Half of Life is lost in charming others.
The other half is lost in going through Anxieties caused by others.
Leave this Play,You have played Enough. ——– Rumi
Games are a set of complementary ulterior transactions, repetitive in nature , with a con and gimmick followed by a switch bringing out a well defined psychological payoff.A psychological game is defined by Berne as “an ongoing series of complementary ulterior transactions progressing to a well defined predictable outcome “.Games are individually programmed. Games played from Parent ego state : If parents’ games are initiated.Games played from Adult ego state : If they are consciously calculated.Games played from Child ego state :If they are based on early life experiences , decisions and the positions that a child takes about self and others.
Scripts: Script is defined as a life plan made in childhood, reinforced by parents, justified by subsequent events, and culminating into a chosen alternative – Eric Berne.
The destiny of every human being is decided by what goes on inside his skull when he is confronted with what goes on outside his skull. Each person decides in early Childhood how he will live and how he will die. When I am in script, I will be Replaying outdated beliefs about myself, other people and the quality of life .Anytime I am experiencing racket feelings , I am in script. Script is a plan a child made for itself and unconsciously continues to live out in subsequent years. It is a decision made once and for all by the child as to how to get strokes from its parents.
Relevance of Games in script theory :
(1)Games are played without Adult awareness which furthers script.
(2)Games always end up with the players experiencing racket feeling which furthers script.
(3) Games are played to maintain basic life position which furthers script.
(4) Everytime a person experiences a racket feeling ,he /she has two options to deal with it.
1) address it with Adult awareness in the here and now or
2)Store the racket feeling away to be used as “psychological trading stamps” or a “stamp”. When the gameplayer stores the racket feeling as a stamp ,it helps in furthering the script.
(5) When the gameplayer has built up a enough collection of stamps, they feel ‘justified’ in cashing it in for the negative script payoff that they decided upon as a child. This furthers the script.
(6)Most people play a small number of favourite rackets and games with various persons and in varying intensities. Racketeers and game players intuitively seek out and find partners for complementary rackets and games. Each gameplayer chooses their games in such a way that they would get the stamps that would help them to advance themselves towards their decided-upon script ending. This script story may also be played in miniature many times during the player’s life. It is marriage and other close relationships that the games are usually played the hardest to furthers one’s script.
(7)Games help to structure time as they come with filtered strokes which not only alters something about the present situation but also recycles old Parent and Child tape involving discounted strokes from the past.This furthers the script.
(8)Games confirm the parental injunctions and further life script.
(9)Games help to acquire strokes.Positive strokes may be acquired during the early moves of the game and negative strokes always accompany the payoff. A “good” game is often referred to as one in which the amount of pleasant strokes exchanged in the early phases of the game exceed the amount of negative strokes which accompany the payoff. However these games are not really good since they maintain a not-OK life position and further the script.
(10) The intensity of the game being played or the degree of the ‘cashing in’of the payoffs depends on the kind of script. Also, people choose the degree of the game based on the degree of their script payoff (i.e., a third-degree game for a hamartic script, second-degree for a lighter losing script, etc.). For example, if the gameplayer’s script is hamartic, they might favour making big collections of stamps and cashing them in for a heavy payoff. They may collect stamps of fright for years, then finally cash them in by getting admitted into a psychiatric ward by developing acute paranoid schizophrenia. Such kind of third degree games and rackets help to further a losers script and involves severe tissue damage and the game players may end up in jail,hospital or morgue. On the other hand if a persons script is banal, they keep smaller collections of stamps and trade them in for lighter payoffs like a quarrel or quitting a job in anger.
(11) People play games to reinforce their script beliefs. As children we see and make our early decisions as being the only way to survive. So, even in adulthood, when we are in script, we want to confirm again and again that reality matches our script beliefs about ourselves, others, and the world. So, every time we play a game, we use the payoff to reinforce our script beliefs. And, we choose our games such that they will confirm the scripty beliefs we have about self, others, and quality of life.
(12) Advantages in playing games :Games are played because of their homeostatic or stabilizing function in lives of the individual players. This also helps the game player to further the script.The advantages are negative.
1)Biological Advantage – Games yield strokes. The strokes that games generate are always negative and painful. Satisfies both stroke hunger and structure hunger.eg: Every time I play”Poor me” , I am inviting the strokes from other by way of gaining attention and sympathy.
2)Existential Advantage – Games confirm one‘s life position which furthers script.eg : Blemish confirms my life position as I am ok and you are not ok.
3)Internal Psychological Advantage – Games help persons to maintain stability of their script beliefs thus further strengthening scripts.
4)External Psychological Advantage – Games help persons to avoid situations that would challenge their frame of reference by avoiding anxiety-arousing situations .eg : “Look how hard I tried” provides an excuse to escape accountability of tasks.
5)Internal Social Advantage – Games offer an opportunity for pseudo intimate socializing indoors or in privacy.
6)External Social Advantage – Games offer a theme for gossiping in a wider social circle.
| Sr no | Game played | Feature of the game played | Payoff for player as per his script |
| 1 | Blemish | Finding faults in others | Distracts attention from self. I am ok u r not ok, Negative reassurance. |
| 2 | Courtroom | Derive logically reasons to prove others are wrong in legal grounds | Get attention, support and sympathy. Helps maintain life position I m ok u are not ok. |
| 3 | If it weren’t for you | Shifts blame on others for personal failures | Reassurance to self that it is not my fault, absolution of guilt and ownership,False adequacy -resentment. |
| 4 | I’m only trying to help you | Offering help and then getting upset when help is not accepted or acknowledged | Need to be in control of others ,gain popularity, love and acceptance. operates from one up position of power as rescuer.Disappointment. |
| 5 | Poor Me | Projecting self as helpless, always the victim, always the recipient of injustice | To gain sympathy, support and attention |
| 6 | Now I’ve got you you son of a bitch | Revengeful, vindictive ,vents out rage on others and blames them for it. | Displaces anger and vents it on others |
| 7 | Look how hard I,ve tried | Gaining sympathy for one’s failures, showing the amount of efforts put in and still failing to achieve desired results. | Not displaying accountability, responsibility and ownership for one’s actions and results. |
Suparna's Yugen 