Unmasking Neurodiversity: Revisiting the Relationship Between Core Self and Sense of Self to Examine Common Neurodivergent Script Decisions

Abstract This article proposes further development of a TA model that accounts for neurodiversity in a way that is not pathological, one that is in critical response to implicit ableism in TA theory and current standard diagnostic manuals. The authors propose that there is value in incorporating theories of a core organismic self alongside transactional analysis theory of ego structure in accounting for our unique qualities endowed since birth, including neurodiversity. They suggest that the sense of self is formed by two relational processes: the I-I relationship between structural ego states and the core self and the I-Other relationship between structural ego states and others. The authors propose that the accommodations made by a neurodivergent person generally lead to script decisions emerging from their sense of self, which are often categorized as lazy, stupid, and disruptive. The article offers some thinking about these script decisions’ complementary functions.