We think we’re relating to other people–but actually we’re all playing games.
Forty years ago, Games People Play revolutionized our understanding of what really goes on during our most basic social interactions. More than five million copies later, Dr. Eric Berne’s classic is as astonishing–and revealing–as it was on the day it was first published. This anniversary edition features a new introduction by Dr. James R. Allen, president of the International Transactional Analysis Association, and Kurt Vonnegut’s brilliant Life magazine review from 1965.
We play games all the time–sexual games, marital games, power games with our bosses, and competitive games with our friends. Detailing status contests like “Martini” (I know a better way), to lethal couples combat like “If It Weren’t For You” and “Uproar,” to flirtation favorites like “The Stocking Game” and “Let’s You and Him Fight,” Dr. Berne exposes the secret ploys and unconscious maneuvers that rule our intimate lives.
Explosive when it first appeared, Games People Play is now widely recognized as the most original and influential popular psychology book of our time. It’s as powerful and eye-opening as ever.
Author(s): Eric Berne
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Year: 1996
Language: English
Pages: 216
PART ONE ANALYSIS OF GAMES
1 Structural Analysis
2 Transactional Analysis
3 Procedures and Rituals
4 Pastimes
5 Games
PART TWO A THESAURUS OF GAMES
Introduction
6 Life Games
1. Alcoholic
2. Debtor
3. Kick Me
4. Now I’ve Got You, You Son of a Bitch
5. See What You Made Me Do
7 Marital Games
1. Corner
2. Courtroom
3. Frigid Woman
4. Harried
5. If It Weren’t for You
6. Look How Hard I’ve Tried
7. Sweetheart
8 Party Games
1. Ain’t It Awful
2. Blemish
3. Schlemiel
4. Why Don’t You – Yes But
9 Sexual Games
1. Let’s You and Him Fight
2. Perversion
3. Rapo
4. The Stocking Game
5. Uproar
10 Underworld Games
1. Cops and Robbers
2. How Do You Get Out of Here
3. Let’s Pull a Fast One on Joey
11 Consulting Room Games
1. Greenhouse
2. I’m Only Trying to Help You
3. Indigence
4. Peasant
5. Psychiatry
6. Stupid
7. Wooden Leg
12 Good Games
1. Busman’s Holiday
2. Cavalier
3. Happy to Help
4. Homely Sage
5. They’ll Be Glad They Knew Me
PART THREE BEYOND GAMES
13 The Significance of Games
14 The Players
15 A Paradigm
16 Autonomy
17 The Attainment of Autonomy
18 After Games, What?
Appendix The Classification of Behaviour
Index of Pastimes and Games
Author Index
