Discounts
Discounts are an internal mechanism by which people minimise or maximise an aspect of reality, themselves or others. In other words they are not accounting for the reality of themselves or others or the situation.
The result is that people who discount are not aware of relevant aspects in a situation, they do not use their Adult ego state to judge situations appropriate or solving outstanding problems. In structural terms the ego state involved will be either Parent or Child.
Example: Sue is a nurse who comes often 5 till 15 minutes to late to her change of shift. She sees this not as a problem, she gets all necessary information from the colleagues who are on time and has a lots of "good" reasons that it is difficult for her to come on time (My kids were ill, it was just such traffic jam....). She is not aware (discounting) that the colleagues get more and more annoyed
Manifestations of Discounts
As discounts are an internal process, they can only be ‘seen' as it were by their external manifestations.
These are:
- Ulterior transactions (double bind messages).
- Redefining transactions in which the reply is not a response to the stimulus, eg: Why are you so late? I tried really my best to come on time!
- Behaviour in a position within the Drama Triangle.
- Passive behaviours:
Called passive because these behaviours
will never
solve the problem.
- Doing nothing
- Over adaptation
- Agitation.
- Violence: towards self or others.
