a sexual boundary about male/female (in 1975) whereas current
thinking allows for many more options than this binary split that has so little
biological basis. For many, even the extended range of options for those who are
not cisgender (LGBT currently extended to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender,
questioning, queer, intersex or any other term that may be used to indicate a gender
identity that does not match the sex assigned at birth) will still result in a boundary
distortion although, like religion or ethnicity, this distortion may occur within the
family, village or wider social grouping.
In my own diagram (Figure 79), in terms of cultural and intergenerational scripting,
the following categories would seem to apply:
• intrapersonal – ego states - transgenerational script, hot potato;
• interpersonal - interactions, behaviour - what is copied, what is seen as
acceptable behaviour;
• family – will determine ethnicity - may determine class, religion;
• neighbourhood, street, village - may reinforce class, religion;
• region (within a country) – may also determine religion;
• country – may equate to race;
• area within continent, may incorporate or over-ride country (e.g. South Asia,
West & East Europe, Midwest USA);
• continent – although this may not be as significant as the area within the
continent;
• environment (e.g. city, rural, mountains, desert, etc).
Figure 79: Boundary Categorisations (Hay, 2018, p.54)

Another framework we might use to consider cultural scripting is SPECTRE (Hay

2000b) – social, political, economic, competitive, technological, regulatory and
environmental. This model was also described within the Contextual Considerations
book so the following are some brief descriptions of the various factors as they
might relate to the scripts of individuals:
• Social – educational patterns, family patterns, health of the population,
expectations about work, government benefits, age of retirement, etc; changes
such as extended families becoming single-parent families; discrimination; the
impact of migration (in or out), and so on;
• Political – politics within a family, a family impacted by politics in the
neighbourhood, individuals and families affected by national and international
politics; political unrest or impacts from politics in other countries;
• Economic – economic circumstances of individuals, families, organisations,
countries; effects of international monetary factors; impacts of natural or
human-made disasters;
• Competition – competition between individuals, groups, towns, organisations,
countries - trade barriers or even military action;
• Technological – impact of technology on the ways in which individuals live, work,
interact with others, etc; and impact of loss of technology e.g. internet down;
• Regulatory – legal requirements at local, national and international levels;
regulations in terms of how organisations operate; how family matters and
children are dealt with legally; what happens to those who fail to obey the law;
• Environmental – e.g. global warming, deforestation, tsunamis; endangered
species; crops and GM modifications, etc.
We might also think about some of the stereotypes that exist as major
differences between cultures:
• individual or group – generally in what is referred to as the 'West' people act
as if individual motivation is paramount whereas in the 'East' the group is
regarded as more important.
• rules or relationships – do you break the rules if your friend needs help?
• facts or feelings – are decisions made based on logic or taking into account
the importance of relationships?
• emotions - are they shown or hidden?
• control - are we meant to be controlling our environment or living in

harmony with it? This may also be applied to whether we expect to control
what happens or be subject to fate.
• status – do we earn status by what we achieve or are we expected to behave
in the way that fits the status already attributed to us?
• time – is time something to be controlled and scheduled or is it something
that flows by whilst we are doing things?
An interesting additional factor appeared as an earlier version of this book was being
written. An ahead-of-print article appeared by Campos (2021) about cultural
scripting of age identity. Campos was pointing out that we tend to use a culturally
scripted norm of chronological or calendar age (CA) whereas he thought that a more
individualised age (IA) linked to autonomy should sometimes be used. He linked this
to a social movement to deal with ageism. He comments on how Berne died at the
calendar age of 60 years, including Steiner's (1974) explanation that this might have
been due to lack of intimacy strokes. Campos also notes that Steiner vowed in 2005
to live until he was 100 but died at 82 years old in 2017. Campos went on to suggest
that we are culturally scripted to consider CA and may live longer if we work on IA,
which he links to autonomy and to US President Carter's (1988) [in one of his
numerous books] statement that our lifespan is impacted on by "… the degree of
control that we feel we have over our own destiny." (p.84). Although Campos
includes an impressive list of references, the article is mainly about adjusting
people's ages to reflect their degree of autonomy, and concludes with a
recommendation that international TA organisations should be advocating for the
rights of the aged.
Cultural Scripting
James and Jongeward (1971) appeared to be the first TA authors to write about
cultural scripting. They described it as the "accepted and expected dramatic
patterns that occur within a society. ... Determined by the spoken and unspoken
assumptions believed by the majority ... have themes, characters, expected roles,
stage directions, costumes, settings, scenes, and final curtains .… repeated
generation after generation." (p.77). The themes differ, such as suffering and
persecution historically for the Jews; building empires and making conquest
historically for the Romans; struggling for survival in early America – and how the
'pioneers' are now astronauts. For America they described how modern youths were
rejecting earlier script themes as irrelevant to the circumstances within which they
were born; the changing cultural scripts for men and women; and how in Israel both
sexes are expected to learn the techniques of fighting. They give several other
examples of cultures in different countries and describe economic exploitation and
wars as the method of destruction between cultures, and suicide, homicide,
overpopulation, and upsetting the ecological balance as a kind of destruction within

a culture.
They point out that cultural scripts have stage directions for the cast of characters,
including postures, gestures, actions and even the show of emotion. Those who fit
the expectations of the culture receive approval and those who do not are
considered as failures. Thus they refer to Galileo who thought for himself rather
than following the religious beliefs of the Italian church and was severely punished
for insisting that the Earth moves around the sun. They mention others who
challenged Puritan theology, balanced with Harriet Tubman and George Washington
Carver who achieved within a culture of racial discrimination, and Bruno Bettelheim
and Victor Frankl who made significant contributions having survived being
prisoners in Nazi concentration camps.
James and Jongeward go on to write about some cultural scripts, such as by
geographical location, ethnic background, religious beliefs, age groups, etc, and how
these often lead to conflict – and how people may be caught between cultures such
as a Mexican-American boy who is in trouble for speaking Spanish at school and for
speaking English at home. They extend this into family scripts that can be seen
running across generations, such as wealthy families that produce philanthropists,
politicians, professionals, dictators – or horse thieves. Those who do not follow the
family script expectation are regarded as scapegoats or 'black sheep'.
Finally they point out that cultural and family scripts may be changed through
outside influences, such as the availability of education, leaders who challenge the
status quo (e.g. Black is beautiful), or because families are now separated by physical,
emotional or intellectual distance so they spend less time together.
They also describe the counterscript, which they describe as a message that a child
receives in later life that 'counters' the witch messages of the script. The
counterscript appears more constructive and is transferred from Parent to Parent
but they reference Steiner (1971) for the comment that the witch injunction is far
more powerful than the counterscript, so the counterscript may fail. [It was not until
later that it became more generally accepted that the counterscript is in fact
reinforcing the theme of the script – see Steiner (1966a) and Kahler (1975a, 1975b).]
White and White (1974) presented the first of two articles on scripting and cultural
scripting. However, having explained that they would refer to the ways in which
culture affects personality, they included very little about this beyond suggesting
that as a child enters the preschool world and thereafter, the larger communities
will generally reinforce the behaviour adaptations that the child has already learned
within the family.
A year later. White and White (1975) provided an extensive article on cultural
scripting. They defined cultural scripting as "… that set of reinforcements or
limitations established by the Parent values embodied in the institutions of the
culture." (p.12). They wrote that the family is the first institution involved in cultural
scripting so that other institutions tend to be reinforcing something that is already
there. It does this because of a process of lack of confrontation for syntonic and
confrontation of dystonic script messages, plus the lack of alternative models and
withholding of information that might provide alternative choices. They point out
that this is not necessarily being done deliberately or consistently.
They continue to give similar information to what had appeared in James and
Jongeward (1971), with different examples such as 'Drink' being systolic in Irish,
French and Italian cultures but dystonic in Jewish and Chinese cultures. They also
mention American experiences of slavery and Jewish experiences in Eastern Europe.
They provide Figure 80 to illustrate how such culturally accepted script messages
are preserved. They point out that America (in 1975) had a rapidly changing cultural
atmosphere such as changes to the status of women, second or third generation
immigrant groups being locked into blue-collar jobs, and how 'eating well' was
leading to heart attacks. They describe several Parent value shifts, including what
appears in advertisements and feature articles such as political shifts about other
countries; shifts in mores such as about abortions; children and committed
relationships; educational and work values; consumer attitudes; religious attitudes;
and so on.
Figure 80: Preservation of Culturally Accepted script Message (White and White, 1975, p.14)
They then remind us that culture "… is the vehicle that transmits the script messages
to the individuals who will ultimately be heads of families." (p.17). There is a
generational lag as historically originated script changes through mechanisms such
as songs, stories, literature, poetry and street cultures. Establishing changed
cultures requires that another generation is being produced so some variations have
left no successes – they mention childless sects, homosexuals, those who self-
destruct. They link this into the primary institution being the family, with the
secondary institution as the school and the tertiary institution as the factory. After
revolutions or intrusions the new order may take a few generations to be
established. Some attention to arts and religious rituals may work against majority
cultural scripting.
White and White conclude with some suggestions for how cultural scripting might
be changed within a therapeutic community, as shown in Figure 83: Transference
Psychodynamics (adapted from Moiso, 1985) (Noriega 2009 p.11). Within the text,
they say only that the main processes shown in the figure must be examined
although there is no hierarchy of importance or sequential preference.
Figure 81: Therapeutic and educational process in a therapeutic community. (White and
White, 1975, p.22).
Episcript/Hot Potato
Fanita English received an Eric Berne Memorial Award in 1997 for her material on
hot potato transmission and episcript. This award referenced English (1969), during
which she presented an explanation of how script issues are passed down through
the generations. She defined episcript as “a secret plot based on the magic
assumption that tragedy to the self can be avoided by passing it on to a sacrificial
object, a victim or scapegoat.” (p 77). She goes on to comment on the many tales in
the folklore of many countries that describe how a hero or heroine is cursed in early
childhood because of the setting or circumstances of birth, how the curse takes
many years to take effect, and how the hero or heroine avoids the fate when the
unhelpful ending is somehow passed on to someone else. She also comments that
this is seen by Catholics as the process whereby Jesus died to expiate the sins of
others.
In a summary, English also wrote that “The Episcript is a condensed version of a
person’s script, including the tragic ending, which the individual tries to “pass on” to
someone else, as he would pass on a potato too hot to handle. The recipient is
someone the individual can influence through Child-Child transmission such as his
offspring, spouse, patient, student, or co-member of a leaderless group.” (p.82). She
provides examples, such as a father who stopped drinking to excess whilst his son
was addicted to drugs but began drinking again when the son was cured of addiction;
the therapist who as supervisor recognised that he was identifying candidates who
might be committed to mental institutions and hence passing on the mother’s
message to the therapist when young that he should become institutionalised; and
the mother who had 12 different therapists in eight years for her daughter before
the final therapist recognised the pattern that the daughter was only brought for
therapy when she was functioning well, and hence was not accepting from the
mother the hot potato of feeling suicidal.
In a later article (English, 1998) in which she acknowledged the EBMA, she explained
that 'hot potato' was named after a children's game in which a hot potato is passed
along and the loser is the one holding it when the music stops. She went on to
describe transmission as "a one-sided, repeated, specific transmission of harmful
symptoms and goals by a donor to a vulnerable recipient on the unconscious magic
assumption that the donor will thereby be relieved of unwanted symptoms,
obsessions, or compulsions to enact harmful behaviour. The process whereby such
transmissions occur parallels the healthy one that enables recipients to learn from
and identify with role models." (p.11). She then referred to the Nazi Holocaust and
killings in Bosnia and Rwanda as examples of collective scapegoating where citizens
were liberating themselves from murderous or suicidal intentions by passing on
their personal curses. She adds that unequal power is a factor – such as may be held
by parents, gangsters, drug suppliers – or may "exist between students or
suggestible people and highly dominant, admired teachers, religious figures, or
other mentors or supervisors. And, yes, they may exist between needy or dependent
patients and their therapists…" (p.12) (italics in original). [Recent events within the
worldwide TA community might mean that the italics could have been on the
students, teachers and supervisors.]
English goes on to describe an episode as a collection or combination of various hot
potatoes, writing that this requires close ongoing contact between donor and
recipient. However, this may also need updating now that the impact of epigenetics
is better known. (See NIH – National Human Genome Research Institute, 2021; CDC
– Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021). It seems likely that the hot
potato's transmission may be merely the behavioural indication of a recipient
accepting whatever their epigenetic inheritance comprises.
Note: English credits Berne for the term episcript instead of antiscript, writing that
“Berne explained that epi (which means "outside," as in epilogue or "outside the
text") is more appropriate because an episcript is a pathological addition to a life
program or a script just the way a cancerous growth is outside healthy organs.”
(p.14). .However, epi is also described as upon, on, over, near, at, before, or after ,
although Berne was correct when we consider how it is used in epidermis.
We can apply similar ideas to what happens in organisations and institutions.
Managers may pass on their hot potatoes to their employees and teachers may do
the same to students. Professionals may also do something similar, as when the
practitioner mysteriously finds clients who will have the same issues as the
practitioner. It may be worth remembering the story that is told about Gandhi and
the sugar – that having had a mother travel a very long way to bring her son to
Gandhi so that Gandhi could stop the boy eating so much sugar, Gandhi told the
mother to bring the boy back in three weeks’ time. Having made the lengthy journey
home and then back again, Gandhi’s intervention was simply to tell the boy to stop
eating sugar. When the mother protested about why it needed three weeks and two
extra long journeys for this, Gandhi simply commented that three weeks earlier he
had still been eating sugar himself.
Transgenerational Script
I have mentioned above that English's episcript concept may be representative of
epigenetics. Epigenetics also seems highly relevant when we are considering
transgenerational scripting. As this is a book about TA, I am not going to attempt to
describe epigenetics research in any detail here (although I may do so elsewhere in
this series). Meanwhile, for a range of up-to-date information see the websites given
in the Reference list for the National Human Genome Research Institute (2021) and
the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (2021).
In 2008 Gloria Noriega Gayol was awarded the Eric Berne Memorial Award for her
work on the mechanisms of transmission of transgenerational scripts. At that time,
two of her articles were referenced; a 2004 article in the TAJ and a 2002 article in
Spanish in Mental Health published by the Institute of Psychiatry Ramon de la

Fuente Muñiz in Mexico. (Noriega Gayol 2002, 2004)
The 2004 paper was an account of an epidemiological study based on TA and
conducted in Mexico City with a sample of 830 women. It looked at codependence
as a disorder in the area of interpersonal relationships and specifically in family
situations in which one or more members were addicted to alcohol and/or other
drugs. Noriega mentions how Berne (1972) wrote of scripts being transmitted from
grandparents and parents to their children and James (1984) had presented
additional comments on multigenerational family processes. Noriega explained that
her interest in the subject came about because she had observed clients who were
unconsciously re-enacting, in positive or negative ways, the life stories of one of
their grandparents. She selected the concept of codependency for the study
because it represented an example of women’s scripts being transmitted and was
also used to explain the multidimensional problems associated with life with an
alcoholic.
Quoting from her own 2002 paper, Noriega defined codependence for the purposes
of her study as “a relationship disorder, characterised by a strong dependency
towards a problematic partner, shown by an emotional dissatisfaction and personal
suffering, where the woman focuses her attention in taking care of her partner’s
and other people’s needs while discounting her own. It is associated with a denial
mechanism, and incomplete development of identity, emotional repression, and a
rescuer orientation towards others. (Noriega, 2002, p. 120).” (p.313).
She goes on to describe how the Codependence Instrument had been developed in
the first phase of the study to produce a screening test of 30 items, for which factor
analysis showed a high internal consistency. Further analysis during the second
phase of the study showed that the following factors were associated with
codependence: early affective losses, such as death of or abandonment by the
parent in childhood, neglect by parents, and/or chronic physical or mental illness of
a close relative; being a first-born daughter; a family history of abuse; a family
history of alcoholism in siblings, parents, and grandparents; a partner who abuses
alcohol; a family history of abuse and an abusive partner; and cultural gender scripts
subdivided as feminine – positive – and submissive – negative.
Noriega (2009) published the text of her acceptance speech when she was given the
Eric Berne Memorial Award in 2008. In that, she added that her interest began in
1991 whilst attending a university seminar on psychoanalysis and genealogy,
especially when she found that she was repeating the life story of her own
grandmothers. She presents an adaptation from Berne (1972) of a ‘family parade’
(Figure 82), commenting that “Script messages are transmitted by unconscious
communication between the ego states of family members from one generation to
the next. This process occurs from the P1 of mother or father to the P1 of the child.
In this way, the transmission of script messages may run through several
generations – going back to grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-

grandparents, and forwards to children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and
beyond.” (p.9).
Figure 82: A Family Parade (adapted from Berne, 1972 p. 284) (Noriega 2009 p. 9 )
Writing that these hidden messages can be decoded by the client with the help of
interpretations offered by the practitioner, she suggested four main mechanisms for
understanding: ulterior transactions; psychological games; transference
psychodynamics; and projective identification. She provides diagrams of ulterior
transactions, the drama triangle, and transference psychodynamics adapted from
Moiso (1985) (Figure 83: Transference Psychodynamics (adapted from Moiso, 1985)
(Noriega 2009 p.11)) and projective identification (Figure 84).
Figure 83: Transference Psychodynamics (adapted from Moiso, 1985) (Noriega 2009 p.11)
Figure 84: Projective Identification (Noriega 2009 p. 11)
In 2010, Noriega (2010) applied her ideas about transgenerational script to

organisations, and specifically to the ways in which Eric Berne’s script may be
affecting the development of transactional analysis organisations. Pointing out that
the life experiences of the authors of the various personality theories are projected
into their theories, she also wrote that organisations have life scripts which are
based on the founder’s personality. She proposed, therefore, that although it might
sound harsh, she thought that transactional analysis might be following the isolation,
arrogance and competition of Berne’s script. She referred to the work of Fanita
English (2007a) and of Bill Cornell (2007) about Berne’s reactions when he was
rejected by the psychoanalytic group. She goes on to describe how transactional
analysis was introduced originally into South America by Kertesz and Induni (1977)
and became noted for simplification, which she feels contributed to the isolation
from the international TA community of the associations that were then created in
Latin America – and hence repeated the pattern. She also points out that the split
may have begun with Freud, as there were many who were against Freudian
orthodox psychoanalysis.
Noriega proposes a definition of an organisational script as “an unconscious life plan,
based on a protocol, which is followed in an organisation and that influences the
social, intellectual and material attitudes that regulate the work of the membership
through the performance of their technical culture.” (p.199). She proposes that the
main elements of the script for transactional analysis are:
• Protocol – the painful rejection of Berne by the Psychoanalytic Institute of San
Francisco;
• Early decision – ‘I’ll show you… ‘, ‘I don’t need you’;
• Existential position - I’m OK, You’re not OK;
• Injunctions – Don’t Be Close, Don’t Belong;

• Counter injunctions/Driver – Try Hard;
• Psychological games – ‘My theory is better than yours‘, ‘Kick Me‘;
• Racket – Resentment;
• Payoff – Rejection.
She goes on to suggest that the mechanisms of transmission might be analysed
through:
• Ulterior transactions in which a transactional analyst explains to a potential
client that TA is a theory of personality and human relationships but sends the
ulterior level message of it being the best psychological theory.
• Psychological games in which the practitioner begins as a rebellious Victim by
reacting defensively about TA, and then becomes Persecutor by pointing out the
problems with other approaches.
• Transference psychodynamics which can occur in any relationships so that
reactions to authority figures may be based on past experiences of ancestors.
Noriega gives examples of how authors may discount feedback from reviewers,
project a persecutor into the publisher and withdraw their paper, and of how
TA exam candidates may decide to leave the TA community or to stay angry for
many years when they have been deferred in an exam.
• Projective identification, for which Noriega describes how practitioners may
unconsciously project Berne’s competitive feelings of resentment and rejection
on to their students, even though the circumstances are now quite different.
She proposes that physis (Berne 1968) may “… allow us to break the old
transactional analysis negative script through the emergence of individual
responsibility based on consciousness.” (p.203).
Note: the material in this chapter about episcript and transgenerational script
appeared previously, without the diagrams, in Hay (2015b).
Reflection Questions: Organisational Transgenerational Scripts
Use the factors suggested by Noriega, as listed below, to analyse what elements of
transgenerational scripting may be operating within an organisation. This might be
an organisation within which you are working or a counselling centre or similar, or
where you are attending as a student of the organisation/association that is
responsible for the qualifications that you are working towards.
You will of course have to speculate to undertake this review; if this organisation is
a client of yours, you may also wish to consider how you can obtain more reliable
information, especially if the transgenerational scripting is leading to problems for

the organisation.
1. Protocol – what happened in the early years of the organisation?
2. Early decision - what attitude appears to have been created during the early
years of the organisation?
3. Existential position - how do people within the organisation generally consider
their organisation compared to others?
4. Injunctions – what apparently is not allowed within the organisation?
5. Counter injunctions/Drivers – which driver/working style(s) appear to be
predominant?
6. Psychological games – which games are most commonly played?
7. Ulterior transactions – which ulterior transactions are in evidence, both during
games and generally?
8. Racket – what rackets can you observe people engaging in?
9. Payoff – what is likely to be the ending payoff if the organisation continues as it
is?
10. Transference dynamics – who does it seem that people are imagining they are
interacting with?
11. Projective identification – who does it seem that people are imagining they are
very similar to?
Transgenerational Script Questionnaire
More recently, Noriega (Noriega Gayol 2016) has described how she runs
transgenerational script workshops, including using a transgenerational script
questionnaire. She describes the objective of the workshop as to allow the
"participants to discover painful topics or traumatic situations in their families of
origin that are repeating themselves in current relationships. Having done so allows
them to then make necessary changes to improve their quality of life and contribute
to a healing of their family system." (p.127). In addition to describing the four
mechanisms of ulterior transactions, psychological games, transference
psychodynamics and projective identification, she also refers to the use of Berne's
(1966a) eight therapeutic operations to decontaminate the Adult; Hargaden and
Sills (2001) model for deconfusion of Child; two-chair work so that the original
introjected transaction becomes explicit to the client; the use of self-reparenting
techniques (James, 1981 - assume later version of 1971); the need to recognise and
accept whatever clients think and feel so that the clients can express themselves
safely; and the use of the seven components of redecision therapy (McNeel, 1977)
so that clients recognise their early survival decisions and discover other options.
Noriega includes a list of the topics that she teaches during the workshops and
concludes this chapter with a case study.
This is followed by an article by her (Noriega Gayol, 2019) in a special issue of the
TAJ on transgenerational script. In this she presents the Transactional Script
Questionnaire (TSQ), which she says can be used for treatment planning in individual
or group psychotherapy. She provides a case history, which she links again to the TA
concepts of ulterior transactions, psychological games, and to transference
psychodynamics and projective identification. Helpfully, she also provides the
content of the questionnaire itself, which is extracted below in Table 6.
2019 Special Issue of TAJ on Transgenerational Scripting
As well as the article described above by Noriega Gayol, there were several other
articles in this special issue.
Enid Welford, (2019) provided an article about using family constellations for
participants to use this method for 'making peace' with a history.
Dmitri Shustov and Olga Tuchina (2019) (whose example of the genogram I have
included in Chapter 6) provided an article that linked script to the neuroscience of
“prospection - the representation of possible futures.” (p.292). They contrasted
explicit autobiographical memories with implicit memories and images such as
somatic markers and representations of attachment patterns. They referred to the
process of scaffolding as the way in which people integrate new information,
explaining that this applies also to providing meaning to incomprehensible
phenomena e.g. warmth is kindness, coldness is antisocial. Scaffolding allows us to
imagine future scenes as if we are engaging in them, as if we have a memory of the
future. They illustrate this with a case study about therapy with a client whose
episcript had caused her to have dangerous and useless surgery, and whose family
withdrew their support of her when she realised this and discontinued the process
(although they say that at this point the client withdrew from therapy).
Also in this special issue, NTA Maurice Apprey (2019) was interviewed by William
Cornell and made the distinction between transgenerational transmission and
transgenerational haunting. Apprey spoke of a process of an implantation of an
unconscious mandate by an ancestral figure, which is suspended inside the psyche
for a period of incubation during which it wreaks havoc on its host, until it finds a
new host. Apprey provides examples about how children become the hosts of
violent grandparents [who were presumably themselves hosts of previous
generations], including an example of how the practitioner provides a reformulation
"by taking the negative transference of my patient, by being steady and focusing on
making meaning, I ensure her birth. She can now be psychically born." (p.346).
Table 6 Instructions :
Describe below, using nouns and adjectives, your perception of what you know or imagine
about the personality and the relationships of the following people. Do it by following the
numbers. (There is a note that questions 22-29 apply only if you have children)
1. My grandfather from my father's side was…

2. My grandmother from my father's side was…
3. Relationship between my grandparents from my father's side…
4. Relationship between my father and his father…
5. Relationship between my father and his mother…
6. Relationship between my father with his siblings…
7. My grandfather from my mother's side was…
8. My grandmother from my mother's side was…
9. Relationship between my grandparents from my mother's side was…
10. Relationship between my mother with her father…
11. Relationship between my mother and her mother…
12. Relationship between my mother with her siblings…
13. My father…
14. My mother…
15. Relationship between my parents or step-parents…
16. My relationship with my father or stepfather…
17. My relationship with my mother…
18. Relationship with my siblings or step-siblings…
19. My significant partners…
20. Relationship with myself…
21. My relationship with my significant partners…
22. My son/s…
23. My daughter/s…
24. Relationship between my children…
25. Relationship with my son/s…
26. Relationship with my daughter/s…
27. Relationship between my son/s and his partners…
28. Relationship between my daughter/s and her partners…
29. What my grandchildren are repeating…
30. What is being repeated in my family…

31. What I am repeating…
Table 6: The Transgenerational Script Questionnaire Questions (Noriega Gayol, 2019,

extracted from p.282-3)
NTA Teresa von Sommaruga Howard (2019) describes her work conducting a series
of workshops held in Germany over 13 years, during which descendants of those
who had suffered genocide, famines, wars and so on, were provided with space to
talk about their experiences. Germany was chosen as the location because it meant
that many descendants came back to a familiar culture, although few Germans
joined after the first workshop.
The author provides an overview of how the workshops will run but much of the
article is an account of her own history and that of her father as a Jewish refugee
who settled in New Zealand. Much of the focus of the article is on persecutors and
victims associated with Nazism; there is no apparent recognition of the trauma
experienced by others whose fathers came back traumatised from waging war
against those persecutors.
Von Sommaruga Howard's material echoes something written previously by France
Brècard (2014), who began her article by pointing out that it was the centennial of
the beginning of World War 1 and she was wondering about the transgenerational
consequences on the great-or great-great-grandchildren of the soldiers. She gave
some examples of clients whose behaviour patterns seem to be matching patterns
which had applied as a result of the war e.g. a client who disappeared for days at a
time had an ancestor whose body was never recovered; a client who feared going
crazy had a great-grandmother who had done so with grief when her husband had
died during that war. Brècard referenced NTA Boszormenyi-Nagy and Spark (1984),
Dumas (1985) and Yehuda, Daskalakis, Lehrner, Desarnaud, Bader, Makotkine, Flory,
Bierer, and Meaney (2014).
Gheorghe, Brunke, Deaconu, Gheorghe and Ionas (2019) provide an article about
professional transgenerational trauma within the TA community in Romania. They
refer to transgenerational trauma as something that involves a transfer in the space
between generations such that this movement has no meaningful narrative. They
go on to write that they consider their 'professional parents' to be the three
generations of Freud, Berne, and Jacqui Schiff. They then refer to the way in which
Schiff left the TA community, writing that it is still not clear to them what happened
[they do not appear to be aware that as is usual with ethics charges, confidentiality
is maintained and documents are sealed].
However, they then describe similarities in the process of TA being introduced into
Romania. Without naming anyone, they refer to a trainer who appeared to operate
in a dictatorial way, and then disappeared. They refer to how some interpreted the
reparenting method used by Schiff as promoting autonomy whilst others viewed it
as encouraging symbiosis, before claiming that "Since we experienced the same kind
of communication years later in our own training, we wonder if and how it is still
present in the TA community around the world today. In our understanding and
experience, double messages and ulterior transactions seem to be frequent in TA
teaching and are a means of script transmission" (p.273).
I am somewhat puzzled by this article. I know other TA trainers who have run TA
programs in Romania but it is not clear to whom they are referring. I was there
running Organisational TA and NLP programmes 2004-2006 and was aware over the
years that there were several TA psychotherapy trainers. I also recall that it was
impossible to obtain payment of the royalties that were owed to me after I signed a
contract with a publisher to publish one of my books in Romanian.
Fornaro (2019) provided a clinical case of applying the Transgenerational Script
Questionnaire (TSQ) developed by Noriega (2019) and some theoretical
considerations about the process of transmission of transgenerational trauma. She
commented particularly on NTA Kaès (1993) because he had integrated ideas from
psychoanalysis, sociology, anthropology and other disciplines. She described these
as the following concepts:
• intrapsychic transmission – as the introjection of dyadic attachment
relationships. Fornaro explains this by quoting Noriega Gayol (2016) as
introjected Parent-Child transactions.
• intersubjective transmission – how communication within the family group leads
to how the individual behaves in terms of self-regulating their interpersonal
boundaries within the family e.g. avoidance, flight, dominance. In TA terms,
Fornaro suggests that these are through the processes of the episcript (English,
1969 and 1998) and the script system (Erskine and Moursund, 1998 - not in her
reference list and assume she means 1988). She also mentions Noriega Gayol's
reference to ethical concepts of justice and fairness in the family system and
NTA Boszormenyi-Nagy and Spark (1973 reference given but book not published
until 1984).
• transpsychic transmission – what is passed on 'through 'people non-consciously,
such as family myths. Created mainly through shared non-verbal experiences at
the archeopsychic, or Child, level, these result in 'meshing' (NTA Racamier 1980)
where it seems as if two or more members of the family are interlocked into
dependency relationships, interwoven with projective identifications.
Hargaden (2019) also provided some theoretical concepts, whilst describing a client
case study and how her own transgenerational trauma within a family had impacted
on that. She writes of her family constellation within Ireland that came from famines,
British colonisation, rigid nationalistic politics and child sex abuse by the Irish
Catholic Church. She describes three domains of transference, referencing Hargaden

and Sills (2002):
• introjective transference – the developmental needs of clients that have never
been met e.g. mirroring and validation of internal feeling states - so the client
needs validation;
• projective transference – splitting and projection when overwhelmed– needing
a reflective other;
• transformational transference – hidden trauma that is only apparent through
projective identification – needing the practitioner to accept and therefore be
able to examine so that practitioner and client can both change.
Male and Female Scripting
As mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, Roberts (1975) wrote of boundaries
that might also be used as an explanation about cultural scripting. In his material he
included a sexual boundary about male/female (in 1975), as do several of the
authors mentioned below. Current thinking allows for many more options than this
binary split that has so little biological basis. For many, even the extended range of
options for those who are not cisgender will still result in a cultural element of
scripting.
Muriel James (1973) presented an overview of the down-scripting of women for 115
generations, beginning with the myths of Pandora and Eve and pointing out that
they are very similar even though one is a Greek myth and the other Hebrew. She
goes on to describe down-scripting in Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian cultures,
followed by sections on the Middle Ages to modern times, and finally for American
women. She concluded that there was hope that women were beginning to re-write
their stay-down scripts, although almost 50 years later it appears that that is by no
means a worldwide achievement. Although James linked her article to script, she
included only a diagram showing a contamination and another ego state diagram
showing a much larger circle for the Adult.
In the same issue, Hamsher (1973) wrote of banal scripts for male sex roles. He
pointed out that banal script messages are early and overt, and are rooted in
membership of the group, such as men, women, by race or religion, etc. He gave
many examples of typical banal script messages for men although he also pointed
out that males in southern European countries were able to be more emotional and
demonstrative in front of others. He wrote of sexual difficulties for men in terms of
being strong and potent, although he then claimed that some instances of
homosexuality may be because of script messages from the mother. He also
commented on the messages about men needing to be successful financially,
sexually, politically, and in terms of their status, and that men are meant to be
protective of women which at that time was conflicting very much with the
Women's Liberation Movement.
Evarts (1974) extends Hamsher's (1973) ideas about banal scripts and male roles by
proposing five options: Hustler, Gunslinger, Homely Sage, Prince Valiant and Peter
Pan. For each, she provides a list of heroes, roles and switches (on the drama
triangle), the parental precepts, pattern and injunction, the decision made by the
individual, the life position, the antithesis and the permissions needed, the main and
related games played, and what is written on the front and back of the sweatshirt.
Scripts transmitted as Fairy Tales and Myths
A way in which scripts are passed on through generations and as reflections of
different cultures is in the telling of stories. I have already mentioned the power of
metaphors, and also how Berne and other authors made many references to fairy
tales and myths when they were explaining the concept of script. For instance, Berne
regularly mentioned Greek myths and fairy tales; he often mentioned the Brothers
Grimm, used Cinderella and Santa Claus as examples, and wrote of frogs and
princes/princesses. He related the Greek myths to the process scripts and in his
diagrams he sometimes referred to Fairy Godmother, Witch Mother, Jolly Giant or
Ugly Troll. Goulding and Goulding (1978) pointed out that fairy stories have 'phoney
endings', with clients expecting their practitioners to magically create happy endings.
Berne also referred to NTA Joseph Campbell (1949/1968), who included a preface in
which he says "It is the purpose of the present book to uncover some of the truths
disguised for us under the figures of religion and mythology by bringing together a
multitude of not-too-difficult examples and letting the ancient meaning become
apparent of itself. … But first we must learn the grammar of the symbols, and as a
key to this mystery I know of no better modern tool then psychoanalysis." (p.vii).
Campbell draws on an extremely wide range of sources – for instance, in his list of
plates we can see mentioned items from:
Africa, West; Alaska; Argentina; Assyria; Cambodia; China; Egypt; Flanders; France &
French Pyrenees; Honduras; India, North and South; Iraq (Ur, Mesopotamia); Italy
(Ancient Rome); Mexico; Polynesia; Rhodesia; Sudan; Tibet.
Within the text, we see mentions of Buddhism, Christianity, the Upanishads, Dante's
Virgil, Euripides, Aristotle, Bhagavad Gita, Jewish legends, Pawnees, Wotan, the Holy
Grail, the Arapaho, the Navajo, Jinn, and others, as well as Freud and Jung – and the
Index is full of a wide variety of familiar sources.
A useful summary of Campbell's premise is that "Mythology, in other words, is
psychology misread as biography; history, and cosmology. The modern
psychologists can translate it back to its proper denotations and thus rescue for the
contemporary world a rich and eloquent document of the profoundest depth of
human character." (p.256). It is also interesting to see that NTA Benjamin Rogers has
been leading research into Campbell’s ideas (Rogers, Chicas, Kelly, Kubin, Christian,
Kachanoff, Berger, Puryear, McAdams and Gray, 2023) and has demonstrated that
perceiving your life as a ‘Hero’s Journey’ does lead to psychological benefits. Rogers
et al note that previous research suggests that we construct a narrative identity by
the time we are in our early twenties [perhaps that research did not talk to anyone
younger?].
Fairy Tales in TA
Berne's suggestions about scripts being based on fairy tales was extended
considerably by Karpman (1968), who presented a role diagram, the drama triangle
and a location diagram and related these to well-known fairy tales as a way of
analysing the drama of scripts. He referred to 'script velocity' as being the number
of switches in roles during a set time period, and the 'script range' as the contrast
between the roles or positions. The roles he referred to are the Persecutor, Rescuer
and Victim of the drama triangle, emphasising that there is no drama unless there
are switches between those roles. Before that in the article, he showed a role
diagram (Figure 85) as a means of identifying the roles involved in the person’s
'favourite fairy tale'. He explained that all roles were interchangeable, so that an
individual may play each of them at different times, and will likely expect others
including the practitioner to also play some of the roles. He likened this to the idea
that in dream analysis it is assumed that every person in the dream is the dreamer.
Figure 85: Role Diagram (Karpman, 1968, p.39)
Karpman illustrated how a person may behave like Little Red Riding Hood (LRRH)
but also sometimes like the grandmother, or walk like the woodsman. He pointed
out that only three roles are necessary so that the heroine begins as Rescuer by
taking food and company to grandmother, remains Rescuer by being friendly to the
Wolf but then there is a surprise switch as the Wolf Persecutes her and she becomes
Victim, only for the Wolf to be persecuted by the woodsman, so that the woodsman
becomes Rescuer also of LRRH and the grandmother. He points out that in one
version, LRRH joins the woodsman as a Persecutor by sewing stones into the Wolf's
belly.
In terms of the drama triangle (Figure 86), Karpman explains that in the full script
there are many more events and many more switches, with one person playing two
or three roles at once, whereas through a game there is only one major switch. (Note:
Chapter 6 contains some more diagrams by Karpman (2019) where he has extended
the original link to script.)
Figure 86: Drama Triangle (Karpman, 1968, p.40)
Finally, Karpman adds a location diagram (Figure 87) which he says can be used to
show switches in location and for which the locations may be based on reality or
based on the fairy tale.
Figure 87: Location Diagram (Karpman, 1968, p.41)
Thus Karpman mentions ponds, front yards, gambling casinos, hospitals, as well as
Magic kingdoms, the Milky Way, Wonderland and a whale's belly. He shows four
positions based on the dimensions for private versus public and open versus closed,
and repeats that in terms of how near or far the locations are. The drama of
switching locations can be based on imagining the individual making an actual trip
between them in one day. He also writes about 'script rooms', such as in the
example of a man who grew up in a single room with his mother so was friendly
within his office but aloof in the hallways as he presumably had been in his childhood.
O’Hearne (1974) suggests that having clients write fairy tales, using an animal, fish
or bird as the main character, can be a timesaver. She emphasised that the creative
writing needs to be done quickly so that the client accesses early basic decisions and
will be writing in the Child. In Adult they can then visualise the early decisions and
make a redecision. O’Hearne provides four examples: a woman who identified as a
male wolf was helped own her femaleness; a man who had been a lonely camel
realised that he could be close to others; a woman who imagined she was part of a
family of unicorns who died then entered a no-suicide contract and decided to live;
and a psychotherapist who often felt not-OK wrote the story in which he was the
best polar bear at fishing, and also found a female polar bear to share his life with.
In describing the stages of childhood, English (1977) refers to fairy tales like Aladdin's
Lamp, where there are magic objects which make things happen, as similar to the
way in which babies aged from 3-8 months are able to scream in different ways, and
develop symptoms such as vomiting or rashes, to make their wishes known to their
caretakers. English goes on to describe how the child of 4-7 years, which she labels
the Scripter, "selects a story for his [sic] script and … manipulates its images and
words to represent his meanings." (p.341). She also points out that, for example, the
story of Little Red Riding Hood can be used to represent many things, with many
sequences around the drama triangle, so that different children with the same script
character might have very different life stories. She proposes that myths and classic
stories are distillations of the various stories, and emphasises her agreement with
Berne that scripts may be positive instead of negative.
She goes on to suggest a four-story exercise (which she cautions us not to use unless
we are experienced practitioners) whereby the client writes no more than 15 lines
each about four stories: any story or song recalled from before they were seven
years old; anything they read that 'turned them on' from the 7-12 age; the same for
the 15-21 year old period; and finally something similar from the last 1-3 years. She
points out that there will be significant similarities between the first and fourth
stories, and that attention also to the second and third stories as well will provide
much evidence for working on the client’s script. She also points out that she has
learned through experience that the second story "usually represents parental
instructions and the counterscript. But that story (3) usually contains transformed
and highly dramatic elements of story (1). If story (4) contains tight correspondences
to story (2), and if the client is dissatisfied with his current life it is worth examining
story (3) quite carefully even if it sounds wild." (p.345).
Caracushansky, Giampeitro and Marechal (1987) begin their article on a Bernian
approach to using myths and fairy tales by commenting that Berne (1961) described
fairy tales as mild or non-winning scripts and myths as linked to tragic scripts, before
pointing out that other TA authors have expressed different views. For instance,
English (1977) believes that both fairy stories and myths can lead to positive or
negative results whereas Goulding and Goulding (1979) regard all fairy tales as
negative. They provide a helpful summary of TA authors who had previously [in 1987]
written about fairy stories: Steiner (1966b, 1974), Malone (1974), Evarts (1974),
Karpman (1968), Holloway (1973b), (1974b) and Hartman (1980). The remainder of
the article (80% of it) is a detailed description of a clinical case where they used the
fairy story of Beauty and the Beast to help a suicidal client with a significant
disfigurement and a childhood lacking attachment and involving persecution.
Le Guernic (2004) suggested an alternative model to the drama triangle, as shown
in Figure 88, in an article where she was emphasising that Karpman seemed to be
focusing only on pathological roles. She presented an overview of how fairy tales
have moved from an oral tradition into being written down relatively recently,
referring also to NTA Propp (1928/1970) who had identified seven specific rules and
31 different functions within fairy tales. These include the concept that there are
positions of weakness and domination, referred to as lower and higher positions.
Hence in her triangle the Persecutor becomes the Guide and the Rescuer becomes
the Helper and both of those are in higher positions, whilst the Victim who becomes
the Beneficiary is in a lower position.
She points out that fairy stories initiate children into the social roles they will need
to undertake as they become adults, whilst at the same time promoting cultural
values such as courage and team spirit. She describes them as a way of passing on
wisdom about the world, as well as often being told in an hypnotic fashion such as
before a child goes to bed or in a charged storytelling setting. She particularly
challenges Karpman's view of the Fairy Godmother as a Rescuer, pointing out that
she is helping Cinderella find her future husband instead of being kept as a servant
in her father's house – albeit that the Godmother appears to prevent Cinderella
becoming autonomous when she forbids her to stay later than midnight.
Figure 88: Positive Triangle of Social Roles (le Guernic, 2004, p.220)
It was interesting to see that le Guernic's article prompted an open letter to her from
Fanita English (2007b). English pointed out that Agnes had only seen English's
materials in French and there are materials in English that make it clear that the
article that appeared in French in 1992 was written in English in 1973 – and more
importantly, English's ideas had changed and are better reflected in her 1988 article.
Having worked with as many as 2000 workshop participants, English wrote that she
now insists that scripts are an integral part of personality and the term should not
be used as a synonym for pathological patterns. She rejects Cornell's (1988)
suggestion of using a different term for the healthy life plan and points out that
Berne himself indicated that scripts can be positive and bring happiness. [English
refers here to a personal communication with Berne in 1969 but this comment was
included in his 1958 publication].
Vaidik (2021) provides an interesting article about how historians have tended to
react to psychoanalytical perspectives on fairy tales. She points out that there is
disagreement about whether fairy styles have happy endings, before going on to
reference NTA Gymnich, Puschmann-Nalenz, Sedlmayer and Vanderbke (2018) and
focusing on how often the orphan appears. She mentions "Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli
to Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan to Lee Falk's Christopher Walker (or The Phantom) ...
Charles Perrault to Grimms' Brothers, Charles Dickens, Hans Christian Anderson,
Mark Twain, J.K. Rowling ... from Cinderella, Peter Pan, Rapunzel, Snow White, The
Little Match Girl, Oliver Twist, Pip, Tom Sawyer, Jane Eyre, Emma, Spider-Man,
Superman, Batman and to Harry Potter, all are orphans." (p.37). Vaidik goes on to
comment that Mowgli's story has a happy ending before commenting on it in detail
and continuing with its relevance to her own script. She points out that Mowgli was
a real orphan whereas she was a metaphorical orphan – but does not make the link
to the role of attachment – failing to experience loving relationships with parent
figures might be what contributes to so many scripts for 'psychological' orphans.
Chinese Myths
I have described elsewhere how Berne used Greek myths as the basis for process
scripts. David Chan (1991) compared these with Chinese myths. Although he wrote
that the Chinese myths were easily identified by Chinese clients, when they were
presented to the group of TA students in China 30 years later, it seemed that they
are no longer so recognisable. Perhaps this is due to the author being based in Hong
Kong at the time of writing, and therefore presumably working only with clients who
were no longer in China.
Chan began by referencing Berne (1961, 1972) for recognising the importance of
story telling and the way in which Greek myths match the six script patterns that
Berne had identified. Chan also noted that Berne had commented that myths
represent tragic scripts whereas fairy tales are less negative. Chan provides several
references to challenge what he presents as Berne's negative view, although Berne

made it very clear that there were positive scripts.
Chan provides a table with a comparison of the script patterns and the Greek and
Chinese mythical figures. This is reproduced as Table 7 with the addition of the most
likely drivers.
Berne's Script
Greek Chinese Likely Drivers
Types
Never Tantalus Kua-fu Try Hard
Always Arachne Xing-tian Be Strong
Until Hercules/Jason Yu Be perfect
Cowherd and
After Damocles Please People
Weaving Maid
Over-and-Over Sisyphus Jing-wei Try Hard
Philemon and
Open Ended Chang-er n/a
Baucis
Table 7: Greek and Chinese Script Myths (amended from Chan, 1991, p.222)
The following are brief summaries of how Chan described the Chinese mythical
figures:
• Kua-fu - tried to achieve the impossible task of catching the sun and died of thirst
– although in more positive versions he benefited people when his flesh and
blood was used to nourish forests of peach trees or by him bringing sunlight to
the dark underworld.
• Xing-tian - rebelled and was killed by the Yellow Emperor and ended up trapped
inside a mountain eternally brandishing his axe and shield – in more positive
versions he was challenging tyrannical authority and continued to do so even
after becoming headless.
• Yu - was born after his father had died attempting to subdue a flood and
continued with this work for many years until he succeeded in the monumental
task and was awarded the throne. In this story the father has the tragic ending.
• Cowherd and Weaving Maid - the Cowherd was an orphan thrown out of home
with only a cow, which told him to go to the river. Weaving Maid, daughter of
the Emperor of Heaven, was swimming there and he took her clothes so she
married him instead of returning to heaven. The Emperor found out and took
her back, after which Cowherd, with help from the God Mother of the West,
avoided the tragic ending by getting consent from the Emperor to meet his wife,
although only once a year.
• Jing-wei - this story is of a small bird who was the soul of Nuwa, who had
drowned whilst young. The bird carries twigs and pebbles in an attempt to fill
up the sea with them. A more positive version includes that she was doing this
to stop other people drowning in the sea.
• Chang-er - was the wife of Yi and was banished with him from Heaven. Chang-
er then stole an elixir that Yi had obtained and floated to the moon, realising as
she did so that she could no longer go back to Heaven, or Earth, and must remain
lonely on the desolate moon. A more positive ending has her becoming the
goddess of the moon.
Identities
I began this chapter by mentioning that I had also been writing about scripts in the
book in this series called Practitioner Identity. This is of course how our own
professional cultural group might be impacting on us in terms of our choice of
profession and even our choice of TA as a specific approach. This will apply to any of
our clients who relate to any particular profession or occupation.
To summarise briefly what I wrote in that that other book, I described how
Allamandri, Baldacci and Procacci (2016) had provided some useful ideas based on
the material of Carlo Moiso (1998a, 1998b, 2007). They explained that Moiso had
begun to reflect on script identities and described how he wrote of levels of identity
and how Natural Child, as the potential identity, may follow a negative sequence if
the individual's needs are not met or frustrated within the environment. Moiso’s
sequence began with Dumbfounded Prince/Princess, or Fixated Archaic Child, that
contains the repressed need. This was followed by the Frog (Berne, 1972), or Private
Adapted Child, to give meaning by adopting beliefs about self, others and life in
general. Next came the Mask (Berne, 1972), or Social Adapted Child to behave in
ways that seem to be required by others; and finally the combination of the Frog
and Mask together create the Character, which provides a permanent identity with
which to deal with life.
Although I have is noted in Chapter 1 that Cornell, de Graaf, Newton and Thunnissen
(2016) wrote little about autonomy, they did refer to the concept of the group in
the individual, whereby individuals categorise themselves and influence their
identities through their membership of groups, such as by gender, nationality,
profession, etc. They also linked this to NTA Erickson's (1950) notion of ‘reciprocity’,
with mutual influencing occurring in the development of identity.
I also mention in the Practitioner Identity book how Gheorghe and Deaconu (2018)
referenced Campos (2015), [Norman] James (1994) and NTA Tajfel (1981) for use of
the term “social identity as a collection of group memberships that define the
individual” (p.252). They went on to write that they assume that “inside of us there
is a complex, flexible and coherent system of more or less integrated subsystems …
We create and develop these subsystems as part of our growth, regardless of being
in a relationship or not…” (p.152-153). They go on to refer to internal identity and
external identity.
A final note
In the book I produced entitled Contextual Considerations (Hay, 2022), I closed a
chapter with a reference to James Sedgwick (2021), who had produced a book
entitled Contextual Transactional Analysis as if this was a new approach to TA.
Sedgwick invites us to think about how script in impacted upon by the context,
which he refers to as horizontal problems due to circumstances, whereas our script
issues are seen by him as vertical. He does not appear to recognise that it may not
be possible for people to resolve limitations within their context, or to recognise
that Berne’s definition of autonomy failed completely to take into account cultures
and contexts. He seems unaware of any material from developmental TA authors
who write about educational and organisational applications of TA, nor of the theme
being addressed by several psychotherapy TA authors over the years – and whose
material I have reviewed and critiqued in the Contextual Considerations book.
Chapter 9: Elements of Script

When we look at diagrams of scripts, they usually show the ego states of the person
being scripted and the persons who are doing the scripting, or at least from whom
the child is picking up role modelling and whose behaviours provide the raw material
on which is based how the child to ‘makes meaning’ – for good or bad. The other
components usually indicated are the subjects for this chapter – the injunctions, or
what seems to be forbidden; the permissions, or what seems to be allowed; and the
counterscript, or what seems to be countering the injunctions but actually turns out
to be styles in which the injunctions are met.
Injunctions
In the early years of TA development, descriptions of script often described it as if it
was based on injunctions. Berne (1966a) even wrote that “A script is essentially a
series of parental injunctions …” (p.171) and a few years later (Berne, 1972)
described an injunction as a “prohibition or negative command from a parent”. He
accompanied this by diagramming injunctions as coming from Parent in the Child of
the parents to Parent in the Child of the child. Pat Crossman’s (1966) well-known
material about permissions (see section below) is based on the basis that they were
needed to cancel injunctions.
Various authors have presented research into injunctions, which will be reported on
in the Research book in the series. However, we need to keep in mind that these use
self-reporting, which may be subject to self-censorship, the questionnaires or other
measurement instruments vary, clinical observations may also not be done
consistently, and we need ways to classify sample groups in terms of psychological
health or pathologies.
Goulding and Goulding
Probably the most referenced material on injunctions is that of Goulding and
Goulding (1976, 1978), in which they presented a list of 14 injunctions: “Don’t be;
Don’t be you (the sex you are); Don’t be a child; Don’t grow; Don’t make it; Don’t;
Don’t be important; Don’t be close; Don’t belong; Don’t be well (or sane); Don’t
think (don’t think about X forbidden subject); Don’t think what you think, think what
I think; Don’t feel (don’t feel X (mad, sad, glad, etc.); Don’t feel what you feel, feel
what I feel.” They explained that this was an update, and not much changed, from
earlier lists they had started developing in 1966 when they had realised they kept
hearing the same few examples from clients. For instance, Goulding (1972b) had
listed 13, which excluded Don’t be You, separated Don’t be well and Don’t be Sane,
and included Don’t Enjoy.
Note that Goulding and Goulding (Goulding, 1972c; Goulding and Goulding, 1976)
received the EBMSA in 1975 for ‘redecision and 12 injunctions’.
They disagreed with Berne in the sense that they stressed that the injunctions were
not put there by the parents but had to be accepted by the child. Robert Goulding
(1972a) wrote of it coming from a parent, and of it being implanted by strokes, but
that the child must agree and obey it for it to have any power. Later, they both
(Goulding and Goulding, 1976) clarified that injunctions were “not placed into
people’s heads like electrodes” (p.42) but were linked to decisions made by the Little
Professor (A1) “even without an injunction from outside. The Child, in this case,
creates both the injunction and the decision.” (p.42).
They described the injunctions as decisions, pointing out that an injunction might be
created when there was no communication from the parents, such as the child
hurting themselves or failing at something. They also referred to Berne’s story about
the stack of coins to describe how one decision may skew later behaviour and future
behaviours. The child who has already decided they are a failure may later decide
they may as well commit suicide, or they may decide to cease making any attempts
at something so that they will not have to kill themselves.
A year after their 1978 book appeared, another was published (Goulding and
Goulding, 1979), in which they seem to have reduced their list to only 11: Don’t.
Don’t be. Don’t be close. Don’t be important. Don’t be a child. Don’t grow. Don’t
succeed. Don’t be you. Don’t be sane. Don’t be well. Don’t belong. At that time they
defined an injunction as “messages from the Child Ego State of Parents, given out of
the parents’ own pains, unhappiness, anxiety, disappointment, anger, frustration,
secret desires.” (p.34), which appears to indicate that they were after all working to
the same definition as Eric Berne.
Holtby
Another author who was producing material about injunctions during those early
years was Michael Holtby. Holtby (1973) pointed out that Berne (1972) had referred
to Laing, and suggested that three of Laing’s works were particularly significant (NTA
Laing 1961, 1971; NTA Laing and Esterson 1964) because Laing had used the term
injunction. Holtby explained that Laing had written of injunctions as coming from
attributions; telling a child what he or she is, is much more powerful than telling
what to not do. In this way, Holtby was in line with what Berne had suggested. Thus,
a Don’t Think injunction might be interpreted from being told we are stupid, or too
clever. In this article, Holtby showed an attribution from the Child of the parents to
Adapted Child in the child, being converted into an injunction in Parent in Child (of
the child). For this example, Holtby showed the Child ego state within the child as
consisting of a PC, presumably meaning Parent in Child that he called in his text
Adapted Child; an AC which was presumably Adult in Child and he used the term
Little Professor; and CC as Child in Child, which he named Electrode. Thus the
attribution of ‘you are worse than your father’ got turned into ‘I need to kill myself
(20 years later) like my father did’.
In this article, Holtby also explained that Laing had not meant that all injunctions
were the result of attributions; some qualities or characteristics might actually be
possessed by the individual. However he also explained how Laing saw this process
as akin to hypnosis. If you say it is cold, people often will feel cold. Holtby pointed
out that not recognising this process would be seen in TA terms as discounting. He
also pointed out that an individual is likely to be labelled as crazy if they do not
discount in the way that most people are.
In his next article (Holtby, 1974) he demonstrated how ‘crazy’ client behaviour could
also be the result of injunctions, by describing an example of how he had charted
the sequence of parental injunctions, precipitating events, through to outcome and
hence reaffirming parental attributions and predictions. Thus several injunctions
were triggered for the client by a mix of coinciding stressful events, leading to not
OK feelings, and hence through anger to depression to drinking to argument with
wife, into psychotic break and self-destructive behaviour that was similar to his
father’s behaviour and resulted in the client being hospitalised.
Reacting to the 1972 publication of Berne’s ‘Hello’ book, Holtby (1976) again
challenged the implication that the parents put the injunction into the child, and
proposed that we consider it instead as an internal transaction between the Parent,
Adult and Child in the Child of the Child. Using a similar but amended diagram (Figure
89) and the same example as in 1973, he diagrammed ‘Raw Parent Data’ transmitted
from Parent in the Child in each parent to Adult in Child in the child and then showed
‘Needs Data’ from Adult in Child to Child in Child, and ‘Interpretation of data into an
injunction’ from Adult in Child to Parent in Child.
Figure 89: Revised origin and insertion of script injunctions (Holtby, 1976, p.372)
Holtby went on to explain that A2/Adult was Aristotelian thought processes (A is

always A, never B) whereas A1/AC uses paleological thought processes (B may be A,
provided B has a quality of A). He gives as an example of paleological thinking: “The
Virgin Mary was a virgin; I am a virgin, therefore I am the Virgin Mary” (Arieti, 1974)
(p.375).
McNeel
More recently, much material has been produced on injunctions by John McNeel,
who (McNeel, 2010) summarised his six previous articles (McNeel 1999, 2000, 2002a,
2002b, and 2 unpublished manuscripts) and suggested injunctions be renamed as
injunctive messages, which he defined as “messages emanating from parental
figures, often outside their awareness, that are negative in content, often delivered
in a context of prohibition, and defeating to the natural life urges of existence,
attachment, identity, competence and security.” (p.159). Injunctive message was
chosen to imply an ongoing effect, unlike legal injunctions which McNeel pointed
out only apply until they are revoked.
He proposed that there are many more than 12 injunctions and used the natural life
urges above as a classification system; he also proposed that the child makes two
decisions – a despairing and a defiant one. “The despairing decision represents the
conclusion by the child faced with an injunctive message that something is wrong
with him or her. The defiant decision is the child’s best attempt at health, a creative
way to resist the injunctive message and master the circumstances.” (p.160). Thus,
coping behaviours emanating from the defiant decision are doomed to fail because
they are extremes that are impossible to achieve, and can be observed and hence
indicate the particular injunctive messages.
McNeel provided several detailed tables of the five categories, showing the
injunctive message, the two decisions, the coping behaviour, redecision needed,
resolving activity to strengthen the redecision, and the parental stance that heals
plus self-diagnostic and protective responses. McNeel has continued to work on this
topic, including a chapter which included the five tables (McNeel 2016) and his latest
update (McNeel and McNeel, 2019) was provided as a handout at the ITAA
Conference in 2019 and is included here as Tables 8-12.
Other Authors
I have mentioned above that I illustrated in Chapter 5 how Matuschka (1972)
suggested diagrams of double script matrices so that couples could investigate the
injunctions that have been passed on to them by the parents of the opposite sex.
In the same year, Holloway (1972) suggested that there might have been too much
emphasis on the 'craziness' of the Child in the parent when considering the process
of injunctions. (continued after McNeel’s diagrams).
Table 8: Survival Injunctive Messages (McNeel and McNeel, 2019, p.1)

Table 9: Attachment Injunctive Messages (McNeel and McNeel, 2019, p.2)

Table 10: Identity Injunctive Messages (McNeel and McNeel, 2019, p.3)
Table 11: Competence Injunctive Messages (McNeel and McNeel, 2019, p.4)
Table 12: (Sense of) Security Injunctive Messages (McNeel and McNeel, 2019, p.5)
Holloway points out that injunctions might be attempts of parents in reaction to

concerns and anxieties within the parent when interacting with a child who needs
to be taken care of. The parents will have been maintaining their script stability and
are not prepared for the "intrusion occasioned by the free, expressive, exploratory
behaviour of their offspring. When the behavior of the offspring triggers the non-
integrated thoughts/feeling experience in the parent, the big person, now in the
Child ego state, sees the easiest solution is the limitation of the free expressive
behavior of the offspring.
Such limitation could be effected by altered behaviour, or by destruction of the
youngster. With an awareness that the threat to survival is a powerful tool for
controlling children, the parent issues the injunction." (p.33). Holloway points out
that the injunctions may be triggered by the birth or by age-related behaviours.
There may be an impact from whatever prohibitions exist in the Parent of the parent,
such as a phobic concern about masturbatory activity. Tragic scripts are more likely
if injunctions are stimulated by the presence of the offspring, especially when there
are strong prohibitions in the Parent of the parent. The parents may be aware that
they have a contamination but may still be unable to behave differently without
help.
A few years later, Holloway (1977) wrote that he was now seeing injunctions as “the
conclusion of a young person under stress … as a demand that she or he arrest the
development of some inherent potential … [which the child resolves with a] …
decision, “For the purpose of my survival I shall not become all that I am capable of
being.” (p.201). He goes on to add that all injunctions are “… represented by a
prototypical command, “Don’t become that which you are fully capable of being.”
This can be contracted to a simple “Don’t be you.”” (p.201).
Two years before the Goulding and Goulding list of 12 appeared, Cherry Hartman
and Nan Narboe (1974) proposed that there are only two catastrophic injunctions –
Don’t be and Don’t be Normal – and that the other eight (of the 10 at that time
described by Goulding, 1972b) were specific injunctions that offered alternative
ways of sidestepping the catastrophic injunctions. They commented that “… the
relationship between catastrophic injunctions and specific injunctions parallels the
relationship between injunctions and counter-injunctions.” (p.11). They warned
that resisting counterinjunctions could flip clients into injunctions and stressed the
need to deal with the catastrophic injunctions before working on any of the specific
injunctions. [This is the first article that appears in a search of the TAJ for articles
with the word ‘injunction’ in the title.]
Kennon Costello (1976), writing in the same TAJ issue as the Gouldings cited above,
also addressed the number of injunctions, as well as questioning the nature of them.
He referred to Capers (at a workshop in 1975) proposing key injunctions related to
the OK-Corral (Ernst 1971), with: I’m Not OK, You’re Not OK as Don’t Be; I’m Not OK,
You’re OK as Don’t Think; I’m OK, You’re Not OK as Don’t Feel. Costello also
commented that Don’t Be can be understood as Don’t Exist, or Die, or Don’t Live,
with the latter referring only to not enjoying life so equivalent to Don’t Be Normal.
Costello went on to suggest that the most malevolent injunction is Don’t Be (Don’t
Exist), with three second level injunctions of Don’t Think, Don’t Feel and Don’t Act
(Don’t Do) which run as themes through all other injunctions. He then related these
to the Goulding and Goulding list (tentatively) and suggested that his items might
be viewed as means and theirs as ends. Finally, he visualised personality as a wheel,
which must be well balanced to be functional. He put ‘Act, Feel and Think’ in the
centre, with segments for ‘Act’, ‘Feel’, ‘Think’ and between them ‘Act and Feel’,
‘Think and Feel’, and ‘Act and Think’. This might have been better visualised as three
main spokes that operate in unison.
Cassius (1977) linked TA to bioenergetics, and explained that if a child receives an
injunction against feeling sexy or thinking about sex, the child's body may become
contracted and armoured as the child tightens muscles to cut off the sensations. The
child may also restrict their breathing.
Muriel James (1977) references NTA Claudio Naranjo for 'implicit moral injunctions'
because they refer to what we need to do to live a good life, such as: being
concerned with the present rather than the past or future; dealing with what is
present rather than what is absent, expressing rather than manipulating; taking
responsibility for our actions, feelings and thoughts.
Two authors have addressed the way in which injunctions can seem to be positive
messages. Mary Boulton (1977) wrote of Witch Messages masquerading as
Nurturing Parent, such as when a parent encourages children to be overly reliant on
being cared for. She suggests that such messages can be identified because: they
don’t solve the child’s problem; remembered sympathy causes discomfort; and the
message prohibits normal functioning. Examples are how men are treated like
children when they are sick, and women continue their work even when they are
sick.
Meredith Alden (1988) writes of the concept of gossamer injunctions (a term she
attributes to McNeel but does not reference) suggesting that injunctions and
permissions are not opposites but lie on a continuum (Woollams 1979) within which
some so-called positive messages are actually concealed constraints. Thus,
gossamer injunctions come from a place of well-meaning but are disguised
injunctions, such as the happy racket where a client who recalls her parents wanting
her to be happy has become caught in an injunction of Don’t Be Unhappy as a variant
of Don’t Feel. Alden illustrates a number of sequences, such as from Don’t Exist –
injunction, live – permission, Don’t Die – gossamer, don’t do anything dangerous –
deeper gossamer, Don’t – inherent injunction. Other examples are: find a mate –
don’t be alone; be proud of your sex, race, etc – don’t try to be anything else; be
cute, cuddly, etc – don’t act older than your age; do the best you can – don’t do
anything if you can’t do it well.
Molly Cole (1993) linked injunctions to chronic back pain, describing how Don’t Be,
Don’t Make It, Don’t Grow Up and Don’t Be Well can produce behaviours that may
be perceived as malingering, and how Don’t Feel (what you feel) and Don’t Be a
Child may greatly increase the stress.
Ruth McClendon and Leslie Kadis (1994) propose that the power of injunctions is
created through shame affect (NTA Tomkins 1962, 1963, 1991) where ‘shame’ refers
to disruption of a positive state and not as commonly associated to being shamed.
They describe the four defensive patterns (NTA Nathanson 1992) of withdrawal,
attack self, attack other, and avoidance (as in suppress awareness). Hence, they
recommend addressing the defensive pattern so the client can redecide.
Claudie Ramond (1994) suggests an additional injunction – Don’t Change – as the
basis for a script that prevents the children of immigrant families from integrating
into the culture when they are the first generation born in a host country. This might
be considered as a form of gossamer injunction, with an apparently positive
maintenance of culture of the parents’ origin leading to an ‘inability’ to integrate.
Lammers (1994) reviews previous literature on injunctions and suggests a geometric
model adapted from Groder’s (1977) octahedron. This has a vertical I-Thou (NTA
Buber 1947/1958) axis with Identity at the top and Relationships at the base. This
axis is intersected by a horizontal contact plane which is how the person meets the
world. This contact plane has four corners: perceptions, of the world through the
senses; cognitions, as hypotheses on the basis of earlier experiences; emotions, as
how we react and engage; and behaviours. For healthy functioning, all are in
balance so a diamond shape is created within the diagram; unhealthy functioning is
represented by a skewed shape. Lammers links Ware’s (1983) doors to the points
on the contact plane (i.e. thinking, feeling, behaviour) and also suggests the I-Thou
axis is related to individuality versus social life.
Reflection Questions: Injunctions
1. Use the Tables based from McNeel (2019) as a checklist. Add to them any
additional injunctive messages that you believe should be included.
2. Complete it as a checklist for yourself.
3. Complete it by reviewing the content and shading or otherwise marking
whichever comments resonate for you. Do this for items in each of the columns;
it is not necessary that you must feel that every item in a row is applicable.
4. When you have completed your review, inspect the results and identify those
areas where you wish to make some changes.
5. For these areas, consider how you will introduce what McNeel calls a healing and
self-protective response. Note the examples given in the table and plan how you
will turn these into practical actions you can take in order to make that response
a reality for you.
6. Discuss your responses with others who are familiar with this material.
7. Optionally – complete the same review for a client, based on your current
knowledge of their circumstances – or invite the client to complete the review
with your support (being careful not to overwhelm them by using the entire
content to quickly).
8. Optionally – plan how you might teach this material to individual clients or to
groups of participants.
Finally, some fun about injunctions! Walter Beveridge (1977) identified some animal
injunctions that were variations of human injunctions:
• Don’t Be becomes Don’t Be for butterflies;
• Don’t Be You becomes Don’t Be Ewe for rams;
• Don’t Think becomes Don’t Sink for jellyfish;
• Don’t Be Potent stays as it is for toads;
• Don’t Belong becomes Don’t Be Long for dachshunds;
• Don’t Succeed becomes Don’t Suck Seed for anteaters.
Permissions
Berne (1972 published posthumously) included several pages about permissions. He
began by pointing out that “Every parent fills his children’s heads with such
restraints. But he also gives them permissions. Prohibitions hamper the adaptation
to circumstances (nonadaptive), while permissions give a free choice. Permissions
do not cause the child trouble, since there is no compulsion attached. True
permissions are merely permits, like a fishing license. A boy with a fishing license is
not compelled to fish. He can use it or not as he wishes, and he goes fishing when
he feels like it and when circumstances allow.” (p.123)
Allen and Allen (1972), in writing about scripts, noted that children appeared to
actively seek alternative programming from people other than their parents. They
referenced Dusay and Steiner (1971) on the importance of permission, protection
and potency when a person needs to redecide early decisions. They provided a list
of the permissions they hypothesised as necessary for each child and each patient,
in a hierarchical series where each permission is necessary but is also dependent
upon the solidity of the preceding levels. The eight permissions on the list were:
permission to exist; permission to experience sensations, think thoughts, feel
feelings that are one’s own; permission to be an appropriate age and sex, with
potential for growth and development; permission to be emotionally close to others;
permission to be aware of one’s own existential position; permission to change this
existential position; permission to validate one’s own sexuality and that of others,
and to succeed in sex and work; permission to find life meaningful.
Pat Crossman (1966) received an EBMSA on the topic of permissions – however her
material was about permissions given by the practitioner to the client so has been
reviewed in the Professional Practices book in this series.
The Permission Wheel
Gysa Jaoui (1988) introduced this model at a conference but died before it could be
published; hence it was written about by Laurie Hawkes (2007). Hawkes explained
that Jaoui regarded injunctions as in degrees – i.e. if it was really Don’t Exist, the
person would be dead. Hence, we need to consider which permissions a child needs
as they are growing up to counter the injunctions.
Hawkes reproduced Jaoui’s diagram (in English) as shown in Figure 90 and
commented that “The permission wheel is a series of 10 concentric circles, the first
of which represents 10% permission, the second 20%, and so on up to 100%. The
whole circular diagram is cut into four main segments, each of which is divided into
4 or 5 subsegments. Each permission is seen as a slice of the pie chart, more or less
extended depending on how free one is in that domain.” (p.211). Hawkes went onto
describe the use of the wheel in early education, providing an example of it with
different shadings at the start and the end of working with the young person.
Figure 90: Permission Wheel (Jaoui, 1988, reproduced by Hawkes, 2007, p.211
More recently, Evelyne Papaux (2016a, 2016b) had written about it. When I look
back to Papaux’s 2016a article, she writes that “the model connects the attitudes
described by Choy (1990) in her Winner’s Triangle with Crossman’s (1966) 3Ps
(permission, protection, and potency). The center of the circle invites individuals to
connect to self, other, and the world and gives rise to a sense of being part of
something larger than oneself, a sense of belonging, and an urge to grow through
cooperation.” (p.337-338). (see

Figure 91)
[Note: Crossman wrote only of permission and potency – Steiner (1968) added
potency. Choy used positive words as the alternative to Karpman’s (1968) drama
triangle positions of persecutor, Rescuer and Victim.]
Figure 91: The Circle of Interconnectedness (Papaux, 2016a, p.338 – referenced by her to
Papaux, 2015)
In her chapter published in the same year (Papaux, 2016b) she produced much more
extensive diagrams, based on that shown by Hawkes. Papaux showed slightly
different permissions to those by Hawkes, as can be seen in Figure 92; she also
divided it into three equal parts to have it show connection to self, others and the
world.
Counterscript
Within the various diagrams of the script matrix, the arrows from Parent ego state
in the parent are labelled as counterscript, although it has been recognised for a
long time that they are in fact messages that reinforce the script. Goulding and
Goulding (1979) wrote of counterinjunctions, describing them as “messages from
the Parent ego state of parents which are restrictive and, if adhered to, may also
prevent growth and flexibility. These include the “drivers” listed by Taibi Kahler…
All of these, of course, are impossible to evaluate: When has one been strong
enough, pleasing enough, tried hard enough, or hurried fast enough? There is no
way to be perfect.” (p.38).
Figure 92: Permission Wheel (Papaux, 2016b, p.108)
Goulding and Goulding go on to comment that counterinjunctions include religious,

racial and sexual stereotypes which are handed down from generation to generation,
that they are obvious, given in words and not secret, and that the giver of the
counterinjunction believes that what they are saying is right. They contrast this with
the givers of injunctions, who give them secretly and without awareness. They
explain that the term came about because Eric Berne originally believed that they
did in fact counter the injunction, and they give the example of a ‘Work hard’ to
counter ‘Don’t exist’. They point out that the person may remain depressed while
working hard; it also seems possible that someone would ‘work themselves to
death’.
In 2008, Kahler wrote that it had been 37 years since he used Berne’s five behaviour
clues – words, tones, gestures, postures and facial expressions – whilst observing
video tapes for several weeks, with the result that he identified five defence-like
behaviours that he called drivers after Freud’s drive, or basic instinct, to repetitive
behaviour. This was presumably, therefore, in 1971.
Note: much of Kahler's material referred to below from journal articles also
appeared later in his books – Kahler (1977, 1978).
Note: there are various research studies that have been conducted based on drivers
and working styles; these will be reported in this series in the book on Research.
The Miniscript
In 1974, Kahler went on to include the five drivers in the article about the miniscript
that he wrote with Capers (Kahler and Capers, 1974). Here, he quoted Steiner’s
(1971) definition of counterscript as “an acquiescence to the cultural and social
demands that are transmitted through the Parent” (p.47), suggested that there are
OK and Not OK counterscripts, and proposed that the drivers are the Not OK
counterscript slogans. Referring to the drivers as counterscript drivers, he then
showed how they are the ‘I’m OK if’ starting position on the miniscript.
Kahler and Capers provided a useful introduction to their article when they wrote,
under a heading of Purpose, and referencing Berne and Steiner, that "The purpose
of this article is to present the concept that furthers counterscript theory; defines
sequences of not-OKness; focuses on second by second interlocking script behavior,
as well as on second by second individual scripty behavior; links second by second
behavior with the life script; and finally suggests a theory of specific, transaction by
transaction, script transmission." (p.26).
Kahler then explains how he developed the concept of the miniscript, referring to
Capers’ belief that the Little Professor is the initiator of all behaviour and linking this
with his own internal loop concept, as shown in Figure 93 where I have combined
his diagrams of the Not-OK and OK loops. He refers to the child having two batteries,
with one charged with negative strokes and the other charged with positive strokes.
When the real parents are no longer around, the child's Parent ego state acts as the
generator to stimulate the batteries and the individual will seek strokes from others
to maintain the pattern.
Kahler next introduces the miniscript, which he defines as "a sequence of behaviour,
occurring in a matter of minutes or even seconds, that results in a reinforcement
pattern for life." (p.28). He called it miniscript as he thought of it as a box within a
box, and then emphasised that the counterscript, or driver, is associated with the
messages that invite the person to feel that they are OK if they achieve the driver.
When they fail to do this, they move to the stopper, or injunction, and then to the
final payoff, which is so-called because they may be taking a payoff at each move.
He explains that some will move from stopper to payoff via passive-aggressive
Vengeful Child, although not everyone will do that. He shows the formula and
diagram as reproduced below as Figure 94.
He then provides another diagram (Figure 95) which shows the links between the
miniscript positions of GAF - Get Away From as -+; GNW – Get Nowhere With as --;
GRO - Get Rid Of as +-; and adds GOW - Get on With as ++. [In terms of Tony White's
and my extensions to the life positions, we might change the box at the top right to
be OK IF, +IF+ or ++IF.]
Figure 93: Not-OK and OK Battery Charging (Kahler and Capers, 1974, p.27 -and corrected in
Errata issue, 1974)
Figure 94: Miniscript Formula and Triangle (Kahler and Capers, 1974, p.31)
Figure 95: Miniscript Positions and Life Positions (Kahler and Capers, 1974, p.32).
Kahler went on to briefly mention Berne's script themes but did not at that time
show the direct links of each to a driver. He concludes with one-paragraph
descriptions of each of the five drivers.
Capers provided the second part of the article, in which he described the OK
Miniscript and identified the following allowers (or antitheses to the drivers):
"Be Perfect It’s OK to be yourself
Hurry Up It’s OK to take your time
Try Hard It’s OK to do it
Please me It’s OK to consider yourself and respect yourself
Be Strong It’s OK to be open (and to take care of your own needs)"
(p.33).
He presents diagrams of the Not-OK and OK miniscript, adding the full labels (Figure
96), followed by a diagram (Figure 97) that illustrates an example of interlocking
miniscripts a between a couple based on how they play the psychological game of
Gotcha! [Referred in the article as NIGYSOB which is now an unacceptable term].
He concludes with further examples and suggestions related to working with clients.
The article also included a miniscript chart showing inner feelings and behavioural
clues for each driver, but blanks for the other miniscript positions. For example, Be
Perfect has ‘tense’ for physical, “you should do better” as the internal discount,
words such as “of course” and “efficacious”, clipped and righteous tones, counting
fingers gesture, erect and rigid posture and stern facial expression.
18 months after the Kahler and Capers’ article had appeared, Gere (1975)
introduced his own version of the OK Miniscript; I have summarised his material in
Table 13. He used various labels, changing Kahler's Vengeful Child into 'Uppers' and
then writing of the positives of Allowers, Goers, Be-ers and a Final Payoff that is
positive.
Figure 96: Not-OK and OK Miniscripts (Kahler and Capers, 1974, p.34)
Figure 97: Interlocking Miniscripts (Kahler and Capers, 1974, p.38)
Gere explained that Allowers deal with things one may do whereas Goers "spell out
what one desires to do and what one has the capacity to do and consequently what
one decides to do." (p.286) (italics in original). Allowers are conclusions by Adult and
Parent whereas Goers are from Adult and Child and are affirmations based on facts.
Hence, Goers may be the result of OK messages from childhood, or of remembering
positive experiences, or via affirmations through current experiences with
practitioners.
Not-OK Miniscript OK Miniscript

Drivers – commands in my head that I Allowers – rules or permits to live more
adopted to get strokes fully
Stoppers – walls in my gut about where not Goers – self affirmations and
to get strokes consequent redecisions
Uppers – putting myself up by putting others Be-ers - my contract to get strokes and
down protection
Final Payoff – 'down' behaviour and racket Final Payoff – free behaviour and
feelings authentic feelings
Table 13: Summary of Gere's Development of the OK Miniscript

A few years later, Capers and Goodman (1983) changed the diagram for the
miniscript into sets of stairs whilst describing how the Not-OK version relates to
survival and the OK version can be used with clients. They call the first set of steps
the Survival Process (Figure 98) and described how people may go down the steps
slowly or quickly, in moments or months or years. At Step 1 the individual has a
positive but tentative feeling – they write this as the Entrance and described it as
the drivers operating as expectations of ourselves and expectations of others. On
Step 2 the individual feels limited by Don't messages [injunctions or maybe
injunctive messages] but hopes others will help; on Step 3 they engage in projection
and blame others; and then on Step 4 they experience archaic feelings such as
despair. Individuals may linger on steps acting out various behaviours or may move
quickly past specific steps, or may even slide down all of them to the basement.
Figure 98: The Survival Process (Capers and Goodman, 1983, p.143).
They go on to describe the Moving Stairs (Figure 99), where they use the same labels
that appeared in the Kahler and Capers (1974) article: Allower, Goer, Affirmer and
Wower. They describe examples of messages that might be used for each of the
drivers, as shown in Table 14.
Figure 99: The Living Stairs (Capers and Goodman, 1983, p.145).
Table 14: Survival Process and Allower (Capers and Goodman, 1983, p.147)
Mavis Klein had produced several books that are largely based on the theory of
drivers (Klein, 1980, 1983, 1993). Alongside them, she (Klein, 1985) expressed her
disagreement with Kahler (1978, 1979) in an article in the TAJ, for developing his
theory into seven basic structures of personality, arguing instead that she believes
there are five basic and 10 compound personality types based on possible pairings
of drivers and the elements of the miniscript.
She referred to the drivers as like different coloured coats which do not tell us which
clothes are worn underneath because the stopper, Vengeful Child, and final
miniscript payoff positions can be so varied. She described characteristics of the five
drivers as basic personality types, before commenting that every personality will
contain these in different mixes. These can then be paired so that the five miniscripts
combine into 10 common personality sub-types. She provides a table showing what
each pair of drivers having, and how they are opposites and provides names for each
pairing:
Cold Intellectual – Be Perfect & Be Strong
Righteous Blamer – Be Perfect & Please
Fighter Of Lost Causes – Be Perfect & Try Hard
Uncommitted Doubter– Be Perfect & Hurry Up
Do-Gooder – Be Strong & Please
Proud Loser – Be Strong & Try Hard
Frightened Loner – Be Strong & Hurry Up
Humble Servant – Please & Try Hard
Sorry Sinner – Please & Hurry Up

Angry Outsider – Try Hard & Hurry Up
Process Scripts
Kahler (1975a, 1975b) had two articles published in the same issue of the TAJ. In
the first, he told a story about a little boy who was holding some awful stuff under
his nose that represented the not-OK parts of his parents. This made him ill. He then
learned that another child had been doing the same thing and had learned to keep
her hands away from her nose, whilst another child had spots removed from his
lungs but kept his hand to his nose and the spots were coming back. The boy in the
story therefore decided to go to a doctor and have the spots removed and to learn
how to keep his hand away from his nose.
Kahler went on to challenge the traditional view at the time that script was the result
of injunctions and explained script should be seen as processes that are based on
the order of the drivers. Referencing his 1974 article with Hedges Capers, he pointed
out that the miniscript would yield more process information than content. He
likened the child having the spots removed as content treatment and stressed the
importance of also working with the process.
In the second article, Kahler (1975b) referred in the title to drivers being the key to
the process of scripts. He picked up on Berne’s (1972) comments about a script being
repeated over and over and sometimes in a few seconds, described drivers as
“behaviours that last from a split second to no more than seven seconds” and that
“cause certain sentence structures ... [with] a fixed pattern which may be repeated,
unconsciously, hundreds of times a day.” (p.280). He proposed that “stopping the
driver behaviour also prevents the concurrent script sentence (thought) patterns.”
(p.280).
He then provided a 'thesis' for each of the script themes, identified the drivers, and
described the sentence patterns, as I have summarised in Table 15.
Kahler went on to explain how drivers reinforce a position of I’m OK if; that they
begin functionally in Parent and can be observed in Child; they form the con and the
gimmick that start games; and that changing driver sentence patterns may change
whole life (process) script patterns.
Theme & Drivers Thesis Sentence patterns
Never – Try Hard "As a child I was forbidden Never finishes sentences
by my parents to do things
that I most wanted to do"
(p.281)
Always – Hurry "Well, if that's what you There does not appear to be
Up and Be Strong want to do, then you can a well-defined sentence
without a just spend the rest of your pattern
consistent life doing it. You've made
ranking your bed, now lie in it."
(p.281)
After – Please "Things can be going well Expresses positive feelings
Me now, but afterwards and then inserts a but and
something will happen. If ends with negative feelings
you have a high, you'll have
to have a low to pay for it."
(p.282)
Until – Be Perfect "You can't have fun until . . . Starts a sentence and then
– often with Be (you've got your work done, inserts a phrase so that
Strong or you've achieved ....). people understand it
(p.282) perfectly.
Almost (Over and "I almost make it, but not Makes a statement or ask
Over) – Try Hard quite… if only, if only." the question that ends with
and Please Me, in (p.282-3) some kind of negative about
either order. the subject.
Open End – no "I've made no plans when No particular pattern but
specific driver the kids grow up, I reach maybe a hamartic payoff for
menopause, I retire, etc." the After script.
(p.283)
Table 15: Script Themes, Drivers and Sentence Patterns (summarised from Kahler, 1975b).
Kahler went on to explain how drivers reinforce a position of I’m OK if; that they
begin functionally in Parent and can be observed in Child; they form the con and the
gimmick that start games; and that changing driver sentence patterns may change
whole life (process) script patterns.
Kahler also described how a therapist in Please Me driver may invite the patient into
the same, so that it will appear that there is rapport but the patient may be setting
himself up for the After script payoff. He also mentioned at the end of the article
that the miniscript can be used to treat script in a group, but gave no information
about this.
A significant part of the content in Kahler's (1978) material is how he matches drivers
to the script patterns Berne identified. Kahler explained the change of name for Over
and Over to Almost, on the basis that all six of these patterns are cyclical. He also
changed Open End into Dead End at the suggestion of Lillian O'Hearne, pointing out
that often the ending is depression and/or suicide. Table 16 is a reproduction of
Kahler's summary, reminding us that they are all the result of contaminations and
indicating the main driver behaviour, the corresponding sentence pattern, and the
name of the script pattern which is now referred to as process scripts.
Table 16: Process Scripts and Drivers (Kahler, 1978, p.220)
Are There More Drivers?

Gellert (1975) had an article appear in the next TAJ issue with the same title as
Kahler’s – Drivers – but without any extra subtitle about process scripts. Kahler
responded to Gellert in the same issue. Gellert argued that drivers were not part of
counterscript but were genetic drives harnessed by decisions. He also suggested
there should be more drivers, and specifically proposed Be Weak, Think and Be
Careful (preceding the Goulding and Goulding (1979) reference to the latter by 4
years). Kahler disagreed, emphasised that the nature of drivers is that we fail to
achieve them and challenged the survival values of Gellert’s suggestions.
Mescavage and Silver (1977) suggested that there are only three counterscript
drivers: Be Perfect, Hurry Up and Be Strong. Based on a sample of 194 cases,
representing most major psychiatric diagnostic categories and heavily weighted
with adult neurotic types, they proposed that Please Me and Try Hard are more
pervasive, taught earlier in life, and necessary conditions to acculturation.
Specifically, they saw Please Me as a necessary condition of being with parents, and
Try Hard as related to the power of the child to withhold or mess inappropriately
during toilet training (but not before).
Tudor (2008) proposed a sixth driver, called by him ‘Take It’ to “explain certain
seeking and aggressive relational dynamics in and between human beings on
personal and wider, social/political issues.” (p.54). He suggested this driver is about
taking and owning objects inappropriately, exploitatively and unsustainably, and
that it supports the development of narcissism. This is interesting in that Tudor and
Widdowson (2008) have criticised personality adaptations theory for omitting
narcissism, and Joines (2011) has pointed out that narcissism is no longer a discrete
diagnostic category in DSM V (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).
Positive Drivers
Tudor (2008) wrote of Take It as having a positive version, in that instead of it
referring to greed, competition and power, as a Grab it Style, it can be Go For It as
positive aggression and sustainable taking from the environment.
A much earlier reference to positive drivers was made by Klein (1987), who
described the assets and ways of relating positively for each. For example, for Be
Perfect she wrote: “If you are mostly Be Perfect you undoubtedly have a better idea
of how to live well than most people. You realise that, regardless of whether there
is an ultimate meaning to life, the only appropriate way to live is purposefully and
morally. You set high standards for everything you do, and it makes little difference
to you what other people’s standards are.” (p.155) and “A Be Perfect person – minus
his or her intolerance, bigotry, and autocratic self-righteousness – is as wise,
steadfast, warm and good a person as you will ever know.” (p.156).
Referring to each driver as a personality type, Klein provides a table of assets,
liabilities, needed permissions and ways to “get the best out of them” (p.161).
Elsewhere, she gives her understanding of the basic fears of each type (p.154); she
also updated this in Klein (1992). Below in Table 17 are her comments on assets
from her table, plus her basic fears:
Basic Fears
Style Assets Fears (1992)
(1987)
Be Perfect Wisdom, purposefulness, high moral Death Death
(and other) standards
Be Strong Self-sufficiency, consideration of Rejection Rejection
others’ needs, reliability, resilience
Please Pleasantness, compliancy to others’ Being Responsibility
wishes, generosity blameworthy
Try Hard Passionate commitment, sympathy Failure (and Failure
for the underdog, persistence success)
Hurry Up Adventurousness, responsiveness Life Life

and sensitivity to others’ feelings
Table 17 Drivers, Assets, Fears (based on Klein, 1987)
Hazell (1989) also commented on the positive aspect of drivers, presenting them as
“habits that we all utilise to deal with the challenges … useful when well
moderated …” and “positive when used to achieve” (p.212). To reflect this positive
aspect, he proposed renaming Be Perfect as Be Right, so that all of them “describe
a goal that is desirable and possible to achieve, within reason.” (p.212). He also
suggested we use Be Pleasing instead of Please Me/Please You. [I renamed it Please
People.] Hazell presented a drivers checklist he had developed, together with an
explanatory handout that gives information on how drivers help as well as hinder.
Clarkson (1992b) wrote in her abstract that “the values of being fast, energetic,
pleasing, strong and excellent – as prized qualities of the autonomous individual
under the influence of Physis … are differentiated from the counterscript drivers …
under the influence of script.” (p.16).
Although she was not writing about positive drivers, Conway (1978) pointed out that
drivers are coping resources, before going on to point out that when we know we
are dying, or when we know of the death of another, hopefully we dispense with
our drivers. She explains how our familiar coping behaviours are useless and we
have the opportunity to move to a new and unconditional existence. She explains
that we cannot die perfectly because we never have enough time to do everything;
we cannot please others because our body becomes repulsive after death; however
much we try hard we cannot prevent death; we cannot continue to be strong
because we have no control over what is happening; and if we hurry up towards
death, we die.
Working Styles
I (Hay and Williams, 1989; Hay, 1992, 1997d, 2009) introduced the term working
style as a label for the positive aspects of the drivers, commenting that “The TA
concept of drivers provides an easy-to-use model of working styles that is readily
recognised and applied in ways to suit different people. Based on original work by
Taibi Kahler, it has been developed over the years into a relatively simple set of five
characteristic styles. These were called drivers to reflect the ‘driven’, or compulsive,
quality of them when we are under stress. Identified first in therapy settings, the
styles can still be recognised in somewhat less extreme forms in each of us. They
are subconscious attempts by us to behave in ways that will gain us the recognition
we need from others; they are also programmed responses to the messages we
carry in our heads from important people in the past.” (Hay 2009, p. 96).
Cautioning that people in the real world rarely fit into the neat boxes we finish up
with when we simplify models such as this for ease of use, I provide outlines below
of each (in awareness) working style and its associated (unconscious) driver. I
include ideas about language patterns as these can be a guide to which working style
is in action, and when they are extreme they will indicate that the driver is probably
in operation. “Hurry Ups talk fast, interrupt a lot, finish other people’s sentences.
Be Perfects become increasingly pedantic, and use long sentences packed with lots
of details to be sure everything is covered. Please People soften everything with
comments such as just wondering, maybe, possibly, if you like, and you know – the
latter usually said instead of their point so you really don’t know for sure what they
mean. Try Hards sound enthusiastic but go off on tangents as the ideas flow and
may not actually finish any of their sentences; they often talk about trying. Be
Strongs sound calm and monotonous, without emotion, and distance themselves,
perhaps referring to themselves as ‘one’ rather than ‘I’. (Hay, 2007, p.88) (boldface
in original). I include more detailed descriptions of each style at the end of this
chapter, and more information is provided about working styles/drivers in the book
in this series on Interactions & Relationships.
Johnson (1997) applied working styles to owner managers of small businesses,
although he suggested a definition that limited working styles to behaviours
engaged in while at work, albeit that he recognised that these were influenced by
“patterned ways of behaving which have been learned throughout life.” (p.68). He
suggested a dual-level approach to personal and professional development, which
for him meant working with individuals at the social level to raise their awareness
of their working style, and at the psychological level to address the psychodynamic
issues that could be acting as a barrier to their personal change. However, this
appears to be a misunderstanding of what is meant by the psychological level, there
is no explanation of how this might be done, and no recognition that work at the
social level will have no impact unless there is corresponding change at a deeper
level.
Johnson provides a useful Table 18 where he summarises the possible interventions
that have been suggested by a number of different authors, including me. He also
includes Clarkson’s (1992b) positive attributes of the drivers, which she had
suggested might be named experimentation, speed, agreeableness, endurance and
excellence.
Table 18: Summary of Drivers Interventions (Johnson, 1997, p.72)
It is disappointing that presentations of this material still focus only on the negatives.
Recently, for example, I found a ‘driver questionnaire’ that references me (Hay,
2009), mentions resilience, yet still emphasises the identification of stressors and
shows ‘allowers’ as if it is only the drawbacks that need to be dealt with (Cirrus,
2022). I also have a very old copy of the Driver Questionnaire issued by the
Leadership Trust (undated) and notice that several of the questions have the word
‘try’ within them although they are not related to Try Hard.
Reflection Questions: Identifying Working Styles/Drivers
1. Prepare four columns in which you can make notes about yourself, someone you
get on well with, someone that you do not get on well with, and any notes you
wish to make about potential actions you might take.
2. As you read each of the descriptions below of a style, make notes in the first
column of the characteristics that probably apply to you.
3. Repeat this in the next column for someone you get on well with (client or
colleague).
4. Repeat this in the next column for a client or colleague that you do not get on well
with.
5. Use the final column to make notes about what you have learned and how you
might now make changes.
Descriptions of the Working Styles (from Hay, 2009, p.97-102)
Hurry Up
People with Hurry Up characteristics work quickly and get a lot done in a short time.
Our major strength is the amount that we can achieve. We respond particularly well
to short deadlines, and our energy peaks under pressure. We actually seem to enjoy
having too many things to do. The saying “If you want something done, give it to a
busy person” was probably invented with us in mind.
Our underlying motivation is to do things quickly, so we feel good if we can complete
tasks in the shortest possible time. Like organisation and methods specialists, we
look for the most efficient way to do work in the hope of shaving even a few minutes
off each task. These few minutes can add up to significant time savings across the
week, we also spend less time preparing than others do, giving us chance to meet
more people and contribute more to the team.
However, give us time to spare and we delay starting until the job becomes urgent
– then we start work on it. This can backfire because in our haste we make mistakes.
Going back to correct the mistakes takes longer than doing the job right first time,
so we may miss the deadlines after all. At the least, the quality of our work may be
poor because we have not left enough time to check it over or improve it.
Our urge to save time may be inappropriately applied to everything we do, instead
of being reserved for those tasks where it will make a real difference. Our ability to
think fast may lead us to appear impatient. We speak rapidly and have a habit of
interrupting others. We may even finish their sentences for them, often
misunderstanding and getting involved in needless arguments. Our body language
reflects our impatience through fidgeting, tapping with our fingers or toes, looking
at our watch, and perhaps even sighing or yawning ostentatiously.
Our appointments get planned too close together, so we rush from one to another,
arriving late and leaving early. We are likely to turn up at a meeting having left the
necessary paperwork in our office; we may even fail to arrive because we didn’t stop
to check the location of the meeting. When we do arrive, others must wait while we
are given a summary of what we missed. Our constant rushing coupled with an
emphasis on task efficiency may prevent us from really getting to know people, so
that we feel like an outsider.
Be Perfect
Be Perfect characteristics involve a quest for perfection – no errors, everything must
be exactly right, first time. Our major strength is our reputation for producing
accurate, reliable work. We check the facts carefully, we prepare thoroughly and we
pay attention to the details. Our written work will look good because we aim for
perfection in layout as well as content.
This working style means we are well organised because we look ahead and plan
how to deal with potential problems. In this way, we are not taken by surprise but
have contingency plans ready to put into effect. Our projects run smoothly and
efficiently, with effective co-ordination and monitoring of progress.
Unfortunately, we cannot be relied on to produce work on time because we need
to check it so carefully for mistakes, and this checking takes time. Because of our
concentration on how something looks, we are likely to call for a whole series of
relatively minor changes to layouts. Our concern about being seen to be wrong
means we are reluctant to issue a draft rather than the final version, so
opportunities for incorporating the ideas of others may be lost.
We are also likely to misjudge the level of detail required. We include too much
information and have the effect of confusing the recipient. Our reports become
lengthy; our sentence patterns also suffer whether we are writing or speaking. We
have a tendency (as demonstrated here) to add in extra bits of information in
parentheses; not so difficult for the reader (who can always glance at it again) but
hard for a listener to follow. We choose our words carefully and may therefore use
long, less familiar words or technical terms that others do not understand.
There is a danger that we end up doing everything ourselves because we do not
trust others to do it right. We apply our high expectations constantly and fail to
recognise when a lower standard would be appropriate and acceptable. This makes
us poor delegators and may earn us a reputation for demotivating criticism. On the
other hand, when we recognise the errors in our own work we may well feel
worthless and not good enough even though others are satisfied with our
performance.
Note: I renamed the next driver/working style of Please Me/Please Others as Please
People, on the grounds that this provides a term that can be used like the other labels
to refer to either a driver/working style felt by Child as essential in oneself, or
regarded by Parent as essential in others.
Please People
Please people are the good team members. We enjoy being with other people and
show a genuine interest in them. Our aim is to please other people without asking.
We work out what they would like and then provide it. This working style means we
are nice to have around because we are so understanding and empathic. We use
intuition a lot and will notice body language and other signals that others may
overlook.
We encourage harmony within the group and work at drawing the team closer
together. We are the one most likely to invite the quieter members into the
discussion so that their views are shared. This is especially useful when someone is
not airing their concerns and might otherwise remain psychologically outside the
group. At the same time, we are considerate of others’ feelings and will not
embarrass or belittle them.
Unfortunately, this style can have serious drawbacks because of our avoidance of
the slightest risk of upsetting someone. We may worry so much about earning
approval that we are reluctant to challenge anyone’s ideas even when we know they
are wrong. We may be so cautious with criticism that our information is ignored.
Our own opinions and suggestions are so wrapped around with qualifying words
that we seem to lack commitment to them.
We spend a lot of time smiling and nodding at people to indicate our agreement
with them. Our own views are presented as questions only, with us ready to back
off if they do not like what we are saying. Our facial expression is often questioning,
with raised eyebrows and an anxious smile. We may be seen as lacking assertiveness,
lacking critical faculties, lacking the courage of our convictions. When criticised by
others, we may take it personally and get upset even when the comments are
worded constructively.
Because we are reluctant to say no, we let people interrupt us and we are likely to
accept work from them instead of concentrating on our own priorities. We hesitate
to ask questions because we feel we should somehow know the answer, only to find
out later that we’ve not done it the way they wanted. Our attempts to read people’s
minds often result only in us feeling misunderstood when they do not like the results.
Try Hard
The Try Hard working style is all about the effort put into the task, so we tackle things
enthusiastically. Our energy peaks with something new to do. People value our
motivation and the way we have of getting things off the ground. We may be
popular with colleagues in other sections, and with customers or clients, because of
our enthusiastic approach to problem solving. Managers especially appreciate the
fact that we often volunteer to take on new tasks.
Because of our interest in anything new and different, we may well be noted for the
thorough way in which we follow up on all possibilities. Given a project to undertake,
we will identify a whole range of ramifications and implications that should be taken
into account. The result is that we pay attention to all aspects of a task, including
some that other people may have overlooked.
However, we may be more committed to trying than to succeeding. Our initial
interest wears off before we finish the task. Managers begin to realise that we are
still volunteering for new projects even though we have not completed any of those
tasks given to us previously. Our colleagues may come to resent the fact that we do
the early, exciting parts of a project but then expect others to finish off the boring,
mundane, detailed work.
We may fail to finish also because we spread our interest over too broad a range.
Our attention to so many aspects makes the job impossibly large. Even if we
complete most of it, we may still think up yet another angle to pursue before we can
really agree that the job is done. A small straightforward task may be turned into a
major exercise, creating havoc with the time schedule. We miss the deadline or hand
in a report full of items that are largely irrelevant. It is as if we are secretly making
sure we do not succeed, so that we can just keep on trying.
Our communication with others may be pained and strained, as we frown a lot while
we try to follow them. Our own sentences are likely to go off at tangents because
we introduce new thoughts just as they come to mind. The listener becomes
confused, both around the constantly changing content and about judging whether
we have finished speaking. Sometimes we string questions together so the listener
has to ‘try’ and sort out what to respond to. When asked questions, we may well
answer a different question – a skill used deliberately by politicians but not so useful
when it is outside our awareness.
Be Strong
Be Strong people stay calm under pressure. With this working style, we feel
energised when we have to cope. Because we are so good at dealing with stressful
situations, we are great to have around in a crisis. We are the ones who will keep on
thinking logically when others may be panicking. We seem to be able to stay
emotionally detached from the situation, enabling us to problem solve around
difficult personal issues and to deal efficiently with people who are angry or
distressed. We are able to make ‘unpleasant’ decisions without torturing ourselves
with guilt about the effects of those decisions on others.
Because we are so good at staying calm and dealing with all that the job throws at
us, we are seen as consistently reliable, steady workers. Our strong sense of duty
ensures we will work steadily even at the unpleasant tasks. As supervisors, we are
likely to handle staff firmly and fairly. We will give honest feedback and constructive
criticism. We stay even-tempered so that people know what reaction to expect from
us.
One problem with this style is that we hate admitting weaknesses – and we regard
any failure to cope as a weakness. So we get overloaded rather than asking others
for help. We may disguise our difficulties by ‘hiding’ work away; often our desk looks
tidy but correspondence is filed away in a rather large pending tray. We may be
highly self-critical about our shortcomings, as well as seeing it as weakness if other
people ask for help.
Colleagues may feel uncomfortable about our lack of emotional responses. This may
be especially pronounced in those situations where most of us would feel the strain.
They may suspect that we are robots rather than human beings. It can be hard to
get to know us when we seem to have no feelings. Occasionally, someone with this
style will appear to be very jovial and friendly. However, this will be a mask that
prevents anyone from getting to know the real person beneath the superficial layer
of jokes.
Our communication may reinforce the barriers to getting to know us. We are likely
to use passive rather than active voice – “It occurred to me…” rather than “I
thought…”. We may depersonalise ourselves – “One often does…” rather than “I
often do…”. Our voice may be monotonous or dispassionate; our face may be
expressionless. The observant person will spot that our smile does not extend from
our mouth to our eyes. Deep down, we fear that we are unlovable so we avoid asking
for anything lest it be refused.
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TA FROM THEN TO NOW

- AUTONOMY & SCRIPT

Transactional Analysis for Trainers

Working it Out at Work - Understanding Attitudes and Building Relationships

Reflective Practice and Supervision for Coaches

Open University Press 2007

Transformational Mentoring: Creating Developmental Alliances for Changing

Transformational Mentoring Through Alliance Coaching: Creating Developmental

Simulations for Assessment, Training and Development

Mission to Enernova – Assessing Potential & Developing Performance

Dealing with Difficult People - Workbook and Tape Set

Sherwood Publishing 1998

Transactional Analysis Introductory Course – Workbook & Tape Set

Sherwood Publishing 2001

Neuro-Linguistic Programming Practitioner Course – Workbook and Tape Set

Julie Hay's Ideas Blogs

Julie Hay's Ideas Blogs & Associated Articles

Websites: https://sherwoodpublishing.com, https://ictaq.org

Copyright © Julie Hay 2024

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-907037-62-7 for this book as a paperback and PDF

Figures ..................................................................................... iii

Introduction to this Series....................................................... vii

Introduction to this Book ........................................................ xv

Chapter 2: Life Positions ......................................................... 34

Chapter 3: Do Scripts Exist? .................................................... 53

Chapter 4: Scripts - Berne, Steiner, Erskine ............................. 74

Chapter 5: Script Theory 1972-1987 ........................................ 97

Chapter 6: Script Theory from 1988 ...................................... 112

Chapter 7: More Script Diagrams .......................................... 126

Chapter 8: Cultural and Transgenerational Scripting ............. 145

Chapter 9: Elements of Script ................................................ 173

References ............................................................................ 207

Figure 25: Script Matrix (Berne, 1966a, p.172) ........................................................ 83

Figure 54: Composite Decision Scale (Woollams, 1979, p.212)............................. 127

Introduction to this Series

nothing to stop students on other TA programmes from using the series to

Development (childhood, script), Interactions & Relationships, Group Processes and

Introduction to this Book

7. More Script Diagrams

As I say in the Series Introduction, I welcome feedback, especially about anything

Figure 1: Autonomia (Oxford Languages Dictionary, 2022, online)

Look further and a ‘philosophical’ definition is provided by the Internet Encyclopedia

Figure 2: Degree of Autonomy (Berne, 1972, p.155)

Reflection Questions: Autonomy and Ego States

Awareness Spontaneity Intimacy Responsibility

Developmental TA and Positive Psychology

Figure 3: Autonomy Matrix (amended from Hay, 2012, p.19)

Some Challenges to the Concept of Autonomy

Chapter 2: Life Positions

Figure 4: Summary of the OK Corral (Ernst, 1971, p.39/237)

Figure 5: The OK Corral and Warm Faces (Ernst, 1971, p.41/239)

• The OK Corral measures and sorts behaviours.

Figure 6: Interpersonal Patterns in Relationships (Boyd and Boyd, 1982, p.59)

I'm OK, You're OK - For Real

happens to them in their environment, the child settles on which of these

therapeutic community. It is much more difficult to push down the energy of

Figure 8: Energy Diagram (Groder, 1977, p.165)

I'm OK, You're Irrelevant +?

Table 2: White's 7 Life Positions

Figure 9: Life Position Matrix (Milnes, 2017, p.35)

Table 3: Life Position Matrix (Milnes, 2017, p.35)

Figure 12: Disposition Diamonds (Hay , 2009, p.46, 47)