Of frogs and princes

TA claims that we are all born princes and princesses. Script-ridden people have mistakenly identified themselves as frogs having been cursed to forget their pristine identity.

Ideally TA therapy should lead to a disavowal of this false image and reclamation of the exalted true self. For this, first the script-ridden people have to be encouraged to look within themselves and become aware of the beautiful self lurking beneath the false identity. By thus shifting attention from their 'frogginess,' slowly these people recover their royal form. The frog mask withers away like a mirage. The therapist plays an important role in cultivating this shift by focusing on the princely qualities through attributions, modeling and permissions. Thus the therapist holds a very powerful position in TA group therapy. The counselees are vulnerable at this point and in a highly suggestible state.

If however, the therapist chooses to focus on their frogginess, ridiculing their green habit and warts n all, the counsellees wil start getting attached to their frog identities. The more they hate their warts and remain unaware of their princely true self, the more adamantly they will cling to their 'frogginess' and will therefore be averse to any change. Then the counselees will spend months and years cleansing their green bodies with TA tonic n shampoo and gaze wistfully at their wart-ridden bodies in the false mirror held by the therapist. No frog will turn into a prince this way. The way out is for therapists to focus on the princely qualities and point to the existence of the princely self and hold a shining mirror to this true self. Then the counselees will readily relinquish their illusory 'frogginess' and become the princes and princesses that they are.