 First edition | |
| Author | Eric Berne |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Grove Press |
Publication date | 1964 |
| Pages | 216 |
| ISBN | 0-345-41003-3 |
Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships is a 1964 book by psychiatrist Eric Berne. The book was a bestseller at the time of its publication, despite drawing academic criticism for some of the psychoanalytic theories it presented. It popularized Berne's model of transactional analysis among a wide audience, and has been considered one of the first pop psychology books.
The author Eric Berne was a psychiatrist specializing in psychotherapy who began developing alternate theories of interpersonal relationship dynamics in the 1950s. He sought to explain recurring patterns of interpersonal conflicts that he observed, which eventually became the basis of transactional analysis. [1] After being rejected by a local psychoanalytic institute, he focused on writing about his own theories. In 1961, he published Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy. [2] That book was followed by Games People Play, in 1964. Berne did not intend for Games People Play to explore all aspects of transactional analysis, viewing it instead as an introduction to some of the concepts and patterns he identified. [1] He borrowed money from friends and used his own savings to publish the book. [3]
In the first half of the book, Berne introduces his theory of transactional analysis as a way of interpreting social interactions. He proposes that individuals encompass three roles or ego states, known as the Parent, the Adult, and the Child, which they switch between. He postulates that while Adult to Adult interactions are largely healthy, dysfunctional interactions can arise when people take on mismatched roles such as Parent and Child or Child and Adult.
The second half of the book catalogues a series of "mind games" identified by Berne, in which people interact through a patterned and predictable series of "transactions" based on these mismatched roles. He states that although these interactions may seem plausible, they are actually a way to conceal hidden motivations under scripted interactions with a predefined outcome. The book uses casual, often humorous phrases such as "See What You Made Me Do," "Why Don't You — Yes But," and "Ain't It Awful" as a way of briefly describing each game. Berne describes the "winner" of these mind games as the person that returns to the Adult ego-state first.
The book was a commercial success, and reached fifth place on The New York Times Best Seller list in March 1966. It has been described as one of the first "pop psychology" books. [4] As of 1965, there has been eight additional printings after its initial run of 3,000, and a total of 83,000 copies had been published. In a Time magazine article titled "The Names of the Games," speculated that the book's popularity was due to its applications for both self-help and "cocktail party talk." [5] Carol M. Taylor, in the Florida Communication Journal, noted that many concepts and terms from transactional analysis had made their way into everyday speech. [2]
Despite its popularity among lay readership, Berne's model of interpersonal relationships received criticism from academics. A 1974 article by Roger W. Hite in Speech Teacher noted that although its theoretical basis had inspired numerous subsequent publications, there was little research or scientific support for it. [7] Ben L. Glancy in a review for Quarterly Journal of Speech described Berne's work as "parlor psychiatry and party-time psychoanalysis." He wrote that the book oversimplified interpersonal relationships and was "antithetical" to contemporary psychological research. [8] Some scholars, including proponents of transactional analysis, have expressed concern over the popularization of oversimplified psychological concepts as self-help methods. Peter Hartley's Interpersonal Communication noted the relative lack of academic review and interest in popular mental healthcare as opposed to physical healthcare in his overview of transactional analysis. [9]
Psychoanalysis is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques that deal in part with the unconscious mind, and which together form a method of treatment for mental disorders. The discipline was established in the early 1890s by Sigmund Freud, whose work stemmed partly from the clinical work of Josef Breuer and others. Freud developed and refined the theory and practice of psychoanalysis until his death in 1939. In an encyclopedic article, he identified the cornerstones of psychoanalysis as "the assumption that there are unconscious mental processes, the recognition of the theory of repression and resistance, the appreciation of the importance of sexuality and of the Oedipus complex." Freud's colleagues Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav Jung developed offshoots of psychoanalysis which they called individual psychology (Adler) and analytical psychology (Jung), although Freud himself wrote a number of criticisms of them and emphatically denied that they were forms of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis was later developed in different directions by neo-Freudian thinkers, such as Erich Fromm, Karen Horney, and Harry Stack Sullivan.
Transactional analysis is a psychoanalytic theory and method of therapy wherein social interactions are analyzed to determine the ego state of the communicator as a basis for understanding behavior. In transactional analysis, the communicator is taught to alter the ego state as a way to solve emotional problems. The method deviates from Freudian psychoanalysis, which focuses on increasing awareness of the contents of subconsciously held ideas. Eric Berne developed the concept and paradigm of transactional analysis in the late 1950s.
Psychology is an academic and applied discipline involving the scientific study of human mental functions and behavior. Occasionally, in addition or opposition to employing the scientific method, it also relies on symbolic interpretation and critical analysis, although these traditions have tended to be less pronounced than in other social sciences, such as sociology. Psychologists study phenomena such as perception, cognition, emotion, personality, behavior, and interpersonal relationships. Some, especially depth psychologists, also study the unconscious mind.
Eric Berne was a Canadian-born psychiatrist who created the theory of transactional analysis as a way of explaining human behavior.
The Karpman drama triangle is a social model of human interaction proposed by San Francisco psychiatrist Stephen B. Karpman in 1968. The triangle maps a type of destructive interaction that can occur among people in conflict. The drama triangle model is a tool used in psychotherapy, specifically transactional analysis. The triangle of actors in the drama are persecutors, victims, and rescuers.
Object relations theory is a school of thought in psychoanalytic theory and psychoanalysis centered around theories of stages of ego development. Its concerns include the relation of the psyche to others in childhood and the exploration of relationships between external people, as well as internal images and the relations found in them. Thinkers of the school maintain that the infant's relationship with the mother primarily determines the formation of its personality in adult life. Particularly, attachment is the bedrock of the development of the self or the psychic organization that creates the sense of identity.
Herbert "Harry" Stack Sullivan was an American Neo-Freudian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who held that "personality can never be isolated from the complex interpersonal relationships in which [a] person lives" and that "[t]he field of psychiatry is the field of interpersonal relations under any and all circumstances in which [such] relations exist". Having studied therapists Sigmund Freud, Adolf Meyer, and William Alanson White, he devoted years of clinical and research work to helping people with psychotic illness.
Claude Michel Steiner was a French-born American psychotherapist and writer who wrote extensively about transactional analysis (TA). His writings focused especially on life scripts, alcoholism, emotional literacy, and interpersonal power plays.
Relational psychoanalysis is a school of psychoanalysis in the United States that emphasizes the role of real and imagined relationships with others in mental disorder and psychotherapy. 'Relational psychoanalysis is a relatively new and evolving school of psychoanalytic thought considered by its founders to represent a "paradigm shift" in psychoanalysis'.
Interpersonal psychoanalysis is based on the theories of American psychiatrist Harry Stack Sullivan (1892–1949). Sullivan believed that the details of a patient's interpersonal interactions with others can provide insight into the causes and cures of mental disorder.
Psychodynamics, also known as psychodynamic psychology, in its broadest sense, is an approach to psychology that emphasizes systematic study of the psychological forces underlying human behavior, feelings, and emotions and how they might relate to early experience. It is especially interested in the dynamic relations between conscious motivation and unconscious motivation.
Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) is a brief, attachment-focused psychotherapy that centers on resolving interpersonal problems and symptomatic recovery. It is an empirically supported treatment (EST) that follows a highly structured and time-limited approach and is intended to be completed within 12–16 weeks. IPT is based on the principle that relationships and life events impact mood and that the reverse is also true. It was developed by Gerald Klerman and Myrna Weissman for major depression in the 1970s and has since been adapted for other mental disorders. IPT is an empirically validated intervention for depressive disorders, and is more effective when used in combination with psychiatric medications. Along with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), IPT is recommended in treatment guidelines as a psychosocial treatment of choice for depression.
Emotionally focused therapy and emotion-focused therapy (EFT) are a set of related approaches to psychotherapy with individuals, couples, or families. EFT approaches include elements of experiential therapy, systemic therapy, and attachment theory. EFT is usually a short-term treatment. EFT approaches are based on the premise that human emotions are connected to human needs, and therefore emotions have an innately adaptive potential that, if activated and worked through, can help people change problematic emotional states and interpersonal relationships. Emotion-focused therapy for individuals was originally known as process-experiential therapy, and it is still sometimes called by that name.
Attachment-based psychotherapy is a psychoanalytic psychotherapy that is informed by attachment theory.
Personality systematics is a contribution to the psychology of personality and to psychotherapy summarized by Jeffrey J. Magnavita in 2006 and 2009. It is the study of the interrelationships among subsystems of personality as they are embedded in the entire ecological system. The model falls into the category of complex, biopsychosocial approaches to personality. The term personality systematics was originally coined by William Grant Dahlstrom in 1972.
Judee K. Burgoon is a professor of communication, family studies and human development at the University of Arizona, where she serves as director of research for the Center for the Management of Information and site director for the NSF-sponsored Center for Identification Technology Research. She is also involved with different aspects of interpersonal and nonverbal communication, deception, and new communication technologies. She is also director of human communication research for the Center for the Management of Information and site director for Center for Identification Technology Research at the university, and recently held an appointment as distinguished visiting professor with the department of communication at the University of Oklahoma, and the Center for Applied Social Research at the University of Oklahoma. Burgoon has authored or edited 13 books and monographs and has published nearly 300 articles, chapters and reviews related to nonverbal and verbal communication, deception, and computer-mediated communication. Her research has garnered over $13 million in extramural funding from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Counterintelligence Field Activity, and the National Institutes of Mental Health. Among the communication theories with which she is most notably linked are: interpersonal adaptation theory, expectancy violations theory, and interpersonal deception theory. A recent survey identified her as the most prolific female scholar in communication in the 20th century.
Script analysis is the method of uncovering the "early decisions, made unconsciously, as to how life shall be lived". It is one of the five clusters in transactional analysis, involving "a progression from structural analysis, through transactional and game analysis, to script analysis". Eric Berne, the father of transactional analysis, focused on individual and group psychotherapy but today, transactional analysis and script analysis is considered in organisational settings, educational settings and coaching settings.
Taibi Kahler is an American clinical psychologist, author, and presidential communications advisor. He added the concepts of the Mini-script and Drivers to Transactional analysis theory and developed them into the 'Process Therapy Model' (PTM) and the 'Process Communication Model' (PCM) of human personality and communication.
Affiliative conflict theory (ACT) is a social psychological approach that encompasses interpersonal communication and has a background in nonverbal communication. This theory postulates that "people have competing needs or desires for intimacy and autonomy". In any relationship, people will negotiate and try to rationalize why they are acting the way they are in order to maintain a comfortable level of intimacy.