Ego Fortification and Stabilization, Questions I

How can you mend a broken heart? That was the great philosophical question the great rock band the Bee Gees put to music back in the seventies. Transactional Analysis begins with the propositions that people have validity and worth, and people can change. And yet the fragile and vulnerable "self" or identity is shaken and shattered into hundreds of pieces through the cruelties and uncertainties of life.

But the fragile ego is also very adept and attuned to survival. In self-defense, it tends to fortify even a self-destructive "life script", to gain some sense of control over life and make some sense of meaning out of the chaos.

This process of ego fortification and stabilization may help to repress painful feelings and needs unsatisfied from long ago, but at the same time it builds barriers and defenses against the very relationship contact and intimacy that could meet those deep psychic longings.

The goal is to break through the barrier of ego fortification and stabilization so the individual can make contact with authentic emotions, thoughts, needs, and desires, and meaningful contact with the true "self" and identity occurs within meaningful relationship and contact with others. Breaking down the defense mechanisms of the unintegrated identity opens the ego structure to the healing it needs.

It is the unproductive and self-defeating "life script" that often becomes rigid and immovable in the process of ego fortification and stabilization. The "life script" is the unconsciously formulated destiny one designs for oneself at an early age, based on the injunctions, drivers, and messages communicated to the formative infant and child.

The life script projects in advance whether or not one will "win" or "lose" in life, whether they are "OK", or "Not OK", and this overarching script colors all relationships and transactions in one's life.

(continued)