Understanding Life Scripts in Psychology
Translated by
ScribdTranslationsUnderstanding Life Scripts in Psychology
Translated by
ScribdTranslationsThe life script
José Luis Martorell
UNED
COURSE Eric Berne, 35 years later. His contributions to Communication.
17 de Noviembre de 2005
Freedom is what we do with what is done to us.
Jean Paul Sartre
A script is a life plan based on decisions made during childhood such as
response to parental messages and attitudes, justified and selectively reinforced
due to simultaneous and subsequent events to the decisions, culminating in a
chosen alternative, which determines a specific course of life. As can be seen, the
The underlying concept of scripts is that of programming. Berne notes that this
programming affects the relevant aspects of life (such as life or death,
happiness or unhappiness, success or failure, love or heartbreak) but can be left unscheduled
events of another kind as long as they do not collide with the elements
basics of the script (for example, a script with a self-destructing programming can
leave the subject the choice between suicide, drug addiction, reckless driving, the
compulsive eating...)
Schematically, a script is composed according to the following elements: 1)
parental messages, understood as any behavior that conveys to the child what is
whether to expect it from him or not, as well as the consequences of accepting or rejecting it
Message; 2) the child's decision regarding the messages (about character
conscious or unconscious of these decisions will be discussed later); 3) the decisions
they are lived as beliefs about oneself, others, and life; 4) these beliefs give
place to certain behaviors; behaviors and beliefs are reinforced
mutually; 5) over time, behaviors and beliefs give rise to a
certain life path in which certain options have been followed and others have been
discarded; 6) a certain life course will lead to a certain end excluding
others. It does not seem necessary to insist that the life script, like any plan, is not everything.
Powerful and external forces can disrupt it. A person can have a script.
that allows happiness and success, but if that person is, for example, a Jew in the
Nazi Germany will not be predictable in carrying it out [although accounts like that of Victor
Frankl parecen indicar que incluso en esa situación extrema de iniquidad y opresión
there were different ways to be.
The incorporation of a dash according to the type of response (permissions or prohibitions) that
finding in the family environment can be summarized in the following schemes:
Incorporation of the guide (I)
SPONTANEOUS ACTIONS
FAMILY ENVIRONMENT
PERMISSION
ADAPTATION
Incorporation of the guide (II)
SPONTANEOUS ACTIONS
FAMILIAR ENVIRONMENT
PROHIBITION
IN ADAPTATION
Itnhinecorporatioonthfgeuidelin(eIII)
INADAPTATION
B Ú S Q U E D A D E A L T E R N A TIV A S
SUBSTITUTIVE ACTION
PERMISSION OF THE LENTORN
ADAPTATION
The question of whether everyone has a script does not have a definitive answer and
consensus within the AT. The most widespread position is to think that everyone
human beings receive some type of programming in childhood and that the issue
it consists of differentiating between powers of attorney and the different pressure with which it has been handled
to transmit said programming (Martorell, 2000a).
The authors have tried to define different types of scripts from different points.
From a viewpoint. Some types of scripts are winner and loser scripts.
(understanding the concept from a subjective point of view), banal scripts
generally with a strong programming from some of the socially variant
implanted with male or female roles) and hamartic dashes (dashes
self-destructive or with a tragic ending). There are other typologies based on the elements
that the script prohibits, of the type of ending or of the mythical prototypes.
The scripts that prepare for a creative and healthy life are often formed in a
family environment that provides the following allowances:
Positive messages (allowed)
You are well
You can think
You can equivocate
You can learn
I love you and I like you
You can trust me
Having your state
The negative scripts or, to put it more precisely, those that lead to unhappy lives,
sterile or tragic come from a family environment whose characteristics, in terms of
communication is summarized in the following scheme:
Negative guidelines and environment
familar
Rigid attributions
waboyefsnig
htcoaefu-htosenifgs
A lie in the action, denial or mystification of the
experience
contrhocelonflict
The fear of the conflict mentioned in the previous scheme or personal issues not
resolved by the parents often leads to a type of communication with the child that
it takes the form of hypercontrol (Martorell 2000b). Any message can be
analyzed in its components: sender, receiver, content, and context, in such a way that
it can be expressed as follows:II am telling you tothisin thiscontext.
In the case of hypercontrol, the messages would take the following form:
I (who am as I tell you) am telling you (who are as I tell you) this
(what I tell you) in this context (what I tell you how it is defined)
If the situation of hypercontrol is joined by a power deficit, as is the case with the child
small, the possibility of defining oneself, others or others in such a way
Different from what this type of message commands, it is very small.
The conscious or unconscious nature of scripts is one of the most important points.
controversy within the ranks of the AT, given that Berne himself spoke out
contradictorily about the topic. Perhaps one of the reasons for this circumstance
lies in the fact that the work he dedicated monographically to the scripts (Berne, 1972) is a
posthumous work and, apparently, not completed at the time of his death.
Steiner (1974), perhaps the most renowned advocate of the conscious nature of scripts,
points out that, unlike what happened with other aspects of his work, Berne used the
psychological language to talk about scripts. In fact, in Berne's first book,
in which he formally presents the theory of TA, defines the scripts of
next mode: "The scripts belong to the framework of transfer phenomena,
these are derivatives, or more precisely, adaptations, of experiences and reactions
infantile. But a script is not merely a reaction of transfer or situation of
transfer; it is an attempt to repeat a complete drama in a derived form
transference, often divided into acts...” (Berne, 1961: 122). Berne recognizes
openly this psychoanalytic framework when it cites the following authors as
influential in 'the historical origins of the script concept' (Berne, 1972: 77): Freud,
Adler, Campbell, Erikson, Glover, Jung, and Rank. In other chapters of the same work.
also cites Klein and Fairbairn as authors, in his opinion, coinciding with
some points of his theory. However, in a way that remains somewhat cryptic,
define script analysis as 'Freudian, but not psychoanalytic' (Berne, 1972:
73), probably wanting to reconcile the recognition of Freudian theory with the
introduction of a therapeutic approach different from that advocated by orthodox psychoanalysis.
En este marco, la posición de Berne sobre el carácter consciente o inconsciente del
the script remains confusing, perhaps because, as we have already pointed out, of the condition
posthumous of his last work. Berne notes: "generally the life script is not
"unconscious" (Berne, 1972: 74) specifying that a large part of what is considered
the unconscious is only preconscious and that 'the script analyst dealing with material
The conscious occupies a sphere of the psyche much greater than what many suppose.
people," but it seems to tip the scale to the other side: "there is nothing that
prohibit the script analyst from dealing with unconscious material (that is, some of the
main derivatives of the original fear of castration and the original anger of Oedipus
if you are ready to do it. And you will do it because, naturally, it is precisely these
"experiences that form the basic protocol of the script" (Berne, 1972: 440-441).
Finally, it is interesting to note that the concept of life script is a concept that
therapists who work from different theoretical frameworks of Analysis
Transactional, which allows us to affirm the suitability of this theory to participate in the
movement for the integration of psychotherapies.
Bibliography
Berne, E.:Transactional analysis in psychotherapy. Psyche, Buenos Aires, 1976 (original 1961)
Berne, E.:What do you say after saying 'hello'?. Grijalbo. Barcelona, 1974 (original 1972)
Berne, E.:Introduction to group therapy. Grijalbo. Barcelona, 1983.
Martorell, [Link] life script. Desclée de Brouwer, Bilbao, 2000a.
Martorell, [Link] analysis of transactional games. An empirical study.. UNED, Madrid, 2000b.
Journal of Psychotherapy(1998). Monographic: Transactional Analysis, Vol. 9, 33
Steiner, C.:Scripts we liveKairós, Barcelona, 1995 (original 1974).