ABSTRACT
The primitive and powerful ego state—the Parent in the Child—that carries the toxic script messages is most toxic and powerful the earlier it is delivered and internalized. Alcoholism was clearly a tragic script in the tradition of Aristotelian tragedy, with its obligatory prologue, climax, and catastrophe. Scripts and script changes are best understood in terms of power and its ramifications. Script changes require action and the application of power. The role of the therapist as permission and protection giver requires potency. The concept of script has evolved along a number of dimensions. A compelling example of the manner in which Eric Berne has either contributed to, or anticipated, major trends in behavioural science can be seen in the evolution of the concept of scripts. Script formation is the consequence of an oppressive situation in which two fully grown people, with the support of many others pressure the small child into conformity with their own scripted, narrative expectations.
