Games People Play

While we think we are communicating with others, in fact we are all playing certain games. Sixty years ago the book “Games People Play” revolutionised our understanding of what really happens during basic social interactions. Having sold more than five million copies, Dr Eric Berne’s classic remains as astonishing and revealing as it was the day it was first published. We play games all the time: marital games, power games with our bosses, and competitive games with our friends, such as status contests like “Martini” (I know a better way), the games angry couples engage in such as “If It Weren’t for You” and “Uproar”, and favourite flirtation games like “The Stocking Game” and “Let’s You and Him Fight”. Dr Berne exposes the secret ploys and unconscious manoeuvres that govern our personal lives. It is now widely recognised that Games People Play, explosive when it first appeared, is the most original and influential popular psychology book of our time. “An important book… containing a brilliant, entertaining and clear catalogue of the psychological dramas people play out over and over again.” Kurt Vonnegut, Life magazine. “The book offers a critical analysis of the content and assumptions of many theories or explanations of human game-playing behaviour.” Michael J. Ellis. “Although this book was written by a professor of psychiatry as an academic work on psychotherapy more than 40 years ago, it remains a highly readable book for professionals and the general public alike.” Michael Archer