Affects, then on to Scripts

• Script Question to Mssrs. Nathanson and Kelly by Chuck Yopst, S.S.T.I. Member, 1/4/99
  • Changing Scripts: the poorly impeded interest-excitment version by Jonathan L. Grindlinger, M.D., 1/7/99
    
    

Thank you Chuck and Brian for your stimulating thoughts and questions. And God bless Jonathan for jumping in with his wonderfully informative thinking about scripts. I want to add some thoughts from my own experiences learning, using, and relearning, relearning, and relearning Tomkins.

In clinical situations I always start out by teaching folks the 9 innate affects, even though I now know that we see little if any innate affect in adults because scripted responses have taken over. Nonetheless, I want to make sure that the patient has a language for understanding the self and no language can be learned without starting with its most basic elements. None of us can even begin to approach self understanding and awareness unless we KNOW what we feel. If we know what we feel, especially if we recognize affect the instant it happens, then we can begin to get some idea of what motivates our own responses.

After the patient and I have gained some understanding of her/his affect—a feat that triggers interest-excitement and enjoyment-joy in both of us—the patient usually begins to wonder why they experience certain affects more than others or why certain situations trigger a particular affect with regularity, especially if that affect seems not to fit the situation or is more powerful than the situation warrants. (If we have great difficulty getting to this point, it usually means the patient has an affect disorder, a biological glitch, that must be treated before we can go on or change can take place.) Inevitably, however, we are led to scripts because they surround us like the air we breathe. And so the patient will soon wonder such things as "why do I keep feeling ashamed of myself when my boss looks at me with that stern face? I know I'm doing good work, he even tells me so." Or "how come I always get so angry when my mother says such and such to me? She's older now and I don't really want to be angry at her. She didn't do such a bad job as a mother." Once these questions begin, I move into the work with scripts in much the way Jonathan has described the work of therapists in the Philadelphia System.

So Brian and Chuck, you have much to look forward to in your journey into the theories of Silvan S. Tomkins. I'm glad affect theory has caught your attention, and soon you will find that the need to learn script theory is very compelling. Thanks for your contribution to our forum.

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