# THE PARENT-BARGAIN TAXONOMY ## Components, Relationships, and Verb Decodings --- ## PART 1: THE COMPONENTS (What can be at stake in any internal bargain) These are the elements present in any transaction with the internal parent. Each one is a thing the speaker can take a position toward. - **Standard** — what is expected, valued, demanded - **Awareness** — knowing what the standard is - **Intention** — the directed wanting toward meeting the standard - **Capacity** — the ability to meet the standard - **Action** — the actual doing - **Outcome** — the result produced - **Felt state** — what is actually experienced inside the bargain - **Perception** — what the speaker sees, registers, knows to be true - **Claim** — the right to assert any of the above as one's own - **Responsibility** — accountability for any of the above - **Time** — when evaluation occurs (now, later, never, already past) - **Presence** — being here, taking up space, existing in the transaction --- ## PART 2: THE RELATIONSHIPS (Possible positions toward each component) For each component above, the speaker can take any of the following positions. The verb being used encodes a specific combination across the components. - **Accept** — own it, claim it, endorse it as mine and as real - **Reject** — refuse it, deny it applies, oppose it - **Disclaim** — acknowledge it exists but say it's not in my hands - **Suspend** — keep it indefinite, unresolved, in process, not yet evaluable - **Minimize** — shrink it pre-emptively to reduce exposure - **Hedge** — voice it with disclaimers so it isn't fully claimed - **Disown** — say it isn't mine, locate it elsewhere - **Defer** — push it forward in time so present evaluation is avoided - **Substitute** — replace one component with another (e.g., announce intention instead of producing action) - **Report** — describe it without inhabiting it (e.g., "I'm fine" reports state without owning it) - **Pre-empt** — perform the negative judgment before the parent can deliver it - **Bypass** — refuse to engage with the component at all --- ## PART 3: THE TWO OPERATIVE AXES The verbs split across two domains. Each verb operates primarily on one axis. **Action axis** — bargains about doing - Manages standard, intention, capacity, action, outcome - Concerns: meeting expectations, producing results, being evaluated on output **State axis** — bargains about being - Manages felt state, perception, claim, presence - Concerns: experiencing what is real, asserting what is seen, occupying space --- ## PART 4: THE VERB DECODINGS Each verb is a specific configuration of accept / disclaim / suspend / minimize / etc. across the components above. ### Action-axis verbs (bargains about doing) - **Trying** — accepts standard, accepts intention, suspends action and outcome - Perpetual motion-toward without arrival; evaluation indefinitely deferred - **Working on** — accepts standard, accepts intention, suspends action, substitutes self-development as deliverable - Self-improvement as alibi for non-completion - **Should (prospective)** — accepts standard, suspends commitment to action - Pre-alignment with the parent's framework without binding commitment - **Should have** — accepts standard, accepts the failure, pre-empts judgment by self-conviction - Retrospective alibi; testifies for the prosecution before the prosecution does - **Have to** — accepts standard, disclaims capacity - Powerlessness defense; preserves parent's authority while exempting self from performance - **Want to** — accepts intention, disclaims capacity and action, substitutes wanting as deliverable - Intention performed for its own sake; identity-as-wanter without exposure to outcome-evaluation - **Need to** — accepts standard, accepts awareness, disclaims action, substitutes insight as deliverable - Knowing what is required becomes the offered product; doing remains undone ### State-axis verbs (bargains about being) - **Just** — minimizes the claim itself before any component is evaluated - Pre-emptive shrinking under unpredictable judgment; hedge against unknown punishment - **Fine** — disclaims felt state, reports the welcome state, dissociates report from experience - Display compliance under display prohibition; report function severed from experience function - **Guess** — accepts perception privately, disclaims claim, hedges the right to assert - Perception under prohibition; voiced with enough qualifier that ownership is deniable ### Modulator markers (not full verbs — wrap any verb to soften) - **I think** — hedges any subsequent claim as tentative cognition rather than asserted truth - **Sorry** (without object) — pre-emptive genuflection; apologizes for presence/claim itself --- ## PART 5: STRUCTURAL PATTERNS ACROSS THE TAXONOMY **Every verb preserves the parent's framework.** At least one component is always accepted. The standard, the awareness, or the intention is owned. This keeps the relationship with the internal parent intact — the speaker remains inside the parent's system. **Every verb protects the speaker from exposure.** At least one component is always disclaimed, suspended, or substituted. This is where the prison hides — the disclaimer is what keeps the wound sealed and the prohibition unviolated. **The component being protected tells you which prison is active.** - Capacity disclaimed → "I'm not enough" / powerlessness wound - Action suspended → performance-conditional worth - Felt state disclaimed → "feelings aren't welcome here" / display prohibition - Perception disclaimed → "your reality isn't trustworthy" / comparative-function attack - Claim minimized → "you don't deserve space" / significance wound **The component being accepted tells you which authority is in place.** - Standard accepted → moralist parent / evaluator - Awareness accepted → insight-valuing parent - Intention accepted → desire-permitting but performance-prohibiting parent **The substitution pattern tells you what the system has learned to deliver.** - Intention substituted for action → wanting as the product - Awareness substituted for action → insight as the product - Process substituted for completion → self-development as the product - Reported state substituted for felt state → composure as the product --- ## PART 6: DIAGNOSTIC USE When listening to a speaker, the verb selection reveals: 1. Which components are accepted (where the parent's authority remains intact) 2. Which components are disclaimed/suspended (where the prison is protecting the wound) 3. What is being substituted (what the system has learned to deliver instead) 4. Which axis dominates (action-bargains vs. state-bargains) The body-read of the speaker repeating their own loaded verb confirms whether the configuration is live (somatic activation present) or whether the speaker has already loosened it (configuration named but no longer felt as constraint). The forbidden-position contrast probe (asking the speaker to claim what the verb disclaims) tests which component is structurally non-negotiable. The body's rejection of the contrast position identifies the load-bearing disclaimer — the specific protection the architecture cannot release without first addressing the wound underneath.