Content Script

Prepared By Manu Melwin JoyResearch Scholar

School of Management StudiesCUSAT, Kerala, India.Phone – 9744551114

Mail – manu_melwinjoy@yahoo.com

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Content scripts

In terms of content, we can

classify scripts under three

headings:

–Winning.

– Losing or Harmartic.

–Non – Winning or banal.

Winning script

Berne defined a winner as

“someone who

accomplishes his

declared purpose.”

(Robert Goulding added :

and makes the world a

better place as a result.)

Winning script

• Winning also implies that the “declared purpose” be met comfortably, happily and smoothly.

• If I decide as a child that I am going to be a great leader, and eventually I become successful, fulfilled general or politician basking in public praise, I am a winner.

Winning script• If I decide to be a

millionaire, then I win if I grow up to be a happy, comfortable millionaire.

• If I decide to become a penniless hermit, and go on to become that hermit living happily in my cave, I am a winner.

• Winning is always relative to the goals I set for myself.

Losing script• A loser means

someone who does not accomplish a declared purpose.

• Once again, it is not just the accomplishment or otherwise that matters, but the degree of comfort that goes with it.

Losing script

• If I decide to become a great leader, join army and finish up being drummed out in disgrace, I am a loser.

• I am also a loser if I decide to be a millionaire, become one and feel perpetually miserable because of my ulcer and the pressure of business.

Losing scriptBerne was careful to define winner and loser in relation to accomplished declared purposes because he wanted to emphasize that winners are not simply to be equated with people who piled up material goods and money. Nor were losers necessarily those people who were short of material things.

Losing script

A losing script can be

broadly classified as

first, second and third

degree, according to

the severity of the

payoff.

Losing script

A first degree losing script

is one where the failures

and losses are mild enough

to be discussed in the

person's social circle. Ex :

Repetitive quarrels at work,

failure in exams etc.

Losing script

Second degree losers

experience unpleasant

script outcomes that are

serious enough to be

unacceptable topics for

social conversation. Ex :

fired from series of job,

hospitalized for severe

depression etc.

Losing script

• A third degree losing script culminates in death, serious injury or illness or a legal crisis.

• Third degree payoff might be imprisonment for stealing the firm’s funds, life long hospitalization for a psychiatric disorder or suicide after failing final examinations.

Losing script• We often use the term

harmartic to describe third degree losing scripts and their payoffs.

• The word is derived from the ancient Greek harmartia, meaning “a basic flaw”.

• It reflects the way in which a losing script, like an ancient Greek drama, seems to lead inexorably from the early negative decision to the tragic final scene.

Non Winning Script

• Someone with a non-winning script is a middle of the roader.

• He plods along from day to day, not making any big winds but not making any big losses either.

• He doesn’t take risk. This kind of script pattern is often called banal.

Non Winning Script• At work, a non-winner will

not become the boss. He will not be fired either.

• Instead, he will likely serve out his working years, be awarded a marble clock, and go into quiet retirement.

• He may sit in his rocking chair reflecting : “ I could have been the boss if only I did been the right place at the right time. Ah, well, I didn’t do so bad, I suppose.”

Winners, Losers and non winners• Berne suggested that you

could tell a winner from a loser by asking him what he would do if he lost.

• He said a winner knows but doesn’t talk about it.

• A loser doesn’t know and all he talk about is winning : ‘When I make my first million…’.

• He stakes everything on one option and that is how he loses.

Winners, Losers and non winners• A winner always has

additional options, and that is how he wins. If one thing doesn’t work out, he does something else until he is successful.

• A non-winner sometimes wins and sometime loses, but never very big in either direction, because he doesn’t take risks.

• He plays it safe, and that is how he remains a non-winner.

Thank You

Other TA topics available on slideshare1. Strokes - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/strokes-24081607.

2. Games People Play - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/psychological-games-people-play.

3. Structural Analysis - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/the-ego-state-model.4. What is TA? - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/what-ta-is5. Cycles of Development -

http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/cycles-of-developement-pamela-levin-transactional-analysis.

6. Stages of Cure - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/stages-of-cure.7. Transactions - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/transactions-33677298.8. Time Structuring - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/time-structuring.9. Life Position - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/life-position.10. Autonomy - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/autonomy-33690557. 11. Structural Pathology - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/structural-pathology.12. Game Analysis - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/game-analysis-33725636.13. Integrated Adult - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/integrated-adult.14. Stroke Economy - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/stroke-economy-33826702.