Rating: 
Summary: Interesting
Review: "Games People Play" is a thought-provoking book, still salient after all those years. It got me out of a bad relationship, and made me see myself in a new light. It goes to show that new and improved isn't necessarily better. I had spent a couple of years chasing a drug-loving girl with a heart of gold. I was enchanted by the night-life some of our acquaintances were exposing me to. The darker sides of town are really quite interesting if you view them from within, but my corporate lifestyle, as well as my general avoidance of drugs, had effectively closed me out of this lifestyle after my experimental college days. Thanks to this book, I saw the game I was playing; "Patsy" to a bunch of druggies and alchies. "Games" has been helpful in my quest for a real Adult-Adult relationship. Even in business, I find myself striving for Adult-Adult relationships. Knowing the games, it makes it easier to spot them and react to them. It also helps me see where others are coming from. The book itself wasn't earth shattering for me (Peck's "Road Less Traveled" was), but it was one of the more thought-provoking pop-psychology books I have ever read. I like the fact that it doesn't simply rehash Freudian or Jungian psychology, but builds a new quite useful framework to look at relationships. My problem with the book is that it is too short. I wanted more depth. Because of this, I was wavering between four and five stars, so the four star rating is really a 4.5.
Rating: 
Summary: Sparky Stories, But Wry Wit and Overlooked Wisdom Too....
Review: "Thank Psyche," that this 1963 classic is still in print. (600,000 copies; N.Y.Times best-seller list for two years.) It's not trendy and forgettable, it's timeless and fascinating. (Here are our human "GAMES" such as "Kick Me," "Ain't It Awful," and "Happy to Help") But two more subtle pleasures (which the other reviewers here have not yet mentioned) are the doctor's wry WIT-plus real WISDOM. His thesis is uncompromising. Dr. Berne shows we play "games" taught us by our warped childhood, or the world and culture. Rock-bottom: "Because there is so little opportunity for intimacy in daily life, and because some forms of intimacy (especially if intense) are psychologically impossible for most people, the bulk of the time in serious social life is taken up with playing games. Hence games are both necessary and desirable, and the only problem at issue is whether the games played by an individual offer the best yield for him." Specifically, Berne says we should discard bad psychological games (based on invalid old life-scripts from the past), in favor of the better social games. (And indeed, the games seem giddily-toxic, especially "Look How Hard I've Tried," "See What You Made Me Do," and "I'm Only Trying To Help You") So alas, for the intimacy-fearful MANY people, the goal-in-life is to cure the "sick" games, and then just play the non-pathological ones. But, for a FEW fortunates, the open-calm-easy-natural responsiveness of truer psychological maturity IS possible. Berne names it "autonomy." It comprises awareness, spontaneity, and intimacy. Okay. Skim or skip the theoretical Part ONE. But savor the 106 games in the story-time Part TWO. I mean, who can resist such peppery plots as "Courtroom," "Frigid Woman," and "Now I've Got You, You SOB"?) And then ponder Part THREE, on true autonomy: wow. Berne notwithstanding, many CAN arrive toward truer autonomy. (I know. I did. It took me decades. Worth the trip.....) But don't miss Dr. Berne's wry WIT. He tempers his pessimism by his dubious, ironic, "hopeful realism" you might say. I found irresistible such low-key, laconic gems about the Human Condition such as these: (1) "She and her husband had little in common besides their household worries and the children, so that their quarrels stood out as important events; it was mainly on these occasions that they had anything but the most casual conversations." (2) [On the difference between mathematical and psychological games:] "Mathematical game analysis postulates players who are completely rational. Transactional game analysis deals with games which are un-rational, or even irrational, and hence more real." (3) "'Beautiful friendships' are often based on the fact that the players complement each other with great economy and satisfaction, so that there is a maximum yield with a minimum of effort from the games they play with each other." (4) (On the game "I'm Only Trying To Help You": a welfare agency worker and her client.) "There was a tacit agreement between the worker and the client which read as follows: W: I'll try to help you (providing you don't get better). C: I'll look for employment (providing I don't have to find any). If a client broke the agreement by getting better, the agency lost a client, and the client lost his welfare benefits, and both felt penalized...." (5) (On the game "If It Weren't For You":) "(1) On the surface: Mr. White: You stay home and take care of the house. Mrs. White: If it weren't for you, I could be out having fun. (2) But in reality: Mr. White: You must always be here when I get home. I'm terrified of desertion. Mrs. White: I will be if you help me avoid phobic situations." (6) (On the game "Wooden Leg" or the defensive, resistant "what do you expect of a man with a wooden leg?") "Slightly more sophisticated are such pleas as: What do you expect of a man who (a) comes from a broken home (b) is neurotic (c) is in analysis or (d) is suffering from a disease known as alcoholism? These are topped by, "If I stop doing this (neurotic behavior), I won't be able to analyze it, and then I'll never get better." The obverse of "Wooden Leg" is "Rickshaw," with the thesis, "If they only had (rickshaws) (duckbill platypuses) (girls who spoke ancient Egyptian) around this town, I never would have got into this mess." Aaaach, Dr. Eric, your demeanor-dubious, doubtful, disenchanted and yet also dedicated and doughty-is worthy even of the Master himself, Dr. Sigmund, indeed..... And then the goal of it all, "AUTONOMY." Learning to see a teapot, hear the birds sing (and interact with self and others) in the way YOU yourself were meant to, directly. And NOT the way society, culture, your family, and the grubby benefits of game-playing tell you you should!....Four times in as many decades have I re-read Berne's description of this "autonomy." And each time I see more-because I'm slowly-surely getting closer and closer to autonomy. To this natural, friction-free, appreciative, mellow, engaged, honest, for-real interaction with self and others. (Of course, I had the benefit of useful and skilled psychotherapy in the interval.) But take heart: a long road can have arrival points. Dr. Berne points the way, with the wisdom and wry wit, the doubting but dedicated stance, of the best in the psychoanalytic tradition.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Basic Must-Haves
Review: A genius of a book that is a wonderful introduction to psychology and vivid explanation of psychological games people play with each other, mild to neurotic to psychotic, giving practical roadmaps for countering the games -- i.e. manipulative behaviors people learn to play in relationships. Along with "Scripts People Live," you have a practical psychology reference shelf to return to again and again. Highly readable.
Rating:
Summary: Scientific approach to Human Relationships
Review: A must read for those who want to understand interpersonal behavior. Each human being needs strokes to live "psychologically" and this book illustrates how people play games in real life to get those strokes. The games are explained based on Transaction Analysis which is becoming popular and a scientific and rational way to analyse each ones way of life. Careful reading will lead to interesting insights.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible reading
Review: After I read the book I'm Ok, You're Ok, a friend gave me the book Games People Play which interested me because Thomas Harris made reference notes to Berne's book. Just as I had hoped, this book provided wonderful information about the psychological "games" people play with each other, why they do them, and the consequences that come from playing them. A fantastic read for the student learning psychology or psychiatry, even for the layman who wants to strengthen his mind in psychological matters to maintain relationships on a social and personal level. This book challenges the reader to analyze the daily transactions we take for granted and understand what really goes on behind the curtains of everyday conversation.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible reading
Review: After I read the book I'm Ok, You're Ok, a friend gave me the book Games People Play which interested me because Thomas Harris made reference notes to Berne's book. Just as I had hoped, this book provided wonderful information about the psychological "games" people play with each other, why they do them, and the consequences that come from playing them. A fantastic read for the student learning psychology or psychiatry, even for the layman who wants to strengthen his mind in psychological matters to maintain relationships on a social and personal level. This book challenges the reader to analyze the daily transactions we take for granted and understand what really goes on behind the curtains of everyday conversation.
Rating: 
Summary: psychoanalysis for the masses
Review: An intro to interpersonal games and scripts. Don't expect any depth, though.
Rating:
Summary: Stay one step ahead of "game players"
Review: Being the slightly paranoid, mistrustful, and mildly misanthropic person that I am, this book, which suggests that there are hidden agendas (ulterior motives) behind many people's actions, absolutely knocked me over! I always knew that people had their little games (destructive games, attention-getting games, sympathy-seeking games, etc ...), but this book gives one the ability to put a handle on them; define them, name them, see the "moves" associated with them, describe the "payoffs" associated with them, and plan antitheses to them. After reading this book, I was able to see and identify games (and rituals and pastimes) being played by people all around me. I even identified games I was playing (read the book honestly and you might also come to that conclusion)! That's one thing I picked up from this book - games are not always conscious. Read this book and read it honestly with no preconceptions, and it will indeed benefit you. Since this book was a general overview of Transactional Analysis, I am looking forward to reading other materials on this subject. Happy reading!
Rating:
Summary: An excellent manual for avoiding communication traps.
Review: Despite its success as a pop-psychology offering in the seventies and dialogues with titles such as, "Now I've Got You, You S.O.B.", this is a serious and valuable work. Based on the Freudian concepts of Id, Ego, and Super Ego, Berne states that all comunnications may be classified as being Child, Adult or Parent in nature. We may be drawn into the "game" that another creates unless we are able to recognize the nature of the communication and convert it into an Adult to Adult dialogue. It is advisable to read this book out of sequence and to digest the theoretical explanation in the appendix before reading the games. In summary, a very useful manual for maintaining rational discussion in all interpersonal situations.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Insight into Human Nature
Review: Dr. Berne has been dead almost 30 years now but the material in this book is as fresh and insightful as if it were hot off the press. Writers have been using this book to crank out characters for stories and movie scripts for decades. I highly recommend all of Dr. Berne's books.
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