Transactional Analysis Theory - The Script Apparatus

This blog comes from Ajit Karve, BSc, BTA, a Transformational TA Coach

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The Script Apparatus

Script Apparatus is the name for the seven elements that make up script.

1. The Payoff: This is the purpose for which scripted people work for. It is a psycho-cybernetic goal. It directs the direction, speed and pace of the script's progress. The script and its course is more rigidly controlled by the severity of the payoff.

2. The Injunction: This is the most important component of the script apparatus. The injunction can be a prohibitive message coming down from parents of its father and mother or from CP of its father and mother or from P₁ of its father and mother. These are shown in the diagram in figure 60.

The lethality of the injunction determines the lethality of the script. First degree injunctions are mild and speak about the child's qualities such as 'don't be mischievous or don't make trouble.' It does not impact seriously on the psyche of the child. Second degree injunctions have an emotional overload and are unreasonable. They have a threatening component  which limits the child's capacity for choice. They also impact the child's self image. "You good for nothing bum, keep your mouth shut." This could be accompanied by a vicious look. Third degree injunctions inflict fear in the child. They are very rough and harsh. Its features are contorted facial expressions, physical abuse and extracting compliance while dealing with the child.

Figure 60

3. The Provocation or the come-on: Seduction is another term describing provocation. Provocation is an inner urge, drive or impulse at a critical moment. It prompts or pushes a person to take a step or action or engage in an activity, that is unsafe and liable to cause harm. Come-on is a Parent voice whispering to the Child at the critical moment not to reason, question or ask. To the contrary, just act. The come-on acts like an electrode. The person jumps to activity in the service of his script spontaneously.

These three constitute script controls. They usually come from parent of the opposite sex. In men from their mother's Child* and in women from their father's Child#. This content * and # in turn is planted in their Child from their own opposite sex parent. Therefore in men it is from the mother's father's Child, i.e. of the maternal grand-father's Child and in the case women it is from the father's mother's Child, i.e. of the paternal grand-mother's Child.

The other items of the script apparatus are:

4. Prescription or Counter-script Slogans: Counter-script slogans or prescriptions come from the Nurturing Parent. These are messages that encourage their offspring to act and behave in ways which comply with their own view of the world. They are handed down later when children understand the meaning of the spoken word. They usually, though not always, come from the same sex parent. These prescription fit their view of the world and what brings success in their view. These prescriptions are about how to work, honesty, sincerity, interactions, decision making, health, safety provisioning, doing and not doing, and about the effects of the latter. Berne cites a caveat meant for poker players and I quote: "Never draw to an inside straight." It means that in a sequence of five cards if the middle card is missing, getting it is a long shot. The prescriptions are way beyond the child's comprehension at its age, but they structure the child's thinking, style and attitude later in life. Some examples are working hard, dressing well, reaching early to be punctual, saving for bad times, care in using public utilities, and about sex in later years.

5. Parental Patterns: Pattern is a life style based on parental instructions or examples. Father is relating something interesting, mother is listening with rapt attention and the child is watching them though it may not understand the contents. It picks up pattern through the facial expressions. These are also things parents speak about each other in terms of warning. Some examples: "Think man think." "Don't be stupid like your mother." "Don't gamble like your father." "Your father is very intelligent but does not make right choices - don't make wrong choices like your father." Notice in the second the child receives a permission to gamble but not like father. When the child grows up to be a working person - man or woman - he may throw away all these patterns and live his life on his own terms. This represents the anti-script. It occurs because the person, at the psychological level, has had enough of the script and counter-script directives to follow.

6. Demon: The demon represents the most archaic layer of personality. Though manifesting as an 'id impulse' the demon is phenomenologically experienced as a living voice. This voice is of one of the parents, though its origin is from the Child in the Child (C₁). Berne says that the demon is "the jester in human existence, and the joker in psychotherapy." Many a slips, carelessness, mistakes, getting late because of unrelated events, missing appointments, losing out on paying attention, delaying mortgage payments can be related to the demon's take over. This is revealed by a smile, a gleeful laugh, a ha-ha when the person remembers or the behaviour is confronted by another person.

7. Internal Release: Internal release is also called the spell breaker. It frees a person to fulfil his own autonomous aspirations. The lifting may be conditional, upon attaining a certain age, or upon the occurrence of an event, or on movement to a new phase of life or other similar. Some examples are: when you are forty, when your father dies, when you get married, when you meet the right girl / boy, when you learn a bitter lesson. These are also called anti-script. 

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