Transactional Analysis Journal

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Old Roots Revisited: Reassessing the Architecture of Transactional Analysis

Ulrike Mller
Transactional Analysis Journal 2000 30: 41
DOI: 10.1177/036215370003000105

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 Old Roots Revisited: Reassessing the
Architecture of Transactional Analysis
Ulrike Muller
Abstract
This article assumes that the concepts of
ego states and script are the central ideas in
transactional analytic theory and that re-
considering them will facilitate a new view
of transactional analysis. It describes the
psychoanalytic foundation on which trans-
actional analysis is based and demonstrates
that various transactional analysis concepts
either amplify or explain one of these two
central concepts. The author's goal is to
show transactional analysis as a theoretical
construction rather than as simply a group
of pragmatic methods.
This article shows that the foundation of
theory building in transactional analysis in-
volves two key concepts: ego states and script.
It also considers the origin of transactional
analysis from psychoanalytic roots and the dif-
ference between Berne and Freud.
One of the main arguments against transac-
tional analysis is that it is simply psychoanaly-
sis without the id. In fact, Berne never doubted
Freud's (1932/199Ic) model of the id as "the
mental region that is foreign to the ego" (p.
104), but he himself had a different focus. The
last sentence of TransactionalAnalysis in Psy-
chotherapy illustrates this: "Freud does not
raise any question of systematic phenomenol-
ogy, and it is here that structural analysis can
usefully fill a gap in psychological theory"
(Berne, 1961/1989, pp. 270-271).
Although Berne did not reject Freud's con-
cept of the id, he concentrated on a more dif-
ferentiated analysis of the ego, one that implied
An earlier version ofthis article was published in the
German transactional analysis journal, Zeitschrift fur
Transaktionsanalyse, Volume 12, Number 4, pp. 137-156,
1995. It was translated by Jeanelle La Motte and is re-
printed here with permission.
Vol. 30, No.1, January 2000
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that it was possible to deal with the uncon-
scious parts of the ego and superego systemati-
cally. In this way these processes can become
conscious in therapy, which is not possible
with the unconscious id. That is why Berne
again and again defined his concept of the
Child ego state as contrary to the ego-dystonic
id of psychoanalysis. In fact, doing so was
Berne's unique achievement.
Transactional analysis consists of four basic
areas, and Berne (1961/1989) devoted a de-
tailed chapter to each in his foundational work,
Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy.
Since transactional analysis has become a full-
fledged model of therapy, every candidate in
transactional analysis training has learned these
areas: ego state analysis, transactional analysis
proper, game analysis, and script analysis. Lat-
er scholars also suggested adding racket analy-
sis, and there has sometimes been confusion
about transactional analysis theory in that it
seems to offer such diverse approaches to the
human psyche. In fact, the impression can arise
-at least at first glance-s-that Berne's four
areas are disconnected and without any inter-
connections. However, although Berne concen-
trated on each area separately as he developed
his discoveries into a theory, he did not lose
sight of the whole and the interrelationship
among its components. For example, he point-
ed out that games are played according to a
certain transactional pattern, he suspected that
the manifest behavior he called a "racket" is
necessarily a component of games, and he saw
that observable behavior is a manifestation of
script, which he attempted to clarify in his ego-
state model. References to these ideas are
scattered throughout his early work, often
appearing as afterthoughts (Berne, 1961/1989,
1972/1996).
It is not surprising, therefore, that the found-
ers of various transactional analysis schools
41
ULRIKE MOLLER
aimed their efforts at a closer examination of
the four separate areas and the development of
their own models rather than focusing on the
interrelationship of the areas to the whole. It
was not until Erskine and Zalcman's (1979)
racket system article that an extensive effort
was made to connect the areas to each other.
However, since these authors developed their
own terminology without explicitly referring to
Berne and other transactional analysis schools,
the impression arose that this was yet another
model and not a connection of the existing
ones. Erskine (1994) himself was apparently
not satisfied with this, because in more recent
publications he uses the term "script system,"
thus referring directly to Berne. In contrast, in
her most recent article, entitled "Game Analy-
sis and Racket Analysis," his coauthor, Mari-
lyn Zalcman (1990), proposed establishing
racket analysis as the fifth area of transactional
analysis, thus failing to recognize its signifi-
cance as a means of classifying defense mecha-
nisms.
In this article I examine the connections be-
tween Berne's four areas, which is, I think,
what Zalcman (1990) had in mind and what
she even pleaded for: "formal definitions for
the major divisions of TA and a systematic re-
view ofthe concepts and techniques which be-
long in each division are needed" (p. 17).
Nevertheless, her article ended with a proposal
for further fragmentation: to "add a sixth major
division to TA theory and practice, 'social sys-
tems analysis' "(p. 17). She advocated the ap-
plication of concepts and methods useful in the
analysis of groups; she also proposed summa-
rizing all interpersonal communication under
the term "transactional pattern analysis" (p.
II). The result was a new classification among
the "major divisions" (p. 4). Such a procedure
is merely an evaluation and does not penetrate
the external structure of the theoretical con-
struction. Zalcman did not deal with how and
with what significance these areas are related
to each other; in other words, she did not ex-
amine the underlying structures. With regard to
the "analysis of transactional patterns," this
means that Zalcman was not interested in why
interpersonal exchange differs in each case in
42
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a specific way (i.e., what the defensive charac-
ter of the specific transaction is).
In his book Where Is the Wind When It Isn't
Blowing", Schmid (1994) claimed in its subti-
tle to be reassessing transactional analysis
"from a systemic point of view." His perspec-
tive was, however, a reductionistic one. He ap-
plied those transactional analysis concepts that
are useful to his systemic approach, that is,
those that describe observable behavior with
which people in an interpersonal situation in-
fluence social systems and thus rearrange re-
ality. He only touched on the question about
motives for specific transactions and games
when he referred to frame of reference. The
logical outcome of Schmid's systemic ap-
proach was the substitution of the sociological
role model for the ego-state model. He was not
interested in the structural analysis of the per-
son, but rather in the roles someone plays with-
in certain social systems. As a result, he would
like to eliminate the structural ego-state model
and at most keep the functional model, which
is suitable for describing observable behavior
(Schmid, 1994, p. 156,158). Thus Schmid dis-
torted some transactional analysis concepts to
support his interpretation of being. By doing so
he gave up transactional analysis as a theory in
its own right. That is just the opposite of my
effort to examine transactional analysis con-
cepts with respect to their meaning and their
interrelationships.
The question put this way requires viewing
the four theoretical areas not separately, but as
four components of Berne's transactional
analysis, which can become a theory only by
considering the interrelationship of these com-
ponents. Thus the foremost schools and devel-
opments in transactional analysis need to be
examined in light of the following question:
"To what extent do they fit into the two central
transactional analytic models-that is, ego
states and script-and what do they add to our
understanding by their greater differentiation?"
Furthermore, to what extent are these central
models related to psychoanalysis, and what is
unique in transactional analysis theory that al-
lows it to stand on its own, separate from psy-
choanalysis?
Transactional Analysis Journal
 OLD ROOTS REVISITED: REASSESSING THE ARCHITECTURE OF TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS
This article attempts to explain what trans-
actional analysis is in terms of its original the-
oretical concepts and to reassess it accordingly.
The assumption is that the ego-state model and
the script model form the core of transactional
analysis theory and that all other transactional
analytic concepts refer back to these models
and mutually affect each other.
Thoughts about the Script Model
The chiefsignificance ofthe script model for
transactional analysis is that it makes it possi-
ble to conceptualize the unconscious and pre-
conscious parts of the ego. Thus, one of the
central ideas in transactional analytic theory is
derived from a constitutive element of psycho-
analysis. For Berne, merely adopting psycho-
analytic fundamentals was not enough; instead,
he probed deeper into the implications of
Freud's theses in an attempt to find a model
that would make the processes in the ego un-
derstandable. These probes into Freud's ideas
led to the development of the script model as
described in Transactional Analysis in Psycho-
therapy (1961/1989). The current script model
is the result of work primarily on three ques-
tions.
First, Berne was interested in knowing to
what extent the process of repression can be
analyzed. Without this process there would not
be anything unconscious in the ego. Thus he
referred to Freud's thesis that both the ego and
the superego are involved in the work of re-
pression. Freud's conclusion was that "large
portions of the ego and super-ego can remain
unconscious and are normally unconscious"
(Freud, 1932/1991c, p. 102).
Second, Berne focused his efforts on Freud's
(1920/ 1991b) thesis that everything repressed
strives to become conscious and that it is the
ego's task to do the work of repression. From
this Berne derived the question, "What makes
it possible for the ego to prevent the uncon-
scious from becoming conscious; in other
words, how do the defense mechanisms func-
tion, and what role does the preconscious play
in that process?"
Third, Berne wanted to know which aspects
of these defense mechanisms become a part of
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manifest behavior and influence situations in
everyday life.
From these questions Berne proceeded to
develop his concept of script, which consisted
of three postulates:
1. The unconscious protocol is the prerequi-
site for the origin of script.
2. Script proper is the preconscious deriva-
tive of the unconscious script protocol.
3. The individual must adapt his or her script
to his or her life circumstances, and the way
that is accomplished represents the script
adaptation (Berne, 1961/1989, p. 118).
This article explores these three aspects of
script and examines their implications with the
aim of reconstructing transactional analysis on
the foundation of psychoanalysis. By scrutiniz-
ing the models of various transactional analytic
schools in terms of the concept of script, it be-
comes clear that all models are an explanation,
expansion, or addition to the central transaction-
al analytic concepts of ego states and script.
The Script Protocol, or To What Extent
Can the Process of Repression Be
Analyzed?
According to Berne (1961/1989, p. 118), the
content of the protocol is unconscious. The
eighth of Berne's intervention techniques deals
with deconfusion of the Child ego state. He
clarified that the object of deconfusion is the
past experience that led the child to identify
with the parents in a way that restricts his or
her development. Berne suggested that this
work is difficult because the child in the client
resists relinquishing the destructive identifica-
tion with the parents (Wurmser [1987] wrote
of a "conflict of loyalties" [p. 382]). Berne's
treatise on a structural analysis of the Child
ego state led to the image of a distorted ego
state in which a childhood experience has been
fixated. The point of fixation determines the
person's further development; it is a traumatic
event, according to Berne, that can be repeated
and, as a consequence, can result in new fixa-
tions. These traumatic experiences are re-
pressed, and as unconscious elements they are
not accessible to the conscious part of the ego
(Berne, 1961/1989, p. 39).
43
ULRIKE MOLLER
Erskine's (1994) approach to working with
shame proposes that fixation, which blocks de-
velopment, occurs when inappropriate parental
behavior has the effect of rupturing contact
with the child. The introjection of these paren-
tal figures is an act of unconscious identifica-
tion so that the child does not have to experi-
ence the rupture. Erskine's approach allows
speculation as to the content of the script pro-
tocol, which due to repression is permanently
unconscious. Every severance of contact, every
withholding of a relationship that is good
enough (Winnicott, 1971/1987) on the part of
those responsible for the child causes deep
fears of abandonment, which for the child im-
plies a direct threat to his or her life. To get rid
of the threat, the child must forget this fear,
which means that the experience of what
caused the fear must be repressed.
It is worthwhile to note what Freud (1932/
1991a) wrote about the meaning offear in the
process of repression: "It was the anxiety that
made the repression" (p. 118). Freud was
aware of the connection between traumatic ex-
perience, existential fear, and repression. In
Berne's writings we find him groping for an
answer to the question Freud posed: "What is
it in the final analysis that makes up repres-
sion?" Erskine's answer, given in response to
Wurmser, may serve as a hypothesis.
Script Proper, or What Keeps Repression
Going?
According to Berne (1961/1989, p. 118), the
script proper contains the preconscious deriva-
tives of the protocol. The models of various
transactional analytic schools offer a more ac-
curate depiction of the process of repression,
which must be accomplished again and again
by the ego on the threshold to consciousness.
As Freud (1915/l991t) wrote, "Repression de-
mands a persistent expenditure of force, and if
this were to cease the success of the repression
would be jeopardized" (p. 151).
Erskine and Zalcman (1979) wrote of script
beliefs and feelings, which, in tum, make up
the frame of reference (Schiff, Schiff, &
Schiff, 1975). It is the frame of reference that
allows the individual to bring a semblance of
44
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order to the world and to the ego in the world.
Whatever disturbs this order is filtered out, de-
nied, or ignored to maintain an inner balance.
Expressed in another way, these are the intra-
psychic defense mechanisms that keep repres-
sion going. In their discount matrix, the Schiffs
(Mellor & Schiff, 1975a) showed in a differen-
tiated way how this intrapsychicprocess works.
The reason for the subjective view of the ego
and the world is that it serves as the way each
individual accomplishes the task of repression,
which keeps the experience of the severance of
contact unconscious. What they all have in
common is the pattern of unconscious identifi-
cation with the parental person withholding
contact. In this way, the illusion of being in
contact with this vital person can be kept alive.
The price, however, is fixation or developmen-
tal arrest as shown in the Gouldings' (1979)
impasse model.
A closer look at all of the aforementioned
models reveals that they are possible ways of
interpreting what Berne referred to as the pre-
conscious script proper (even though the re-
spective authors never explicitly referred to
this). It gradually becomes clear how corre-
lated to each other the various models are.
Berne (1961/1989) assumed that the uncon-
scious script protocol contains the Oedipal dra-
ma, but he did not differentiate as Freud did
the various causes of fear and then relate these
to the various developmental stages of the
child (Freud, 1932/199Ia, pp. 120-121). How-
ever, the interesting aspect in this is Berne's
comment on the script protocol: "Its precipi-
tates re-appear as the script proper, which is a
preconscious derivative of the protocol"
(Berne, 1961/1989, p. 118). Here Berne quoted
Freud almost verbatim. Freud (1915/1991t)
summarized the connection among the various
psychic layers as follows: "To consciousness
the whole sum of psychical processes presents
itself as the realm of the preconscious. A very
great part of this preconscious originates in the
unconscious, has the character of its deriva-
tives and is subjected to a censorship before it
can become conscious" (p. 195). Only what is
determined to be harmless can pass into con-
sciousness and need not be further repressed.
Transactional Analysis Journal
 OLD ROOTS REVISITED: REASSESSING THE ARCHITECTURE OF TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS
Are not then script beliefs, frame of reference,
and feelings of ambivalent loyalties to parental
persons such derivatives? The degree to which
various models can represent the process of re-
pression accurately will be revealed by a closer
examination of the respective models.
The Gouldings' Impasse Model in Relation
to Erskine's Treatise. Erskine's thesis is that a
recurrence of the repressed experience of the
severance of contact is avoided by the child's
unconscious identification with the parents's
failure to respond to his or her needs appropri-
ately. The results are the corresponding script
beliefs and vital conclusions in which the
child's loyalty to parental persons is mani-
fested. In this manner the child sustains the
illusion of affectionate contact. The price,
however, is fixation. The way the child's loy-
alty is manifested reflects the age of the child
at the time when contact was severed. The
second-order structural model can illustrate
this. This loyalty, which prevents development,
is felt to be a source of conflict. This applies if
the ambivalence is settled exclusively by soma-
tization with an accompanying organic malady,
or if the deepest conviction about oneself is di-
ametrically opposed to what others perceive as
evident, a paradox that cannot be resolved sim-
ply by an exertion of will. It also applies if the
child senses that the conflict is close to becom-
ing conscious, and, as a result, the child is
thrown into an even more desperate manifesta-
tion of loyalty, a dilemma for which there is no
apparent solution.
The conflict is between PI and C1 An expan-
sion of the Gouldings' (1979) impasse model
shows that we are not dealing with psychic
qualities that differ from each other, but with
the same conflict, by which repression of the
trauma is maintained. Therefore, it is an im-
passe of the second-degree as well as of the
third-degree part of the script proper. Thus the
manifestations of loyalty and the ensuing con-
flict of loyalty are preconscious derivations of
the repressed. (The second-order structuralmod-
el can be applied to illustrate second- as well as
third-degree impasses. Thus there is no reason
to place the conflict PIC, in the case of a third-
degree impasse, in C\, as Mellor [1980] did.)
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The Schiff Concept of Symbiosis. "The in-
trapsychically influencing Parent ego state is a
replay of the criticism introjected in the past. It
perpetuates the cycle of compliance with the
criticism and the defensiveness of sadness and
fear within a Child ego state" (Erskine, 1994,
p. 97). This presents a congenial explanation
for a person's symbiotic needs in accordance
with Schiff's (1977/1979) description of sym-
biosis as an inhibitor of development and thus
as a pathological process. In symbiosis the il-
lusion of being in contact with the parental fig-
ure is sustained, and the experience of aban-
donment is blocked off. It is in consideration
of this fact that Berne called the conflict of
loyalty with the parental introjects the main
difficulty in deconfusing the Child ego state
and emphasized the necessity of reducing the
influence of the Parent ego state. The Schiffian
concept of symbiosis offers a link between the
intrapsychic defense in the script proper and
the manifest defense behavior when script is
enacted (adaptation in Berne); symbiosis is,
indeed, experienced in one's dealings with par-
ents and within the transference.
The Frame ofReference Model (Schiff). The
defmition of frame of reference as formulated
by the Schiffs (Schiff, Schiff, & Schiff, 1975)
reveals it to be an authentic part of script prop-
er: "The Parent ego state defines the frame of
reference" (p. 290). The fact that it results
from incorporating the parents' definition of
reality (i.e., the subjective view of oneself and
the world) reveals its origin in the unconscious,
repressed script protocol, the threatening con-
tents of which continue to be repressed by
means of script beliefs. In accordance with
Gooss (1994), the term "frame of reference"
can be expanded in such a way that all earlier
experiences of "unmet needs" (Erskine, 1994,
p. 91) contribute to forming the frame of ref-
erence, which then becomes active in script
proper. To sustain it, denial of and disregard
for information (stimuli) from reality, as de-
scribed by Mellor and Schiff (l975a) in their
discount matrix, are required.
The Script System (Erskine and Zalcman).
Reference has been made several times to the
term "script beliefs" as used by Erskine and
45
ULRIKE MOLLER
Zalcman (1979). This is the part of the script
system that allows for intrapsychic analysis. It
is concerned with decisions, beliefs, and feel-
ings related to oneself, to others, and to life.
These beliefs are direct derivatives of the re-
pressed experience of severance of contact and
fears of abandonment. "These fixations, in the
form of script beliefs, serve as cognitive de-
fenses against awareness of the needs and
feelings present at an earlier age when need-
fulfilling interpersonal contact was missing"
(Erskine, 1994, p. 94). It is the defense mecha-
nism of the Child ego state. This manner of
forming reactions is referred to by Erskine
(1980) as "the core of the script" (p. 104), a
paraphrase of Berne's (1961/1989) "script
proper" (p. 118).
Summary. With the help of the script proper,
the ego performs the task of repression, with-
out which consciousness would continuously
be flooded with traumatic experiences. "A
complete divergence of their trends, a total
severance of the two systems, is what above all
characterizes a condition of illness" (Freud,
1915/1991f, p. 199). Berne recognized the cen-
tral task of the preconscious when he referred
to it as the "script proper" and not as a defense
mechanism. The Schiffs and the Gouldings
also did this in their models, even though they
did not refer to Berne's script theory. Thus
they contributed significantly to the expansion
of the transactional analytic theoretical ap-
proach developed by Berne and became partic-
ipants in constructing the core of transactional
analysis theory.
Script Adaptation or Defense Mechanisms
as Manifest Behavior
Conclusions about script proper are only
possible on the basis of what people reveal
about themselves since "this script proper must
be compromised in accordance with the possi-
ble realities" (Berne, 1961/1989, p. 118). It is
in the individual's daily adaptation to the exi-
gencies of life that script manifests itself. As a
lifelong transference drama that must be en-
acted continuously, the threat of a return of the
repressed is used to sustain the necessary re-
pression.
46
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From the beginning, transactional analysis
was primarily concerned with effective ther-
apy, above all in groups; this led to an espe-
cially large number of concepts describing ac-
tivated script in the process of adaptation.
Berne himself made a significant contribution
to the analysis of interpersonal behavior with
his concept of games and his description of
communication structures (transactional analy-
sis proper). Berne viewed such human behav-
ior, which he called a "racket" (Berne, 1972/
1996, pp. 137-139) (a militant term from the
language of sport and commerce), mainly from
a manipulative point of view and only partly as
script adaptation. For Berne (1961/1989),
games and transactional analysis proper were
adequate means oftracing behavior back to the
respective script: "Games appear to be seg-
ments oflarger, more complex sets oftransac-
tions called scripts" (p. 117). By this he meant
script in adaptation and only hinted at the con-
nection to script proper (see Christoph-Lemke,
1990). Berne (1961/1989, pp. 103-113) only
incidentally mentioned the unconscious defen-
sive qualities of games. The payoff, according
to Berne, consists of a confirmation of the par-
ticipant in his or her convictions about self and
others. Thus the actual frightening experience
of loss of contact remains unconscious, and
only the script beliefs present in script proper
are activated. Berne, in his explanation of peo-
ple playing games, applied the Freudian term
"repetition compulsion." Freud (1920/1991 b)
explained how what has become unconscious
through repression struggles to gain admission
into consciousness through replay, even though
"the unpleasure ... would be produced by the
liberation of the repressed"; thus, ''the compul-
sion to repeat must be ascribed to the uncon-
scious repressed" (p. 290). "If a compulsion to
repeat does operate in the mind," Freud (1920/
1991b) wanted to know "what function it cor-
responds to, under what conditions it can
emerge and what its relation is to the pleasure
principle" (p. 294). Likewise, the defensive
function was emphasized by Berne in his the-
ory of games.
To what extent the pleasure principle oper-
ates as the motive for repetition compulsion
Transactional AnalysisJournal
 OLD ROOTS REVISITED: REASSESSING THE ARCHITECTURE OF TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS
was addressed by Schiff(1977/1979) when she
described games as "the desperate attempt to
re-create an environment in which former
problems can be repeated and solved" (p. 105).
In other words, through the repetition, that
which had previously been experienced as
traumatic is supposed to be resolved. It is the
desire to fulfill unmet needs that makes people
play games. Recognizing this hidden message
is the therapist's task ifhe or she is to deal ade-
quately with the client's attempts to establish
contact.
In addition, Schiff and Schiff(1971) devel-
oped models for describing behavior they ob-
served, especially passivity and grandiosity.
They summarized other types of behavior un-
der the rubric ''redefinition'' (Mellor & Schiff,
1975b) a term that encompasses all transac-
tions and intrapsychic interpretations of the
world that serve to adjust reality to the per-
son's subjective view. It is striking that the
Schiffs' observations correspond to the script
system of Erskine and Zalcman. Both models
deal with intrapsychic and interpersonal forms
of defense mechanisms, that is, script proper
and its activation in script adaptation (or, as
Erskine [1994] called it, ''the script display" [p.
95]). Both the intrapsychic and the interper-
sonal part of the script serve to adjust reality to
one's script-bound perception. And each repe-
tition of an outwardly directed defense con-
tains the hope that what did not work before
may now finally succeed.
In the next sections I will describe how
defense mechanisms work in more detail.
Games. If we apply Berne's (1972/1996)
game formula, it becomes clear that the client's
"gimmick" (pp. 23-25) consists of presenting
himself or herself to the person with whom he
or she is communicating (e.g., the therapist) as
a child that is not-OK. The aim of the game is
to be reassured of this belief (Berne, 1961/
1989, p. 103). In the transference the thera-
pist's role is to be the parent who confirms the
client's belief that something is wrong with
him or her. In Berne's (1972/1996) words, the
aim of the game is the "payoff' (pp. 23-25). In
the game, the illusion of being in contact with
parental figures is reenacted (compare Erskine,
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1994), and "what gets into the transference ...
[is] the specific defense of a certain positive or
negative libidinous attitude" (A. Freud, 1936/
1987, p. 212). It is the defense against the ex-
perience of severance of contact becoming
conscious (Erskine, 1994). Berne (1961/1989),
on the one hand, recognized that those forms
of behavior he referred to as games are defense
strategies in the transference, which means that
the motives for them are unconscious. On the
other, he saw manipulative intentions in as-
suming that games are triggered by rackets,
without realizing that the game gimmick can
only originate in a certain script belief or feel-
ing. This, in the end, is to be confirmed in the
payoff. "The patient is sincere, if he just ex-
presses the drive or emotion in the only form
accessible to him, namely in the distorted
defense form" (A. Freud, 1936/1987, p. 212).
Passivity, Grandiosity. Can this thesis-that
all manifestations of unfolding script are de-
fensive-find support when applied to the
Schiffian ideas of passivity and grandiosity?
The most conspicuous form of passivity in the
Schiff sense is violent agitation. But are not
violent outbursts just desperate attempts to
ward off a return of what has been repressed?
Let me cite an especially vivid example: After
years of loneliness, a client who had become a
husband and father reported having murderous
fantasies toward his wife and child. It turned
out that he felt threatened by how his wife
played with their child: The way she held a toy
between the child and herself was enough to
transform her, in the client's mind, into his
mother, a woman who was incapable of being
close and by whom he had felt abandoned. The
client's impulse was to get rid of the infinitely
painful image forever.
We may conclude from this example that a
similar defense function can be assigned to all
forms of violence, including milder forms of
agitation that serve to ward off the threatening
return of the repressed. Every form of refusing
to act involves dropping out of reality because
a confrontation with reality would be unbear-
able.
Grandiosity as an under- or overestimation
of one's self is an intrapsychic process and is
47
ULRIKE MOLLER
part of script proper. In the interpersonal
sphere, the distorted self-perception precludes
behavior appropriate to reality and thus allows
the person to retain a definition of reality that
is dictated by script beliefs and that maintains
repression. To this extent, the intrapsychic de-
fense affects behavior and thus assumes a posi-
tion on the border between the internal and ex-
ternal worlds, just as symbiosis is part of both
the internal and external worlds.
Symbiosis. Both types of symbiosis as de-
scribed by Schiff (1977/1979) support the il-
lusion of being in contact in a particularly im-
pressive way: filial dependency on parental
persons that continues into adult life, and in-
verse symbiosis, in which the child assumes
the role of the parent for the needs of the Child
in the parent. In both cases, the imputed roles
are not commensurate with the age of the af-
fected person: "I must remain a child so that
Mother/Father will like me" or "I must care for
Mother/Father like a parent so that they will
like me." Symbiosis is also a result of the re-
pressed feelings about severance of contact.
The intrapsychic part of the symbiotic experi-
ence is part of script proper. However, just
those symbiotic needs are preferably enacted,
be it with the parents still alive or in one's cir-
cle of acquaintances and colleagues, including,
of course, the therapist. Therefore, symbiosis
is examined here as a way to deal with having
to adjust script proper to reality. Striving for
independence contains the danger of coming in
touch with fears of abandonment, which can be
repressed by means of the symbiosis. And the
invitation to symbiosis contains the wish to
have the experience that a relationship is pos-
sible without being symbiotic-that is, contact
is possible rather than exploitation.
Summary. All types of script manifestation
that we encounter in the therapeutic setting can
be considered redefinitions, that is, forms of
defense in the interpersonal context and specif-
ically in the therapeutic transference. By ob-
serving and understanding them as a manifesta-
tion of script and as an adjustment of the ego
to existing circumstances (Berne, 1961/1989),
we can gradually recognize and understand the
intrapsychic setting of our clients as their script
48
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proper. The message our clients give us with
their manifestation of script is the form of de-
fense that is directly accessible to us, the one
with which they have accommodated them-
selves to their lives. It enables us to draw con-
clusions about their intrapsychic repression in
the form of script beliefs and feelings, about
their establishing and maintaining a frame of
reference by discounting, and about their deci-
sions related to survival. Together these form
the script proper, the task of which is to keep
repressed material repressed.
Summary
The ideas presented in this article represent
an attempt to supplement the foundation of
transactional analysis. To achieve this, it was
first necessary to point out how Berne con-
nected the concept of games and the analysis
of transactions to the script model. It was
equally important to note further development
of these ideas by various schools of trans-
actional analysis, the ways in which these de-
velopments have offered a fmer differentiation
of Berne's theory of script, and the way the
schools complement each other. This also
highlights the value of various schools of
transactional analysis for the overall model as
it exists today.
In addition, we can now see the similarity
between the script model and the psychoana-
lytic notion of how the conscious and the un-
conscious relate to and influence each other.
The detailed and differentiated treatment of the
script model as presented here reveals its basic
importance for transactional analysis.
The Uniqueness of the Ego-State Model
The second part of this article aims to show
how and for what purpose Berne developed his
theory of structural analysis as distinguished
from psychoanalysis. Structural analysis is the
ego-state model; it makes a differentiated anal-
ysis of the ego possible.
Dealing with the Freudian id-where in-
stinctual drives are located and which strives to
dominate the ego according to the pleasure
principle (Freud, 1923/1991d}-was of only
marginal interest to Berne. He pointed out that
Transactional Analysis Journal
 OLD ROOTS REVISITED: REASSESSING THE ARCHITECTURE OF TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS
the Child ego state of the structural model is
not the same as the psychoanalytical ego-
dystonic id: "The Child ego state ... means an
organized state of mind which exists or once
actually existed, while Freud describes the Id
as 'a chaos, a cauldron of seething excitement.
... It has no organization and no unified will'
" (Berne, 1961/1989, pp. 48-49). What point
was Berne trying to make with his ego-state
model?
In his development of structural analysis,
Berne (1961/ 1989) quoted from a late lecture
of Freud's, "The Dissection of the Psychical
Personality" (1932/1991c). In it Freud mi-
nutely analyzed his idea of how the ego is
structured and made the following main points:
He described the superego as within the ego
and thus a part of it. The superego is formed
out of identifications with parental figures, and
Freud stressed that it seems "to have picked
out only the parents' strictness and severity,
their prohibiting and punitive function, where-
as their loving care seems not to have been
taken over and maintained" (p. 94). The super-
ego "has been determined by the earliest paren-
tal imagoes" (p. 96), whereas later identifica-
tions "only affect the ego" (p. 96). Repression
can be the work ofthe ego as well as the super-
ego, which means that "large portions of the
ego and super-ego . . . are normally uncon-
scious" (p. 102). Freud distinguished between
unconscious parts in the ego and superego and
the ego-dystonic unconscious, which he called
the id and which cannot become conscious.
Anna Freud (1936/1987) referred to that
thought when she wrote of "the unconscious
defense activity of the ego" (p. 224).
In comparing Berne's ego-state model with
Freud's essay, we find that Berne wanted to
elucidate the structure of the ego. For Freud,
the ego was the aware and reality-testing part
of the psyche in contrast to the id, which
threatens the ego permanently. Freud only
mentioned the superego as a part within the
ego. Berne thought it important to structure the
ego more specifically and thus to acknowledge
the tasks of the ego in a more differentiated
way. That people often behave in a strange
manner can be explained by the notion that the
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Parent ego state represents real parental figures
and the Child ego state represents internalized
real events or "phenomenological realities"
(Berne, 1961/1989, p. 4). Obviously, people
sometimes are lacking in their reality-testing
capacity without being aware of it, which
means that they do not act from the Adult ego
state.
To differentiate the ego even more, Berne
developed the second-order structural model,
which allowed him to represent visually the
"earliest parental imagoes" with their "strict-
ness and severity." PI then corresponds to the
superego. The Parent ego state (P2) represents
later identifications. Berne's attention was fo-
cused on the intrapsychic dynamics within the
ego: Where and how is information preserved?
How is it dealt with? How does it influence our
thinking and acting? Berne tried to answer
these questions with the ego-state model. The
second important consideration is: How does
the ego succeed in repressing traumatic experi-
ences and how can they be kept unconscious
forever? To answer that question, Berne devel-
oped the structural model. Now we can see
how the two models are linked and thus form
the nucleus of transactional analytic theory.
The ego-state model is topographical and
thus answers the question "where?" The Child
ego state contains the repressed traumatic
event at the price of developmental fixation.
The Parent ego state represents the identifica-
tion with parental norms and values and thus
produces the frame of reference.
The script model is dynamic. It seeks to de-
scribe how various ego states are interrelated,
how repression works, and how it is sustained.
The script model shows visually the uncon-
scious part of the ego. Freud (1932/199Ic)
wrote that "repression is the work of this
super-ego ... or [of] ... the ego in obedience
to its orders" (p. 101) and "large portions of
the ego and super-ego ... are normally uncon-
scious" (p. 102). Berne assumed that the work
of repression takes place in script proper. He
(Berne, 1961/1989) specified several times that
the traumatic fixation of an early Child ego
state in combination with the identification
with the failing parent comprises the actual
49
ULRIKE MOLLER

work of repression (also see Erskine, 1994),
and this procedure remains unconscious.
The observable interpersonal behavior, then,
is script adaptation; specific types of defense
mechanisms arise from specific ego states. It is
here that the two central concepts of trans-
actional analysis intertwine.
It was, in a sense, in homage to Freud that
Berne (1966, p. 298) referred to the id as the
determinant of the ego states, a not-so-compel-
ling reason to do so unless it expressed Berne's
conviction that in the end, the id and its drives
still have their part in forming the ego. If the id
can influence each of the ego states (Berne,
1966), then Freud's (1932/199Ic) conceptual-
ization retains its relevance, that is, that "the
ego is after all only a portion of the id, a por-
tion that has been expediently modified by the
proximity of the external world with its threat
of danger" (p. 109). Here Berne's (1972/1996,
p. 155) scepticism about postulated autonomy
intersects with Freud's (1917/1959) conviction
that "the ego is not master in its own house"
(p. 355). Berne dedicated his theoretical efforts
to the ego and gained insights that increase
therapeutic effectiveness. On the one hand, the
precise analysis of the structure of the ego by
means of the ego-state model and second-order
structural analysis allows the client's reality to
be integrated; on the other, in its threefold
differentiation, the script model provides an
analytictool by which to understand the uncon-
scious parts within the ego. This is the specific
contribution of transactional analytic theory.
Conclusion
The intention of this article was to stress the
fact that different transactional analytic schools
are connected to each other and that we may
therefore speak of an overall transactional
analysis theory. In addition, the goal was to
clarify the extent to which psychoanalytic
theory can be regarded as the foundation on
which transactional analysis was built. The
fmal aim was to show the ways in which Berne
proceeded from this foundation to develop the
specific architecture of transactional analysis
(see Figure 1).

The script The second The ego Freuds model

proper is acted orders\nJC- state model
out with games, turalmodel is exclusively
transactions, visualizes concerned
projections, the script with the ego
redefinitions. proper.

II
superego
II
Script adaptation: ~<, ::::::::-j~ ~<,
~~o i 1 ~~~~id
The interpersonal
space where
relationstake
place. ~# ego ...IlJ",,~
II
I I
II

Figure 1
Viewing the Structural and Script Models as Developed from Freud's Model

50 Transactional Analysis Journal

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 OLD ROOTS REVISITED: REASSESSING THE ARCHITECTURE OF TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS
Ulrike Muller studied German and English
language and literature and has been a Gram-
marschool teacher for 15 years. She maintains
a private practice in psychotherapy and clini-
cal and pedagogical training and supervision
in Freiburg (Black Forest), Germany. Please
send reprint requests to her at Hildastr.34,
D-79102 Freiburg, Germany, or contact her
via email atWO(JI00585@aol.com .
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