A different take on "wellness".
Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 8:31 am
For some years I have been recommending " Games People Play " by Eric Berne,
This is a populist and entertaining introduction to his more weighty " Transactional Analysis".
GPP introduces to the concept of game play..games in this context being a series of unsuccessful ( in the longer term ) ploys that are undertaken to bring about a certain pay off for the player. This payoff invariably involves a short term emotional gratification and a longer term sense of emptiness...which fuels the next game.
Berne gives examples of various games which he gives memorable titles to.
One such is " Lets You And Him Fight " Its self explanatory with reflection..One comes across some heavy players of that. usually people who feel in some way disadvantaged.
Another one is " Wooden Leg" The player sees themselves as having some kind of disability in social terms, and feel that this gives them permission to act as badly or irresponsibly as possible. When challenged on this the pay off line is " What do you expect, I have a wooden leg "
There are many others. It makes fascinating and potentially revealing reading.
It goes without saying of course that from a Buddhist POV the point is to identify and eliminate ones own games...
This is a populist and entertaining introduction to his more weighty " Transactional Analysis".
GPP introduces to the concept of game play..games in this context being a series of unsuccessful ( in the longer term ) ploys that are undertaken to bring about a certain pay off for the player. This payoff invariably involves a short term emotional gratification and a longer term sense of emptiness...which fuels the next game.
Berne gives examples of various games which he gives memorable titles to.
One such is " Lets You And Him Fight " Its self explanatory with reflection..One comes across some heavy players of that. usually people who feel in some way disadvantaged.
Another one is " Wooden Leg" The player sees themselves as having some kind of disability in social terms, and feel that this gives them permission to act as badly or irresponsibly as possible. When challenged on this the pay off line is " What do you expect, I have a wooden leg "
There are many others. It makes fascinating and potentially revealing reading.
It goes without saying of course that from a Buddhist POV the point is to identify and eliminate ones own games...