TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS OF W:ITCH MESSAGES

LEONARD P. CAMPOS, PH.D.*

A fundamental premise of transactional analysis (TA) theory is that you have three selves or "ego states": a Parent (P), an Adult (A), and Child ( C) ego state. The C o.f any person's parent communicates "injunctions" to the growing-up child (which remains in the C of the grownup), which may be unhealthy for the child's growth. My observation of normal and disturbed adults in treatment suggests that when they were children, transactions with parents were governed by the child's belief in the magical (witch) power of the parent. Steiner ( 1969) and others have pointed out that par-ents who seem reasonable and pleasant to our adult perceptions can be perceived by their children as witches or ogres.

My examination of primitive families (Campos, 1969) and American families of the traditional authoTitarian kind (Campos, 1970) reveals a strong belief in witchcraft or the attribution of pow-er to someone who uses it to influence, change, or transform the in-dividual in some way. I think this comes out of the kinds of trans-actions between parents and their children. Parents use their au-thority to gain control by conveying messages to their children that they have power of a magical kind which they can wield over the power less child (Jam es & J ongeward, 1969) . In my study of the traditional Spanish-American (SA) family, I find that the parents use the "stern .glance" to discipline offspring. The C in the SA adult is then programmed with the belief in the power of such a glance to determine health or sickness. It becomes the "evil eye" or mal ojo. The C in an adult will also set up transactions which are de-signed (magically) to give power to another person to assume responsibility for him, control him, or heal him (this is found in transactional games of the "Do Me Something-I'm Only Trying To Help You" variety).

My earlier analysis of "bewitchment" as practiced by non-literate cultures and latter-day faith healers (Campos, 1969) led to the following inferences:

1. TA treatment provides an opportunity for bringing the C of the client to the surface.

2. The C still believes in magic. This magical thinking is ex-pressed in a variety of ways: (a) feelings by clients that they are

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being mysteriously "brainwashed" or "hypnotized" by the therapist in some way: ( b) the· expectation that somehow a "Santa Claus" will bring them what they want without their having to do any-thing to attain it; ( c) superstitiousness in the way clients look at cause-effect relationships; ( d) "magic wand" fantasies-attempting to change the unchangeable, such as mom-and-dad's hangups; and ( e) magical rescue fantasies-e:g., by staying sick, the C will some-how get mom's love at last.

3. Parental messages, from the C of the parent, pro.gram the C of the growing child. Within the C ego state, the conflict between the security attained from adapting to parent needs and need for freedom creates a state of "tension" within the C that gets resolved by ".giving in" or "giving up" to the comfort or familiarity of the programmed witch messages.

4. The C attributes great power to the parent ("witch power") to which it acquiesces in early life choices.

5. Parental messages from the C of the parent, when com-municated with c·ondemnation, carry the power of a "curse".

6. TA treatment can serve to break the spell of this curse upon the child.

It can be shown that to the C in a client, parental injunctions have a power and malignancy of supernatural witchcraft and often are received as "curses" by the child. They are called witch mes-sages because they are communicated from the C of the parent below the parent's A awareness and contradict the constructive mes-sages from the P of .the parent. Hence, from the P of the· parent, a child may be enjoined to grow up, but from the C of the· parent comes the witchy message, "Don't (please)".

Witch messages often take the form of prohibition injunc-tions: "Don't be (exist)"; "Don't be yourself (a man, a woman, sexy, etc.)"; "Don't grow up"; "Don't make it (succeed)"; "Don't enjoy"; "Don't feel"; and "Don't think". Simply put, the aim of a witch message is to not allow the C of a person to be free to make his own decisions about how to live his life because such autonomy or permission to have freedom of choice is perceived as a threat to the survival of the C in the parent in some way. Thus, in the parental injunction, "Don't grow up", some threat or deprivation is felt by the C of the parent should the child grow up, i.e., feelings of isola-tion, desertion, or abandonment. As a security measure, the witch

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message is programmed into the child. It is a gallows transaction in that by obeying the parental injunction, the individual engages in behavior or plays transactional games with others for the purpose of getting strokes to please the witch mother. English ( 1969) calls it the H hot Potato· Game in that the C in the parent wishing to avoid a tragic life-script outcome, does so by passing on the curse to the child with the message : "I will suffer unless you are sacrificed to me." Securing need satisfaction for the C of the parent sacrifices the child's own needs. According to English, the basic message trans-mitted by the C of the parent to the child is, "I bewitch you, to de-witch me". Basic threats communicated to the child by the C of th~ parent (often in alliance with the P of the parent) am: threat of death over the child ("obey or die"); threat of abandonment; threat of loss of love; and threat of disapproval.

The witch messages are motivated by the wants and and _feel-ings of the C of the parent. Thus, for "Don't be (kill yourself)", the C of the parent says, in effect, "If you do, you'll threaten my sur-vival!~'. For "Don't .grow up", it might be t'I'll feel abandoned (I don't want to be left alone)". For "Don't make it", it might be "If you do, I'll feel inferior". The jealous C of a parent may communi-cate the message "Don't enjoy" with "If I don't enjoy, why should you?".

In treatment, the therapist identified these "crazy" witch mes-sages by proffering educated guesses, fantasies or hunches. The cli-ent is always the final judge of the validity of these· inferences. Since injunctions are often communicated through the non-verbal re-sponses of discomfort or anxiety in the C of the parent or in sub-tle signals of approval and disapproval, the client may not initially recognize the witch messages. With increased awareness he soon learns to identify them and validate them.

Three clinical examples are cited here to demonstrate how the C in clients still believes in witchcraft:

Case No. 1

Bob is a 16-year-old delinquent and methamphetamine user, with a history of runaway from home and escape from insti-tutions. He is currently living at home with arthritic mother who twice married and divorced his quick-tempered, alcoholic fa-ther. Throughout his childhood he was caught up in the mari-tal hassles of his parents. His father removed the child from the mother's home during periods of separation when he was

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aged three, nine and eleven, and he icientified ills father as the "villain" in his life drama. He wa~ subjected to mother's fears of father's belligerence as she fled from home at night with the child. He has had asthmatic attacks since he was six, and, over the past few years, has been on tranquilizers for a "nervous condition''. Treatment Contract: "I want to stop being nervous all the time." Bob was involved in 15 hour-and-a-half TA group treatment ses-sions in a Youth Authority institution for delinquent boys before release to parole. A principal witch message came from the C of mother: "I'm scared (for your safety) , RUN." Father mean-while provided Bob with the pro.gram for his life c o u r s e: through his own running away from life problems in alcohol-ism, he showed Bob how to run.

In treatment1, the C of Bob was surfaced and with it many ear-ly memories of his desperate need to hide and terror of l_lis fa-ther's aggressiveness. Running became equated with feeling safe and protected in his mother's arms. Even overtly, she would say to Bob on one of her visits: "If you must continue to run, that's OK by me, if that's what you want. You'll get caught anyway and be put back in the· YA--at least then, you'll be· safe." Ac-tually, Bob's running fulfilled the safety needs of the C in moth-er. When confronted with the decision to not run anymore, Bob would feel the old desperation, the terror of incipient danger.

When confronted in treatment by the critical moment of de-cision to change, patients-like Bob--tend to regress to a position of non-change or non-decision. In TA language, this is a "cop-out" of the C who is still complying with the witch message. Confront-ing such cop-outs helps to validate the analysis of the witch message.

Case No. 2

Mary is a 29-year-old woman unhappy in her marriage. Her hus-band, an optometrist, invested his money in projects without including her in his planning or communicating wth her about his plans, so she reported. This left her with the feeling in her C that, "Nobody ever listens to me" (communicated inaudibly). In a TA marathon, she reported ttiat her mom did not listen to her feelings, especially during her early rivalry over possessions with. her younger brothers. She came to treatment feeling guil-ty whenever she wanted to do what she wanted. A principal witch message read: "Don't want for yourself".

1. Co-therapist was Paul McCormick. 54

Treatment Contract: "I want to do what I want without feeling guilty". Whenever Mary was about to make a decision based on her wants, she would sense some incipient terrible conse-quence. As it turned out, mom had communicated the· premise (couched in a parental slogan) : "You make your bed, you lie in it." Mom, in a sense, predicted for the daughter what would happen to her. Mary expressed this by stating she felt that what-ever happened to mom, would happen to her (mom had made an initial poor marital choice and ended up with several di-vorces) . Metaphorically speaking, mom had given her a "witch's broom" to ride on throughout her life. As my co-therapist2

stated, her C was out to prove she was as good a witch as mom.

In working towards the critical moment of decision to give up this "witch's curse", the following series of transactions were ex-changed between co-therapists and client and illustrates again the C's cop-out to the witch mother: -

C: I want to make a decision-but I don't believe just by do-ing that, I will make it come true.

T: You said you wanted to make a decision. OK. When? C: Now. T: OK, what's your decision? C: I can't. T: Can't or won't? C: Won't. T: So again you settle for less than what you want for you.

How come? C : I'm scared.

The cop-out of her frightened C indicates how terrible her C be-lieves the consequences would be to her if she should assert her adult autonomy. Her reluctance to throw away her "witch's broom" at this point is the C's avoidance of the decision to change. This cop-out served so that she could hold on to old failure feelings, so that she could feel not allowed to want for herself, and so that she could continue to find people who would not listen to her. After being helped through the terror-associated moment of decision, she threw away her witch's broom and her bewitchment. In followup TA .group sessions, the group members remarked on her changed appearance: she seemed to grow with greater youth and beauty and felt more con-fident in herself. Her self-change was surprising to her and she re-ported that she felt "different". Her voice was now audible and others were listening to her. 2. Co-therapist was Anita Roggenbuck, MSW.

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Case No. 3

Viola was a 4·5-year-o1di woman. married! to alcoholic husband. She wais in treatment for ten years prior to TA treatment with me. She came with a history of overconcern with body disfunc-tion, a host of physical complaints, and hypochondriasis. Med-ical confirmation was obtained to sh.ow benign breast .cysts and benign fibroadenoma of the uterus. This physical condition was rendered "malignant" through witch messages which prngram-med the C of the patient to hold on to aches, pains, and worries about her body. Mother died of cancer at 60 and before her death often communicated concern about her body. Father was a health buff and preached about health values throughout the patient's childhood. The little girl in her came to treatment searching for a "magic wand" that would do away with her chronic bad feeling. For years, she sought therapy thinking that if she could only find out why she ached and worried she would be cured ("Maybe if I can know why I feel bad, I will feel good") .

Treatment Contract: "I want to feel good". Viola's C felt that whenever she felt good, something bad would happen. Like other patients I have treated, she had a premonition that some-thing bad would happen if she felt good. In treatment, when-ever she was on the verge of achieving her contract, the· little girl in her found something to feel bad about.

Like other patients, when she sensed self-change, she became frightened and found herslf copping out to the old witch mes-sages: "Feel bad. Worry about dyin(' ("If I can't feel good, why should you"?) To break the witch's curse·, her cop-out was confronted as she became alerted to the witch messages.

Viola became aware that whenever she foundi hers:elrf fee'llinig go.od, she would then begin to foe1 bad. Her magically-thinkingC ·collected "evidence" from critical moments: in her life that supported the witch's curse: right before her father died!, she was feeling good; right before she suddenly had a miscarriage, she had felit good, and so on. In treatment (wiith my protection), sihe da.redi to challenge >the curse .ain.d1 freed herself of her bad-f.eeliin1g rackets.

1In conclusion, the C's magical thinking, can be used thera.-peutically to the adivanta.ge of the .therapist in counteracting diestruc-tive parental injunctions from the C of the parent-just as it was

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the task of the witch doctor in primitive and medieval times to ward off so-calLed "evil spirits". The process of TA treatment gives .the client permission to do what his autonomous A wants rather than what the C in the parent wants. Once liberated of witchy life-script messages, the client is free to exert his Adult power to further his own autonomous growth.

REFERENCES

Campos, L.: "The Witch's Curse", paper read at the annual meeting of the International Transactional Analysis Association, Monterey, Cali-fornia, August 22, 1969.

Campos, L.: "Spanish-American Children of Separation and Divorce", Chil-dren of Separation and Divorce, L. Abt, ed. In preparation, 1970.

English, Fanita: "Episcript and the Hot Potato Game'', TAB 8:77-82, 1969. James, Muriel and Dorothy Jongeward: Born to Win. Unpublished manu-

script, 1969. McCormick, P. and L. Campos: Introduce Yourself to Transactional Analysis.

Transactional Pubs, Berkeley, California, 1939. Steiner, C.: Script Analysis in Alcoholism. Unpublished manuscript, 1969.

*Leonard Campos is a member of the faculty at the 0. H. Close School for Boys in Stockton, California. This article was first pre-sented as a paper at the annual meeting of the California State Psy-cholog.ical Association on January 16, 1970 at Monterey, California.

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Corrected page 57, Transactional Analysis Bulletin April, 1970, Volume 9, Number 34