Life Scripts: A Transactional Analysis of Unconscious Relational Patterns

by Richard G. Erskine

Overview

Life Scripts: A Transactional Analysis of Unconscious Relational Patterns is an exciting collection of contemporary writings on Life Script theory and psychotherapeutic methods. Each chapter describes an evolution of Eric Berne's original theory and brings together a stimulating range of international perspectives, theoretical positions, clinical experiences and psychotherapy practices, as well as a psychotherapy story that illustrates the theory. The concept of Life Scripts has frequently been associated with the determinism represented in theoretical scripts, yet, this book offers some new and diverse perspectives. A few contributors address the significance of early childhood experiences in forming a Life Script, while others reflect the perspectives of post-modernism, constructivism, existential philosophy, neuroscience, developmental research, mythology and the importance of narrative.An illustrious group of authors has integrated a broad professional perspective into their understanding of a theory of mind, theories of personality and the methods of psychotherapy. Each chapter provides a unique theoretical perspective; some are provocative and challenge Berne's and others long held notions about Life Scripts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781855756625
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/03/2010
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Richard G. Erskine is a clinical psychologist and licensed psychoanalyst. He is the Training Director of the Institute for Integrative Psychotherapy in New York City and conducts seminars, workshops and training programs in the United States and internationally. He is also a certified clinical transactional analyst and a licensed psychoanalyst who has specialized in psychoanalytic self-psychology and object-relations theory. Richard has developed Integrative Psychotherapy, a theory and set of methods that emphasizes affective, cognitive, behavioral and physiological integration. His books include Beyond Empathy: A Therapy of Contact-in-Relationship (with Jan Moursund and Rebecca Trautmann) and Integrative Psychotherapy: The Art and Science of Relationship (with Jan Moursund).

Table of Contents

About the Editor and Contributors vii

Foreword xiii

Chapter 1 Life Scripts: unconscious relational patterns and psychotherapeutic involvement Richard G. Erskine 1

Chapter 2 The lived and narrated script: an ongoing narrative construction Maria Teresa Tosi 29

Chapter 3 When parting is not such sweet sorrow: "Mourning and melancholia", projective identification, and script analysis Helena Hargaden 55

Chapter 4 Script or scripture? Jo Stuthridge 73

Chapter 5 Whose body is it? Somatic relations in script and script protocol William F. Cornell 101

Chapter 6 The "three ways out": escape hatches Ian Stewart 127

Chapter 7 From a child psychiatry practice James R. Allen 151

Chapter 8 The individual in context: how do I fit in around here? Rosemary Napper 179

Chapter 9 Scripts: then and now Claude Steiner 203

Chapter 10 It takes a lifetime to play out a script Fanita English 217

Chapter 11 Life scripts: an existential perspective Birgitta Heiller Charlotte Sills 239

Chapter 12 Transgenerational scripts: the unknown knowledge Gloria Noriega 269

Chapter 13 The script system: an unconscious organization of experience Marye O'Reilly-Knapp Richard G. Erskine 291

Index 309