This document discusses different types of scripts according to transactional analysis theory. It defines winning, losing, and non-winning scripts. A winning script involves accomplishing one's declared purpose comfortably. A losing script means failing to achieve one's purpose, with first, second, and third degree losses based on severity. A non-winning script involves not taking risks and achieving neither great wins nor losses. The document provides examples of each type of script.

1. Content Script

2. Prepared By
Manu Melwin Joy
Research Scholar
School of Management Studies
CUSAT, Kerala, India.
Phone – 9744551114
Mail – manu_melwinjoy@yahoo.com
Kindly restrict the use of slides for personal purpose.
Please seek permission to reproduce the same in public
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3. Content scripts
In terms of content, we can
classify scripts under three
headings:
–Winning.
–Losing or Harmartic.
–Non – Winning or banal.

4. Winning script
Berne defined a winner as
“someone who
accomplishes his
declared purpose.”
(Robert Goulding added :
and makes the world a
better place as a result.)

5. Winning script
• Winning also implies that
the “declared purpose” be
met comfortably, happily
and smoothly.
• If I decide as a child that I
am going to be a great
leader, and eventually I
become successful,
fulfilled general or
politician basking in public
praise, I am a winner.

6. Winning script
• If I decide to be a
millionaire, then I win if I
grow up to be a happy,
comfortable millionaire.
• If I decide to become a
penniless hermit, and go
on to become that hermit
living happily in my cave, I
am a winner.
• Winning is always relative
to the goals I set for
myself.

7. Losing script
• A loser means
someone who does
not accomplish a
declared purpose.
• Once again, it is not
just the
accomplishment or
otherwise that
matters, but the
degree of comfort that
goes with it.

8. Losing script
• If I decide to become a
great leader, join army
and finish up being
drummed out in disgrace,
I am a loser.
• I am also a loser if I decide
to be a millionaire,
become one and feel
perpetually miserable
because of my ulcer and
the pressure of business.

9. Losing script
Berne was careful to
define winner and loser in
relation to accomplished
declared purposes
because he wanted to
emphasize that winners
are not simply to be
equated with people who
piled up material goods
and money. Nor were
losers necessarily those
people who were short of
material things.

10. Losing script
A losing script can be
broadly classified as
first, second and third
degree, according to
the severity of the
payoff.

11. Losing script
A first degree losing script
is one where the failures
and losses are mild enough
to be discussed in the
person's social circle. Ex :
Repetitive quarrels at work,
failure in exams etc.

12. Losing script
Second degree losers
experience unpleasant
script outcomes that are
serious enough to be
unacceptable topics for
social conversation. Ex :
fired from series of job,
hospitalized for severe
depression etc.

13. Losing script
• A third degree losing
script culminates in death,
serious injury or illness or
a legal crisis.
• Third degree payoff might
be imprisonment for
stealing the firm’s funds,
life long hospitalization
for a psychiatric disorder
or suicide after failing
final examinations.

14. Losing script
• We often use the term
harmartic to describe third
degree losing scripts and
their payoffs.
• The word is derived from
the ancient Greek
harmartia, meaning “a basic
flaw”.
• It reflects the way in which
a losing script, like an
ancient Greek drama, seems
to lead inexorably from the
early negative decision to
the tragic final scene.

15. Non Winning Script
• Someone with a non-
winning script is a middle
of the roader.
• He plods along from day
to day, not making any
big winds but not making
any big losses either.
• He doesn’t take risk. This
kind of script pattern is
often called banal.

16. Non Winning Script
• At work, a non-winner will
not become the boss. He will
not be fired either.
• Instead, he will likely serve
out his working years, be
awarded a marble clock, and
go into quiet retirement.
• He may sit in his rocking
chair reflecting : “ I could
have been the boss if only I
did been the right place at
the right time. Ah, well, I
didn’t do so bad, I suppose.”

17. Winners, Losers and non winners
• Berne suggested that you
could tell a winner from a
loser by asking him what he
would do if he lost.
• He said a winner knows but
doesn’t talk about it.
• A loser doesn’t know and all
he talk about is winning :
‘When I make my first
million…’.
• He stakes everything on one
option and that is how he
loses.

18. Winners, Losers and non winners
• A winner always has
additional options, and that is
how he wins. If one thing
doesn’t work out, he does
something else until he is
successful.
• A non-winner sometimes wins
and sometime loses, but
never very big in either
direction, because he doesn’t
take risks.
• He plays it safe, and that is
how he remains a non-winner.

19. Thank
You

20. Other TA topics available on slideshare
1. Strokes - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/strokes-24081607.
2. Games People Play - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/psychological-
games-people-play.
3. Structural Analysis - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/the-ego-state-model.
4. What is TA? - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/what-ta-is
5. Cycles of Development - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/cycles-of-
developement-pamela-levin-transactional-analysis.
6. Stages of Cure - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/stages-of-cure.
7. Transactions - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/transactions-33677298.
8. Time Structuring - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/time-structuring.
9. Life Position - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/life-position.
10. Autonomy - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/autonomy-33690557.
11. Structural Pathology - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/structural-pathology.
12. Game Analysis - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/game-analysis-33725636.
13. Integrated Adult - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/integrated-adult.
14. Stroke Economy - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/stroke-economy-
33826702.