Games People Play

2 COLLOQUIALISMS 
Many colloquialisms used here were supplied by patients. All of them, if used with due regard to 
timing and sensibilities, are appreciated, understood and enjoyed by the players. If some of them 
seem disrespectful, the irony is directed against the games and not against the people who play 
them. The first requirement for colloquialisms is aptness, and if they often sound amusing, that is 
precisely because they hit the nail on the head. As I have tried to show elsewhere in discussing 
colloquial epithets, a whole page of learned polysyllables may not convey as much as the statement 
that a certain woman is a bitch, or that a certain man is a jerk.1 Psychological truths may be stated 
for academic purposes in scientific language, but the effective recognition of emotional strivings in 
practice may require a different approach. So we prefer playing "Ain't It Awful" to "verbalizing 
projected anal aggression." The former not only has a more dynamic meaning and impact, but it is 
actually more precise. And sometimes people get better faster in bright rooms than diey do in drab 
ones. 
REFERENCE 
1. Berne, E. "Intuition IV: Primal Images & Primal Judgments." Psychiatric Quarterly. 29: 634-658, 
1955. 
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CHAPTER SIX 
Life Games 
ALL games have an important and probably decisive influence on the destinies of the players under 
ordinary social conditions; but some offer more opportunities than others for lifelong careers and 
are more likely to involve relatively innocent bystanders. This group may be conveniently called 
Life Games. It includes "Alcoholic," "Debtor," "Kick Me," "Now I've Got You, You Son of a 
Bitch," "See What You Made Me Do" and their principal variants. They merge on the one side with 
marital games, and on the other with those of the underworld.