PART II

A Thesaurus of Games

Introduction

THIS collection is complete to date (1962), but new games are continually being discovered. Sometimes what appears to be another example of a known game turns out, on more careful study, to be an entirely new one, and a game which appears to be new often turns out to be a variation of a known one. The individual items of the analyses are also subject to change as new knowledge accumulates; for example, where there are several possible choices in describing dynamics, the statement given may turn out later not to have been the most cogent one. Both the list of games and the items given in the analyses, however, are adequate for clinical work.

Some of the games are discussed and analyzed in extenso. Others, which require more investigation, or are uncommon, or whose significance is fairly obvious, are only briefly mentioned. The one who is "it" is generally referred to as the "agent," or is given the name of "White," while the other party is called "Black."

The games are classified into families according to the situations in which they most commonly occur: Life Games, Marital Games, Party Games, Sexual Games and Underworld Games; then comes a section for professionals on Consulting Room Games, and finally, some examples of Good Games.

1 NOTATION

The following notation will be used in the analytic protocols.

Title: If the game has a long name, a convenient abbreviation is used in the text. Where a game or its variations has more than one name, a cross reference will be found in the Index of Games. In oral reports it is preferable to use the full name of the game rather than its abbreviation or acronym. Thesis: this is restated as cogently as possible.

Aim: this gives the most meaningful choice, based on die writer's experience.

Roles: the role of the one who is "it," and from whose point of view the game is discussed, is given first, in italics.

Dynamics: as with aim.

Examples: (1) this gives an illustration of the game as played in childhood, the most easily recognizable pertinent prototype. (2) an illustration from adult life.

Paradigm: this illustrates as briefly as possible the critical transaction or transactions at the social and psychological levels.

Moves: this gives the minimum number of transactional stimuli and transactional responses as found in practice. These may be expanded, diluted or ornamented to an unlimited extent in different situations.

Advantages: (1) Internal Psychological—this attempts to state how the game contributes to internal psychic stability. (2) External Psychological—this attempts to state what anxiety-arousing situations or intimacies are being avoided. (3) Internal Social—this gives the characteristic phrase used in the game as played with intimates. (4) External Social—this gives the key phrase used in the derivative game or pastime played in less intimate circles.

(5)Biological—this attempts to characterize the kind of stroking which the game offers to the parties involved.

(6)Existential—this states the position from which the game is typically played.

Relatives: this gives the names of complementary, allied and antithetical games.

An adequate understanding of a game can only be obtained in the psychotherapeutic situation. People who play destructive games will come to the therapist far more frequently than people who play constructive ones. Therefore most of the games which are well understood are basically

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destructive, but the reader should remember that there are constructive ones played by more fortunate people.

And to prevent the idea of games from becoming vulgarized, as so many psychiatric terms are, it should be emphasized once more that it is a very precise idea: games should be clearly distinguished, by the criteria given previously, from procedures, rituals, pastimes, operations, maneuvers and the attitudes which arise from various positions. A game is played from a position, but a position or its corresponding attitude is not a game.

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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