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

REFERENCE
1.
Berne, E., ‘The Cultural Problem: Psychopathology in Tahiti’, American
Journal of Psychiatry, 116: 1076–1081, 1960.

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12 · Good Games
T
HE
psychiatrist, who is in the best and perhaps the only position to study games
adequately, unfortunately deals almost entirely with people whose games have
led them into difficulties. This means that the games which are offered for
clinical investigation are all in some sense ‘bad’ ones. And since by definition
games are based on ulterior transactions, they must all have some element of
exploitation. For these two reasons, practical on the one hand and theoretical on
the other, the search for ‘good’ games becomes a difficult quest. A ‘good’ game
might be described as one whose social contribution outweighs the complexity
of its motivations, particularly if the player has come to terms with those
motivations without futility or cynicism. That is, a ‘good’ game would be one
which contributes both to the well-being of the other players and to the
unfolding of the one who is ‘it’. Since even under the best forms of social action
and organization a large proportion of time has to be spent in playing games, the
search for ‘good’ ones must be assiduously pursued. Several examples are
offered here, but they are admittedly deficient in both number and quality. They
include ‘Busman’s Holiday’, ‘Cavalier’, ‘Happy to Help’, ‘Homely Sage’ and
‘They’ll Be Glad They Knew Me’.
1 · BUSMAN’S HOLIDAY
Thesis. Strictly speaking, this is a pastime rather than a game, and evidently a
constructive one for all concerned. An American mail carrier who goes to Tokyo
to help a Japanese postman on his rounds, or an American ear-nose-and-throat
specialist who spends his holiday working in a Haitian hospital, will very likely
feel just as refreshed and have just as good stories to tell as if he had gone lion
hunting in Africa or spent the time driving through transcontinental highway
traffic. The Peace Corps has now given official sanction to Busman’s Holiday.
‘Busman’s Holiday’ becomes a game, however, if the work is secondary to
some ulterior motive and is undertaken merely as a show in order to accomplish
something else. Even under those circumstances, however, it still keeps its
constructive quality and is one of the more commendable covers for other
activities (which may also be constructive).