Life script

Definition

Prepared By Manu Melwin JoyResearch Scholar

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

Mail – manu_melwinjoy@yahoo.com

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Introduction

• You have written your own life story.

• You began writing it at birth.• By the time you were four

years old, you had decided on the essential details of the plot.

• As seven, you had completed your story in all its main details.

Introduction

• From then until you were about twelve years of age, you polish it up and added a few extras here and there.

• In adolescence, you revise your story updating it with more real life characters.

Introduction• Like all stories, your life

story has a beginning, a middle and an end.

• It has its heroes, heroines, villains, stooges and walk on characters.

• It has its main theme and sub plots.

• It may be comic or tragic, enthralling or boring, inspiring or inglorious.

Activity• Suppose of now, that you

have indeed written the story which is your own life.– What is the title of the

story?– What kind of story is it?

(Happy/Sad/Tragic/comic)– In a few sentence,

describe the closing scene of your story.

Life script• The theory of script was

developed by Eric Berne and his Co-workers, notably Claude Steiner, in the mid 1960’s.

• The concept of script has grown in importance as a part of TA theory, until now it ranks with the ego state model as a central idea of TA.

Definition

“Life script is an unconscious life plan.”

Eric BernePrinciples of Group Treatment

Definition

“A life plan made in childhood, reinforced by parents, justified by subsequent events, and culminating in a chosen alternative.”

Eric BerneWhat do you say after you say hello

Details of definition• Script is a life plan.• Script is directed

towards a payoff.• Script is decisional.• Script is reinforced by

parents.• Script is outside

awareness.• Reality is redefined to

justify the script.

Script is a life plan• The notion that people’s

grown up life patterns are affected by childhood experience is central to TA.

• Script theory suggests that child lays down a specific plan for her life, rather than simply a general view of the world.

• This life plan is laid out in the form of a drama, with a clear cut beginning, middle and end.

Script is directed towards a payoff• When the young child

writes his life drama, he writes the closing scene (Payoff) as an integral part of it.

• All the other parts of the plot, from the opening scene onwards, are then planned to lead up to this final scene.

• We are unawarely choosing behavior which will bring us closer to our script payoff.

Script is decisional• Child decides upon the life

plan. • Even different children

brought up in same environment may decide upon quite different life plans.

• The child’s script decisions are not made in the deliberate thinking way which we associate with adult decision making.

Script is reinforced by parents• From child’s earliest days,

parents are giving her messages, on the basis of which she forms conclusion about herself, others and world.

• These script messages are verbal and non verbal.

• They form the framework in response to which the child’s main script decisions are made.

Script is outside awareness• In grownup life, the

nearest we come to a memory of our earliest years is in dreams and fantasies.

• Unless we take time to work with and discover our script, we are likely to remain unaware of the early decision we made, even though we may be living them out in our behavior.

Reality is redefined to justify the script• We interpret reality in

our own frame of reference to justify our script decisions.

• We do this because, in our child ego state, we may perceive any threat to our script based view of the world as a threat to the satisfaction of our needs or even a threat to our survival.

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.

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