10.9 The place of stuttering in a life-script.
Most explanations of moments of stuttering apply to short-term motives such as neurophysiological events, fears, avoidance etc. In the comprehensive view of Concentric Man the long-term motives are much more important. In contemporary research on stuttering the issue is rarely mentioned. For lasting results however the therapist should study also the long-term issues and acquire the counselling skills to cope with them.
After laying the foundations of an intensive and comprehensive therapy program for stutterers in the Netherlands T.Schoenaker (1981, 2000) moved to Germany where he began the Adler-Dreikurs Institute for individual psychological counselling (www.Adler-Dreikurs.de) in Sinntal. In his view every child experiences key events before the age of six that will determine his life style. It stakes out a life strategy for adaptation and defence, for example
behaving helplessly and dependent, shun responsibility, let other people work for him
rigid defence, keeping others at a distance
meticulousness, having everything under control
trying out other people: see, you run away from me
A lifestyle automatically confirms itself: the behaviour issuing from a lifestyle elicits responses by others for which one's own lifestyle supplies the fitting answer. That is why it hard to eradicate. It is a self-fulfilling prophesy, according to Watzlawick it is "begging the question". In most stutterers the way they stutter, the situations in which they stutter fit exactly in the life script they have laid out for themselves. They employ their stuttering for their ends, that is soliciting sympathy, shunning responsibility, keeping people at a distance, giving covert expression to aggression, to tax a person's patience. This approach is akin to that of Transactional Analysis (Berne 1964). In fact Berne writes: Of all those who preceded Transactional Analysis, Alfred Adler comes closest to talking like a script analyst. Berne also says that most neurotic persons are at least dimly aware of their hidden intent. Changing and replacing the ideas and concepts that keep the life script going is the key to therapy. More about this in the next chapter.
Most chronic stutterers recover from their disability sufficiently so that they feel not handicapped anymore. Some traces however may remain, as in the case of the author of the quotation at the beginning of this chapter. On the occasion of my inauguration as a professor in voice and speech pathology Charles Van Riper from Kalamazoo (Michigan) was in Utrecht as a guest of honour. There he met Theo Schoenaker, who demonstrated to him a group session with young people. They had received training in muscle relaxation and body awareness. Van Riper, who until advanced age has always remained a stutterer, commented: "What do you expect from lowering their defences in a world that is full of knives?" Schoenaker (in his book Ja ... aber, 2000) recalls the incident: "I wondered at the time what he meant by those knives, because I didn't see any. I knew nothing yet about lifestyles. Now I would have interpreted his remark as belonging to his lifestyle". Van Riper carried his residual stuttering openly as a token of vulnerability and as a challenge, thus displaying his style of adaptation and defence (AcD). Another quote: "for the serious student of the causes of stuttering the box of Pandora opens, revealing all human vices: lust of power, egoism, the need to humiliate, to threaten, to torment". Clearly he opens for us the box containing the distress of his own childhood. And he shows to us a way to active prevention.
A general rule among today's therapists is that the parents are never at fault, so as not to lose their confidence. This of course is only partly true. When stuttering has developed on a basis of a genetic disposition, it is clear that one of the parents has a share in the cause. However the parent is not to be blamed for it. Just as when a parent is incapable to love his or her child and is unknowing of his shortcomings as an educator. A reproach won't bring you very far since his lifestyle has also taken form under circumstances that he has not chosen. You can work towards a solution by identifying the facts as they are, without condemning the person who is involved.
What can you, as a teacher or a therapist, do when you suspect that a stuttering infant is from a home where it is witness or victim of violence? There is a dilemma: you fear to lose the parent's confidence when you mention it. It is the best policy to be frank about your thoughts since it provides the best chance for a frank answer, as long as your client feels that he is not being judged or condemned. Make clear that it is your common purpose to find a solution for the child in a difficult situation, and that you need one another to find that solution, even if it means calling in help from outside.
10.10 Battos meets his fate and becomes a stutterer: an escalation.