The primary survival needs of the human animal give rise to the drives for food, water, protection, procreation, and stimulation.  The stroke is the basic unit of human stimulation.  "Because strokes are essential for survival, the exchange of strokes is one of the most important activities that people engage in . . . while it is possible to survive on a minimum of strokes, stroke scarcity is unhealthy, both physically and emotionally, thus stroke hunger is a major driving force within people [Steiner, Claude M. - Scripts People Live (New York: Grove Press Inc., 1974)]."  Strokes may vary from direct and physical to indirect and symbolic.

     Stroke hunger leads to structure hunger, the need to structure time for the procurement of strokes.  This is accomplished by establishing social situations within which persons may communicate and exchange strokes, that is, to transact with others.  Time may be structured in combinations of six basic modes called: intimacy, rituals, work, pastimes, games, and withdrawal.  If, for one reason or another, a person is not able to obtain direct honest stroking through intimacy, then the other five, less-direct methods are utilized.

     A transaction consists of a stimulus and a response between an ego state of the first person and one of the second.  As long as the response is emitted from the ego state that was addressed back toward the one in the other person responsible for the stimulus, the stimulus and response are said to be parallel and the resulting transaction is called complimentary.  When complimentary transactions follow one another smoothly, communication occurs.
 
 
 

COMPLIMENTARY TRANSACTION   A.) YOU LOOK LIKE YOU DON'T FEEL SO      GOOD?   B.) YOU'RE RIGHT, I DON'T.

 
       Any nonparallel response creates a crossed transaction and interrupts communication.
 
 

CROSSED TRANSACTION   A.) LET'S WORK ON THE BUDGET AFTER      DINNER.   B.) CAN'T YOU EVER QUIT DEMANDING?

       A third kind of transaction occurs when the actual meaning of the conversation is hidden on the overt or social level.  This kind of transaction is called ulterior, and is not truly understandable until the real meaning on the ulterior level and the ego states involved there are also understood.
 
 

ULTERIOR TRANSACTION   SOCIAL LEVEL A.) PERHAPS WE COULD GET TOGETHER      AND DISCUSS IT OVER DINNER? B.) THAT WOULD BE NICE.   ULTERIOR LEVEL  A.) I'D LIKE TO HAVE SEX. B.) YEAH.

     The relative availability of strokes within families and relationships is called the stroke economy.  If the stroke economy is bankrupt or even significantly povertized, competition for the meager quantity of available strokes can become quite heated or even vicious.  The intrigue which results from the crossed and ulterior transactions which define communication in such households and which are themselves disguised requests for strokes take the form of rituals, pastimes, and social games.  Since it has been estimated [Satir, Virginia - Peoplemaking (Palo Alto, Ca: Science and Behavior Books, 1972)] that 96% of American families are, in some way, dysfunctional, this behavior will be familiar to most of us.  Steiner defines a ritual a "an exchange of recognition strokes" [Steiner, Claude M. - Scripts People Live (New York: Grove Press Inc., 1974)], such as: "How are you?", "I'm fine, thank you and you?", a common greeting ritual.  Pastimes are engaged in often by friends of the same sex with similar psychological priorities (called drivers) or within intimate relationships where the partners have complimentary drivers.  Common pastimes are: "ain't it awful?", "who won(the game)?", and "if it weren't for him (her/them) . . . "

     People come into the world with the basic existential position of I'm OK - you're OK.  This persists until external influences (eg. social programming, stroke economy, etc.) force the person into one of the three not-OK positions:
 
 

     Since, in truth, we are all actually OK, these positions are not consistent with reality and the person who adopts such a position will feel compelled to produce evidence to vindicate this cherished illusion.  This final hunger is called position hunger and it drives people to seek a "one-up"/"one-down" status in relationship to others which is seen as justifying the life position.  This leads to the enactment of social games which are discussed in the next section.  The diagram below called, The OK Corral, was developed by F.H. Ernst and illustrates the four basic existential life positions and the quality of outlook and behavior common to each [Ernst, F.H. - TA Journal, 3, No. 2 (April 1973) P. 19-25.].
 
 

     

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