Games People Play

I loved this book so much because I was blown away by the unconscious roles all of us tend to take on in life that don’t serve us–that lead to unnecessary drama and drained interactions. This book was funny, and I laughed out loud a lot at the roles/scenarios like “mailman” or “firefighter” because they were so simple in concept, and also I was so unaware that these behavior patterns existed–even in my own life–many of which I fell into if I wasn’t aware of how I was interacting and not taking responsibility for my communication. 

While the read is… show more.

This is the classic book on "mind-games" by the great Eric Berne. This really opened up a window to me on how people manipulate others – and how I had done this to other people, too.

Although its tone is a bit dated and can be irritating, the material remains as relevant and insightful as ever.

In Games People Play, Eric Berne points out the way we can have three major roles in our lives, depending upon who we are communicating with and how we are speaking to them. This can include adult to adult, where communication is direct and factual or it can be parent to child (authoritarian), child to parent (I want or rebellious (I don’t want). In all these cases it is emotional, unlike adult to adult.

Wittgenstein said language was meaningful through use and consisted of word games, unlike Berne who saw them as political/psychological games and not linguistic ones alone,… show more.