Games People Play: The Basic Handbook of Transactional Analysis. Pdfdrive com

partner can be found for the better relationship.
On a larger scale, games are integral and dynamic components of the
unconscious life-plan, or script, of each individual; they serve to fill in the time
while he waits for the final fulfilment, simultaneously advancing the action.
Since the last act of a script characteristically calls for either a miracle or a
catastrophe, depending on whether the script is constructive or destructive, the
corresponding games are accordingly either constructive or destructive. In
colloquial terms, an individual whose script is oriented towards ‘waiting for
Santa Claus’ is likely to be pleasant to deal with in such games as ‘Gee You’re
Wonderful, Mr Murgatroyd’, while someone with a tragic script oriented towards
‘waiting for rigor mortis to set in’ may play such disagreeable games as ‘Now
I’ve Got You, You Son of a Bitch’.
It should be noted that colloquialisms such as those in the previous sentence
are an integral part of game analysis, and are freely used in transactional
psychotherapy groups and seminars. The expression ‘waiting for rigor mortis to
set in’ originated in a dream of a patient, in which she decided to get certain
things done ‘before rigor mortis set in’. A patient in a sophisticated group
pointed out what the therapist had overlooked: that in practice, waiting for Santa
Claus and waiting for death are synonymous. Since colloquialisms are of
decisive importance in game analysis, they will be discussed at length later on.
5 · THE CLASSIFICATION OF GAMES

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Most of the variables used in analysing games and pastimes have already been
mentioned, and any of them can be used in classifying games and pastimes
systematically. Some of the more obvious classifications are based on the
following factors: 1. Number of players: two-handed games (Frigid Woman),
three-handed games (Let’s You and Him Fight), five-handed games (Alcoholic)
and many-handed games (Why Don’t You – Yes But).
2. Currency used: words (Psychiatry), money (Debtor), parts of the body
(Polysurgery).
3. Clinical types: hysterical (Rapo), obsessive-compulsive (Schlemiel),
paranoid (Why Does This Have to Happen to Me), depressive (There I Go
Again).
4. Zonal: oral (Alcoholic), anal (Schlemiel), phallic (Let’s You and Him
Fight).
5. Psychodynamic: counterphobic (If It Weren’t for You), projective (PTA),
introjective (Psychiatry).
6. Instinctual: masochistic (If It Weren’t for You), sadistic (Schlemiel),
fetishistic (Frigid Man).
In addition to the number of players, three other quantitative variables are
often useful to consider: 1. Flexibility. Some games, such as Debtor and
Polysurgery, can be played properly with only one kind of currency, while
others, such as exhibitionistic games, are more flexible.
2. Tenacity. Some people give up their games easily, others are persistent.
3. Intensity. Some people play their games in a relaxed way, others are more
tense and aggressive. Games so played are known as easy and hard games,
respectively.
These three variables converge to make games gentle or violent. In
mentally disturbed people, there is often a noticeable progression in this respect,
so that one can speak of stages. A paranoid schizophrenic may initially play a
flexible, loose, easy game of first-stage ‘Ain’t It Awful’ and progress to an
inflexible, tenacious, hard third stage. The stages in a game are distinguished as
follows: (a) A First-Degree Game is one which is socially acceptable in the
agent’s circle.
(b) A Second-Degree Game is one from which no permanent irremediable
damage arises, but which the players would rather conceal from the public.
(c) A Third-Degree Game is one which is played for keeps, and which ends
in the surgery, the courtroom or the morgue.
Games can also be classified according to any of the other specific factors
discussed in the analysis of IWFY: the aims, the roles, the most obvious
advantages. The most likely candidate for a systematic, scientific classification is

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probably one based on the existential position; but since knowledge of this factor
is not yet sufficiently advanced, such a classification will have to be postponed.
Failing that, the most practical classification at present is probably a sociological
one. That is what will be used in the next section.

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NOTES
Due credit should be given to Stephen Potter for his perceptive, humorous
discussions of manoeuvres, or ‘ploys’, in everyday social situations,
2
and to G.
H. Mead for his pioneering study of the role of games in social living.
3
Those
games that lead to psychiatric disabilities have been systematically studied at the
San Francisco Social Psychiatry Seminars since 1958, and this sector of game
analysis has recently been approached by T. Szasz.
4
For the role of games in the
group process, the present writer’s book on group dynamics should be
consulted.
5

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