Tier One
Scripting
Belonging becomes organized around expected roles. People anticipate reactions and adjust themselves to preserve closeness. Family life may appear calm while these expectations guide what each person feels able to express.
Understanding the whole system
When an adaptation becomes an assigned role
People learn which needs, perceptions, and choices preserve their connection to others. Within a coercive family, those adjustments can become expectations that organize everyone’s place. FRC follows what happens when someone moves beyond that place and the family attempts to restore the established order.
The framework describes three tiers, distinguished by how the family responds to movement beyond an assigned role.
Tier Two
Enforcement
Movement beyond an assigned role draws coercive consequences intended to restore it. FRC examines what those consequences accomplish, whose authority they preserve, and how dependence keeps people connected to the system.
Tier Three
Catastrophic Script Collapse
Repeated enforcement fails to restore the governing order. Attempts to preserve it may become acutely dangerous as that order takes precedence over external consequences and family members’ autonomy.
FRC is a provisional theoretical framework requiring empirical investigation. Adjacent tiers may overlap. Individual safety concerns require attention regardless of tier language.
Four structural positions
How people hold the system together
The Systems Architect
Establishes the governing order and holds the authority around which family relationships become organized.
The Formless Center
Keeps family functioning organized around that order and may exercise coercive authority over other family members.
The Tethered Child
Secures a more dependable place through usefulness, responsiveness, and meeting the caregiver’s needs.
The Banished Child
Encounters shifting acceptance and rejection and may become the person blamed for conflict within the wider family.
These positions describe relational functions and proposed developmental adaptations. People of any sex or gender may occupy the adult positions. Positions can change, and childhood pathways allow for varied adult outcomes.
Learn directly with the author
FRC Foundations
Live online seminar
Open to anyone who wants to understand FRC. Explore the conditioning process, the relationships among the four positions, and the three tiers through explanation, a fictional family example, and discussion with Susie.
$125 per participant · USD
Foundations includes one hour of teaching followed by 30 minutes of questions. Teaching availability is planned from February 2027; specific dates will be announced.
Ask about the online seminarPrivate organizational engagements
Bring FRC education to your team through a tailored virtual or in-person engagement. The proposal will specify the audience, teaching time, discussion, materials, and fee.
In-person per-person pricing includes the presenter’s meals and incidentals. Travel, accommodation, and suitable local transportation are quoted separately for your location and dates.
Request a tailored quoteFive separately bookable courses
Begin with FRC Foundations, then explore the deeper courses individually. Each course is being developed with an instructor manual and a participant workbook.
The Systems Architect
Explore proposed developmental origins, authority, relationships with the other positions, and functioning across the tiers.
The Formless Center
Explore proposed developmental origins, the work of sustaining the family system, and the movement between accommodation and enforcement.
The Banished and Tethered Children
Study both childhood positions together, their relationships with caregivers and each other, and their varied possible developmental pathways.
The Three Tiers of FRC
A deeper examination of Scripting, Enforcement, and Catastrophic Script Collapse through scenarios, discussion, and guided reflection.
The four deeper courses are in development. Their durations, prices, and dates will be announced separately. Teaching availability is planned from February 2027.
Teaching and consultation are educational. Susie shares her framework and, where relevant, her own experience and resources. Clinical assessment and treatment remain with appropriately qualified professionals. Continuing-education accreditation has yet to be established.
For those supporting women in shelter
Dedicated support for domestic violence shelter staff
A complimentary online FRC Foundations cohort is being developed specifically for staff of domestic violence shelters, with two hours of teaching including a break and an optional additional hour of questions and shared discussion.
Qualifying shelters may request one designated staff place per cohort for a director, coordinator, advocate, or shelter therapist. Participation is arranged following organizational and staff verification, subject to capacity.
Inquire about a shelter staff placeThe shelter resource package
An advocate-led interview guide, a resident reflection workbook organized around the tiers, and guidance for optional staff-facilitated meetings are prepared as a review edition.
The package is intended to support exploration of the framework’s relevance alongside a shelter’s existing procedures. Practitioner review precedes service use.
Resources will be provided directly through the shelter program. Please use a public organizational contact and preserve confidential shelter addresses and resident information.
Begin with the research
Read and explore
The accepted author manuscript
The complete manuscript text, including references and author disclosures, with APA’s required sharing attribution. Freely accessible.
Read the manuscript · PDFA plain-language introduction
A one-page introduction to the framework’s purpose, proposed tiers, and structural positions.
Download the introduction · PDFPublication and attribution
Forced Relational Conditioning:
A Three-Tier Framework
Sarkozy, S. (2026). Forced relational conditioning: A three-tier framework. Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology. Accepted for publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/teo0000401
The download on this page is the accepted author manuscript. The DOI links to the publisher’s authoritative article upon publication.
APA manuscript sharing notice
©American Psychological Association, 2026. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. The final article is available, upon publication, at: 10.1037/teo0000401
Educational offerings and original companion resources are provided independently by Susie Sarkozy. Journal publication concerns the article; courses and services are offered by the author independently of APA.