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AUTHOR'S NOTE (1999)
The
following article was published in 1970 and is now part of early TA history. It
has not been changed from the original and should be viewed in its historical
context. In today's terminology, modern TA theory has departed from the use of
metaphors such as "witch" parent and "curses." When a person is in a child ego
state he may perceive his mother negatively as a "witch" and feel as if his
behavior is under the control of her "curse." But in modern day scientific
terminology we are more inclined to view negative family influences and the
childhood decisions that incorporate them in terms of the more objective
language of a person's life "script."
A fundamental premise of transactional
analysis (TA) theory is that you have three selves or "ego states": a Parent
(P), an Adult (A), and Child (C) ego state. The C of any person's parent
communicates "injunctions" to the growing-up child (which remains in the C of
the grownup), which may be unhealthy for the child's growth. My observation of
normal and disturbed adults in treatment suggests that when they were children,
transactions with parents were governed by the child's belief in the magical
(witch) power of the parent. Steiner (1969) and others have pointed out that
parents who seem reasonable and pleasant to our adult perceptions can be
perceived by their children as witches or ogres.
My examination of primitive families
(Campos, 1969) and American families of the traditional authoritarian kind
(Campos, 1970) reveals a strong belief in witchcraft or the attribution of
power to someone who uses it to influence, change, or transform the individual
in some way. I think this comes out of the kinds of transactions between
parents and their children. Parents use their authority to gain control by
conveying messages to their children that they have power of a magical kind
which they can wield over the powerless child. (James & Jongeward, 1969).
In my study of the traditional Spanish-American (SA) family, I find that the
parents use the "stern glance" to discipline offspring. The C in the SA adult
is then programmed with the belief in the power of such a glance to determine
health or sickness. It becomes the "evil eye" or
Mal Ojo. The C in an adult will also
set up transactions which are designed (magically) to give power to another
person to assume responsibility for him, control him, or heal him (this is
found in transactional games of the "Do Me Something-I'm Only Trying To Help
You" variety).
My earlier analysis of "bewitchment"
as practiced by non-literate cultures and latter-day faith healers (Campos,
1969) led to the following inferences:
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TA treatment provides an opportunity
for bringing the C of the client to the surface.
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The C still believes in magic. This
magical thinking is expressed in a variety of ways: (a) feelings by clients
that they are being mysteriously "brainwashed" or "hypnotized" by the therapist
in some way: (b) the expectation that somehow a "Santa Claus" will bring them
what they want without their having to do anything to attain it; (c)
superstitiousness. in the way clients look at cause-effect relationships; (d)
"magic wand" fantasies-attempting to change the unchangeable, such as mom or
dad's hangups; and (e) magical rescue fantasies-e.g., by staying sick, the C
will somehow get mom's love at last.
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Parental messages, from the C of the
parent, program the C of the growing child. Within the C ego state, the
conflict between the security attained from adapting to parent needs and need
for freedom creates a state of "tension" within the C that gets resolved by
"giving in" or "giving up" to the comfort or familiarity of the programmed
witch messages. :p>
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The C attributes great power to the
parent ("witch power") to which it acquiesces in early life choices.
-
Parental messages from the C of the
parent, when communicated with condemnation, carry the power of a "curse".
-
TA treatment can serve to break the
spell of this curse.
It can be shown that to the C in a
client, parental injunctions have a power and malignancy of supernatural
witchcraft and often are received as "curses" by the child. They are called
witch messages because they are communicated from the C of the parent below the
parent's A awareness and contradict the constructive messages from the P of the
parent. Hence, from the P of the parent, a child may be enjoined to grow up,
but from the C of the parent comes the witchy message, "Don't (please) ".
Witch messages often take the form
of prohibition injunctions: "Don't be (exist) "; "Don't be yourself (a man, a
woman, sexy, etc.)"; "Don't grow up"; "Don't make it (succeed) "; "Don't
enjoy"; "Don't feel"; and "Don't think". Simply put, the aim of these
injunctions is to not allow the C of a person to be free to make his own
decisions about how to live his life because such autonomy or permission to
have freedom of choice is perceived as a threat to the survival of the C in the
parent in some way. Thus, in the parental injunction, "Don't grow up", some
threat or deprivation is felt by the C of the parent should the child grow up,
i.e., feelings of isolation, desertion, or abandonment. As a security measure,
the witch message is programmed into the child. It is a gallows transaction, in
that by obeying the parental injunction the individual engages in behavior, or
plays transactional games with others, for the purpose of getting strokes to
please the witch mother. English (1969) calls it the
Hot Potato Game, in that the C in the parent, wishing to
avoid a tragic life-script outcome does so by passing on the curse to the child
with the message: "I will suffer unless you are sacrificed to me." Thus,
securing need satisfaction for the C of the parent sacrifices the child's own
needs. According to English, the basic message transmitted by the C of the
parent to the child is, "I bewitch you, to dewitch me."
Basic threats communicated to the
child by the C of the parent (often in alliance with the P of the parent) are:
threat of death over the child ("obey or die"); threat of abandonment; threat
of loss of love; and threat of disapproval.
These witch messages are primarily
motivated by the wants and feelings of the C of the parent. Thus, for "Don't be
(kill yourself)", the C of the parent says, in effect, "If you exist, you'll
threaten my survival!". For "Don't grow up", it might be "I'll feel abandoned
(I don't want to be left alone)". For "Don't make it", it might be "If you do,
I'll feel inferior". The jealous C of a parent may communicate the message
"Don't enjoy" with "If I don't enjoy, why should you?".
In treatment, the therapist can help the
client identify these "crazy" witch messages by proffering educated guesses,
fantasies or hunches. The client is always the final judge of the validity of
these inferences. Since injunctions are often communicated through the
non-verbal responses of discomfort or anxiety in the C of the parent, or in
subtle signals of approval and disapproval, the client may not initially
recognize the witch messages. With increased awareness he soon learns to
identify them and validate them.
Three clinical examples are cited
here to demonstrate how the C in clients still believes in witchcraft:
Case No. 1
Bob is a
16-year-old delinquent and methamphetamine user, with a history of runaway from
home and escape from institutions. He is currently living at home with
arthritic mother who twice married and divorced his quick-tempered, alcoholic
father. Throughout his childhood he was caught up in the marital hassles of his
parents. His father removed the child from the mother's home during periods of
separation when he was aged three, nine and eleven, and he identified his
father as the "villain" in his life drama. He was subjected to mother's fears
of father's belligerence as she fled from home at night with the child. He has
had asthmatic attacks since he was six, and, over the past few years, has been
on tranquilizers for a "nervous condition".
Treatment Contract: "I want to stop
being nervous all the time." Bob was involved in 15 hour-and-a-half TA group
treatment sessions in a Youth Authority institution for delinquent boys before
release to parole. A principal witch message came from the C of mother: "I'm
seared (for your safety), RUN." Father meanwhile provided Bob with the
program for his life course: through his own running away from life problems in
alcoholism, he showed Bob how to run,
In treatment [1], the C of Bob was surfaced and with it
many early memories of his desperate need to hide and terror of his father's
aggressiveness. Running became equated with feeling safe and protected in his
mother's arms. Even overtly, she would say to Bob on one of her visits: "If you
must continue to run, that's OK by me, if that's what you want. You'll get
caught anyway and be put back in the YA---at least then, you'll be safe."
Actually, Bob's running fulfilled the safety needs of the C in mother. When
confronted with the decision to not run anymore, Bob would feel the old
desperation, the terror of incipient danger.
When confronted
in treatment by the critical moment of decision to change, patients like Bob
tend to regress to a position of non-change or non-decision. In TA language,
this is a "cop-out" of the C who is still complying with the witch message.
Confronting such cop-outs helps to validate the analysis of the witch
message.
Case No. 2
Mary is a
29-year-old woman unhappy in her marriage. She reported that her husband, an
optometrist, invested his money in projects without including her in his
planning or communicating with her about his plans.
This left her with the feeling in
her C that, "Nobody ever listens to me" (communicated inaudibly). In a TA
marathon, she reported that her mom did not listen to her feelings, especially
during her early rivalry over possessions with her younger brothers. She came
to treatment feeling guilty whenever she wanted to do what she wanted. A
principal witch message read: "Don't want for yourself".
Treatment Contract: "I want to do what I
want without feeling guilty". Whenever Mary was about to make a decision based
on her wants, she would sense some incipient terrible consequence. As it turned
out, mom had communicated the premise (couched in a parental slogan): "You make
your bed, you lie in it." Mom, in a sense, predicted for the daughter what
would happen to her. Mary expressed this by stating she felt that whatever
happened to mom, would happen to her (mom had made an initial poor marital
choice and ended up with several divorces). Metaphorically speaking, mom had
given her a "witch's broom" to ride on throughout her life. As my co-therapist
[2] stated, her C was out to prove she was
as good a witch as mom.
In working towards the critical moment of
decision to give up this "witch's curse", the following series of transactions
were exchanged between co-therapists and client and illustrates again the C's
cop-out to the witch mother:
C: I want to make a decision-but I don't believe just
by doing that, I will make it come true.
T: You said you wanted to make a decision. OK.
When?
C: Now.
T: OK, what's your decision?
C: I can't.
T: Can't or won't?
C: Won't.
T: So again you settle for less than what you want for
you. How come?
C: I'm scared.
The cop-out of her frightened C indicates
how terrible her C believes the consequences could be to her if she should
assert her adult autonomy. Her reluctance to throw away her "witch's broom" at
this point is the C's avoidance of the decision to change. This copout served
so that she could hold on to old failure feelings, so that she could feel not
allowed to want for herself, and so that she could continue to find people who
would not listen to her. After being helped through the terror-associated
moment of decision, she threw away her witch's broom and her bewitchment. In
follow-up TA group sessions, the group members remarked on her changed
appearance: she seemed to grow with greater youth and beauty and felt more
confident in herself. Her self-change was surprising to her and she reported
that she felt "different". Her voice was now audible and others were listening
to her.
Case No. 3
Viola was a
45-year-old woman married to alcoholic husband. She was in treatment for ten
years prior to TA treatment with me. She came with a history of overconcern
with body dysfunction, a host of physical complaints, and hypochondriasis.
Medical confirmation was obtained to show benign breast cysts and benign
fibroadenoma of the uterus. These benign physical conditions were rendered
"malignant" through witch messages that programmed the C of the patient to
hold on to aches, pains, and worries
about her body. Mother died of
cancer at 60 and before her death often communicated concern about her body.
Father was a health buff and preached about health values throughout the
patient's childhood. The little girl in her came to treatment searching for a
"magic wand" that would do away with her chronic bad feeling. For years, she
sought therapy thinking that if she could only find out
why she ached and worried she would
be cured ("Maybe if I can know why I feel bad, I will feel good").
Treatment Contract: "I want to feel
good". Viola's C felt that whenever she felt good, something bad would happen.
Like other patients I have treated, she had a premonition that something bad
would happen if she felt good. In treatment, whenever she was on the verge of
achieving her contract, the little girl in her found something to feel bad
about. Like other patients, when
she sensed self-change, she became frightened and found herself copping out to
the old witch messages: "Feel bad. Worry about dying" ("If I can't feel good,
why should you"?).
To break the witch's curse, her cop-out was confronted as she
became alerted to these witch messages.
Viola became aware that whenever she found herself feeling good, she
would then begin to feel bad. Her magically-thinking C collected "evidence"
from critical moments, in her life that supported the witch's, curse: right
before her father died, she was feeling good; right before she suddenly had a
miscarriage, she had felt good, and so on. In treatment (with my protection),
she dared to challenge the curse and freed herself of her bad-feeling
rackets.:p>
In conclusion, the, C's magical thinking
can be used therapeutically by the therapist in counteracting destructive
parental injunctions from the C of the parent--just as it was the task of the
witch doctor in primitive and medieval times to ward off so-called "evil
spirits", The process of TA treatment gives the client permission to do what
his or her autonomous A wants rather than what the C in the parent wants. Once
liberated of witch-like life-script messages, the client is free to exert his
Adult power to further his own autonomous growth.
Footnotes
[1] Co-therapist was
Paul McCormick.
[2] Co-therapist was
Anita Roggenbuck, MSW.
REFERENCES
Campos, L.: "The Witch's Curse", paper
read at the annual meeting of the International Transactional Analysis
Association, Monterey, California, August 22, 1969.
Campos, L.: "Spanish-American Children of
Separation and Divorce", Children of
Separation and Divorce, L. Abt, ed., 1970.
English, Fanita: "Episcript and the Hot
Potato Game", TAB 8:77-82, 1969.
James, Muriel and Dorothy Jongeward:
Born to Win. Unpublished manuscript, 1969, later published by
Addison-Wesley, 1971.
McCormick, P. and
L. Campos:
Introduce Yourself to Transactional
Analysis. Transactional Pubs, Berkeley, California, 1969.
Steiner, C.:
Script Analysis in Alcoholism.
Unpublished manuscript, 1969, later published as
Games Alcoholics Play, by Grove
Press, 1971.
Copyright © Leonard
Campos, all rights reserved.
About the Author
Leonard Campos is
currently a staff psychologist for the California Youth Authority in
Sacramento, California. This article was first presented as a paper at the
annual meeting of the California State Psychological Association on January 16,
I970 at Monterey, California.
*This article was originally published as:
Campos, L. (1970). The transactional analysis of witch messages. Transactional
Analysis Bulletin, vol. 9, no. 34, pp. 51-57. |
