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Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships (Penguin Life)

Eric Berne · 1 HN comments
HN Books has aggregated all Hacker News stories and comments that mention "Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships (Penguin Life)" by Eric Berne.
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Amazon Summary
'If you're going to read one psychology book in your lifetime... it should be his one' - Neil Hunter, Amazon review Fed up of feeling controlled at work? Feel trapped in a toxic relationship but don't know how to escape? Always feel like you lose the argument even if you know deep down you're right? Widely recognised as the most original and influential psychology book of our time, Games People Play has helped millions of people better understand human basic social interactions and relationships. We play games all the time; relationship games; power games with our bosses and competitive games with our friends. In this book, Berne reveals the secret ploys and manoeuvres that rule our lives and how to combat them. Giving you the keys to unlock the psychology of others and yourself, this classic, entertaining and life-changing book will open up the door to honest communication and teach you how to get the most out of life.
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Hacker News Stories and Comments

All the comments and stories posted to Hacker News that reference this book.
If you like this line of thinking, I would suggest reading "Games People Play" [1] (also can find the original research paper if you look around for it).

Basic premise is how we fall into transactional games in social settings (talking about weather, sports, etc) and acknowledging that can help break out of that into more interesting conversation.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Games-People-Play-Psychology-Relation...

wsinks
I discovered Games People Play in 2017, and found it to be a fascinating exploration of how people communicate. I still refer to it.

I don't have much info on this, but I brought it up to my mom who mentioned that the book had a period of popularity before my time, but had apparently been debunked as too rudimentary. I'm convinced that the framework is still relevant despite that, although I typically trust my mom's intuition on people's behind the scenes incentives -- she's proven to have theories about people that take months to play out but end up playing out.

Dracophoenix
Any examples?
wombatmobile
> she's proven to have theories about people that take months to play out but end up playing out.

All mothers have that - but they're different theories...

Paddywack
Wow. I read this at around 16 in 1983 and it made a huge impression on me then. It helped me really understand a few things about myself, as I always felt very socially out of it... Time to re-read!!
senkora
I second “Games People Play”. It’s a very enjoyable read and it has a lot of real insight.
moonchild
Sounds like a derivative of Wittgenstein's work.
filoleg
Just bought the book based off your recommendation, thanks a lot for that.

I was curious to read something along the lines of thinking the OP was musing on, but couldn't phrase it in a way that would help me find it. And neither did i suspect that it was an actual thing people wrote about, as opposed to just me having some random thoughts and wishing someone wrote about those. Reading the description of that book makes me believe that you absolutely nailed it with that recommendation.

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