The OK Corral

Man is repeatedly evaluating himself as to the value of himself to himself and also to his companion; as to the value of his companionship for himself and for his companion. These are in the often silent:

"What am I going do with you?" can be understood as coming from one of the four categories of dynamic social operations. In fact, each of these six questions is resolved by discerning the outcome of the particular encounter with the identified other person. It has been found there are four major classes of outcomes which result from social encounters.

a. The Get-On-With (GOW) outcome of a social encounter occurs when the personal experience of the particular person closes with an I-Am-OK and You-Are-OK.

b. The Get-Rid-Of (GRO) outcome of a social encounter occurs when the personal experience of the particular person closes with an I-Am-OK and You-Are-Not-OK.

c. The Get-Away-From (GAF) outcome of a social encounter occurs when the personal experience of the particular person closes with I-Am-Not-OK and You-Are-OK.

d. The Get-Nowhere-With (GNW) outcome occurs when the personal experience of the particular person closes with I-Am-Not-OK and You-Are-Not-OK.

“Prescriptions for getting well” are techniques for increasing the frequency of get-on-with encounters. Teaching, learning, and using these techniques will result in more “I am OK AND You are OK” encounters. These techniques at first are experienced as “mechanical” vs emotional style “real” activities.

An example of a prescription is to recommend to a person: "Give more frequent thank-you’s to more people. You can start doing it now." The Adult of the person is explicitly told that these activities are techniques (giving an OK) Okaying another person and are to be carried out in order to secure (receive/get) more (reciprocated) OK's coming back to himself. This is a get-on-with program for getting well.

Thoughtfully planned (thinking) Adult exercises when practiced in a “mechanical” manner (rather than with Child emotion/emotionally) will result in improving one’s social skills.

The Adult in the person may at first say they feel stiff, artificial when doing this. Often the particular person carrying out the exercise “mechanical style” says “I feel like a phony” or “That’s being insincere, isn’t it?”

The person committed to getting well, often reports a few days later: "I feel OK now when I am giving these thank-you’s, especially when I see the other person warming up back to me. It works!"

(5) "When saying hello to people call him/her by name (e.g. Hi John). If you don’t remember their name, ask him/her for it. Get a hello AND your name said back to you."

There are various kinds of opportunities people have for a get-on-with each other (I am OK AND You are OK kind of events). There are Parent types of encounters. Encounters can be handled by personal Adult monitored mechanical style procedures or encounters resulting in get-on-with can be left to occur at the whim or “unconscious feeling” of a capricious Child inside oneself or both parties.

Opportunities often come in the form of encounters with other individuals and can be taken advantage of in some manner or other. Opportunities can be explored either by personal (Adult monitored) design or at the whim of an “unconscious feeling” of the capricious Child inside one or both persons.

Encounters are opportunities [to use, to exploit, to explore, to play with, to take care of, to take advantage of, to handle] to deal with in some form or other during a day's time.

Conscious, deliberate, objectively computed "manipulations" to procure a Getting-On-With for one's self can add zest to the other person's life, for example a reciprocated glowing smile.

The OK Corral: Grid for What’s Happening is a method for making it possible to organize social events: Get-On-With, Get-Nowhere-With, Get-Away-From, Get-Rid-Of.

The OK Corral: Grid for What’s Happening diagrammatically represents how people are moved by their friends AND move their friends in their day to day social encounters with each other. It is the diagram of social dynamics. It shows how personal experiences are concluded with others.

Related information is found in Getting Well, Coercive Feelings, archives of The Encounterer, in the list of titles on the HOME page, and thru-out this web site.

Transactional Analysis in the OK Corral: Grid for What's Happening

( PDF )

( HTML )

ListeningActivity.com 01/28/12
	Transactional Analysis in the OK Corral: Grid for What’s Happening by Franklin H. Ernst Jr., M.D. ( HTML ) ( PDF ) Man is repeatedly evaluating himself as to the value of himself to himself and also to his companion; as to the value of his companionship for himself and for his companion. These are in the often silent: 1. "How are you (How am I with you)?" 2. "What am I going to do with you?" 3. "How is this (situation with you) going to turn out?" 4. "How am I going to get out of this (situation with you)?" 5. "( I wonder) what (do) you think of me (now)?" 6. “What are you thinking of doing to me (now)?” "What am I going do with you?" can be understood as coming from one of the four categories of dynamic social operations. In fact, each of these six questions is resolved by discerning the outcome of the particular encounter with the identified other person. It has been found there are four major classes of outcomes which result from social encounters. The four classes of outcome are called Get-On-With (GOW), Get-Rid-Of (GRO), Get-Away-From (GAF), Get-Nowhere-With (GNW). a. The Get-On-With (GOW) outcome of a social encounter occurs when the personal experience of the particular person closes with an I-Am-OK and You-Are-OK. b. The Get-Rid-Of (GRO) outcome of a social encounter occurs when the personal experience of the particular person closes with an I-Am-OK and You-Are-Not-OK. c. The Get-Away-From (GAF) outcome of a social encounter occurs when the personal experience of the particular person closes with I-Am-Not-OK and You-Are-OK. d. The Get-Nowhere-With (GNW) outcome occurs when the personal experience of the particular person closes with I-Am-Not-OK and You-Are-Not-OK. “Prescriptions for getting well” are techniques for increasing the frequency of get-on-with encounters. Teaching, learning, and using these techniques will result in more “I am OK AND You are OK” encounters. These techniques at first are experienced as “mechanical” vs emotional style “real” activities. An example of a prescription is to recommend to a person: "Give more frequent thank-you’s to more people. You can start doing it now." The Adult of the person is explicitly told that these activities are techniques (giving an OK) Okaying another person and are to be carried out in order to secure (receive/get) more (reciprocated) OK's coming back to himself. This is a get-on-with program for getting well. Thoughtfully planned (thinking) Adult exercises when practiced in a “mechanical” manner (rather than with Child emotion/emotionally) will result in improving one’s social skills. The Adult in the person may at first say they feel stiff, artificial when doing this. Often the particular person carrying out the exercise “mechanical style” says “I feel like a phony” or “That’s being insincere, isn’t it?” The person committed to getting well, often reports a few days later: "I feel OK now when I am giving these thank-you’s, especially when I see the other person warming up back to me. It works!" Other “prescriptions for getting well” are: (1) "Get a level (head)," (2) "Gently rub your back teeth over each other," (3) "Give a Named Hello to 15 people a day," (4) "Make a (name) Seating Diagram of meetings and classrooms. (5) "When saying hello to people call him/her by name (e.g. Hi John). If you don’t remember their name, ask him/her for it. Get a hello AND your name said back to you." (6) "Talk in duet with a friend for 20 to 30 seconds, every once in awhile." Taking Advantage of the Windows of Opportunity for a get-on-with: There are various kinds of opportunities people have for a get-on-with each other (I am OK AND You are OK kind of events). There are Parent types of encounters. Encounters can be handled by personal Adult monitored mechanical style procedures or encounters resulting in get-on-with can be left to occur at the whim or “unconscious feeling” of a capricious Child inside oneself or both parties. Opportunities often come in the form of encounters with other individuals and can be taken advantage of in some manner or other. Opportunities can be explored either by personal (Adult monitored) design or at the whim of an “unconscious feeling” of the capricious Child inside one or both persons. Encounters are opportunities [to use, to exploit, to explore, to play with, to take care of, to take advantage of, to handle] to deal with in some form or other during a day's time. Conscious, deliberate, objectively computed "manipulations" to procure a Getting-On-With for one's self can add zest to the other person's life, for example a reciprocated glowing smile. The OK Corral: Grid for What’s Happening is a method for making it possible to organize social events: Get-On-With, Get-Nowhere-With, Get-Away-From, Get-Rid-Of. The OK Corral: Grid for What’s Happening diagrammatically represents how people are moved by their friends AND move their friends in their day to day social encounters with each other. It is the diagram of social dynamics. It shows how personal experiences are concluded with others. Related information is found in Getting Well, Coercive Feelings, archives of The Encounterer, in the list of titles on the HOME page, and thru-out this web site. Transactional Analysis in the OK Corral: Grid for What's Happening ( PDF ) ( HTML )

Copyright 2011 Copying for non-commercial purposes is authorized. Permission to use, to copy granted when source credited. Permission is hereby granted to any person, magazine, newspaper, other periodical, or media to reprint any monograph or art work on this web site in any single issue of the periodical in question, so long as two conditions are met: (1) the monograph or art work is printed word for word, including diagrams, figures, and footnotes, and (2) the following reference is given at the bottom of the first page on which the reprinted article begins: "This article (name of title, author's name) is published by Franklin "Harry" Ernst III, Addresso'Set Publications, P.O. Box 3009, Vallejo, California 94590, USA, www.ListeningActivity.com"


This site was last updated 02/08/11

Copyright 2011