DRIVERS: The Key to the

Process of Scripts
Taibi Kahler, Ph.D.

Eric Berne has defined a script

as an unconscious life plan, a
blueprint for existence, that is
adopted in the preverbal years.
In Sex and Human Loving Berne
discussed six life time-structure
scripts: "Never," 2) "Always," 3)
"After," 4) "Until," 5) "Over and
over (Almost)," and 6) "Open
end." Berne himself has invited
some confusion by labeling
various fairy tales "scripts. "2
Imprecise language has hindered
our
understanding
of
script
theorists' work. The following is a
list of expressions which are
used colloquially and therefore
contribute to confusion, together
with their technical counterparts:

Thus, a script may be repeated

over and over in the course of a
lifetime ... the whole script may
be repeated every year .... And
beyond that, it may also be
repeated every day in a smaller
version.
Even
more
microscopically, it may be run
through in an hour: for example,
the whole script ... may occur in
the course of the weekly group
meeting, week after week, if only the
therapist knows where to look. Sometimes
a mere few seconds of activity
may reveal the story of the
patient's life." 5
Drivers are behaviors that last
from a split second to no more
than seven seconds. There are
no feelings related to them. There
Colloquial
Technical
is no way to feel a racket or play
A "Be perfect" script A driver
a stopper tape without first
A "Don't be" script A stopper
going through driver behavior
A "Rescuer" script A role
(this
is
demonstrated
A "Depression" script A
behaviorally).* Just as the stopracket An "I'm Not-OK ping of the driver behavior
You're OK" script A
prevents the stopper tape from
position A "Little Red Riding
being played and the racket being
Hood" script
A fairy tale
felt, the stopping of the driver
A "Lone Ranger" A hero
behavior also prevents the concurscript
rent script sentence (thought)
A "Kick me" script A game
patterns.
A "Pastimes" script A time
A charged up not-OK battery
structure
("low
stroke
reserve")
Winner, non-winner (banal) and precipitates driver behavior as
loser (hamartic) 3 are content *One possible exception is endogenous depression.
dimensions of scripts .4
Trans. An. J., 5:3, July 1975
Eric Berne has written that the

DRIVERS: The Key to the Process of Scripts

forcement. If I "Never" finish my

sentences by "Trying hard,"
and I do that two hundred times
a day unconsciously, in a month I
would have reinforced a "Never"
script 6,000 times, in a year
72,000 times, in twenty years
1,440,000 times - no wonder I
believe that I'll never make it.
These sentence patterns were a
result of a driver.
THE "NEVER" SCRIPT
Thesis: As a child I was
forbidden by my parents to do
things that I most wanted to
do.
L i f e p a t t e r n : A person when
in a "Never" script may set
himself up daily, monthly, and
yearly never to make it in
"im po rt an t
way s. "
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, I 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
predominant 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

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 I tell him
and I'm damned if I don't") went
to a charleton ("Well, I didn't want
to ask him for money") and got
an abortion.
Script payoff .. Now Tany can't
have any kids - she's twentyeight. The content is hamartic.
THE "ALWAYS" 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.

TAIBI KAHLER, Ph.D.

divorce he'd "be losing the best mother he

could possibly fi nd" 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.

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 patter n: 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 understand
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 physician,
"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
anot her fi fty t housand," etc. F ree
masonry is a common game - " I c a n
succeed, but I can't be content with it."

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 wi t h
a n " Af te r" s cr ipt will exp re ss 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 patter n
refl e ct s a n ac ti ve "A f ter" s cr ipt . 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 depressed."
McAldoes is an art teacher who has summer
vacations in July and August. I saw Mr. THE "ALMOST" (OVER ANDOVER*) S C R I P T :
McAldoes on a Wednesday night. The
Thesis: "I almost make it, but not quite
night before he was suicidally depressed. My
question was, "What did you do last
weekend?" "Oh," replied
Mr. McAldoes, "I went to New Orleans *I see this script as focusing more on "Almost"
and had the time of my life." He then felt making it. Also, each script is cyclical.
Trans. An. J., 5:3, July 1975
depressed.
In an even shorter period of time Mr.
McAldoes evidenced his "After" script. He
rose, and stroked ritually each
282

DRIVERS: The Key to the Process of Scripts

... 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-quitjob-fi red.
Al'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

existential position of "I'm OK

if," which is shown by this
thick line on Ernst's OK Corral 6

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 gimmick .8
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 unsophisticated
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

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
employing. As a technique, the
miniscript can be used to treat a
script and to give positive

REFERENCES
1. 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.

Ernst, F. "The OK Corral: The Grid for Get On-

6. With," Trans. An. J., 1:4, October 1971, p. 231.

Taibi Kahler, Ph.D., is a Provisional

Teaching Member of the ITAA and
Director of the Transactional Analysis
Institute for Southern California in San
Diego.

284

Kahler, T. "Structural Analysis: A Focus on

Stroke Rationale, A Parent Continuum, and
Egograms," Trans. An. J., 5:3, July 1975. Kahler,
7. T. "Game Analysis: A New Switch on Levels,"
unpublished manuscript. Kahler, T. "Scripts . . ."
8. op. cit.
9.

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