According
to Wikipedia, script analysis is the “method of uncovering the early decisions,
made unconsciously, as to how life shall be lived.”
Life
scripts are communicated to us by our parents or caretakers and society. In general, we act upon them
automatically until we encounter a snafu. Then we may examine the course of our
life and decide to follow or change the script to fit an inner sense of who we
are, somewhat like altering an item of clothing from “one size fits all.”
(I
became a pathologist because my parents didn’t want me to study psychiatry.
After altering my life script against my parents’ wishes, I felt free to be
true to myself and become a psychiatrist.)
Psychologist
Eric Berne, father of transactional analysis, studied the scripts we play out
in relationship with others, analyzing various problematic communications. For
example, when a person speaks to a peer as if he is the parent, instead of an
equal, he plays out a crossed transaction.
Someone
may unconsciously “act” or “operate” as if she is a mother figure to everyone.
Most likely this script was handed down, stemming from the role she was assigned
in her family. Awareness gives her choice and flexibility, to apply the script
or determine its inappropriateness in a given situation.
Although
Berne’s goal was to render a person “script-free,” later studies have
determined that we are really never script-free.
(For
example, the goal to live and think in the moment, with no interference from
the past is, in itself, a script.)
Scripts
indicate that to a greater or lesser degree, we are programmed by our
environment, a notion that contradicts the idea of free will. The role of our genetic constitution -and
its dynamic interaction with the environment- is complex and unfolds with time.
For
example, Mr. James Morris, a well-known English journalist, married and raised
a family. But he experienced himself as “wrongly equipped” and at age 46, had a
sex-change operation. He became the famous British travel writer Jan Morris. He
married first as a man, divorced, and re-married the same mate as a woman with
whom he has lived for over fifty years. (See “Love story: Jan Morris-Divorce, the death of a child and a sex change...but still together,” written by Andy
Smith in The Independent, June 4,
2008.)
Needless
to say, bringing scripts to our conscious awareness is a creative endeavor that
offers understanding and insight, and frees us from unnecessary self “blame.”
Conclusion:
The goal is to recognize the scripts handed to us in our developmental years
and modify them to suit our individual natures.
YOU ARE AS USUAL A GENIUS.!
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