Is It God Who Cures? A Transpersonal Perspective on Script Formation, the Role of Physis, and the “Soul Work” of the Therapeutic Process

Abstract

Identifying a gap in the transactional analysis (TA) literature regarding the role of spirit or soul in the process of psychotherapy, the author invites consideration of the role of physis in both script formation and psychotherapy. She argues for reclaiming script as a positive, dynamic process and the inclusion of a spiritual understanding of the therapeutic journey. This article contrasts the medical construct of treatment planning, which presents the psychotherapist as a potent, protective, permission-giving director of the therapeutic process, with the more explicitly spiritual concept of the soul’s journey. The author suggests that the evolving process of psychotherapy may have a momentum of its own, moderated by the dynamic tension between the longing for growth and change and the need to create a semblance of existential safety through script. Both impulses are viewed as manifestations of physis in action. The author proposes letting go of the ideas of “cure” and “change” as goals and instead framing the therapist’s role as a purposeful witness who actively receives the client’s experience. Therapist and client then find mutual transformation and integration through the shared process of endarkenment. Thus, script is reclaimed as a positive narrative of the self, which ultimately allows the individual to make meaning from uncertainty and pain.