Games People Play

Antithesis
. This is the concern of qualified criminologists rather than psychiatrists. The police and 
judiciary apparatus are not antithetical, but are playing their roles in the game under the rules set up 
by society. 
One thing should be emphasized, however. Research workers in criminology may joke that some 
criminals behave as though they enjoyed the chase and 'wanted to be caught, or they may read the 
idea and agree in a deferential way. But they show little tendency to consider such an "academic" 
factor as decisive in their "serious" work. For one thing, there is no way to unmask this element 
through the standard methods of psychological research. The investigator must therefore either 
overlook a crucial point because he cannot work it with his research tools, or else change his tools. 
The fact is that those tools have so far not yielded one single solution to any problem in 
criminology. Researchers might therefore be better off discarding the old methods and tackling the 
problem freshly. Until C&R is accepted not merely as an interesting anomaly, but as the very heart 
of the matter in a significant percentage of cases, much research in criminology will continue to 
deal with trivialities, doctrines, peripheral issues or irrelevancies. 
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ANALYSIS 
Thesis
: See if you can catch me. Aim: Reassurance. Roles: Robber, Cop (Judge). 
Dynamics
: Phallic intrusion, e.g. (1) Hide-and-seek, tag. (2) Crime. 
Social Paradigm
: Parent-Child. 
Child: "See if you can catch me." Parent: "That's my job." Psychological Paradigm: Parent-Child. 
Child: "You must catch me." Parent: "Aha, there you are." 
Moves
: (1) W: Defiance. B: Indignation. (2) W: Concealment. B: Frustration. (3) W: Provocation. 
B: Victory. 
Advantages
: (1) Internal Psychological—material indemnification for old wrong. (2) External 
Psychological—counterphobic. (3) Internal Social—See if you can catch me. (4) External Social-I 
almost got away with it. (Pastime: They almost got away with it.) (5) Biological-notoriety. (6) 
Existential: I've always been a loser,