Games People Play

Hence games are both necessary and desirable, and the only problem at issue is whether the games played by an individual offer the best yield for him.

Actually a position is primarily manifested by the mental attitude to which it gives rise, and it is with this attitude that the individual undertakes the transactions which constitute his role.

Unless something or somebody intervenes, he spends the rest of his life stabilizing his position and dealing with situations that threaten it: by avoiding them, warding off certain elements or manipulating them provocatively so that they are transformed from threats into justifications.

Procedures may be successful, rituals effective, and pastimes profitable, but all of them are by definition candid; they may involve contest, but not conflict, and the ending may be sensational, but it is not dramatic. Every game, on the other hand, is basically dishonest, and the outcome has a dramatic, as distinct from merely exciting, quality.

Social programing results in traditional ritualistic or semi-ritualistic interchanges. The chief criterion for it is local acceptability, popularly called “good manners.”

Each type of ego state has its own vital value for the human organism. In the Child reside intuition,3 creativity and spontaneous drive and enjoyment. The Adult is necessary for survival. It processes data and computes the probabilities which are essential for dealing effectively with the outside world.

When one is a member of a social aggregation of two or more people, there are several options for structuring time. In order of complexity, these are: (1) Rituals (2) Pastimes (3) Games (4) Intimacy and (5) Activity, which may form a matrix for any of the others.

Another task of the Adult is to regulate the activities of the Parent and the Child, and to mediate objectively between them.

Secondly, it makes many responses automatic, which conserves a great deal of time and energy.