Life Scripts: A Transactional Analysis of Unconscious Relational Patterns

337 Pages·2010·1.37 MB·English

by  Richard G. Erskine

CHAPTERTITLE I
LIFE SCRIPTS

LIFE SCRIPTS
A Transactional Analysis
of Unconscious
Relational Patterns
edited by
Richard G. Erskine
First published in 2010 by
Karnac Books Ltd
118 Finchley Road, London NW3 5HT
Copyright © 2010 to Richard G. Erskine for the edited collection, and to the
individual authors for their contributions.
The rights of the contributors to be identified as the authors of this work
have been asserted in accordance with §§ 77 and 78 of the Copyright
Design and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the
prior written permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A C.I.P. for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 85575 662 5
Edited, designed and produced by The Studio Publishing Services Ltd
www.publishingservicesuk.co.uk
e-mail: [email protected]
Printed in Great Britain
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CONTENTS
ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS vii
FOREWORD xiii
CHAPTER ONE
Life scripts: unconscious relational patterns 1
and psychotherapeutic involvement
Richard G. Erskine
CHAPTER TWO
The lived and narrated script: an ongoing narrative 29
construction
Maria Teresa Tosi
CHAPTER THREE
When parting is not such sweet sorrow: “Mourning and 55
melancholia”, projective identification, and script analysis
Helena Hargaden
CHAPTER FOUR
Script or scripture? 73
Jo Stuthridge
v
vi CONTENTS
CHAPTER FIVE
Whose body is it? Somatic relations in script and 101
script protocol
William F. Cornell
CHAPTER SIX
The “three ways out”: escape hatches 127
Ian Stewart
CHAPTER SEVEN
From a child psychiatry practice 151
James R. Allen
CHAPTER EIGHT
The individual in context: how do I fit in around here? 179
Rosemary Napper
CHAPTER NINE
Scripts: then and now 203
Claude Steiner
CHAPTER TEN
It takes a lifetime to play out a script 217
Fanita English
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Life scripts: an existential perspective 239
Birgitta Heiller and Charlotte Sills
CHAPTER TWELVE
Transgenerational scripts: the unknown knowledge 269
Gloria Noriega
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The script system: an unconscious organization 291
of experience
Marye O’Reilly-Knapp and Richard. G. Erskine
INDEX 309
ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS
James Allen received his BAand MD degrees from the University
of Toronto. His psychiatric training was at McGill University;
Baylor Medical College; and Harvard Medical School. A fellow of
the Royal College of Physicians, Canada, he is certified in both
general and child-adolescent psychiatry by the American Board of
Psychiatry and Neurology. He is Professor, Vice Chair, and the
Rainbolt Family Chair in the Department of Psychiatry and
Behavioral Sciences at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences
Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He is a workshop leader and the
author of several papers and books, including Therapeutic Journey:
Practice and Life, written with his late wife, Barbara Allen.
William F. Cornell, MA, TSTA, has published numerous journal
articles and book chapters, many exploring the interface between
TA, body-centred, and psychoanalytic modalities. Cornell is editor
of the ITAA Script newsletter and co-editor of the Transactional
Analysis Journal. He is the editor of The Healer’s Bent: Solitude and
Dialogue in the Clinical Encounter, the psychoanalytic writings of
James McLaughlin, for which Bill wrote the introduction; with
Helena Hargaden he is co-editor of From Transactions to Relations:
vii
viii ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS
The Emergence of Relational Paradigms in Transactional Analysis. He is
the author of Explorations in Transactional Analysis. Bill maintains an
independent private practice of therapy, consultation, and training
in Pittsburgh, PA.
Fanita English is a Teaching Member of the International Trans-
actional Analysis Association. She has a Diploma in Psychology
from the Sorbonne University, (Paris) and an MSW from Bryn
Mawr College, Pennsylvania. She had psychoanalytic training at
Paris Psychoanalytic Institute and the Chicago Institute for Psycho-
analysis, as well as Gestalt therapy training with Fritz Perls. She
founded the Eastern Institute for TAand Gestalt in Philadelphia in
l970. Since l981, she has been conducting workshops at various
institutes and universities in Western Europe. She has written four
books in German, two in French, one in Italian, and has contributed
many articles and chapters in books in English.
Richard G. Erskine has been the Training Director at the Institute
for Integrative Psychotherapy in New York City since 1976. He is a
licensed clinical psychologist, licensed psychoanalyst, certified clin-
ical transactional analyst (trainer and supervisor), a certified group
psychotherapist, and a UKCP and EAPAcertified psychotherapist.
He is the author of numerous articles on psychotherapy theory and
methods and has twice received the Eric Berne Scientific/Memorial
Award for advances in the theory and practice of transactional
analysis. He has co-authored four psychotherapy books that have
been published in several languages, the most recent with Janet
Moursund, entitled Integrative Psychotherapy: The Art and Science of
Relationship(2004, Thompson: Brooks/Cole).
Gloria Noriega, PhD, has a Master’s degree in clinical psychology
and a doctorate in science. She is a certified teaching and supervis-
ing transactional analyst (TSTA) in psychotherapy and the director
of Instituto Mexicano de Análisis Transaccional (IMAT) in Mexico
City. Gloria works internationally by invitation as a conference
keynote speaker, and conducts psychotherapy, training, and super-
vision groups. She is a former president of the International
Transactional Analysis Association (ITAA) and the winner of the
2008 ITAAEric Berne Memorial Award for her new theory on the
mechanisms for transmitting transgenerational scripts.
ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ix
Helena Hargaden, BA(Hons); MSc Psychotherapy; PhD, is a teach-
ing and supervising transactional analyst and a UKCP registered
integrative psychotherapist. She has a private practice in South
London and is a visiting tutor at the Metanoia Institute. She is
Director of Relational TAStudies and teaches at TAand integrative
institutes in the UK and abroad. She is co-author, with Charlotte
Sills, of TA: ARelational Perspective, co-editor, with William Cornell,
of From Transactions to Relations, and is author and co-author of sev-
eral articles on relational psychotherapy, including the themes of
intersubjectivity and the role of the erotic in relatedness.
Birgitta Heiller, PhD (Psychology), MSc (Transactional Analysis
Psychotherapy), is a BPS chartered counselling psychologist, a
UKCP registered psychotherapist and a teaching and supervising
transactional analyst in private practice in Guildford. She has
retained a keen interest in existentialist philosophy since her study
days at the University of Vienna, Austria, and is curious about
how to combine philosophical, psychological, and neuroscientific
insights with psychotherapeutic technique.
Rosemary Napper lives in Oxford. She provides TA supervision
and training in organizational and educational applications, as well
as counselling alongside psychotherapy. Rosemary is a coach, coun-
sellor, and consultant to individuals, teams, and organizations, and
an author of a variety of books on subjects including the applica-
tion of transactional analysis to adult learning processes and youth-
work management. She is an accredited counsellor, with a Masters
in Education, as well as a qualified practitioner, trainer, and super-
visor in each of three fields of transactional analysis: counselling,
education, and organizations. Rosemary is currently the President
of the International Transactional Analysis Association (2009–2012).
Marye O’Reilly-Knapp, PhD, RN, is an associate professor at
Widener University School of Nursing and a certified transactional
analyst. She maintains a private practice as a psychotherapist and
certified clinical nurse specialist in adult psychiatric/mental health
nursing. She is a frequent presenter at international conferences and
has published on the psychotherapy of trauma, dissociation, and
the schizoid condition. Marye is an associate of the International