Transactional Analysis Journal

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Drivers: The Key to the Process of Scripts

Taibi Kahler

To cite this article: Taibi Kahler (1975) Drivers: The Key to the Process of Scripts, Transactional
Analysis Journal, 5:3, 280-284

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1177/036215377500500318

Published online: 02 Jan 2018.

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 DRIVERS: The Key to the
Process of Scripts
Taibi Kahler, Ph.D.

Eric Berne has defined a script as an Thus, a script may be repeated over and
unconscious life plan, a blueprint for over in the course of a lifetime ... the
existence, that is adopted in the preverbal whole script may be repeated every
years. year . . . . And beyond that, it may also
In Sex and Human Loving Berne be repeated every day in a smaller version.
discussed six life time-structure scripts: Even more microscopically, it may be run
"Never," 2) "Always," 3) "After," 4) through in an hour: for example, the
"Until," 5) "Over and over (Almost)," whole script ... may occur in the course
and 6) "Open end." Berne himself has of the weekly group meeting, week after
invited some confusion by labeling week, if only the therapist knows where to
various fairy tales "scripts. ,,2Imprecise look. Sometimes a mere few seconds of
language has hindered our understanding activity may reveal the story of the
of script theorists' work. The following is patient's life.,,5
a list of expressions which are used Drivers are behaviors that last from a
colloquially and therefore contribute to split second to no more than seven
confusion, together with their technical seconds. There are no feelings related to
counterparts: them. There is no way to feel a racket or
play a stopper tape without first going
Colloquial Technical through driver behavior (this is demon-
A "Be perfect" script A driver strated behaviorally)." Just as the stop-
A "Don't be" script A stopper ping of the driver behavior prevents the
A "Rescuer" script A role stopper tape from being played and the
A "Depression" script A racket racket being felt, the stopping of the
An "I'm Not-OK - driver behavior also prevents the concur-
You're OK" script A position rent script sentence (thought) patterns.
A "Little Red Riding A charged up not-OK battery ("low
Hood" script A fairy tale stroke reserve") precipitates driver be-
A "Lone Ranger" A hero havior as the beginning step in observing
script not-OKness. The driver causes certain
A "Kick me" script A game sentence structures. The sentence struc-
A "Pastimes" script A time structure ture has a fixed pattern which may be
repeated, unconsciously, hundreds of
Winner, non-winner (banal) and loser
times a day.
(hamarticjf are content dimensions of
Consider the elements of script rein-
scripts.f
Eric Berne has written that the script
"is driven by the repetition compulsion. ·One possible exception is endogenous depression.

280 Trans. An. J., 5:3, July 1975


forcement. If 1 "Never" finish my
sentences by "Trying hard," and 1 do
that two hundred times a day uncon-
sciously, in a month 1 would have
reinforced a "Never" script 6,000 times,
in a year n,ooo times, in twenty years
1,440,000 times - no wonder 1 believe
that I'll never make it. These sentence
patterns were a result of a driver.
THE "NEVER" SCRIPT
Thesis: As a child 1 was forbidden by
my parents to do things that 1 most
wanted to do.
Life pattern: A person when in a
"Never" script may set himself up daily,
monthly, and yearly never to make it in
"important ways." Women with
"Never" scripts never have orgasms.
Sentence pattern: A person when in his
"Never" script may, by entering a "Try
hard" driver, never finish his sentence.
Example:
Therapist: "What are you feeling?"
Patient: "I don't, oh, 1 was feeling,
um, it's just when my husband, oh, last
night when I, ah, it's like my aunt .... "
Drivers: "Try hard" is the predomi-
nant driver of a "Never" script. Others,
except, "Please me," are seldom seen.
Case illustration: Tany's two life goals
were to find a man who would love her
and share intimacy, and to have children;
but she had set herself up never to get
what she most wanted. She married a man
who had strong "Don't trust" and
"Don't be close" script injunctions, and
who had an "Almost" (Over and over)
script, having been married and divorced
two times already. He structured his time
heavily in activity and withdrawal, so as
to avoid intimacy with Tany. He avoided
being with her and accused her of being
oversexed when she wanted to make love
more than once a month. She would "Try
hard" and not have an orgasm herself.
[This was also related to having a father
who seduced her sister and attempted the
same with Tany - it is not uncommon
Trans. An. J .• 5:3, July 1975
DRIVERS: The Key to the Process of Scripts
with women who have "Never" scripts
that there was some deep competition
with a sister or brother, sometimes
sexually based.] She thus found a man
whose script interlocked with hers.
Thus, she could "never" make it with
him ("Never" script). He almost made it
with her ("Almost"), rationalizing that
he was "just that way when it came to
flying, his 'first love."
Before they were married she had told
her husband of how she adored and
wanted children. He agreed. Once they
were married he disclosed that he had
only said that, and that he actually hated
kids and certainly did not want any. Tany
became pregnant - "I somehow forgot
to take my birth control pills" - and out
of a "Corner" game ("I'm damned if 1
tell him and I'm damned if 1 don't") went
to a charleton ('tWell, 1didn't want to ask
him for money") and got an abortion.
Script payoff: Now Tany can't have
any kids - she's . twenty-eight. The
content is hamartic.
THE <~L WA YS" SCRIPT
Thesis: "Well, if that's what you want
to do, then you can just spend the rest of
your life doing it. You've made your bed,
now lie in it."
Life pattern: Often a person with the
"Always" script will describe his or her
life as "blah," having neither many highs
nor many lows.
Sentence patterns: Although the person
with this script repeats his "Corner"
again and again, there does not appear to
be a well-defined sentence pattern.
Drivers: "Hurry up" and "Be strong"
are common, yet there does not appear to
be a consistent ranking for this script.
Case illustration: This script often has
a built-in "Corner" game, with a focus
on sex. "I can have sex with a woman, but
the more 1 enjoy it, the less I'll love her. 1
can be in love with a woman, yet the more
1 am, the less 1 want sex with her." Mr.
Prides felt cornered because if he got a
281
TAIBI KAHLER, Ph.D.
divorce he'd "be losing the best mother he
could possibly find" and if he stays
married he "doesn't want sex with her
"so he feels" frustrated.
THE "AFTER" SCRIPT
Thesis: "Things can be going well now,
but afterwards something will happen. If
you have a high, you'll have to have a low
to pay for it." Damocles' sword.
Life pattern:
OK
Not-OK \
A person when in an "After" script will
feel OK," then set him or herself up in
some way not to make it and feel not-OK.
Sentence patterns: Typically, a person
with an "After" script will express
positive feelings, insert a "but," and end
with negative feelings.
Drivers: "Please me" is number one
ranking in this script.
Case illustration: "After" scripts, like
all scripts, are repetitive. Scripts are like
motifs of a play which can be seen in an
act, a scene, a scenario, a strophe, or a
phrase. Mr. McAldoes' life pattern
reflects an active "After" script. At
nineteen he received national acclaim for
his artistic talent. Now, at thirty-eight, he
reports, "I seem to have lost all my
ability." "The first four years of our
marriage were great, but then something
happened, and now we're divorced." "In
September and October I get so depres-
sed." McAldoes is an art teacher who has
summer vacations in July and August. I
saw Mr. McAldoes on a Wednesday
night. The night before he was suicidally
depressed. My question was, "What did
you do last weekend?" "Oh," replied
Mr. McAldoes, "I went to New Orleans
and had the time of my life." He then felt
depressed.
In an even shorter period of time Mr.
McAldoes evidenced his "After" script.
He rose, and stroked ritually each
282
member of the group one night, sat down,
and immediately slouched and appeared
sad. "I felt so good, but then I thought of
the time I was taking away from the other
group members. Now I feel guilty and
sad. "
THE "UNTIL" SCRIPT
Thesis: "You can't have fun until ....
[you've got your work done, or you've
achieved . . . ]." Hercules had to clean
out the Aegean stables and do other
labors before he could be free.
Life pattern: People with "Until"
scripts, collectively see themselves as
"more OK" than people with other
scripts. They are achievement and goal
oriented, having been given conditional
positive strokes.
Sentence pattern: A person reinforces
an "Until" script by starting a sentence
inserting a phrase "so that people under:
stand him just right" [Be perfect], then
finishing the original sentence. Example:
"In TA there are three ego states: the
Parent, the Adult - and recall this is the
part that computes probabilities and
mediates between the other two - and the
Child.
Drivers: "Be perfect" is number one.
Often "Be strong" is ranked high.
Case illustration: Dr. Litun, a physi-
cian, "Can't start the day until he has two
cups of coffee," "Can't take a vacation
until he has worked five more years,"
"Can't make love until he reads the
paper," "Can't retire until he has earned
another fifty thousand," etc. Free-
masonry is a common game - "I can
succeed, but I can't be content with it."
THE "ALMOST"(OVERANDOVER*)
SCRIPT:
Thesis: "I almost make it, but not quite
*1 see this script as focusing more on "Almost"
making it. Also, each script is cyclical.
Trans. An. J., 5:3, July 1975

· .. if only, if only."
Life pattern: A person with an
"Almost" script is like Sisyphus who
almost makes it to the top of the
mountain, inevitably faltering. He may
repeat this "Over and over": marriage -
divorce, marriage-divorce, etc.
Sentence pattern: A person reflects an
"Almost" script by making a statement
or presenting a question, yet ending with
some kind of negative. Examples: "I've
really made changes, kind of." "The
color of your TV is great. The screen's a
little dirty though." [Even though each
statement may well be a fact, the order
makes it scripty.]
Drivers: "Try hard" and "Please me"
are the first two drivers, in either order.
Case Illustration: Al Most has yet to
find a job that he is comfortable with. As
a result, Al has a pattern of job-quit-
job-fired. AI's been married twice.
Typically, Al almost makes it. He almost
got the raise. He made an excellent
financial report to the Board of Directors,
yet left out one variable that invalidated
the whole presentation. In college, he
once had a tie-breaker free throw with no
time left on the game clock for a chance to
capture the conference title. He made the
shot but stepped over the line. The game
and title were lost. In hundreds of ways
each day Al reflected this life pattern.
THE "OPEN END" SCRIPT
Thesis: "I've made no plans when the
kids grow up, I reach menopause, I retire,
etc. "
Life pattern: The person with an
"Open end" script is programmed by
duty. Although this is a relatively easy
script to diagnose, it does not appear to
< have a cyclical nature or a well-defined
driver order. My hunch is that this is not a
separate script, bu.t a hamartic payoff for
the"After" script,
DRIVERS AND SCRIPTS
Drivers are behaviors that reinforce an
Trans. An. J., 5:3, July 1975
DRIVERS: The Key to the Process of Scripts
existential position of "I'm OK if,"
which is shown by this thick line on
Ernst's OK Corral.f
*
Drivers begin functionally in the Parent
(- NP, Rescuing) and can also be
observed in the Child (-AC).7 The
beginning internal discount of any
sequence of not-OKness (discounting),
then, will be that of the driver in the
-NP.
Drivers start games, forming the con
and the girnmickf
If a person changes driver formed
sentences, he may change his whole life
(process) script pattern.
In treatment: 'If a therapist is in driver
behavior, he invites similar behavior.
A man with a hamartic (content)
"After" script, replete with a "Please
me" driver (process),9 comes to therapy.
If the therapist is in "Please me"
behavior, he invites this patient into his
own "Please me" driver. An unsophis-
ticated observer may think that "good"
therapy is being done because of the
"rapport" evident by the smiles and
nods. The therapist might also believe
that he is doing good therapy. But, the
more the patient gets "high" by pleasing
the therapist, the more he is setting
himself up to pay for the "high" with a
"low" to comply with his"After" script.
His hamartic payoff that night might well
be suicide. The therapist, then, not only
did not help the patient, but actually
invited him into the suicide payoff of his
"After" script. The therapist's choice of
techniques is not even relevant. He could
have used a "great" technique and even
known it very well. The way he used it
(process) through a driver not only
nullifies the results, but may even invite
catastrophe.
The miniscript offers a measure and a
283
TAIBI KAHLER, Ph.D.
catagorizing of each transaction. This,
then, is not so much a new technique, as it
is an instrument to help us focus on us,
using whatever technique we are employ-
ing. As a technique, the miniscript can be
used to treat a script and to give positive
alternatives in group.
Taibi Kahler, Ph.D., is a Provisional
Teaching Member oj the ITAA and
Director oj the Transactional Analysis
Institute for Southern California in San
Diego.
284
REFERENCES
I. Berne, E. Sex In Human Loving. Simon and
Schuster, New York, 1970, pp. 163-171.
2. Berne, E. What Do You Say After You Say
Hello? Grove Press, New York, 1972.
3. Steiner, C. Games Alcoholics Play. Grove
Press, New York, 1971.
4. Kahler, T. "Scripts: Process and Content,"
Trans. An. J., 5:3, July 1975.
5. Berne, E. What Do You Say . . . op. cit.,
p.344.
6. Ernst, F. "The OK Corral: The Grid for Get-
On-With," Trans. An. J., 1:4, October 1971,
p. 231.
7. Kahler, T. "Structural Analysis: A Focus on
Stroke Rationale, A Parent Continuum, and
Egograrns," Trans. An. J., 5:3, July 1975.
8. Kahler, T. "Game Analysis: A New Switch on
Levels," unpublished manuscript.
9. Kahler, T. "Scripts ... " op. cit.
Trans. An. J., 5:3, July 1975