Transactional Analysis Journal 1980 CURE edition was preceded by a paper on a cure accomplished by “permission giving.“

In January 1980, a few months before the journal of Transactional Analysis published their April edition, focusing on Cure published:

Effective Permission-Giving and Representational Systems by William H. Thweatt

William H Thweatt reports a case of narcolepsy (sleeping sickness) cured by Transactional Analysis. There is no external link to the specific case in the paper nor in any of the references listed. The case is presented as a story, an anecdote. This might lead us to dismiss the claim.

However, we must be aware that EVERY case of cured is a story, an anecdote. Cases are real, not statistical. We cannot judge an individual case using statistics. Every case must be justified on its own merits.

The paper discusses:

The Illness:

“A case of Narcolepsy {a symptom where the patient falls asleep at apparently random times} was treated successfully {cured} with “negative permission” which liberated the client of his symptoms.”

· “This paper reports on a case that was the result of an early traumatic provocation and which was cured with “negative permission”

Note: This is a hypothetical past cause which cannot be proven. All cases, once they move into the past, become hypothetical. We cannot go back in time.

The Cause

The cause, as reported in the paper, was: “It was Christmas eve. Morph, about 2½ years old, had been put to bed. He was too excited to sleep and kept calling to his parents to let him come downstairs. While Morph was standing in his bed holding on to the bars and crying to be let out his dad opened the door. He walked over to Morph, threw a glass of water in his face (he had read Dr. Shock), and shouted, “GO ТO SLEEP!” Morph fell backward and immediately went to sleep.”

The client reported: “just before the onset of an attack he distinctly heard his father’s voice shouting, “GO TO SLEEP!” And as a good boy, he did!”

The Cure

The cure was achieved by negative-permission, by negating the present illness, by giving the patient negative permission, that is, permission to not obey the past command.

“In the fourth session the therapist had Morph cathect that early scene using fantasy. At the point that his father commanded, “GO TO SLEEP!” the therapist intervened with a firm loud voice saying, “NO, MORPH, STAY AWAKE!” He anchored the new order by simultaneously touching Morph’s knee to give the new order through two representational channels.”

and the result? “Morph reported that he had no more attacks and was “cured.” He even had stopped his medication with his physician’s knowledge.”

Theory of Cure

The treatment was “negative permission” a change to the mind, to one of the beliefs of the patient.

The illness in this case was an elementary illness, having a single cause – and thus a single cure.

This cure was a one-time change, a transformation of a mind attribute, although it may have taken more than one session to determine the cause and design the cure. The result was an attribute cure. Once cured, the patient did not require any more treatment actions.

The paper reported, in the language of transactional analysis, that “He had dramatically changed one troublesome ego state.” In the theory of cure, the practitioner successfully changed one of the beliefs of the patient, one attribute of the mind, producing a cured state.

The cure reported in this paper clearly matches the definition of cure in the theory of cure with regards to present cause, curative action, and consequences, specifically,

· The patient came with an illness of unknown cause and unknown cure.

· The present cause was hypothesized based on the patient’s story, their history.

· The present cause was addressed, transformed, by a Transactional Analysis intervention, which addressed the present cause.

· The illness was cured.

I will quibble with the language. The paper misinterprets the concept of cure, reporting that “he was cured.” The illness was cured by addressing the cause. In the theory of cure, illnesses, not patients, are “cured.”

To your health, Tracy
Author: A New Theory of cure.