Script Cure: Behavioral, Intrapsychic, and Physiological

Transactional analysis, as a social psychiatry, has emphasized the behavioral change aspects of script cure. Within this framework cure is defined as the cessation of script syntonic behavior. Yet, for many people change in behavior alone is not sufficient to effect pervasive change of their life scripts. To achieve a total script cure change must occur at the intrapsychic level of the script as well, that is, change at the cognitive and affective levels of existence. In addition, I think that in every case of script formation, be it in response to introject, traumatic experiences, or the process of survival decisions, there is a corresponding physiological inhibiting reaction, and for many people change is also necessary at the physiological level of the script.

This integrative view of script cure implies that change needs to occur in three dimensions: behavioral, intrapsychic (affective and cognitive), and physiological.

Erskine, R., 1980 Script Cure: Behavioral, Intrapsychic, and Physiological. Available at The Institute for Integrative Psychotherapy:  https://www.integrativetherapy.com/en/articles.php?id=98 First published in Transactional Analysis Journal, Volume 10, Number 2, April 1980, pp. 102-106.