TA in Pills 2-1.5 Psychological Hungers 5 - Position Hunger

Psychological Hungers 5
(Click here for List of TA Blogs)

(Psychological Hungers drive man to sustain the homoeostasis of the psychic organisation)
"Words with special meaning are marked * in text and explained in Notes"

Position Hunger

Babies need warmth, nurture, care, attention, cuddling and acceptance for the  nine months of infancy. Their preferences and avoidances also need to be considered by their parents. If these are lacking the infant deems itself as anvil* or hammer. This is the first self estimation or self label we all take onto ourself.  It is either 'one up' or 'one down' (I+ or I-). This is the core belief of our personality. It is around this primary belief that manipulative orientations are constructed during the toilet training years. These result in two way beliefs. (I+, I- and U+, U-). Put together these generate four major types of convictions :

      Position                                    Meaning

• I+U+                  I am fine and you too are fine
• I+U-                   I am fine but you are not fine
• I-U+ and            I am not fine but you are fine
• I-U-                    I am not fine and you too are not fine.

These convictions are called life positions. It is unlikely that we can change these positions over our life time.

These life positions may apply across all life associations (general) or in categories of life associations (specific). I may have one set of orientation in my working life and quite another at home. I may have one set with regard to my parents or in laws and quite another with regard to others in the family. I may have one set with regard to my elder siblings and quite another with regard to my younger siblings. 

These life positions are referred to by descriptive names:
       Position     Name

• I+U+       Healthy
• I+U-        Paranoid
• I-U+        Depressive
• I-U-         Futility

We hold on to these positions life long and it is around these position (as applicable) that our script controls operate.  Our thinking, feelings, behaviour, assessments, perceptions, reality evaluations all get conditioned around the core as applicable.

The ego states, nature of interactions, preferred stroke types, rackets, games, process script types are formulated around the core of life position as applicable.

It is a hunger because we work to protect, safeguard, and justify our life position life long.  

This blog comes from Ajit Karve from Pune. I am a qualified TA Practitioner. I specialise in using TA for personal growth, personal development, personal effectiveness and for transformational change. I can be reached on +919822024037. Please feel free to seek clarifications by writing to me on ajitpkarve@gmail.com or taforyouandme@gmail.com. 

A request: Please take time out to write a comment.

Notes:

* Anvil: a heavy iron block with a flat top and concave sides, on which metal can be hammered and shaped.

**https://www.livescience.com/22715-pregnancy-length-baby-size.html Human babies are born underdeveloped compared with other primates: Our brains are less than 30 percent their adult size at birth, compared with around 40 percent for chimpanzees, our closest living ape relative. In fact, it would take a gestation length of 18 to 21 months instead of nine months for human babies' brains to reach that level of development, according to zoologist Adolf Portmann's book "A Zoologist Looks at Humankind" (Columbia University Press, 1990).