Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships by Eric Berne lands on the shelves of my shop.
The Quality Book Club, 1967, Hardback in dust wrapper.
From the cover: People tend to live their lives by consistently playing out certain games in their interpersonal relationships. They play these games for a variety of reasons: to avoid confronting reality, to conceal ulterior motives, to rationalize their activities, or to avoid actual participation. These games except when they are destructive are both desirable and necessary.
Dr Berne offers a thorough and fascinating analysis of thirty-six games, which he categorizes under seven headings: life games, which transcend a specific mode of response in a given situation and pervade the players every action; marital games, which two people may use in order to sustain a frustrating or unrewarding life (a favourite marital game is Frigid Woman, in which one of the two players provokes an argument, leading to anger and alienation of feelings, in order to avoid sex); sexual games, in which someone provokes sexual reactions in another person and then, as in the game called Rapo, acts as though he or she were the innocent victim (exhibitionism The Stocking Game is another common sexual game); party games, which by definition are social and move from the perpetual gossip to the chronic com-plainer; underworld games, such as Cops and Robbers, which are most often played for material gains but can also aim at psychological advantages; consulting room games, which can be played by a patient with a doctor in order to avoid getting cured.
In this book Dr Berne is developing and elaborating on a concept which he has already described for the specialist and which he employs in his new, unified system of individual and social psychiatry, in which group therapy is used as the basic method and the analysis of games is a major element in the treatment. He shows how the concept can help people achieve a new self-awareness and put them on the way to leading more constructive lives.
Addressed to the intelligent layman as well as to the practising professional, Games People Play is written in clear, simple, witty language.
Very Good in Very Good Dust Wrapper. Edges of the text block lightly tanned. Text complete, clean and tight but a little age-tanned.
Black boards with Gilt titling to the Spine. 192 pages. Index. 8¾” x 5¾”.
Of course, if you don’t like this one there are plenty more available here!
Fact or Fable Book Shop 