Allyson
The existential basis of Allyson's scripting is similar to my own. The not-OK child made certain decisions regarding her value as a person and her entitlement to the benefits of her human existence, which has resulted in a primary script theme/pattern of never amounting to much in her career aspirations and failing at love in her relationships. This appears to be a very common combination and when, as with Allyson, it is manifested in only first or second degree severity, it may come to the attention of helping professionals late or not at all; not to mention the odds of the helping professional being trained in script analysis and, therefore, being able to help in any significant way. The result is a large segment of the population living in a sort of quiet desperation, knowing only that they need, sensing that something must be wrong with this picture, but not knowing where to begin in seeking the answers.
Likewise, for Allyson as for me, there has been an adoption of the arrogant position, I'm OK - You're Not OK, in her Adult to compensate for the underlying tendency toward lovelessness and depression, which is the primary script category. Covert sabotage from the not-OK Child limits the effectiveness of the contention of arrogant superiority and injects a somewhat lesser component of mindlessness, but, because of her separation from her mother during a large portion of her formative years, she was spared the development of the strong joyless/addiction component that her sister received. Due to the fragmentation of the primary family group, Allyson's birth-order scripting resembles that of a firstborn male and has resulted in a much-higher-than-normal level of male sex-role programming.
The content of our individual scripting diverges at the secondary level of gender scripting. In place of the theme of The Intellectual, which appears in my scripting, Allyson's gender scripting has evolved in the pattern called Tough Lady, which was first described by Carmen Kerr and which was presented by Hogie Wycoff in her chapter, entitled Banal Scripts of Women, that Claude Steiner includes in Scripts People Live. Since, the Tough Lady paradigm provides a comprehensive explanation of all phases of Allyson's current functioning and the way in which certain difficulties might be resolved, I will present its description here in detail.
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