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Will power is a concept meaningful to individuals who find
themselves-driven to some form of self-destruction. Essentially, will power is
the contraposition of the Parent against the demands of the script.
Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) considers will power a
relatively useless concept. Living "a day at a time" is seen as far more
effective, and from the point of view of script psychology this approach makes
good sense. Living a day at a time reduces life to a long series of short-term
episodes which deprive the script of a matrix for development. This evens out
the odds in the contest between the script and will power and gives will power
an even chance.
Experience with well-advanced alcoholics indicates that the
tragic ending of the script has usually been temporarily interdicted by periods
during which will power seems to triumph over the script. The unfolding of this
apparent reversal of the script can be called the counterscript. The
counterscript as well as will power has their origin in the Parent.
On the stage, a tragedy to be intuitively effective depends
on the reflection of both these elements: the script, and a period during which
the hero seems to avert the tragic ending. In addition it seems essential for
intuitive effectiveness that neither the hero nor the audience believe that the
tragic ending has been truly averted.
To the therapist, whose task is to avert the tragic ending,
it is important to be able to distinguish between the unfolding of the
counterscript, and a cure. Structurally, script and counterscript are Parental
precipitates, and therefore superficially indistinguishable, but closer
scrutiny reveals important differences.
In the case of a non-masculinity script the structural
analysis is as follows. Consistent with the simplest Oedipal identification
scheme in which, for a boy, mother tells him what to do and father shows him
how, it is mother's Child (Cm) (Figure 1A) who "calls the shots". To Cm
masculine behavior is an omen of desertion. As a protection against the threat
of loneliness she marries a non-masculine male with whom she plays IFWY. As
their son begins to exhibit masculine behavior, Cm will react with swift
disapproval. From the point of view of learning psychology this reaction is
seen as negatively reinforcing. Negative reinforcement is known to be most
effective in shaping avoidant behavior extremely resistive to extinction.
Thus, mother's strong negative injunction ("Don't be a man")
causes the boy to avoid masculine behavior. The alternative to masculine
behavior is father's demonstration of how to be a non-man. Mother's Child (Cm)
becomes the boy's Parent (P1), and father's Adult ("Here is how") becomes the
boy's archaic Adult (A1) (Figure 1C).
During puberty and after, both mother's and father's Parents
(Pm and Pf) develop expectations of manhood from the boy ("Be a man"). In the
full-grown offspring this expectation becomes the Parent (P2) while the earlier
parental injunction ("Don't be a man") is lodged in C2 as P1.
Figure 1.
The script is determined by Pl and the counterscript by P2.
The script is pre-Oedipal, non-verbal, preconscious, visceral (gut level) while
the counterscript is post-Oedipal, verbal, conscious; and the former preempts
the latter.
The counterscript usually unfolds in early maturity; in the
case above described it takes the form of fairly successful sexual and athletic
activity. But-this counterscript lacked conviction and soon succumbed to
mother's injunction. In the case of alcoholics the script and counterscript
alternate with every binge.- It is important to emphasize the non-verbal nature
of the script. Typically, patients will deny that their parents gave them
certain injunctions. Typically, again, they will agree as soon as it is made
clear that these injunctions were probably non-verbal. The non-verbal nature of
the script dictates the basis for another important therapeutic maneuver: when
a patient is playing out a counterscript and is making a bid for its validity
as a cure ("Honestly Doc: I'll never touch another drop") the response of
choice is not verbal denial, but non-verbal head shaking.
The theory implies that there is a deep, primitive, visceral
discomfort associated with counterscript behavior, often placed by alcoholics
in the pit of the stomach. Consistent with this there is a deep primitive
visceral comfort associated with script behavior. Thus at the worst point of
alcoholic withdrawal one man heard his mother's voice saying: "Isn't this fun,
Jerry?". The postulate that the hangover is the alcoholic's payoff fits
squarely into script psychology. During the hangover the individual is given
temporary respite from the demands of his parent's Child; the hangover is the
epitome of acquiescence to the parental (P2 ) injunction.
As far as AA is concerned alcoholism is an incurable
disease; to the transactional analyst alcoholism is a script, and unless the
show is shut down it will draw to is inevitable tragic ending. Whether the
person drinks himself to death or becomes a "dry alcoholic” every waking
breath is drained of life by the relentless application of will power. Sobriety
is an AA goal but to the transactional analyst sobriety may mean "making
progress"; five years of progress are nullified in one binge.
For a cure to occur two elements seem of importance.
Permission to the Child not to follow the parental injunction, which in the
case of the alcoholic means permission not to drink and decontamination of the
Adult.
In the case of a 17 year old girl with a script that
demanded that she become pregnant and drop out of high school as an adaptation
to the injunction ("Don't outdo me"), permission was given "not to get pregnant
and to outdo-mother" through a strong, supportive, parental statement from the
therapist. Decontamination of the Adult was accomplished by cutting through a
number of erroneous ideas about the facts of conception by obtaining a
prescription for birth control pills. Almost immediately, joyful relief
followed. For the next weeks depression was evident but it slowly yielded as
the patient developed a course of life to replace the abandoned script.
A well elaborated counterscript can become the nucleus of
the new course-of life making it possible for some patients to go through this
therapeutic process with a minimum of depression.
Copyright © Claude Steiner, all rights
reserved.
About the
Author
 In 1966, at the time this
article's publication,
Claude Steiner, Ph.D., was Coordinator
of group therapy, Center for Special Problems, S.F.
*This article was
originally published in the Transactional Analysis Journal, vol.
5, no. 18, April, 1966, pp. 133-135.
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