ABSTRACT
The self-limiting accommodations made by the child in those early years become the "script" for the story of Eric Berne's life. This chapter considers "script" from a different angle: as an attempt to come to terms with existential realities. Script, a personal life plan that grows out of the "household drama" or "protocol" of the individual's early life became a deterministic concept that was the product of injunctions, modelling, and other aspects of the "script apparatus". "Script" provides a set of rules by which to live, and even the rebellion against those rules gives meaning. The microcosm of script can give the soothing and comforting sense of knowing roughly where to go in our lives. Negotiating existential life issues on a moment-to-moment basis is virtually impossible. Fanita English states, "A script is valuable as an organizing support structure originating in childhood".
