Marital Games

Prepared By Manu Melwin JoyResearch Scholar

School of Management StudiesCUSAT, Kerala, India.Phone – 9744551114

Mail – manu_melwinjoy@yahoo.com

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Marital Games• Almost any game can

form the scaffolding for married life and family living.

• Some of these games are tolerated longer, under the legal force of contractual intimacy.

• Marital games can only be arbitrarily separated from sexual games .

Corner• Corner illustrates

more clearly than most games their manipulative aspect and their function as barriers to intimacy.

• Paradoxically, it consists of a disingenuous refusal to play the game of another.

Courtroom• Courtroom is essentially

three handed, with a plaintiff, a defendant and a Judge, represented by a husband, a wife and the therapist.

• In everyday form, courtroom is easily observed in children as a three handed game between two siblings and a parent.

Frigid Woman• In this game, the

husband makes advances to his wife and is repulsed.

• After repeated attempts, he is told that all men are beasts, he doesn’t really love her and all he is interested is in sex.

• When he resigns, wife tempts him and the game continues.

Harried• This is played by a

housewife who is proficient in ten or twelve different occupations.

• The thesis of this game is that she takes on everything that comes and even asks for more.

• This ultimately results in her burn out and being ready for hospitalized.

If It Weren’t For You• Briefly, a woman marries a

domineering man so that he will restrict her activities and thus keep her from getting into a situation which frighten her.

• She takes advantage of the situation to complain about the restrictions , which makes her spouse feel uneasy and gives her all sorts of advantages.

Look How Hard I Have Tried• This is a three handed

game played by a married couple with a psychiatrist.

• Husband is bucking for a divorce and he comes to the therapist to demonstrate that he is cooperating.

• He ends up by saying “ Look how hard I have tried” and ask for divorce.

Sweet Heart• Husband exposes the

deficiencies of the wife and save her from embarrassment of having to expose them herself.

• He ends the comment by saying “ Isn’t that right, sweetheart?”.

Thank You

Other TA topics available on slideshare1. Strokes - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/strokes-24081607.

2. Games People Play - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/psychological-games-people-play.

3. Structural Analysis - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/the-ego-state-model.4. What is TA? - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/what-ta-is5. Cycles of Development -

http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/cycles-of-developement-pamela-levin-transactional-analysis.

6. Stages of Cure - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/stages-of-cure.7. Transactions - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/transactions-33677298.8. Time Structuring - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/time-structuring.9. Life Position - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/life-position.10. Autonomy - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/autonomy-33690557. 11. Structural Pathology - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/structural-pathology.12. Game Analysis - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/game-analysis-33725636.13. Integrated Adult - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/integrated-adult.14. Stroke Economy - http://www.slideshare.net/manumjoy/stroke-economy-33826702.