Games People Play

The Basic Handbook of Transactional Analysis

By: Eric Berne

Narrated by: David Colacci

Over 40 years ago, Games People Play revolutionized our understanding of what really goes on during our most basic social interactions. More than five million copies later, Dr. Eric Berne's classic is as astonishing and revealing as it was on the day it was first published. We play games all the time---sexual games, marital games, power games with our bosses, and competitive games with our friends. Detailing status contests like "Martini" (I know a better way), to lethal couples combat like "If It Weren't For You" and "Uproar," to flirtation favorites like "The Stocking Game" and "Let's You and Him Fight," Dr. Berne exposes the secret ploys and unconscious maneuvers that rule our intimate lives. Explosive when it first appeared, Games People Play is now widely recognized as the most original and influential popular psychology book of our time. It's as powerful and eye-opening as ever.

©1964 Dr. Eric Berne (P)2011 Tantor

Critic reviews

"An important book...a brilliant, amusing, and clear catalogue of the psychological theatricals that human beings play over and over again." (Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Life magazine)

Amazing Insight into Human Drama

This book should be required reading for every mental health professional or educator. Simply written, you will still likely need to read it through several times.

Interesting, needs diagrams included

This is a fascinating and entertaining book. Unfortunately, audio book is not the best format for it. In a lot of ways it is almost like a text book. If the diagrams mentioned were included it would be a huge help. It's difficult to keep track of the terminology.

A background knowledge in psychoanalysis and game theory will certainly help, as there is a lot of lingo that many people will not be familiar with.

I would be interested to read a version where the original example stories are updated to reflect modern times.

I'm definitely going to read more on this subject.

Blunt and accurate!

This book is well worded and read and funny, too. I’m ordering a copy for my shelf.

Great content, hard subject

Great information and well thought out thesis and antithesis arguments but it is difficult to follow on audio and lacks some of the needed diagrams

Interesting and practical

The material is difficult to properly comprehend and would require multiple readings to fully understand and appreciate.

Some reviews mention it’s hard to follow along and in print would be better. I agree that it likely will be easier in print; however, the book does come with the charts but I fear most people don’t know or don’t use the pdf that accompanies it. I suggest you review the printed material that accompanies the book.

This book was written a very long time ago and cultural references have since changed. Instead of playing games, the reader should strive to view the material without constantly judging the author’s use of gender and cultural references and instead focus on the important aspects of what is being said.

Much of the material was new to me and I think will be new to most who will listen. I don’t think much of this is taught anywhere these days. It’s somewhat academic and difficult to understand at first but for those very interested in learning practical psychology in everyday life, I think it will present some very meaningful ideas.

Delightfully outdated with kernels of insight

This book is solidly a product of it's day. It implores comedically outdated theories such as freudian ego states, penis envy, and psychosocial stages of development. It also displays less progressive ideologies of the time, such as women crying rape out of spite, schizophrenia is caused by bad parents, criminals are "in it for the chase," strictly gendered marital roles, and so on. However, I would now say these detract from the experience. Not only at the inclusion often humorous, but the book is an excellent snapshot of the society and field of psychology at the time. I was interested to see the prevelance of group therapy being utilized for instance. Moveover, the actual theory presented in the book, transactional analysis, is compelling and reflects mostly accurate observation on socialization.

The core idea that seemingly unproductive behavior may actually produce beneficial outcome to the perveyor is truthful one. Many of the games listed in the book are easy to identify without someone explaining them. I'm sure we've all experienced someone who asks for suggestions just to be able to reject them all or someone who makes a show of trying something with no intent to succeed just to prove themselves well-intentioned. But several examples showcase new perspectives that were insightful to have described. In either case, I'm sure someone with less skill identitifying unspoken social rules would find this very instructional. Additionally, I enjoyed the scope of scenarios presented for each example. Ultimately, I think the task of trying to lost every "game" is flawed. I think it would be more practical to explore the idea of hidden benefits to behavior or unspiken social interactions instead of trying to create a infinite list. But the author's writing was certainly entertaining and enjoyable to listen to. I definitely recommend it with a grain of salt

A Must Read for Everyone

I found the book very interesting. It helped me realize how as human beings we take advantage of each other. We all have some of all the characters in this book to some point. All I ask is, where is our compassion for one another? Where do you draw the line? Why is competition taught to us from the very beginning? To divide us because divided we fall! If we all were United the world our planet would be a place where we can travel and help one another. Instead of taking from one another, cheating our children from knowing about love vs. money. Life isn’t a gain! At the end we all are here and all will leave with nothing.

So thankful for this masterpiece

This book offers such brilliant insight and analysis that my only regret is I didn't read it 20 years ago. It has opened up a fascinating and useful topic for me to explore in more depth

insightful. humbling despite having to read again

have to read again! but I do know he goes into into great detail. love Von closure quote

great book. behavioral analysis

book is a great read for people who are interested in behavioral analysis. loved the narrator! its a little outdated in style for modern time (in terms of stereotypes), but it goes back to the roots of this method - transactional analysis.