To add further nuances to the achieved transmuted contact rebus, we can distinguish between two different types of contact rebus based on equal and unequal relationships. One such is when a child transmits an achieved transmuted contact rebus in order to receive an untransmuted contact rebus from his counterpart.
Thus there are two types of achieved untransmuted contact rebus depending on which type of relationship the person is looking for. For this reason, we can call them the equal achieved untransmuted contact rebus and the unequal achieved untransmuted contact rebus (Motivational Work, Part 1: Values and Theory, page 402 – 418).
Equal transmuted contact rebuses occur more commonly in manifestly motivated adults, as the individual receives most of his life force via equal relationships with others. Nevertheless, the unequal transmuted contact rebus also exists, meaning that the individual can receive life energy through unequal exchanges.
Supportive relationships such as that between doctor-patient, priest-confessor, teacher-student, and manager-employee are cases in which there is no equal and mutual exchange of life force. One party receives more, while the other gives more.
Latently motivated children and adults alike have a vast need for life energy, which is why the largest component of their transmuted contact rebuses is unequally transmuted, although there are also equally transmuted contact rebuses involved. This means that the latently motivated individual has a limited capacity for forming friendships since he is more intent on a unilateral receipt of life force than a mutual relationship. The more latently motivated the individual, the greater the influence of the unequal transmuted contact rebuses.
Case Study
Five-year-old Amanda (Part One page 449) is forcibly placed in a foster home following a couple of years in various children’s homes. Amanda’s mother, 31-year-old Rita (a drug addict and prostitute) has been unable to look after her daughter during this time, frequently neglecting to feed her properly and even having her present when receiving punters. To add to the misery, Amanda’s father died two years ago of an overdose.
Before Amanda is placed in the foster home, her mother must first visit and approve of the family. Afterward, her social worker regularly drives her there to visit Amanda. However, Rita is passive during these meetings and does not initiate contact with her daughter or her foster parents. It is up to them and the social worker to keep the conversation going. Amanda is usually very lively and active, but when her mother is visiting, she becomes hyperactive, climbing on furniture and bookshelves without sitting still for a moment.
The foster parents tell Rita that her visits are welcome and that she has a lovely daughter; then the foster father enquires about Rita’s parenting routines, for example about how she puts Amanda to bed. Amanda’s foster parents are not too concerned about setting boundaries for Amanda while she is acting up, as they do not wish to be too negative in their interaction with her in front of her mother.
They are also focused on maintaining a positive attitude towards Rita so that Amanda is spared from a sense of conflicting loyalties. Since the foster parents realize that feelings of failure, aggression, and hopelessness lie behind Rita’s passive behavior and that the little girl’s hyperactivity is linked to her anxiety and is a way of shielding herself from the situation, they do not become annoyed by it all.
The social worker present at the home visit views her role as one of encouraging Rita to regularly visit her daughter and adopt a positive attitude to the foster home if she can. The social worker is also aware of the need to give Rita positive affirmation, and, as they are driving back, commends her for visiting her daughter, telling her how wonderful the little girl is.
She also recognizes Rita’s withdrawal contact rebus, understanding that going through with the visit causes her great pain. Likewise, the social worker is able to detransmute the aggressive contact rebus that Rita usually adopts in the car on the way back from her visits, one that entails criticizing the foster parents and homing in on their faults.
The foster parents transmit an ascribed untransmuted constructive contact rebus to both mother and daughter. From the mother, they receive a contact rebus involving passivity, a test which they are able to detransmute. By primarily focusing on the daughter and trying to maintain a positive relationship with the mother they facilitate the development of the relationship between them.
Further, their ability to detransmute both contact rebuses provides both mother and daughter with a positive affirmation. Although the mother’s tests invite them to feel offended or criticized and the daughter’s contact rebus tests their tolerance of her hyperactivity, solving these tests gives them life force and prevents them from becoming drained.
Since the social worker has a professional relationship with the mother and daughter, she is not emotionally involved in the same way as the foster parents. Her role is to motivate Rita to maintain regular contact with her child and develop a positive attitude towards the foster home, thus facilitating Amanda’s bonding process. The social worker adopts an ascribed untransmuted contact rebus towards Rita and can detransmute her transmuted destructive contact rebus.
