Game Analysis in Two Planes

Abstract

Berne's (1958) transactional analysis of games consisted of comparing the ego states of two players and identifying two levels of communication (overt and covert). This analysis emphasized the social psychiatry of games. When Goulding and Kupfer (Goulding, 1972) later developed an individual psychiatric approach in their diagram of games, Berne originally refused to accept it as game analysis. Once a game had been dealt with at the social level, Berne believed that individual psychiatry should be restricted to structural analysis and decontamination of ego states. This article suggests that viewing the Goulding (intrapsychic) model as one plane and the Berne (transactional) model as another–with the individual operating in both–offers the most effective means of helping people reclaim their power to be game free and to find options for healthy living.