Q20 Explain concept of Autonomy under Bernian perspective?

Explain autonomy from Born to win, I am Ok You are OK

Explain formation of Integrated Adult with figure

Autonomy
Autonomy is a core concept in transactional analysis. Every reference in the
transactional analysis literature to growth, changes in script decisions, development,
education, healing, or analysis is legitimated when it leads to autonomy. The
assumption is that all learning is directed toward autonomy, and contracts are used
to pinpoint that goal. Autonomy can be considered an ideal manifestation deriving
from axiomatic basic assumptions in transactional analysis as described by
Hagehiilsmann(1984). The attainment of autonomy is manifested by the release or
recovery of three capacitiesawareness, spontaneity, and intimacy (Berne,
1964/1967, p. 158}-along with a fourth (responsibility) added by later authors
(BondsWhite, 1995; van Beekum, 1995). Awareness refers to an immediate
sensuous openness to perception in the here and now as well as an unrestrained
intensity in present sensations and feelings. Spontaneity involves freedom and the
ability to immediately express these feelings and sensations. Intimacy refers to the
possibility of engaging in candid, authentic, loving, and reciprocal relationships.
Originally the concept of autonomy emphasized only the 52 possibility of recapturing
individual autonomy. More recently, social responsibility has become more salient as
questions of a sociopolitical nature have been increasingly incorporated into
transactional analysis (Hagehulsmann, 1984, p. 47). Thus, responsibility stands for
the notion that one's actions are always influencing and influenced by a wider
context in which one needs to take a responsible stand. In this respect, responsibility
pays tribute to systemic thinking.
The Transactional Analysis Perspective on Autonomy Transactional analysts view
autonomy as freedom from undue conditioning or freedom fromthe influence of
script. Berne (1964) wrote that autonomy is gained by freeing oneselffrom games
and scripts (pp. 182-183).

Steiner(1974), in Scripts People Live, wrote that autonomy is blocked by three kinds
of scripts:a lovelessscript, which blocks intimacy; a mindless script, which blocks
awareness; and a joyless script, which blocks spontaneity (pp. 105-106). Steiner's
interest was to help people gain autonomy from harmful parental and societal
programming. Autonomy is internal freedom, freedom from unhealthy behavior and
compulsions, freedom from obstructive internal voices and images that block
autonomous decision making.Autonomy, therefore, presupposes awareness of these
blocks and the ability to make one's own choice in a given situation.
Berne the therapist and transactional analyst had his goal clear in his mind: to heal
the patient. Healing meant liberating patients from conditioning and script decisions
and helping them attain autonomy. But Berne the intuitive thinker had an inkling that
autonomy would open the door to a new world. In the short postscript chapter of his
book Games People Play, Berne (1964) envisioned this new world as inhabited by
"certain fortunate people [in whom] there is something which transcends all
classifications of behavior, and that is awareness; something which rises above the
programingofthe past, and that is spontaneity; and something that is more rewarding
than games, and that is intimacy" (p. 184).
Before proceeding, it is important to look more closely into Berne's (1964) comment
that "the attainmentof autonomyis manifested by the release or recovery of three
capacities: awareness, spontaneity and intimacy" (p. 178). In a newborn child, these
capacities are there in a rudimentary state. Through interaction with nurturing
caretakers, these capacities are activated or, as Berne said, "released" (p. 178). As
a child grows, these capacities are inhibited through conditioning and "education" (p.
181), and they are "recovered" (p. 178) by the attainment of autonomy.

Awareness
Berne dealt with awareness from a psychological point of view, for his goal was to
improve his patients' quality oflife. His focus was on the present.But the present
cannot be isolated from the past and the future. Though Berne began to speak of
awareness in terms of a child's perception ofthe world, he explained it step-by-step in
terms ofadults.

Awareness in a child is different from awareness in an adult. For a child it is mostly

physiological: "Physiologically awareness is eidetic perception, allied to eidetic
imagery . . . in the spheres oftaste, smeIl and kinesthesia" (Berne, 1964, pp. 178-
179). For an adult, "Awareness requires living in the here and now, and not in the
elsewhere, the past or the future" (p.179). For the child, awareness is only of the
immediate present, but for an adult, awareness also includes awareness of what has
been learned from past experiences as well as of future consequences ofthe action a
person is called upon to posit. An adult's awareness envelopes self, others, and the
situation (see Steiner, 1974, pp. 119-120). Therefore, "recovery" in a grown-up
means more than the recovery ofthe child's eidetic perception. It also includes the
experience of having lost one's birthright ofawareness and the joy ofhaving
recovered it.
Spontaneity
Spontaneity means "option, the freedom to choose and express one's feelings from
the assortment available (Parent feelings, Adult feelings, and Childfeelings). It
means liberation, liberation from the compulsion to play games and have only the
feelings one was taught to have" (Berne, 1964, p. 180). Impulsive action is natural to
a child but not always appropriate in social situations. Spontaneous action, on the
other hand, presupposes awareness of others and the situation and is most
welcome.

For example, here are two situations that illustrate the difference between the
awareness of a child and that of an adult. On seeing a lily, a child would pluck it and
make it totally his or her own. Raw energy, which triggers a reflexive response to
stimuli without immediate awareness, flows from the child to the flower making the
flower "mine." In contrast, think of the awareness reflected in a statement such as
the following: "Think ofthe flowers growing in the field; they never have to work or
spin; yet I assure you that not even Solomon in all his regalia was robed like one of
these" (Good News Bible, TEV 1976, Matthew 6:29). This new level of awareness
reflects a new and differentresponse to the flower. The raw energy that the child
invests in the flower is withheld. Consequently, the flower becomes an object of
contemplation and one's own at a higher level, one that a child cannot reach. This
form of awareness embraces the past (e.g., the past history of Israel, the glory of
Solomon) and stretches out to the future (the assurance of the care God will have for
his people, Israel). We view this enriching sort of awareness as a threshold
ofspirituality as well as the key that opens to it. It is integrating; it leads to intimacy
with the transcendent

Intimacy
In his definition of intimacy, Berne (1964) wrote about the capacities of both
spontaneity and awareness: "Intimacy means the spontaneous, game-free
candidness of an aware person, the liberation of the eidetically perceptive,
uncorrupted Child in all its naivete living in the here and now Eidetic perception
evokes affection and candidness mobilizes positive feelings" (p. 180).

Berne (1964) said, "Intimacy is essentially a function of the natural Child (although
expressed in a matrix of psychological and social complications)"(p. 181). This
means that every human being at birth is destined to be intimate. However,for the
development ofthe capacity of intimacy an infant needs a nurturing Parent in his or
her mother, which later becomes an introject. In other words, the capacity for love
develops in a child only when he or she has experienced love from another person.
Love is bipolar. It involves the ability to receive (natural Child) and to give (nurturing
Parent). From this discussion on Berne's understanding of autonomy, we can rightly
conclude that autonomypresupposes a balanced development of Parent, Adult, and
Child, that is, it involves the capacity for self-transcending or self-giving or caring
love (Parent); the capacity for physiological awareness, spontaneity, and intimacy
(Child); and the awareness of the present moment in relation to the past and the
future (Adult).

Autonomy
Autonomy is a core concept in transactional analysis. Every reference in the
transactional analysis literature to growth, changes in script decisions, development,
education, healing, or analysis is legitimated when it leads to autonomy. The
assumption is that all learning is directed toward autonomy, and contracts are used
to pinpoint that goal. Autonomy can be considered an ideal manifestation deriving
from axiomatic basic assumptions in transactional analysis as described by
Hagehiilsmann(1984). The attainment of autonomy is manifested by the release or
recovery of three capacitiesawareness, spontaneity, and intimacy (Berne,
1964/1967, p. 158}-along with a fourth (responsibility) added by later authors
(BondsWhite, 1995; van Beekum, 1995). Awareness refers to an immediate
sensuous openness to perception in the here and now as well as an unrestrained
intensity in present sensations and feelings. Spontaneity involves freedom and the
ability to immediately express these feelings and sensations. Intimacy refers to the
possibility of engaging in candid, authentic, loving, and reciprocal relationships.
Originally the concept of autonomy emphasized only the 52 possibility of recapturing
individual autonomy. More recently, social responsibility has become more salient as
questions of a sociopolitical nature have been increasingly incorporated into
transactional analysis (Hagehulsmann, 1984, p. 47). Thus, responsibility stands for
the notion that one's actions are always influencing and influenced by a wider
context in which one needs to take a responsible stand. In this respect, responsibility
pays tribute to systemic thinking.

1. The aim of Transactional Analysis

Eric Berne stated that the aim of Transactional Analysis is Autonomy.
Berne broke autonomy down further into three components; awareness, spontaneity
and the capacity for intimacy.
Lets take these one by one.

2. Awareness
Awareness is the ability to assess a situation for what it is. When you are aware you
are in your Adult ego state.
The decisions that you make in a situation are based on the here and now reality of
what you are facing.
In your Child ego state and your Parent ego state your assessments will be coloured
by your past. History leaks in. So you make a historical response to a here and now
situation and react.
When you are aware you are not coloured by that history so you can respond.
For example, Bob always feels nervous when he gets called into the bosses office
even though his boss is a reasonable woman who has never behaved badly towards
him.
You could say that Bob is experiencing transference towards his boss and is bringing
back past experiences of being in trouble at school and reliving these when called
into the bosses office.
If he can move into his Adult ego state and see the boss for who she is, a
reasonable woman and not his old head teacher, then he is likely to perform better at
work and find life more fulfilling.

3. Spontaneity
Once more this is about being able to do the things that really excite you in life
without being held back by history. Susannah Temple, originator of Functional
Fluency describes is as providing,
Delight, satisfaction and renewed energy from the expression and use of your
own uniqueness as an individual.
Sounds great doesn’t it! And I’m pretty sure you’ve experienced this. It’s that feeling
you get when you’re really in the zone with something. You feel fully present. Time
seems to pass without noticing.

4. The capacity for intimacy

What all humans crave for, what we want most out of life is intimacy. Berne defined
intimacy as a
Candid, game free relationship, with mutual free giving and receiving and
without exploitation
(Berne, 1972)
There’s a fair bit of TA language in that definition and we will come on to games later
in this blog series (if you can’t wait, here’s one I wrote earlier!)
Basically what we are talking about here is having a deep connection with another
human being in a safe way.
In everyday language we often connect intimacy with sex or romantic relationships.
This is not what we mean in this context.
You can be intimate with anyone. You can talk honestly and openly (from Adult ego
state) to your friends, kids, partner, work colleagues and lots of intimate conversation
goes on in therapy.
Once more it’s likely that you’ve experienced this. That you’ve felt that connection
whilst talking to someone you value. The aim of Transactional Analysis is for you to
be able to do this more frequently without old stuff getting in the way.
So, in a nutshell, the aim of Transactional Analysis is to help you be more aware of
the here and now so you can make informed decisions about your behaviour; to be
able to be fully connected with yourself and to be able to connect wholly with others
without history getting in the way.
This is autonomy.