Whither Scripts? Fanita English Abstract nell’s statement and his implied criticism of the psychoanalytic emphasis on fixation at child- Script theory, on careful examination, has hood developmental stages, I do not accept a become restrictive, simplistic, and inac- blanket condemnation of psychoanalytic tbink- curate. The author connects Berne’s narrow ing. Clearly the methodology of psychoanalysis deterministic view of scripts to his erroneous is cumbersome and outdated, something Berne view of games. Existential Pattern Therapy recognized even though he continued using (EPT) (English, 1987), the author’s own analysis with some patients almost to the end form of script analysis emphasizing creativi- of his life. Emphasizing linear childhood ty and the balance of unconscious drives, is development without noting interactionist in- described. A case presentation using EPT is fluences, and believing that childhood ex- discussed following which an evaluation of perience is the exclusive cause of later the relationship between unconscious drives behavior, is both limiting and counterproduc- (survival, creative, restful), stroke economy, tive. For example, clinical experience shows and the ego states concludes the analysis. that it is false to assume that a person ‘ ‘fixated’ ’ at one developmental stage cannot progress emotionahy to another until alI issues at the first I applaud Cornell’s (1988) courage in stage are resolved. challenging the constricting tenets on which Even Freud’s (1915/1957) own writings of- current script theory is built. I too, have noted fer openings to the kind of broader views ad- with concern how many TA therapists are vocated by Cornell. However, although I agree shackled to a procrustean bed of unproven that psychological formation can be better beliefs that suggest that injunctions determine understood by considering healthy rather than narrow linear scripts which patients are ex- pathological development, as therapists we also pected to rid themselves of through therapy. need theory which helps us to understand When held by therapists, such beliefs often distortions of normal processes. generate self-fnlfilling prophecies for suggesti- ble patients or lead to false “script cures” in- Resilience in the Face of volving problems that did not exist in the first Childhood Experience place! Cornell states: Early childhood influences and events as Script theory has become more restric- understood (or misunderstood) by the growing tive than enlivening. Script analysis as it child have a powerful impact on both healthy has evolved . . . is overly psychoanalytic development and specific pathology. They in- in attitude and overly reductionistic in fluence the formation of character as well as what it communicates. . . . The incor- subsequent attitudes, feelings, relationships, poration of developmental theory into and views on the future. However, the script theory has too often been simplistic resilience of children (and indeed of humans and inaccurate, placing primary emphasis at all ages) must not be underestimated. To do on psychopathology rather than on so implies that children can be conditioned in psychological formation. (p. 281) a simplistic, Pavlovian manner. Many in- Although agreeing with the thrust of Cor- dividuals overcome difficult, even tragic,

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childhood experiences successfully without the have important socializing value even though benefit of therapy. Life has a way of offering they are not life-saving (e.g., not defecating on many corrective opportunities. As mental the living room floor). Some have only tem- health professionals we all too often forget porary value and, if not later reinforced, re- about healthy development, thus discounting main latent. the human ability to symbolize, to transform, Once survival conclusions are set, the sur- to create, to seek freedom even at some risk, vival drive continues to bring them on without and, ultimately, to let go. discriminating between those that have lifesav- ing or socializing value and those that no longer Survival Conclusions apply. Thus therapy may be required to reduce conclusions that are too powerful or harmful Children are dependent and sense that their (e.g., phobias, irrational anxiety, inhibitions, survival depends on their caretakers. As is em- obsessions, compulsions, etc.). Although the phasized in TA, positive strokes convey the operation of such survival conclusions may gratifying message that care is forthcoming, resemble injunctions or attributions, survival although sometimes conditionally, at the price conclusions are more restricted in scope. We of adaptation, We are born with several drives, collect thousands of survival conclusions at including the drive to survive. This survival various stages of development, and they affect drive pushes us to adapt and learn whatever specific issues rather than the total life script; seems necessary in order to acquire and main- we do not take on one or two major ones to tain approval and new skills. Our learnings transform our entire life course. become what I call “survival conclusions” In addition, most survival conclusions are (English, 1977c, p. 332). These are integrated useful, even essential, and not to be dropped into our organism as our “second nature” by lest our lives be in danger. Although some may means of the alternating processes of assirnila- reinforce each other or combine to form a tion and accommodation to achieve what Piaget dysfunctional “syndrome,” new conclusions calls “equilibration” or balance (Cowan, 1978, are integrated at all successive developmental pp. 24-25). stages, including adulthood. In brief, assimilation implies “taking in” by With a patient seeking therapy, various adapting what is out there to fit what is already behavior patterns may be involved, each known subjectively, and accommodation refers associated with different survival conclusions. to modifying one’s behavior/thinking to adjust Therapy may consist of separating out the to reality as understood from external stimuli strands of different conclusions, some of which and the reactions of caretakers (Cowan, 1978, may be important and still useful even though pp. 22-23). Equilibration goes on during the interwoven with others that are currently constant process of growth through assimila- dysfunctional. A conclusion that is dysfunc- tion and accommodation, and it is a complex tional for a person’s current life generates anx- process that cannot be reduced to simple con- iety and/or projection which, in turn, impairs ditioning. Eventually one’s existential position, the person’s ability to cope. Because many con- basic character structure, and ways of relating clusions remain dormant in a grown person, a to others will be established, although changes particular event or situation can revive a con- continue throughout the individual’s lifetime. clusion that has been inoperative for a long Survival conclusions are established at each time. Then contamination to other situations stage of development (English, 1977~). They may set in, even when such situations were not compensate for the fact that our genes do not previously disturbing. carry the specific programs we need in order However, although certain archaic survival to survive as independent beings. The survival conclusions can generate problems requiring drive operates throughout our lives to bring on treatment, they are not the principal deter- survival conclusions in situations resembling minants of script. We cannot ascribe scripts to the one that stimulated the original conclusion. conditioned response to alleged injunctions Many survival conclusions are necessary and assumed to exist in a hypothetical “electrode” beneficial throughout life (e.g., not gulping (Berne, 1972, p. 115) in the Child. As Cornell down hot liquid before testing it), and others (1988) appropriately suggests, many more

Vol. 18, No. 4, October 1988 295 FANITA ENGLISH internal and external factors are at work guiding support or interference the third offers, and so one’s life course. Thus a total “script cure” on. However, in certain cases when problems is a ridiculous treatment goal, equivalent to are appropriately identified as resulting only thinking that by transforming a person’s finger- from dysfunctional survival conclusions, prints, he or she is never likely to be therapy might resemble TA as originally prac- fingerprinted. ticed, with an emphasis on helping the patient to use his or her Adult to deal with Parent-Child Influence of the Three Drives conflicts.

As already indicated, the survival drive in- Reasons for Berne’s Narrow View of Script fluences us to seek and respond to strokes, and it generates and brings on most of our survival Before moving on to an illustrative case ex- conclusions. This does not contradict TA ample, I want to offer some admittedly biased theory. However, I find it important to reaf- views about the fundamental reasons for firm Freud’s views on basic drives. I have Berne’s restrictive view of script. Considering reconceptualized these drives and described his brilliant discovery of TA-especially his their attributes, including specific forms of in- functional formulation about ego states and the fluence and distinctive manifestations (English, connection between strokes and communica- 1987). In addition to the survival drive, we are tion-how is it that Berne ended up formulating influenced by two other drives which are not script theory so narrowly? How is it that he, affected by strokes: the creative drive and the who proudly showed that the Child functions drive to rest. These drives have their own in the here-and-now ego and not just the un- dynamic power and participate in establishing conscious (as Berne was fond of saying, “I existential patterns which interweave with and never saw an Id walking, but I can see a affect our life course or script (in my defini- Child”), accepted the idea of an electrode? tion). They also affect us with bursts of energy (I’ve never seen an electrode walking-not even or fatigue and/or urges to “do” or “not do” a Little Professor!) that are totally unrelated to strokes in the past I believe the root of Berne’s linear concept or the present. of script lay in his need to justify his analysis Each drive has its own functional direction of games. Game analysis, on the one hand, and can express itself through any ego state, allowed him to triumph over psychoanalysis by singly or in rotation or combination. Thus, demonstrating quick “cures” achieved by although there is interaction between the sur- enlisting a patient’s Adult, and on the other, vival drive, which is affected by the stroke accounted for patients who functioned well in economy, and the other drives, the total per- many respects but kept repeating certain sonality, wishes, tendencies, reactions, and, behaviors, even when the therapy contract therefore, the total script, is not affected ex- seemed sound and they claimed to want to clusively or even primarily by past or present change. strokes. This view represents a radical depar- However, Berne found two kinds of patients ture from the classic TA assumption that all particularly frustrating: those with what he development, communication, and problems called “rackets” (Berne, 1964/1976, p. 16) and are connected to exchanges of strokes. those with what psychoanalysts call the “repeti- We feel “OK” when our drives use our men- tion compulsion. ” To my mind it is significant tal energy proportionately so they combine, that Berne used the pejorative term “rackets” rotate, and/or interact with one another har- rather than a more empathic word to refer to moniously. “Not OK” feelings result when one attitudes and feelings of patients which he could drive pulls in very different directions from identify as incongruent and which they conced- another one at the same time, or one or two ed might be inappropriate, but which they did drives compete for the individual’s conscious not change, in spite of confrontation. Having awareness and energy. decided that certain feelings were “rackets,” Self-help and/or therapy usually must be con- Berne dismissed the topic temporarily, admit- cerned primarily with how our drives interact, ting that he did not know what to do about to what extent one inhibits the other, with what them other than to explain them as repetitive

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indulgences for internal or external strokes. crossed transaction,Beme decided that analysis just had to go deeper; if game analysis did not Berne’s Misinterpretation of Games suffice, script analysis would have to explain why patients kept stubbornly repeating games Beme was determined to “lick” what looked over and over. He decided that games were like repetition compulsion in patients who had “rehearsals” for a bigger show, and having a perfectly good Adult, liked strokes, and yet conceived of games as self-defeating, it fol- ended up crossing transactions again and again lowed that the script for the larger show must in the same way, regardless of the TA diagrams also be self-defeating-or at least constricting demonstrating how they did it. Beme decided and devoid of options. that they were “playing” with him instead of going for cure, especially when he noticed they Scripts and Alleged Scripts often had little smiles on their faces at the end of such crossed transactions. Out of his own Before his frustration with game analysis, frustration he again chose a pejorative term- Berne had thought of scripts as far more fluid. games-to describe behavior that undermined He was fascinated by the broad parallels be- his efforts. Beme, the advocate of the Free tween fairy tales and myths and his patients’ Child, could not insult game players by telling life stories. He was aware that children between them they were childish, but he could ridicule the ages of four and seven are full of curiosity them by listing games with silly names. about their relationship to the world-past, pre- Actually, may of the so-called games listed sent, and future. They beset parents with ques- in his best-seller, Games PeopZe Play (Berne, tions (and Beme had plenty of children!) and 1964), are repetitive dyadic complementary make pronouncements about what they will be transactions, which I now call racketeering. or do when they grow up. Children also They do not qualify as games according to develop ideas and impressions about the kind Berne’s later formula. What looks like a game of life partner they will want, preferences about is really the outcome of racketeering that fails life in the city or the country, fantasies about to be sustained (English, 1977b). To Berne’s future adventures, attitudes about power, credit, he distinguished between first-degree money, success, and so on. They weave yams and third-degree games (Berne, 1964, p. 64), or eagerly absorb them, modifying these stories and I believe it was in seeking an explanation to suit their own imaginations. for third-degree games that Beme went wrong. Although it is clear that children begin (I have suggested an alternate explanation to developing their life stories at this stage, does Berne’s elsewhere [English, 1977a, 1977b].) that make them necessarily constricting? Quite Beme reahzed correctly that an internal pro- the contrary. At this age the story offers a light cess must occur within a player to generate the draft, a sketch designed to be carried along, ego state switch that leads to the crossed trans- refined, transformed, adapted, tailored, action which ends what he calls a game. His stretched, reprocessed, recycled, and error lay in assuming that the internal process reconstructed in multiple ways. In fact, our represented an internal transaction offering ability to conceptualize and generate scripts is poisonous strokes from an archaic Parent or the one of the exciting manifestations of being Child of the chronological parent. Thus the human and having a creative drive. We need player became motivated to “do himself in” such a vehicle by which to project our fantasies in the here-and-now and to sacrifice the poten- toward the future. Without this ability we might tial continuation of strokes from a current part- find ourselves suffering like a psychotic, whose ner for the sake of the archaic strokes that imagination roams wildly in a disorganized pushed him to hurt himself. However, after a manner precisely because he or she cannot con- while Beme realized that game analysis based nect and organize fantasies within the structure on his assumptions simply did not work; the offered by a script. However inadequate and repetition compulsion was still operating in scary, a script offers possibilities for contrasting game players. fantasies and reality in small ways rather than Unfortunately, rather than relinquishing his in an overwhelming, major way. interpretation of why a game ended with a Around the time Beme was exploring how

Vol. 18, No. 4, October I988 297 FANITA ENGLISH life stories could be compared to fairy tales, experimentation and trial and error. In these myths, or plays, Claude Steiner (1966) was terms, the player who casts off his or her script developing his script matrix (which Berne would be like an ape at the piano-free of con- claimed to have thought up) for use with dif- strictions, but with no tune to begin with, no ficult patients such as alcoholics and drug ad- notes, no practice, no rehearsals. The result dicts who did, indeed, operate in particularly would be random, discordant banging! With self-destructive ways, often culminating in such a choice, it might be preferable to take tragic endings. However, the script matrix, one’s chances on the prerecorded music, ad- which started out as a schematic concept and ding good orchestral accompaniment, perhaps tool useful in initial work with hamartic pa- singing with it, or even adding words. tients, unfortunately appealed to Berne as an Our lives, as they evolve, our work, our rela- elegant explanation of why patients kept tionships, our contributions to the world repre- repeating games: It must be to maintain and sent the creative expression of the precious, rehearse their underlying scripts. unique person each of us can be. We emerge His idea, therefore, was that negative injunc- from ‘ ‘givens , ’ ’ transformed successively by tions, which could be illustrated on the clear, each one of us as we develop. Sometimes the simple script matrix, caused the five-year-old, music we play harmonizes with that of those who was stupid enough to accept them whol- around us, sometimes we play alone if, like ly, nevertheless to be smart enough to create Beme, we have the courage to play in new an entire constricting script to fulfil1 these in- ways. junctions in the future. This was all because of that miserable witch, usually Mama, who, Appreciating Berne’s True Legacy without conscious intent (although still Berne was known to repeatedly remind his deliberately), wanted her offspring to suffer students and colleagues not to superimpose from injunctions inserted into a mysterious theory on clinical experience. I believe that the electrode developed in the child (Berne, 1972, script concepts that are currently synonymous p. 115). with advanced, prestigious practice in TA were To illustrate this unproven assumption even still hypotheses to Berne, and that he would better, an increasingly complicated “second have revised them had he lived longer. For ex- order ’ ’ structural analysis of personality ample, at the time of his death he was still cir- (Berne, 1961, p. 196) was developed along culating galleys from the Hello (1972) book with the idea that, because scripts began in precisely because he planned to revise them childhood, they necessarily doomed the in- substantially. The definition of script in the dividuals who carried them to becoming book’s glossary is the one I suggested to him, “losers” rather than “winners” (Beme, 1972, and he accepted, and it is far more open than pp. 203-205). In keeping with Berne’s definitions in the text, which he did not get metaphor about the piano (cited in Cornell, around to revising. Although I no longer agree 1988, p. 270), the deterministic script could be with even the one given in the glossary, it is seen as a music roll that can only be played “as still broader and closer to the one Cornell is” on the mechanical piano of life. The piano advocates. player can only let the preset composition play itself out, unless he or she can “cast off’ the Scripts and Existential Pattern Therapy whole roll (the entire script) and thereby call his or her own tune. For the past twelve years I have referred to To continue the metaphor, this suggests that the theory I teach and the practice I advocate the player who tries to call his or her own tune as Existential Pattern Therapy (EPT) (English, will have had no time or opportunity growing 1987) in order to distance myself from misinter- up to test out this tune or that, to modulate it, pretation about script theory, particularly its harmonize it, accompany it with words, or- “fortune telling” aspects. Much of EPT has chestrate it, or whatever. Such an assumption emerged from TA and Gestalt therapies, and contradicts everything we know about child I still identify myself as a TA practitioner. The development as well as the progress of humans script workshops I do are carefully described through the ages, i.e., that growth proceeds by as designed to enhance creativity, not provide

298 Transactional Analysis Journal WHITHER SCRIPTS? therapy. The emphasis is on exploring, The relationship between these drives has an developing, and enlarging the participants’ important impact on script development and on points of view. We work in rotating groups to the extent of internal mobility with which the allow for comparison, contradiction, analogy, individual can operate in the present and the challenges, etc., and to make sure that “hot future. It determines whether he or she uses the potatoes” (English, 1969) are not passed on to script creatively for gratifying outcomes or suggestible participants. restrictively to maintain survival conclusions. As a result of this work I have become con- Working on scripts may have therapeutic vinced that Jung was correct about there being value indirectly by helping someone develop certain basic archetypical figures (cited in more awareness of his or her life patterns. Such Berne, 1972, p. 57) and myths which are awareness may lead the individual to want to building blocks for our imagination and which modulate the emphasis he or she placed on one the four- or five-year-old child starts grappling area of life and to experiment with less obvious with, regardless of the content of particular patterns. However, it is crucial to underscore stories to which he or she is exposed. Although that my emphasis in script work is on this implies many innate elements, it does not awareness, general insight, recognition, and mean predestination. The same childhood story improved harmony among drives. For this can evolve in innumerable directions, much as work I function, not as a therapist, but as a par- a book being made into a film may involve ticipating observer who coordinates and points script changes that lead to a transformation of up connections while also encouraging group the story and even a different ending. Just as members to do the same in relation to each a film director needs a script from which to other. All this must take place with respect and begin his or her work, so we seem to need to admiration for whatever images are presented. develop a script in childhood which we then In cases where specific treatment of a specific enlarge upon, develop, and/or transform in the issue seems important, I offer contractual treat- course of our lives. ment either individually or in a therapy group, Thus, although I stand by the extensive or I recommend a therapist who will not try to description of script-making (English, 1977~) meddle with the person’s total script. from which Cornell (1988) quotes, these days Although script analysis, however it is de- I emphasize that the script consists of in- fined, is unnecessary for good treatment (and terweaving “existential patterns” reflecting dif- may actually be harmful), this does not mean ferent areas of interest and priorities. These pat- avoiding our knowledge of developmental fac- terns make up a whole, like strands of thread tors. Many presenting problems are related to woven into cloth, but they also have identifiable the overuse of the survival drive in childhood lines or colors which distinguish one strand and/or the present with corresponding repres- from another. For example, for some people sion of the creative drive and repression or the direction of their work is more important misuse of the drive to rest. There are also often than their relationships or life-style; for others conflicting survival conclusions related to dif- the environment or landscape in which they live ferent stages of development or dormant con- is essential (e.g., country or city). Each topic clusions that are revived by certain events and has its own existential pattern, one that can be take on dysfunctional power. Thus the TA traced in the texture of the person’s life from method of contractual treatment continues to childhood on to the present. Future projections be useful as does the technique of moving back can be made by following the directional line and forth between the here-and-now and of one pattern or another, with changes of flashbacks to the past. direction always possible related to those pat- terns that are of particular interest to the Case Example individual. The other issue to which I attach considerable A TA therapist came in with her patient, more importance now is the balance of the three “George,” for consultation after briefly drives. For example, how much did the sur- discussing the case with me previously. vival drive take precedence in a person’s life (Because of a heavy travel schedule, I occa- over the creative drive and/or the drive to rest? sionally use this method of consultation with

Vol. 18, No. 4, October 1988 299 FANITA ENGLISH therapists who know me through workshops, “give up” on regular lecturing and lose the but are not in ongoing training with me.) chance for tenure, he smiled- a little. The George, a 45year-old university professor, therapist believed this to be a gallow’s smile had entered treatment six months earlier indicating George was scripted to be a loser, because he suffered from constriction of the but I saw things differently. I did not pick up throat when he was about to deliver a lecture, on the smile then, but wanted to understand its even though he had lectured for 13 years prior meaning later. to that with no problem. Medical examination Our first concern was the symptom of throat confirmed that there was no organic problem. constriction. As is my usual practice, I obtained Although various techniques to soothe his throat a detailed description about the onset of the and relieve stress had been moderately suc- symptom in George’s current life because it cessful, the uncomfortable feelings in his throat might have corresponded to a dormant survival persisted and were causing increasing anxiety conclusion revived by some event. George about whether he might have to stop lecturing became impatient. As we talked, however, he altogether, thereby relinquishing the prospect remembered that he had first felt the constric- of university tenure. tion when being honored for his book at a ban- The therapist was convinced George had an quet for a club he had just joined. He was the injunction against success. About two years guest speaker, and the waiters were still set- earlier, roughly around the time his symptom ting out dessert and coffee when he was in- began, a book he had written for lay readers troduced and asked to speak. When he stood became a best-seller. The therapist believed up he felt the constriction and also slightly faint; there was a clear connection between George’s he steadied himself by reaching out for his increasing success and the symptom, which was wife’s hand and managed to get through the also undermining his opportunity for tenure. speech, which was well received. However, her efforts to get George to redecide I asked him whether as a child he had been for success and to drop his “loser script” were allowed to speak at the dinner table. “Of course meeting with increasing “resistance” from not,” he responded without hesitation. Upon George who seemed to be stuck in his script hearing his own words, he laughed; he had just and unwilling or unable to move out of it. gotten the point. George began the joint consultation quite George was the youngest of six siblings in defensively, presumably from where he and his a very formal household. No one was allowed therapist had left off. He indicated he had to speak at the table except his parents. always done well in school-had even been However, he was his mother’s favorite, and class valedictorian-and his parents had always rules were not strictly enforced with him. On been supportive of his achievements. He could one occasion he was actually encouraged to not believe that secretly either his mother or recite a poem he had learned. “But then,” he his father would have wanted him to be unsuc- reminisced, “my brothers ganged up and beat cessful. He had also published before, although me severely to teach me that rules should ap- this was admittedly his first best-seller for the ply to me as well and I should not show off general public. Nevertheless, he feared that his again.” George became quite animated in therapist might be right. Perhaps changing to noting the similarity to the situation at the ban- research work, which he was seriously con- quet. The club he had joined-a prestigious one sidering, might lead him “down the garden he could not have joined had it not been for the path” to failure, particularly since his wife success of his book-reminded him of being would be disappointed about his relinquishing allowed at the family dinner table instead of in tenure. the kitchen with the household help. At the ban- However, George was sick of suffering; not quet he once again felt a double bind- only did his throat hurt, but he also hated the encouraged to “show off” in front of the anxiety of not knowing whether he would be “older” club “brothers,” but fearing retribu- able to complete each lecture. He was willing tion for doing so. to “get rid of his script,” if that was the cause An additional concern for George had been of his problem as his therapist had told him. his shame over reaching for his wife’s hand. As he talked about the possibility of having to Had anyone noticed? Reaching for her hand (as

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a stand-in for support from his mother), which may require patient detective work. The key he had done automatically at a moment of usually lies in scrupulous and detailed explora- distress, corresponded to another survival con- tion of the circumstances that triggered the clusion, but a useful one in contrast to the one symptom in the client’s present life. When ver- developed as a result of the beating from his bal detective work alone does not suffice, a brothers. However, associated to this (probably variation on Gestalt empty chair work or over later stages) was his feeling that he did psychodrama may be useful, not necessarily to not want to be a mama’s boy and that he should move the patient through the impasse, but to manage on his own. His mother had been learn where the connection might lie between somewhat overprotective; he had emancipated present and past events. In doing so I remember himself from her at adolescence when he how Fritz Perls emphasized repeatedly in his became captain of the school basketball team training seminars: It is projection that brings in spite of her concerns about possible risks to a problem to the foreground. For example, in his health. There were remnants of the old em- George’s case just speaking at the dinner pro- barrassment about being dependent on his bably would not have generated enough anxie- mother, justified in childhood by the fact that ty to cause his symptom; the symptom resulted he did have frequent colds. from combining that anxiety with his projec- George’s symptom occurred because of ting onto the audience that they were his “older “magical” thinking in the Child. He feared brothers.” retribution for having pulled off his speech and also, perhaps, for having reached out to his wife The “Gallows” Smile for support as he had done with his mother when he was sick as a child. By continuing to When a small smile appears after a crossed experience constriction in his throat he could transaction, it is not a gallow’s transaction ‘justify” needing help because maybe he was (Steiner, 1967, p. 39) due to an injunction, but again “sick. ” On the other hand, he also usually a reflection of embarrassment or the became “tired” of the symptom much as he Child’s small hope for a “consolation prize” had tired of his mother’s overconcern when he to compensate for frustration. Often when such was an adolescent. However, the conclusion a smile appears as a patient reports something from adolescence about shaking off dependen- upsetting, there is an internal conflict between cy was not sufficient to offset the more a survival issue and a push from the creative primitive conclusion that had been revived at drive. The survival drive is more reasonable the banquet and then generalized to contaminate (be it through Adapted Child, Parent, or Adult); other lecture situations. the creative drive is more attuned to feelings, Thus we see how a symptom occurs when freedom, excitement, and risk-taking, for bet- a dormant archaic conclusion is revived by a ter or worse. Thus the smile may represent a parallel between a current situation and the secret wish that seems “unreasonable.” When original situation in which the conclusion was such a smile appears during a session, I will formulated. The conclusion then combines with comment on how it is not congruent with what other survival conclusions, and by generating is being said, but not necessarily immediately anxiety in the present it can develop such power because it may relate to some additional con- that it seems to affect the person’s entire life. flict other than the one at hand. This process brings to mind Berne’s anecdote George’s smile appeared when he was ex- about someone getting a splinter which pressing his overt concern that he might have generates other problems and leads to com- to “give up” lecturing and tenure and also plicated treatment because no one thinks to when he said he was “tired” of his symptom. simply remove the splinter. With George, script These expressions relate primarily to the drive analysis in its classical form was about to cause to rest, yet he seemed very lively when he additional problems without getting to and talked. It seemed that George’s drive to rest and removing the actual cause of his difficulties. his lively creative drive were aligned against I was lucky in George’s case. Tracing the conclusions of his survival drive. Were these connection between a buried survival conclu- two drives in combination pushing him to relax sion and a symptom is not always so easy and more and/or take on a new creative path,

Vol. 18, No. 4, October I988 301 FANITA ENGLISH regardless of the consequences? Or was the sur- interpretation can be harmful, although for- vival drive reinforcing one or more survival tunately George “resisted” it. (I wonder how conclusions that were no longer essential? often a patient’s resistance is the most useful Could it be that by now the symptom was ac- thing he or she can do for himself or herself.) quiring a new meaning and might constitute an With George we can see how “script” elements excuse for George to drop tenure and take the connected themselves on various levels to the research job? throat symptom: 1) basic survival conclusion Fortunately George’s therapist was gifted and to achieve; 2) the later ambivalent feelings not stubbornly committed to her previous in- about dependence and independence on terpretation of the case; she was also familiar mother/wife; 3) the revival of a dormant con- with EPT. She and George agreed to continue clusion about not showing off at the dinner table treatment in order to consider other aspects of contaminating previously comfortable behavior the dilemma. Three months later she reported as a university lecturer; and then 4) an oppor- that George’s throat symptoms had abated after tunity for his creative drive and his drive to rest our joint session, but that he had developed to assert themselves in the here-and-now by sleep difficulties instead. This was not surpris- urging him preconsciously to drop the univer- ing in light of our hypothesis. In working with sity job, even at some risk and in opposition the “give up” issue, George revealed that he to such survival conclusions as holding on to was strongly attracted to the research job, a good job with security. which would give him both more creative work It was important in George’s treatment that and more leisure time. However, it seemed the therapist did not go for big script issues, “stupid” to relinquish the university job when but rather worked on the small issues he was so close to tenure, and both he and his systematically. George thus could proceed with wife felt tenure offered more security for the an important area of his script from the perspec- future. tive of creativity and excitement rather than Clearly George was not programmed against with a sense of dissatisfaction from the perspec- success. If anything, several of his survival con- tive of older survival issues. By acknowledg- clusions pressured for success and security, and ing that he was taking a risk in acceding to the additional ones emphasized dependency (now urge of his creative drive and by checking it on his wife) perhaps more than necessary. out with other factors in his current reality, he Wisely the therapist suggested joint appoint- facilitated harmonious interaction between his ments for George and his wife. It turned out creative drive and his survival drive as well as that his wife was not as opposed to the change providing additional space for his drive to rest. as George had thought she was, and that her previous concern about his job had been due Definition of Scripts mostly to anxiety about his throat symptom. Once she real&d George yearned for the In summary, I define scripts as follows: change, she was supportive, pointing out that Scripts contain genetic elements and patterns his book royalties provided them with a finan- related to past experiences, fantasies, and cial cushion, that they had ample savings, and beliefs that are woven together into the fabric that the research job offered more opportunities of a personal mythological story with many for George’s career than did hanging on to possible variations. Such patterns can lead both university tenure. to positive and negative outcomes according to Six months later George had terminated the manner in which they intermesh and evolve, therapy with no symptoms. He had lectured on so scripts have nonspecific endings. A script a few other occasions without difficulty and was is valuable as an organizing support structure enthusiastic about his new job because of the originating in childhood. It enables us to opportunities it gave him, not because he was “play” with various options in fantasy before afraid to lecture. converting them to actual life. Thus our scripts contribute to the articulation, actualization, and Commentary on George’s Case evolution of our innate potential. The analogy to a theatrical script holds if we George’s case illustrates how a false “script” think of improvisational tbeater rather than of

302 Transactional Analysis Joumal WHITHER SCRIPTS? a preset play, for scripts unfold and evolve the IlYA who spends much of her time teaching gradually. It is through the interweaving of and training in Europe. She is the recipient of many strands of existential patterns that each the 1978 Eric Berne Memorial Scientij?c Award individual creates the unique quality of his or for her work on rackets. Please send reprint her life. Tentative predictions are possible on- requests to Fanita English, 724 Pine St., ly in small ways, with much allowance for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19106, U. S. A. spontaneous changes. In describing how he writes a novel-which References is similar to how I think about the process I Beme, E. (1961). Transactional analysis in psychotherapy. believe we all go through in “writing” and liv- New York: Grove Press. ing our own lives-Salman Rushdie (1986) says Beme, E. (1964). Gamespeopleplay. New York: Grove Press. the following: Beme, E. (1976). Trading stamps. In Selected articlesfrom For a long time I think I don’t know what the Transactional Analysis Bulletin, Volume l-9 (p. 16). I have to write. Then gradually I begin (Original work published 1964) to think of stories, fragments, incidents, Berne, E. (1972). Whatdo you say after you say hello? New York: Grove Press. or characters, quite disjointedly, in such Cornell, W. F. (1988). Life script theory: A critical review a way that there’s no indication that these from a developmental perspective. Transactional Analysis are part of one story. Then I begin to Journal, 18, 270-282. panic about not having a book to write. Cowan, P. A. (1978). Piaget withfeeling. New York: Holt, And so I try to formalize these vague no- Rinehart, & Winston. English, F. (1969). Episcript and the hot potato game. tions, and I start trying to write things Transactional Analysis Bulletin, 8(32), 77-82. down. And then I have a moment of great English, F. (1977a). Let’s not claim it’s script when it ain’t. optimism when I discover that I have nine Transactional Analysis Journal, 7, 130-138. novels to write that are going to occupy English, F. (1977b). Rackets and racketeering as the root of games. In R. N. Blakeney (Ed.), me for the next twenty years. And then Current issues in transactional analysis (pp. 3-28). New York: I try and decide which one I’m going to BmnnerlMazel. write first. And then I ache more, wait- English, F. (1977c). What shah I do tomorrow? Reconcep- ing, and then everything disintegrates. tualizing transactional analysis. In G. Barnes (Ed.), And I realize I haven’t got one novel, let Transactional analysis after Eric Beme (pp. 287-350). New York: Harper’s College Press. alone nine. And then, at some moment, English, F. (1987). Power, mental energy, and inertia. I find, without quite knowing how, that Transactional Analysis Journal, 17, 91-98. all these fragments of ideas have in fact Freud, S. (1957). The unconscious. In J. Strachey (Ed. been part of a larger idea that, without and Trans.), i%e standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 4, pp. knowing it, was really what I was think- 181-215). London: Hogarth Press. (Original work ing about-and that’s the novel I have to publsihed 1915) write. Rushdie, S. (1986, May 27). Interview with Lloyd Grove. International Herald Tribune. And that is the script I live. Steiner, C. (1966). Script and counterscript. Transactional Analysis Bulletin, .5(8), 133-135. Fanita English, M. S. W., is a Certified Steiner, C. (1967). A script checklist. Transactional Teaching Member Instructor ana’ Supervisor in Analysis Bulletin, 6(22), 38-39.

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