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The Script System: An Unconscious Organization of Experience

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Chapter 7

The Script System:

An Unconscious Organization of Experience

In early writings about Life Scripts, Berne (1958, 1961) describes the script
as a complex set of transactions that determines the identity and destiny of
the individual. He goes on to explain the script as similar to Freud’s repeti-
tion compulsion and more like his destiny compulsion (Berne, 1966, p 302).
Most of the Transactional Analysis literature regarding scripts has focused
on the historical perspective. The literature has addressed how scripts have
been transmitted through parental messages and injunctions, and a child’s
reactions, such as unconscious conclusions and explicit decisions. Addi-
tionally, some contemporary transactional analysts have examined several
processes such as early child-parent attachment, shared language acquisi-
tion, and the expression of narrative as central in the formation of scripts.
Each of these historical perspectives has provided the clinician with theo-
ries and concepts that have guided a variety of clinical interventions.

The Script System.

The script system was designed to provide a way to analyze how the script
is active in life today. Rather than taking an historical perspective, the
script system identifies how the decisions, conclusions, reactions, and/or
introjections are unconsciously operationalized in current life as core be-
liefs, overt behaviors, fantasies and obsessions, internal physical sensa-
tions, and reinforcing memories. The intrapsychic dynamics of the script
system serve to keep the original needs and feelings that were present at
the time of script formation out of awareness while also maintaining a sem-
blance of attachment with others. The Script System categorizes human
experience into four primary components: script beliefs; behavioral, fanta-
sy and physiological manifestations; reinforcing experiences; and the in-
trapsychic process of repressed needs and feelings ( Erskine, 1982/1997;
Erskine & Moursund, 1988/1998; Erskine & Zalcman, 1979/1997: Mour-
sund & Erskine, 2004).

Script Beliefs are the compilation of survival reactions, implicit experiential

conclusions, explicit decisions, self-protective processes, self-regulating
fantasies, relational coping strategies, and reinforcements that have oc-
curred in the process of relating to others over the course of one’s lifetime.
Script beliefs are often a condensed expression of an unexpressed life sto-

1
Chapter 7

ry. They represent, in one phrase, an elaborate, often unexpressed, narra-

tive. Script beliefs, which are usually not conscious, are the person’s
unique understandings and interpretations of the value of self, significant
relationships and life’s events. Script beliefs, in and of themselves, are not
pathological; rather, they represent a desperate, creative process of mean-
ing-making. They function to provide a sense of self-regulation, compensa-
tion, orientation, self-protection, and an insuring prediction of future rela-
tional interactions. They also self-define one’s integrity. In essence, script
beliefs provide an unconscious organization of experience.

These beliefs may be described in three categories: beliefs about self, be-
liefs about others, and beliefs about the quality of life. Once formulated
and adopted, script beliefs influence what stimuli (internal and external) are
attended to, how they are interpreted and whether or not they are acted on.
They become the self-fulfilling prophecy through which the person’s expec-
tations are inevitably proven to be true because they create a sequence of
“repetitious relational experiences” (Fosshage, 1992, p.34).

The script system is unconsciously maintained in order (a) to avoid re-ex-

periencing unmet needs and the corresponding feelings suppressed at the
time of script formation, (b) to generalize the unconscious experience of
self in relationship with others, (c) to create a homeostatic self-regulation,
(d) to provide a predictive model of life and interpersonal relationships (Er-
skine & Moursund, 1988/1998; Moursund & Erskine, 2004). Suppression,
generalization, self-regulation and prediction are important psychological
processes particularly relied upon when there is uncertainty, a crisis or
trauma. Although a previously created Life Script is often personally and
relationally destructive, it does provide psychological balance and ho-
meostasis; it maintains continuity with the past while it also provides the il-
lusion of predictability (Perls, 1944; Berne, 1964; Bary & Hufford, 1990).
Any disruption in self-regulation, interruptions in continuity or change in the
predictive model of the script system produces anxiety. To avoid such dis-
comfort, people organize current perceptions and experiences so as to
maintain a life script and to justify their behavior (Erskine, 1981; Erskine
and Trautmann, 1993/1997).

Insert Figure 1
In the case example that follows, John´s life story illustrates how his script
system was a repetition of his past and also how his script determined both
his identity and his relationships with people. In addition, his story illumi-

2
Chapter 7

nates how the quality of interpersonal contact in the therapeutic relationship

facilitated the client becoming conscious of his script beliefs and in making
significant changes in his life. As John´s narrative unfolds, look for the vari-
ous ways his five core script beliefs are portrayed in his behaviors, fan-
tasies, body tension, transference, and reinforcing memories. Each of
these expressions of a life script are often evident in the therapeutic rela-
tionship, either by observation or through transference, long before the ac-
tual words of the script beliefs are put into social language. Script Beliefs
are frequently expressed through the client’s unaware prefixes, parentheti-
cal phases or concluding statements to either a current or an old story.
Unconscious script beliefs are often observable through various expres-
sions, such as body posture and movement, forgotten appointments, mis-
placed objects, repeated physical injuries, or errors in reasonable judg-
ment. It is an essential task of the psychotherapist to decode the behav-
ioral, imaginative, transferential, and physiological expressions of a life
script. The decoding is accomplished through phenomenological and his-
torical inquiry, therapeutic inference within a developmental perspective
and a relational dialogue (Erskine, Moursund & Trautmann, 1999). As the
client´s life narrative is revealed in the therapeutic relationship, the script
beliefs are expressed, often without awareness, as a way to tell the con-
densed version of a significant emotionally-filled story of personal relation-
ships.

John’s Loneliness:
When John first came to therapy, he had no knowledge of how pervasive
his script system was in determining the course of his life. He was not par-
ticularly aware of his core beliefs, cognizant of his behavior and physiologi-
cal reactions, or conscious of his feelings and needs. He had only a gener-
al knowledge of his experiences as a child. He remembered the house he
lived in and the woods where he spent a lot of time playing with his dog.
His father had been a caretaker on a large estate and his only time with
other children was when he went to school. He remembered spending
hours walking in the woods. The one feeling he could identify was that he
was lonely a lot of the time. He said this as a factual statement with no ap-
parent affect present. John could not remember sensitive family interac-
tions such as gestures of caring, words of encouragement, or conversa-
tions about his feelings.

John had consulted with his primary care physician who referred him to
psychotherapy. John’s eyes focused either on the floor or the wall as he

3
Chapter 7

described the two major losses in the previous year – a divorce from his
wife and the death of his father. He reported that he kept busy at work ¨ in
order not to have my imaginations -- bad thoughts and feelings¨. “This is
what I have always done my whole life, just to keep going”, he told me.
When I asked him about his reason for coming to see me he said it was
because his doctor thought it might help him if he talked with someone
about his losses. I asked John how he understood psychotherapy to work
and John replied, “I have to build some strength to help myself”. He went
on to describe his father’s motto as “Keep a stiff upper lip and just do it”.
Over several sessions it became evident that John, in the process of grow-
ing up, came to the decision that to do whatever it was he needed to get
done, he had to be strong and follow his father’s advice.

In the intake interview, I asked a number of questions about John’s history

and family relationships. His answers were simple and direct about his
teenage years and either vague or non-existent when I asked about his
school and pre-school years. Although his answers in the initial interview
did not seem disorganized or contradictory, there appeared to be a signifi-
cant lack in his ability to form a consistent narrative about his early life ex-
periences and relationships. I wondered about the quality of his interper-
sonal relationships with each of his parents. I ended our initial session
thinking about what internal images John may have of significant others,
including extended family members and teachers and what internal influ-
ence those significant others my still have in his life. In our second session
I asked John to describe how he envisioned a therapeutic relationship with
me. He talked about his mistrust of therapists in general and he wasn’t
sure that any professional person could help him. I inquired about how he
experienced talking to me. He said that he thought that he “might be able
to trust” me but that I probably could “not be helpful” for some things that
had already happened. His body appeared very tense and he would look
at me periodically and then quickly look away. I told him that I understood
his reluctance to trust me and I assured him that, if he let me, I could most
likely help him resolve the emotional losses of his wife and father. I ex-
plained to John that, as he told me more about himself, the significance of
his losses would become clear to both of us. In my own mind I raised sev-
eral questions about what prior childhood losses may have occurred and
may not yet be available to consciousness, either because they were so
early or that they may never have been talked about with an interested and
involved other. Later, as our psychotherapy progressed, I thoroughly in-
quired about his early childhood and the quality of his significant relation-

4
Chapter 7

ships. In our first few sessions I realized the depth of John’s loneliness that
was portrayed in his descriptions of his childhood, his struggle to be with
me and by the fragmentary information he gave me about his family life
during his school and pre-school years. His lack of narrative about his fam-
ily life left me feeling an emptiness and wondering about the emotional ne-
glect that may have existed within his family. My countertransference was
already forming and informing. Over the next several sessions we estab-
lished our psychotherapy relationship. I focused on the qualities I could
bring to our therapeutic work: my unconditional regard for John, my com-
mitment to sustaining a relationship of quality between him and me, my
sense of presence in helping him to regulate his affect, and my interest in
the development of John’s narrative of his life.

In subsequent sessions he then went on to talk about how difficult it was for
him to understand that anyone could be interested in listening to him. He
did not have a frame of reference that included someone being there for
him and certainly not someone being interested and involved in his well-be-
ing. As I encouraged him to put words to his experiences with people he
said, “People are only interested in themselves”. Often as I sat and lis-
tened attentively, he would say that he could not comprehend how I could
listen to his ‘rhetoric’. My responses were to tell him that I wanted to listen
to him, to everything he said, to his emotions and even to his silences. I
wanted to hear about his experiences. I wanted to be there with him and
for him. In the following session I encouraged John to tell me more about
his term ‘rhetoric’. My phenomenological and historical inquiry guided him
into a memory of being at the dinner table with his parents. John remem-
bered that he had started to tell his parents about making a speech in his
third grade class that day. His father responded with, “That’s just a bunch
of rhetoric” and his mother remained silent. He was devastated by his fa-
ther’s remarks as well as his mother’s non-involvement. John, like his
mother, went silent; he had never spoken to anyone about this memory.
When I responded compassionately, John spontaneously remembered an-
other time; when driving to his grandparents’ house, he had started to tell
his parents about a new friend he made that day in school. His father’s
immediate response was that “Friends don’t stay around, so don’t get too
excited”. In both of these instances, John’s experiences of excitement and
joy were dismissed. As he finished these two stories, I inquired about what
he was feeling. He gave what I later discovered to be his typical answer,
an “OK”. He said that his father’s remarks didn’t bother him. I told him that
I was feeling sad for a little boy who compensated by saying it was ¨OK¨

5
Chapter 7

when it was not. I reiterated that he had been excited about his third grade
speech and about finding a new friend. I expressed that I was excited for
him as that little boy. After a few minutes of silence, John responded with
the wish that his mother could have said those words to him. He said, “No
one is ever there for me”. I again said that I was glad for him as a little boy
who was excited about his speech and finding a new friend. I also told him
that I was quite sad to hear that no one had been excited for him. In doing
so, I identified the sadness about which John could not speak. Together we
acknowledged his sense that in these two instances no one was emotional-
ly present for him and that he was deeply sad. In the last half of the ses-
sion I had him imagine giving his third grade speech in front of the class-
room. He described showing a picture of a bear to his class. He was again
excited as he fantasized telling his fellow students about the way bears hi-
bernate in the winter. This eight year old boy had interesting information
about the habits of bears and he wanted to share it with the class. I also
imagined being in his classroom listening with interest to his presentation,
much as a proud parent or good teacher might do. When he was finished, I
voiced my excitement about his enthusiastic presentation. Although I could
not satisfy his archaic needs to define himself, to make an impact on oth-
ers, and to be acknowledged for his accomplishments, I did validate these
as important relational-needs of the eight year old boy as well as the cur-
rent needs of a mature man. He looked at me and smiled. His body pos-
ture relaxed as he sighed. Phenomenological inquiry, developmental at-
tunement, and my emotional involvement were deepening our connection
and providing an opportunity for him to talk about his memories, feelings
and physical sensations. I was forming an understanding of the meanings
John made of these memories and how he unconsciously organized his life
experiences.

During the next few sessions it became clear that John’s childhood experi-
ences were organized around his beliefs about self : “No one is ever there
for me”, “I have to do everything myself” and “My feelings don’t matter”. His
motto, which he manifested in his day-to-day activities, was “Work hard and
don’t complain”. I realized that this motto was a derivation of his father’s
“Keep a stiff upper lip and just do it.” Together we continued to identify how
active these three core beliefs were in determining his behaviors, both
when he was alone and when he was with other people. In every situation
he was convinced that he had to do things all by himself because no one
would be there to help him; “People are only interested in themselves”. His
orientation of self-in-relationship-with-others, which originated in his rela-

6
Chapter 7

tionships with his parents, was being repeated with everyone in his adult
life.

I continually inquired about his life. Unemotionally, John talked about how
his father never showed any interest in playing or talking with him. John
had no siblings and the only children he spent time with were those at
school. He spent a lot of time on his swings or with his dog. He reported
spending hours alone in the woods on the estate. When asked about each
of these experiences he could not identify any feelings. His affect was, at
best, flat and often non-existent. As he continued in therapy, John began to
talk more frequently about his memories. He was able, through my phe-
nomenological inquiry, to discover his feelings of sadness and loneliness.
Several times he was surprised at the extent of his feelings and that he was
telling me about how he managed his loneliness. As a child he had never
thought to go to his parents; he was certain that they would be neither emo-
tionally present nor interested in him. He never got angry or complained.
He repeatedly experienced that protest or complaints ¨only made matters
worse¨. He had no memories of his mother ever complaining about his fa-
ther’s constant criticism of everyone or his lack of interest in either her or
John. ¨She appeared sad a lot of the time¨ but neither she nor his father
talked about what she was feeling. On many occasions he saw his father
¨shut down when any feelings started to surface¨, ¨Feelings were never
talked about¨. He learned early on that any sadness he expressed was
identified as tiredness by his mother. Anger was not to be voiced. Loneli-
ness was his secret!

John recalled how even with his former wife he never talked about his lone-
liness. Several times I inquired about his experience in the marriage. He
described how his wife was “only interested in herself” and repeated his be-
lief, ¨my feelings don’t matter¨. He later connected both of these script be-
liefs to his mother having told him that he was ¨a burden¨ when he was a
young child. She never explained how he was a burden; that was left to his
imagination. He fantasized that he had been too active and too emotional
for her. He realized he had always expected that his wife would also say
that he was too emotional for her, so he told her nothing of his feelings.

As John’s therapy continued, I strove to establish an attuned and involved

relationship that provided security for him to remember many never talked
about childhood memories, to sense his physical tensions and related ex-
periences, to identify relational-needs, and express a whole range of feel-

7
Chapter 7

ings. I became the “one there” to counter his belief, “no one is ever there
for me”. In order to facilitate John’s becoming conscious of his childhood
experiences, he and I were engaged in a dialogue that gave validation of
his feelings, reactions, and coping skills he used as a child. As a preschool
and school-age child he neither had the concepts, necessary language
skills, nor parental encouragement to talk about his feelings. His mother
and father did not engage him in dialogues wherein he could express him-
self. Because there was no relational language in the family, his emotional
experiences were never acknowledged; they remained unconscious.

Prior to psychotherapy, John’s explicit memories were few. His feelings,

fantasies, bodily sensations, and significant experiences were not part of
any conversation. In our psychotherapy, I continually inquired about John’s
bodily sensations and the extent of his beliefs about himself, others and the
quality of his life. I listened to the nuances of his sadness and comforted
him with compassion and validation. I encouraged him to take deep
breaths and to let out the sounds and tears of his sadness. He repeatedly
cried about how “Life is lonely”. When he was angry I maintained a space
for him to talk about his anger and to seriously attend to how he both expe-
rienced it in his body and also attempted to “shut down” like his father. As
John struggled to articulate the narrative of his life he had my constant at-
tention; he was validated and accepted by me. We often focused on how
John used his script beliefs as an organizing schema both to create mean-
ing and to reaffirm his childhood identity. We identified his repetitive behav-
iors, explored his fantasies, and clarified the function of his various script
re-enforcing experiences. As a result, John was increasingly able to own
his feelings, identify his relational-needs, and express his own uniqueness.
.
While spending many hours as a child without companionship, John fanta-
sized himself doing things all alone but reaping appreciation from others for
what he accomplished. In his play with toy soldiers, he imagined himself
returning from war as a hero, greatly admired and cheered by all the peo-
ple. As an adult, whenever he did something he waited for the ‘cheers’ that
never came. A frequently re-occurring dream involved scenes of John
walking with his father on one side of him and his mother on the other.
They are all holding hands and listening to John as they walk together in
the woods. The dream would abruptly end and he would be flooded with
sadness. Each of these failed fantasies and interrupted dreams reinforced
his script beliefs and childhood sense of being all alone.

8
Chapter 7

As we discussed his loneliness and his mother’s lack of emotional contact

with him, John remembered a man who worked with his father. Ted had
kind eyes and was interested in what John was doing. Ted would stop
working and talk with John. Sometimes Ted would share his lunch with
John and entertain him with stories about being in the army during the war.
Then, one day, John found out that Ted had been seriously injured on the
job and that he would not be coming back to work. He never saw Ted
again. In response to John’s missing Ted, his father gruffly told him that
Ted was lazy and deserved to get hurt. John wept as he described how
Ted would listen to him. He continued to weep while talking about the
wooden gun that Ted had carved for him.

In the next session we explored how his earlier script conclusion made in
reaction to his parents’ behavior and lack of emotions had become rein-
forced when his friend Ted disappeared. That early childhood conclusion,
“No one is EVER there for me”, was cemented into a formidable life script
with this reinforcing experience. I challenged the “No one will EVER be
there for me” with the question “Ever?” I then had him close his eyes, look
at the image of Ted and to talk to Ted about how he had been so significant
in his life. After this emotion filled experience, John was able to retain a
memory of his connection with Ted. He later referred to his relationship
with Ted, ¨At least someone was once there for me¨. John’s life script was
changing.

One day he came into session and said that he had a new dream. He was
in the woods near my office and this time he was with someone. They
were talking and laughing together. He did not know who was in the dream
yet he knew he liked the person. I asked him what the dream meant to him
and he said that “maybe this is what is in the future for me”. He smiled
slightly and then gave a big, relaxing sigh. I asked, “What do you experi-
ence with that sigh?” “I went through a lot”, John answered. “Now I do not
feel so crazy and so alone anymore. My body is not as tense as it used to
be”. He then went on to talk about his father and his wish that his father
were still alive so that he could “now have a real relationship”.

As John’s therapy continued, he developed a new sense of self. After two

years, he was able to articulate the narrative of his life script. His script be-
liefs were no longer active; he changed many of his behaviors and he was
expressive of his feelings. He understood and appreciated the coping, self-
protective functions that his script beliefs once served him. John took the

9
Chapter 7

quality of our interpersonal therapeutic relationship as a model in forming

meaningful work and social relationships. He began meeting regularly with
his mother and their new relationship became increasingly satisfying. He
no longer felt driven to keep busy all the time to avoid his feelings. After a
vacation, he reported that he thoroughly enjoyed relaxing and doing noth-
ing. He said, “I no longer feel lonely”.

The Theory into Practice.

When under stress, or when current relational needs are either not re-
sponded to or satisfied in adult life, explicit and/or implicit memory, physio-
logical reactions or explicit decisions may be stimulated. A person is then
likely to engage in compensating behaviors and/or fantasies that, in turn,
distract from the internal emotionally-laden experience by verifying script
beliefs. These compensating behaviors and fantasies are referred to as
the script displays. These script displays include any observable behav-
iors, such as choice of words, sentence patterns, tone of voice, displays of
emotion, and/or gestures and body movements, that are the direct displays
of the script beliefs and the repressed needs and feelings (an intrapsychic
process). People usually act in a way defined by their script beliefs, such
as John never asking friends for help even in situations where it was need-
ed, believing “I have to do everything myself.” As a result, his friends nei-
ther knew what he needed nor offered to help. The absence once again of
his friends offering or providing help reinforced the script beliefs “I have to
do myself” and “People are only interested in themselves”.

Script beliefs may also be displayed through the absence of situationally

appropriate behavior, such as the lack of eye contact or the socially typical
expression of emotions in intimate interpersonal communications. John’s
lack of eye contact in his earlier sessions and the absence of natural emo-
tional expressions are two examples of how an internal script belief will be
externally displayed. Both of these types of behaviors emanated from the
script beliefs “No one is ever there for me” and “My feelings don’t matter”.
Each of these behaviors also serves to reinforce the script beliefs because
they interrupted important interpersonal contact. Figure 2 is a diagram of
the intrapsychic and behavioral dynamics of John’s script system.

Insert Figure 2
As part of the manifestation of the script, individuals may have physiologi-
cal reactions in addition to, or in place of, the overt behaviors. Often, these
internal experiences are not readily observable; nevertheless, the person

10
Chapter 7

can give a self-report on bodily sensations such as fluttering in the stom-

ach, muscle tension, headaches, colitis, or any of a myriad of somatic re-
sponses to the script beliefs. In John’s situation, his body tension was eas-
ily observable and reflected all three of his script beliefs. Careful attention
to John’s body sensations, such as his erratic breathing and muscle ten-
sion, was essential in helping him experience the existence and depth of
his affect.

The manifestation of the script also includes fantasies in which the individ-
ual imagines behaviors, either his/her own or someone else’s. These fan-
tasized interpersonal interactions and the quality of the outcome lends sup-
port to script beliefs. Fantasized behaviors function as effectively as overt
behaviors (in some incidences even more effectively) in reinforcing the
script beliefs and keeping the original needs and feelings out of awareness.
At the beginning of his psychotherapy, John reported that he kept busy at
work in order to avoid his “imaginations, bad thoughts and feelings”. With
consistent phenomenological inquiry about the full nature of his imagina-
tions and “bad thoughts”, it later became apparent that the content of his
fantasy about his former wife and father actually functioned to confirm his
beliefs “No one is ever there for me” and “My feelings don’t matter” and
“People are only interested in themselves”. His fantasies were an elabora-
tion of what he already believed. Fantasies act within the script system ex-
actly as though they were events that had actually occurred. An under-
standing of how fantasy reinforces script beliefs is particularly useful to
psychotherapists in organizing the psychotherapy for clients who engage in
obsession, habitual worry, and fantasies of abandonment, persecution or
grandeur (Erskine, 2002). As we explored John’s childhood fantasies of
being a hero and his current fantasies of being admired, the content of
these fantasies did not directly reinforce his script beliefs. But, when he
compared his wonderful fantasies with his actual reality in which no one
cheered or listened to him, the contrast provided evidence that “No one is
ever there for me”.

Any script manifestation can result in a reinforcing experience - a subse-

quent event that “proves” that the script belief is valid and, thus, justifies the
behavior. Reinforcing experiences are a collection of affectively-laden
memories, either implicit or explicit, either real or imagined, of other peo-
ple’s or one’s own behavior, a recall of internal bodily experiences, or the
retained remnants of fantasies or dreams. John clung to the memory of his
mother’s silence and his father’s criticism of his school story as “a bunch of

11
Chapter 7

rhetoric”. He often recalled that event both at work and during his therapy
when he was about to say something important. Retaining that selected
memory and repeating it many times served to reinforce his script belief,
“My feelings don’t matter”. John’s frequent memories of the loss of Ted and
his father’s pessimistic comment “Friends don’t stay around” were often in
John’s mind. These repeated memories served to continually reinforce his
script belief “No one is there for me”.

Because of the homeostatic self-stabilizing function of Life Scripts, reinforc-

ing experiences serve as a feedback mechanism to further strengthen
script beliefs and to prevent cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1958). Only
those memories that support the script beliefs are readily accepted and re-
tained. Memories that negate the script beliefs tend to be rejected or for-
gotten because they would challenge the beliefs and the whole self-regulat-
ing, homeostatic process.

The intrapsychic process of repressed needs and feelings are an uncon-

scious accumulation of intense affects experienced over time when crucial
physiological and relational-needs were repeatedly not satisfied. These
feelings and needs are usually not conscious because the memory is either
implicit, traumatically dissociated or reflects a repressed explicit experi-
ence. Also, the biological imperative of both physiological and relational-
needs is not conscious, particularly in infants and young children. Often
clients in psychotherapy gain awareness of these needs and feelings in the
secure, reliable and respectful therapeutic relationship where there is suffi-
cient affective and rhythmic attunement accompanied by a nonjudgmental
phenomenological inquiry (Erskine, 1993/1997). John could speak of his
loneliness early in therapy but it was a long while before he could express
the depth of his sadness or even talk about being angry at his parents’ re-
fusal to talk about emotions as well as the absence of intimacy. He was
eventually able to identify and articulate his needs in relationship with peo-
ple. Five unrequited relational-needs were evident in John’s narrative: to
be validated and acknowledged; to rely on someone; to have companion-
ship; to define one’s self; to make an impact on others. Awareness of these
crucial needs and feelings was no longer repressed by his script beliefs nor
distracted by his behaviors or fantasies.

Script beliefs are a creative attempt to make sense of the experiential con-
clusions (usually non-conscious), explicit decisions and coping reactions.
Script beliefs serve to cognitively mediate against the awareness of the in-

12
Chapter 7

tense feelings that the person lived during script formation. This cognitive
mediation distracts from an awareness of both current relational-needs and
the developmentally crucial physiological and relational-needs. The in-
tense affects and needs may remain as fixated, implicit memories until life
altering experiences or an effective therapeutic relationship facilitate inte-
gration. Prior to psychotherapy, John was perpetually immersed in his
loneliness. The dream wherein he was walking with a friend near his ther-
apist’s office demonstrates the life altering effectiveness of an involved
therapeutic relationship. John’s life script of loneliness was coming to an
end.

Each person’s set of script beliefs provides a subjective self-regulating

mental framework for viewing self, others and the quality of life. In order to
engage in a manifestation of the script, individuals must discount other op-
tions; they frequently will maintain that their behavior is the “natural” or
“only” way they can respond. When used socially, script manifestations are
likely to produce interpersonal experiences that, in turn, are governed by
and contribute to the reinforcement of script beliefs. This cybernetic closed
system provides a homeostasis, thus each person’s script system is self-
regulating and self-reinforcing through the operation of its four interrelated
and interdependent subsystems: script beliefs; behavioral, fantasy and
physiological manifestations; reinforcing experiences; and repressed needs
and feelings. The unconscious script system serves as a distraction
against awareness of past experiences, relational-needs and related emo-
tions while simultaneously being a repetition of the past. The script system
represents the client’s unconscious organization of experience and pro-
vides a useful blueprint to help the psychotherapist and client understand
how the Script is lived out in current life.

A cybernetic system such as the Script System is made up of “a set of

components or parts that interact to form an organized whole” (Piers, 2005,
p.230). Therefore, a change in one of the parts or subsystems will effect a
dynamic change in the whole system. By therapeutically attending to phys-
iological sensations and bodily experiences, behaviors and the functions of
behaviors, fantasies and dreams, conscious and unconscious (implicit)
memories, affects and relational-needs, and the client’s core beliefs about
self, others and the quality of life, the psychotherapist facilitates changes in
the various subsystems that comprise the Life Script. Hence, the more ar-
eas attended to in the process of psychotherapy, the more likely we will fa-
cilitate a “script cure” (Erskine, 1980/1997).

13
Chapter 7

References

Bary, B., & Hufford, F. (1990). The six advantages to games and their use
in treatment planning. Transactional Analysis Journal, 20, 214-220.

Berne, E. (1958/1976). Transactional analysis: A new and effective meth-

ods of group therapy. In E. Berne (Ed.), Beyond Games and Scripts. New
York: Grove Press. (Original 1958, American Journal of Psychotherapy).

Berne, E. (1961). Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy: A Systematic

Individual and Social Psychiatry. New York: Grove Press.

Berne, E. (1964). Games people play: The psychology of human relation-

ships. New York: Grove Press.

Berne, E. (1966). Principles of group treatment. New York: Grove Press.

Erskine, R. G. (1980/1997). Script cure: Behavioral, intrapsychic, and

physiological. In R.G Erskine, Theories and Methods of an Integrative
Transactional Analysis: A Volume of Selected Articles (pp. 151-155). San
Francisco,CA: TA Press. (Original work published 1980. Transactional
Analysis Journal, 2: 102-106.

Erskine, R.G. (1981, April). Six reasons why people stay in script. Lec-
ture. Professional Training Program, Institute for Integrative Psychothera-
py, New York.

Erskine, R. G. 1982/1997). Transactional Analysis and family therapy. In R.

G. Erskine, Theories and Methods of an Integrative Transactional Analysis:
A Volume of Selected Articles (pp.174-207). San Francisco,CA: TA Press.
(Original work published in A.M. Horne & M.M. Ohlsen (Eds.), Family
Counseling and Therapy (pp.245-275), Itasca, IL: F.E. Peacock
Publishers,1982.

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Chapter 7

Erskine, R.G. (1993/1997). Inquiry, attunement and involvement in the

psychotherapy of dissociation. In R.G. Erskine, Theories and Methods of
an Integrative Transactional Analysis: A Volume of Selected Articles (pp.
37-45). San Francisco,CA: TA Press. (Original work published 1993.
Transactional Analysis Journal, 23: 185-190.

Erskine, R.G. (2002). Bonding in relationship: A solution to violence.

Transactional Analysis Journal, 32: 256-260.

Erskine, R.G. & Moursund, J.P. (1988). Integrative Psychotherapy in Ac-

tion. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. (Reprinted 2011, Karnac
Books, London)

Erskine, R.G., Moursund, J.P., & Trautmann, R.L. (1999). Beyond Empa-
thy: A Therapy of Contact-in-Relationship. Philadelphia: Brunner/Mazel.

Erskine, R.G., & Trautmann, R.L. (1993/1997). The process of integrative

psychotherapy. In R.G. Erksine, Theories and Methods of an Integrative
Transactional Analysis: A Volume of Selected Articles (pp.79-95). San
Francisco,CA: TA Press. (Original work published in B.B. Loria (Ed.), The
Boardwalk Papers: Selections from the 1993 Eastern Regional Transac-
tional Analysis Conference (pp. 1-26), Madison, WI: Omnipress, 1993.

Erskine, R.G. & Zalcman, M.J. (1997). The racket system: A model for
racket analysis. In R.G. Erskine, Theories and Methods of an Integrative
Transactional Analysis: A Volume of Selected articles (pp. 156-165). San
Francisco,CA: TA Press. (Original work published 1979. Transactional
Analysis Journal, 9: 51-59).

Festinger, L. (1958). The motivating effect of cognitive dissonance. In G.

Lindzey (Ed.), Assessment of Human Motives. New York: Rinehart.

Fosshage, J.L. (1992). Self-psychology: The self and its vicissitudes within
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tives in Psychoanalysis (pp.21-42). Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.

Moursund, J.P. & Erskine, R. G. (2004).Integrative Psychotherapy:The Art

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Learning.

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Chapter 7

Perls, F.S. (1944). Ego, Hunger and Aggression: A Revision of Freud’s

Theory and Method. Durban, South Africa: Knox Publishing.

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logues.15(2): 239-254.

This chapter was coauthored with Marye O’Reilly-Knapp, PhD.

Copyright (2010) by Karnac Books: London. Reprint by permission of Karnac Books.
Citation for the original chapter is: O’Reilly-Knapp,M. & Erskine, R.G. (2010). The Script
System: An Unconscious Organization of Experience. In R.G. Erskine (Ed.) Life Scripts:
A Transactional Analysis of Unconscious Relational Patterns,
p.291-308. London: Karnac Books.

SCRIPT SYSTEM

SCRIPT SCRIPT REINFORCING

BELIEFS/FEELINGS DISPLAYS EXPERIENCES

Beliefs About: Observable Behaviors

Current Events
Self (stylized, repetitive)
Others
Quality of Life Old Emo-
tional
Reported Internal Memo-
ries
Experiences
(somatic ailments,
physical sensations)

Fantasies Result of Fantasies

16
Chapter 7

(Intrapsychic process)
(Provide Evidence and Jus-
tification)

Needs and Feelings

Repressed at the
Time of Script Decision

Figure 1
The Script System
____________________________________________________________
__________________________

This diagram is out of alignment ...The correct on in in Chapter 13 of the Life Scripts
book published by Karnac. It must be in your files. I do not know how to move a dia-
gram or convert a pdf file.
JOHN’S SCRIPT SYSTEM

SCRIPT SCRIPT REINFORCING

BELIEFS/FEELINGS DISPLAYS EXPERIENCES

Beliefs About: Observable Behaviors

Current Events

Self
No one is ever there for me. Absence of emotional expression
No emotional conversation with
I have to do everything in interpersonal communication. wife.
myself. Lack of eye contact. Wife di-
vorcing.
My feelings don’t matter. Observable body tension.
Father dying.
Works hard. Little emotional
contact with
No complaints.
mother.
Others “Just keep on going.” No
help from friends.

17
Chapter 7

People are only interested Therapists “not helpful”.

in themselves. Struggles to be with therapist.

Old Emotional
Memories
Quality of Life Mother and fa-
ther “don’t get
Life is lonely. Reported Internal ex-
cited”, “don’t get angry”.
Experiences Protesting made
matters worse.
Muscle tension. Mother: “You
were a burden.”
Erratic breathing. Sadness identi-
fied by mother
as tired-
ness.
Mother
remembered as silent
(Intrapsychic process) and
non-involved.
Father critical of
everyone.
Repressed Feelings Loss of
Ted.
Lonely Awareness of
muscle tension of Sad
“I have to do everything myself.”
Angry

Repressed Needs Fantasies Result of

Fantasies
To be validated and As child: Being a “hero”.
No actual appreciation for
acknowledged. Getting appreciation from others.
being a hero.
To rely on someone. (Dream) Holding hands and talking No
actual holding of hands
To have companionship. abruptly ends.
and talking.

18
 Chapter 7

To define one’s self. As an adult: Being admired by others.

Waits for admiration.
To make an impact. Imagining wife being interest-
ed in only Many examples of wife’s
herself. interest only
in herself.
Exaggerating father’s criticisms. Fa-
ther: “a bunch of rhetoric”
“I’m too active and emotional for and
“friends don’t stay
mother.” around”.

Figure 2
John’s Script System
____________________________________________________________
__________________________

19

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