Games People Play

1 ALCOHOLIC 
Thesis
. In game analysis there is no such thing as alcoholism or "an alcoholic," but there is a role 
called the Alcoholic in a certain type of game. If a biochemical or physiological abnormality is the 
prim^ mover in excessive drinking-and that is still open to some question - then its study belongs in 
the field of internal medicine. Game analysis is interested in something quite different—the kinds 
of social transactions that are related to such excesses. Hence the game "Alcoholic." 
In its full flower this is a five-handed game, although the roles may be condensed so that it starts 
off and terminates as a two-handed one. The central role is that of the Alcoholic—the one who is 
"it"—played by White. The chief supporting role is that of Persecutor, typically played by a 
member of the opposite sex, usually the spouse. The third role is that of Rescuer, usually played by 
someone of the same sex, often the good family doctor who is interested in the patient and also in 
drinking, problems. In the classical situation the doctor successfully rescues the alcoholic from his 
habit. After White has not taken a drink for six months they congratulate each other. The following 
day White is found in the gutter. 
The fourth role is that of the Patsy, or Dummy. In literature this is played by the delicatessen man 
who extends credit to White, gives him a sandwich on the curt and perhaps a cup of coffee, without 
either persecuting him or trying to rescue him. In life this is more frequently played by White's 
mother, who gives him money and often sympathizes with him about the wife who does not 
understand him. In this aspect of the game, White is required to account in some plausible way for 
his need for money—by some project in which both pretend to believe, although they know what 
he is really going to spend most of the money for. Sometimes the Patsy slides over into another role, 
which is a helpful but not essential one: the Agitator, the "good guy" who offers supplies without 
even being asked for them: "Come have a drink with me (and you will go downhill faster)." 
The ancillary professional in all drinking games is the bartender or liquor clerk. In the game 
"Alcoholic" he plays the fifth role, the Connection, the direct source of supply who also 
understands alcoholic talk, and who in a way is the most meaningful person in the life of any addict. 
The difference between the Connection and the other players is the difference between 
professionals and amateurs in any game: the professional knows when to stop. At a certain point a 
good bartender refuses to serve the Alcoholic, who is then left without any supplies unless he can 
locate a more indulgent Connection. 
In the initial stages of "Alcoholic," the wife may play all three supporting roles: at midnight the 
Patsy, undressing him, making him coffee and letting him beat up on her; in the morning the 
Persecutor, berating him for the evil of his ways; and in the evening the Rescuer, pleading with him 
to change them. In the later stages, due sometimes to organic deterioration, the Persecutor and the 
Rescuer can be dispensed with, but are tolerated if they are also wilting to act as sources of supply. 
White will go to the Mission House and be rescued if he can get a free meal there; or be will stand 
for a scolding, amateur or professional, as long as he can get a handout afterward. 
Present experience indicates that the payoff in "Alcoholic" (as is characteristic of games in general) 
comes from the aspect to which most investigators pay least attention. In the analysis of this game, 
drinking itself is merely an incidental pleasure having added advantages, the procedure leading up 
to the culmination, which is the hangover. It is the same in the game of Schlemiel: the mess-making, 
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which attracts the most attention, is merely a pleasure-giving way for White to lead up to the crux, 
which is obtaining forgiveness from Black. 
For the Alcoholic the hangover is not as much the physical pain as the psychological torment. The 
two favorite pastimes of drinking people are "Martini" (how many drinks and how they were mixed) 
and "Morning After" (Let me tell you about my hangover). "Martini" is played, for the most part, 
by social drinkers; many alcoholics prefer a hard round of psychological "Morning After," and 
organizations such as A.A. offer him an unlimited opportunity for this. 
Whenever one patient visited his psychiatrist after a binge, he would call himself all sorts of names; 
the psychiatrist said nothing. Later, recounting these visits in a therapy group, White said with 
smug satisfaction that it was the psychiatrist who had called him all those names. The main 
conversational interest of many alcoholics in the therapeutic situation is not their drinking, which 
they apparently mention mostly in deference to their persecutors, but their subsequent suffering. 
The transactions! object of the drinking, aside from the personal pleasures it brings, is to set up a 
situation where the Child can be severely scolded not only by the internal Parent but by any 
parental figures in the environment who are interested enough to oblige. Hence the therapy of this 
game should be concentrated not on the drinking but on the morning after, the self-indulgence in 
self-castigation. There is a type of heavy drinker, however, who does not have hangovers, and such 
people do not belong in the present category. 
There is also a game "Dry Alcoholic," in which White goes through the process of financial or 
social degradation without a bottle, making the same sequence of moves and requiring the same 
supporting cast. Here again, the morning after is the crux of the matter. Indeed, it is the similarity 
between "Dry Alcoholic" and regular "Alcoholic" which emphasizes that both are games; for 
example, the procedure for getting discharged from a job is the same in both. "Addict" is similar to 
"Alcoholic," but more sinister, more dramatic, more sensational and faster. In our society, at least, 
it leans more heavily on the readily available Persecutor, with Patsies and Rescuers being few and 
far between and the Connection playing a much more central role. 
There are a variety of organizations involved in "Alcoholic," some of them national or even 
international in scope, others local. Many of them publish rules for the game. Nearly all of them 
explain how to play the role of Alcoholic: take a drink before breakfast, spend money allotted for 
other purposes, etc. They also explain the function of the Rescuer. Alcoholics Anonymous, for 
example, continues playing the actual game but concentrates on inducing the Alcoholic to take the 
role of Rescuer. Former Alcoholics are preferred because they know how the game goes, and hence 
are better qualified to play the supporting role than people who have never played before. Cases 
have been reported of a chapter of A.A. running out of Alcoholics to work on; whereupon the 
members resumed drinking since there was no other way to continue the game in the absence of 
people to rescue. 
There are also organizations devoted to improving the lot of the other players. Some put pressure 
on the spouses to shift their roles from Persecutor to Rescuer. The one which seems to come closest 
to the theoretical ideal of treatment deals with teen-age offspring of alcoholics; these young people 
are encouraged to break away from the game itself, rather than merely shift their roles. 
The psychological cure of an alcoholic also lies in getting him to stop playing the game altogether, 
rather than simply change from one role to another. In some cases this has been feasible, although it 
is a difficult task to find something else as interesting to the Alcoholic as continuing his game. 
Since he is classically afraid of intimacy, the substitute may have to be another game rather than a 
game-free relationship. Often so-called cured alcoholics are not very stimulating company socially, 
and possibly they feel a lack of excitement in their lives and are continually tempted to go back to 
their old ways. The criterion of a true "game cure" is that the former Alcoholic should be able to 
drink socially without putting himself in jeopardy. The usual "total abstinence" cure will not satisfy 
the game analyst. 
It is apparent from the description of this game that there is a strong temptation for the Rescuer to 
play "I'm Only Trying to Help You": for the Persecutor to play "Look What You've Done to Me"; 
and for the Patsy to play "Good Joe." With the rise of rescue organizations which publicize the idea 
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that alcoholism is a disease, alcoholics have been taught to play "Wooden Leg." The law, which 
takes a special interest in such people, tends to encourage this nowadays- The emphasis has shifted 
from the Persecutor to the Rescuer, from "I am a sinner" to "What do you expect from a sick 
mane1" (part of the trend in modern thinking away from religion and toward science). From an 
existential point of view the shift is questionable, and from a practical point of view it seems to 
have done little to diminish the sale of liquor to heavy 
*In the underworld slang "patsy" once meant all right, or satisfactory, and later came to denote a 
"pigeon" drinkers. Nevertheless, Alcoholics Anonymous is still for most people the best initiation 
into the therapy of over-indulgence.