Configurations 02 were all written as I started to unravel and work on my own life script. According to Eric Berne, decisions about ourselves, our world and our relationships with others are crystallised during our first 5 years of life. These decisions are based on the encouraging or disparaging pattern of strokes we receive from our parents and others. Based on these decisions, we assume one of four basic psychological life positions, which to a large extent determines our pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaving.
Our early existential decisions are reinforced by messages (both verbal and nonverbal) that we continue to receive during our lifetime. It is also reinforced by the results of our games and interpretations of events. Berne states that dysfunctional behaviour is the result of self-limiting decisions (made in childhood in the interest of survival) which culminate in an unhealthy life script. Generally, once a person has decided on a life position there is a tendency for it to remain fixed unless there is some intervention, such as therapy, to change the underlying decisions.
