Transactional Analysis

Analysis of a game

One important aspect of a game is its number of players. Games may be two handed (that is, played by two players), three handed (that is, played by three players), or many handed. Three other quantitative variables are often useful to consider for games:

* Flexibility: The ability of the players to change the currency of the game (that is, the tools they use to play it). In a flexible game, players may shift from words, to money, to parts of the body.

* Tenacity: The persistence with which people play and stick to their games and their resistance to breaking it.

* Intensity: Easy games are games played in a relaxed way. Hard games are games played in a tense and aggressive way.

Based on the degree of acceptability and potential harm, games are classified as:

* First Degree Games are socially acceptable in the players’ social circle.
* Second Degree Games are games that the players would like to conceal, though they may not cause irreversible damage.
* Third Degree Games are games that could lead to drastic harm to one or more of the parties concerned.

Games are also studied based on their:

* Aim
* Roles
* Social and Psychological Paradigms
* Dynamics
* Advantages to players (Payoffs)

Contrast with rational (mathematical) games

Transactional game analysis is fundamentally different from rational or mathematical game analysis in the following senses:

* The players do not always behave rationally in transactional analysis, but behave more like real people.
* Their motives are often ulterior

Some commonly found games

Here are some of the most commonly found themes of games described in Games People Play by Eric Berne:

* YDYB: Why Don’t You, Yes But. Historically, the first game discovered.
* IFWY: If It Weren’t For You
* WAHM: Why does this Always Happen to Me? (setting up a self-fulfilling prophecy)
* SWYMD: See What You Made Me Do
* UGMIT: You Got Me Into This
* LHIT: Look How Hard I’ve Tried
* ITHY: I’m Only Trying to Help You
* LYAHF: Let’s You and Him Fight (staging a love triangle)
* NIGYYSOB: Now I’ve got you, you son of a bitch

Berne argued that games are not played logically; rather, one person’s Parent state might interact with another’s Child, rather than as Adult to Adult.

Games can also be analyzed according to the Karpman drama triangle, that is, by the roles of Persecutor, Victim and Rescuer. The ’switch’ is then when one of these having allowed stable roles to become established, suddenly switches role. The victim becomes a persecutor, and throws the previous persecutor into the victim role, or the rescuer suddenly switches to become a persecutor (”You never appreciate me helping you!”).

Why Don’t You/Yes But

The first such game theorized was Why don’t you/Yes, but in which one player (White) would pose a problem as if seeking help, and the other player(s) (Black) would offer solutions (the “Why don’t you?” suggestion). This game was noticed as many patients played it in therapy and psychiatry sessions, and inspired Berne to identify other interpersonal “games”.

White would point out a flaw in every Black player’s solution (the “Yes, but” response), until they all gave up in frustration. For example, if someone’s life script was “to be hurt many times, and suffer and make others feel bad when I die” a game of “Why Don’t You, Yes But” might proceed as follows:

White: I wish I could lose some weight.
Black: Why don’t you join a gym?
W: Yes but, I can’t afford the payments for a gym.
B: Why don’t you speed walk around your block after you get home from work?
W: Yes but, I don’t dare walk alone in my neighborhood after dark.
B: Why don’t you take the stairs at work instead of the elevator?
W: Yes but, after my knee surgery, it hurts too much to walk that many flights of stairs.
B: Why don’t you change your diet?
W: Yes but, my stomach is sensitive and I can tolerate only certain foods.

“Why Don’t You, Yes But” can proceed indefinitely, with any number of players in the Black role, until Black’s imagination is exhausted, and she can think of no other solutions. At this point, White “wins” by having stumped Black. After a silent pause following Black’s final suggestion, the game is often brought to a formal end by a third role, Green, who makes a comment such as, “It just goes to show how difficult it is to lose weight.”

The secondary gain for White was that he could claim to have justified his problem as insoluble and thus avoid the hard work of internal change; and for Black, to either feel the frustrated martyr (”I was only trying to help”) or a superior being, disrespected (”the patient was uncooperative”).

Superficially, YDYB can resemble Adult to Adult interaction (people seeking information or advice), but more often, according to Berne, the game is played by Black’s helpless Child, and White’s lecturing Parent ego states.

Now I’ve got you, you son of a bitch

Another common game is “Now I’ve got you, you son of a bitch.” This is played when White would exploit some small error or fault of Black in order to extract an exorbitant payoff, such as a customer holding up a $3,000 payment on a plumbing job, and demanding, say, a $50 or $100 discount because of an unauthorized 95c overcharge.

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