Games People Play

Roles
: the role of the one who is "it," and from whose point of view the game is discussed, is given 
first, in italics. 
Dynamics
: as with aim. 
Examples
: (1) this gives an illustration of the game as played in childhood, the most easily 
recognizable pertinent prototype. (2) an illustration from adult life. 
Paradigm
: this illustrates as briefly as possible the critical transaction or transactions at the social 
and psychological levels. 
Moves
: this gives the minimum number of transactional stimuli and transactional responses as 
found in practice. These may be expanded, diluted or ornamented to an unlimited extent in different 
situations. 
Advantages
: (1) Internal Psychological—this attempts to state how the game contributes to internal 
psychic stability. (2) External Psychological—this attempts to state what anxiety-arousing 
situations or intimacies are being avoided. (3) Internal Social—this gives the characteristic phrase 
used in the game as played with intimates. (4) External Social—this gives the key phrase used in 
the derivative game or pastime played in less intimate circles. 
(5) Biological—this attempts to characterize the kind of stroking which the game offers to the 
parties involved. 
(6) Existential—this states the position from which the game is typically played. 
Relatives: this gives the names of complementary, allied and antithetical games. 
An adequate understanding of a game can only be obtained in the psychotherapeutic situation. 
People who play destructive games will come to the therapist far more frequently than people who 
play constructive ones. Therefore most of the games which are well understood are basically 
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destructive, but the reader should remember that there are constructive ones played by more 
fortunate people. 
And to prevent the idea of games from becoming vulgarized, as so many psychiatric terms are, it 
should be emphasized once more that it is a very precise idea: games should be clearly 
distinguished, by the criteria given previously, from procedures, rituals, pastimes, operations, 
maneuvers and the attitudes which arise from various positions. A game is played from a position, 
but a position or its corresponding attitude is not a game.