Too Sweeping a Question

• Responses to First Learning about Affect Theory by Jim Duffy a.k.a. J.C.D., 2/28/97
  • More on Initial Responses to Affect Theory by Vick Kelly, 3/1/97
    • Is *Intellectualizing* a Script that is Enforced Normatively on Mental Health Professionals? by c.h., 3/7/97
      
      

Hi Chauncey,

You are asking a very broad sweeping question here. The quick answer is yes Tomkins's concept of scripts does help explain such phenomena as cultural norms, intellectualization, and why many men find their way into engineering as a result of the way they learn to deal with affect--or, perhaps more accurately, try not to have to deal with it. The appeal of Tomkins for me is that his theories, once learned sufficiently for one to apply them, explain the motivation for many culture-wide as well as very small specific acts. It's wonderful to have a theory so intrinsically correct about our most basic motivational system that it provides one with the ability to explain why you ate ice cream tonight as well as why you became an engineer and then switched.

HOWEVER, one must learn the theories first, and that is not always easy to do; just as there is not an easy answer to your questions without explaining the entire theory. I feel like if I try, I will be giving you a such a thin slice of Tomkins that it will not satisfy you. And it will run the risk of being so simplistic that many of its more intricate features will be overlooked.

A note on possible script forming motivations for those who become engineers: a script can be a means of handling affect that is unacceptable to one's caregivers. This is somewhat different from concepts such as repression or suppression, but it can include aspects of those mental mechanisms. The unaccpetable affect may be anger in the child. I'm sure you know the typical story where the child gets angry, hears or feels disapproval from the parent, and now begins to consider his anger toxic because of the danger it presents to his relationship with the caregivers. When this sequence has happened enough times and in several different forms, it is likely that the memories of its various occurrences will become linked together and a new affect will be triggered. Whereas affect in a single scene acts as an amplifier of its triggering stimulus, the new affect created by the situation being described acts as an amplifier of an amplifier--a process Tomkins called magnification. This new affect is more motivating and scripts form to help manage, order, and control the scenes associated with it.

See, the explanation soon becomes very technical. Sorry, but there is really no way around it. In the meantime, our budding engineer may soon learn a script of silence (at least that's what his wife is likely to complain of if they end up in couples therapy) upon the appearance of any affect within him. This script can expand into the silent contemplation of very technical details about things, especially if the child is rather intelligent. Eventually, the script may become so effective that he really isn't containing or overly controlling his affect; instead he is on "automatic pilot" when an affect is triggered, cutting it off so soon after its appearance that he experiences affect less and less until it becomes less of a problem for him. I have had a number of these men tell me they really do not know what they are feeling and I believe them. They can become very interested in affect theory because of its similarity to certain aspects of engineerng and this can be an excellent way to help them begin to learn what they feel.

At best, this is too brief an explanation, maybe it's too late at night. I toss it at you in the hope of triggering your interest in studying the theory in detail. If you do so, you will find a great deal in Tomkins about cultural norms. He studied civilization back a number of centuries in the development of his polarity scale. But that's for another time.

• Tomkins' Four Volumes on Order! Thank You for Your Encouragement! by c.h., 3/14/97
  • OXYGEN for READERS OF TOMKINS by Vick Kelly, 3/16/97
• Am I Being Followed? by Jeff Elison, 1/29/99