Games People Play

1 LET'S YOU AND HIM FIGHT
Thesis
. This may be a maneuver, a ritual or a game. In each case the psychology is essentially 
feminine. Because of its dramatic qualities, LYAHF is the basis of much of the world's literature, 
both good and bad. 
1, As a maneuver it is romantic. The woman maneuvers or challenges two men into fighting, with 
the implication or promise that she will surrender herself to the winner, 
After the competition is decided, she fulfills her bargain. This is an honest transaction, and the 
presumption is that she and her mate live happily ever after. 
2. As a ritual, it tends to be tragic. Custom demands that the two men fight for her, even if she does 
not want them to, and even if she has already made her choice. If the wrong man wins, she must 
nevertheless take him. In this case it is society and not the woman who sets up LYAHF. If she is 
willing, the transaction is an honest one. If she is unwilling or disappointed, the outcome may offer 
her considerable scope for playing games, such as "Let's Pull A Fast One on Joey." 
3. As a game it is comic. The woman sets up the competition, and while the two men are fighting, 
she decamps with a third. The internal and external psychological advantages for her and her mate 
are derived from the position that honest competition is for suckers, and the comic story they have 
lived through forms the basis for the internal and external social advantages. 
2 PERVERSION 
Thesis
. Heterosexual perversions such as fetishism, sadism and masochism are symptomatic of a 
confused Child and are treated accordingly. Their transactional aspects, however, as manifested m 
actual sexual situations, can be dealt with by means of game analysis. This may lead to social 
control, so that even if the warped sexual impulses remain unchanged, they are neutralized as far as 
actual indulgence is concerned. 
People who are suffering from mild sadistic or masochistic distortions tend to take a primitive kind 
of Mental Health position. They feel that they are strongly sexed, and that prolonged abstinence 
will lead to serious consequences. Neither of these conclusions is necessarily true, but they form 
the basis for a game of "Wooden Leg" with the plea: "What do you expect from someone as 
strongly sexed as I am?"