Games People Play

i AM LONG TIME "T A"......AMERICA NEEDS A (DR) BERNE BURN ! ! !

I got bored reading this book. I didn’t like it. It didn’t really convey a message to me

This bestseller constitutes Dr. Eric Berne's ground breaking book that created a worldwide phenomena and craze, introducing the revolutionary Neo-Freudian theory of Transactional Analysis - that replaces the Superego with the Parent, the Ego with the Adult, and the Id with the Child, and postulates that we inherently carry within ourselves the parental dictates that have been instilled within our consciousness by the primary socializing agent, which prevents our total enjoyment of life and, hence, to moderate between the parental dictates governed by the Parent, the Adult needs to exert intelligent control to allow the Child to fully express itself and enjoy life; while also putting forth the notion that all of society are involved with The Games that People Play - which has to be recognized and treated with transactional analytical therapy.

I really like that the print is (or seems larger—I haven’t found the original print. It arrived shrink wrapped, clean, sparkling new.

Once you've read it, you can't undo it-- the quintessential AHA! moment. This is an entertaining summary of what makes people tick, making sense of reactions to the behaviors of others and the sources of hot buttons. If only Berne were still here to help us make sense of social media and cloud personalities-- but Ain't It Awful, Now I've Got You, and Wooden Leg are still alive and well. Understanding the three parts of the personality and the effects of imbalance leads to reassessing how to make transactions turn out for the better instead of by following undesirable scripts.Berne wrote other treatises that are longer and more detailed-- but to upset the psychological applecart, this is a fun and happy start.

I just received my book in the condition it was advertised to be. It came in a timely manner wrapped in Newspaper with the comics on the outside. I love that! What a wonderful way to recycle, I thought, as I cut the tape with surgical precision so that I may enjoy the comics and read a bit of local news from a distant state! Bravo and kudos to you!

Enjoyable

I was excited about this book based on reviews, but I hated it. Very hard to read and comprehend. Not really applicable for every day interactions.

Eric Berne wrote this book in 1964 in a world very different to that of today. Given the rise of PC culture in the intervening years, it is not surprising that many now view this work as offensive. However, those that cannot get past their sensibilities, will miss out on an extraordinary set of ideas that are still useful in our world today. Berne did not set out to be offensive, but his work was always controversial.Games are based on a structure such as ‘con’ and ‘gimmick’ and eventually involve a ‘switch’ and ‘payoff’. Each of these concepts are still alive and kicking in our modern world. The names of the games may have to be updated, but their dynamics are still sound. There are still ‘Persecutors’, ‘Rescuers’ and ‘Victims’ albeit people may believe they are the ones who self-identify with the roles. Berne intended that others do the identifying, hence the real usefulness of the concept lay in therapy groups where others decided whether you were the real Victim or were Persecuting from a Victim position (i.e. a cry bully).Our modern world is too invested in Critical Theory (Where everyone is either an Oppressor or Oppressed) to perhaps appreciate the true genius of Eric Berne. He analysed the dynamics of human interaction in terms of an in-depth knowledge of psychoanalysis – he was humanistic but did believe that malevolence existed. He would have been at odds with some modern views that believe that people are fundamentally good as long as they are oppressed or allies to the oppressed – otherwise they are fundamentally bad. He would have seen this as ‘splitting’ and not a realistic way of understanding the healthy human psyche.Whilst I thoroughly recommend this book for its ideas, it does need an update to bring it into modern-day context.

If you put content above appearance, it’s a bargain.

good