The Role of Permission: Two Decades Later

Abstract

The concept of permission is important both for parenting and for therapy. As parents, we try to provide an environment that gives permission to our children as well as security, predictability, validation, and protection. As therapists, we work to remediate the deficits our patients experienced in their early lives, deficits that influenced their life decisions. This article is a synopsis of a panel entitled, “Permission: Two Decades Later,” presented at the ITAA Major International Transactional Analysis Conference (MITAC) in San Francisco in August 1995. The panel began with a paper by James and Barbara Allen in which they outlined the changes they would make if they were writing their original paper, “Scripts: The Role of Permission” (Allen & Allen, 1972), today. This was followed by a cross-cultural panel, the members of which explained their current thinking about permission and how the concept fits into their cultural contexts. Finally, there were dialogues between the panelists and between the panelists and members of the audience.