Games People Play_ The Psychology of Human Relationships - Eric Berne [52]
The situation is similar with gamblers. At the social or sociological level a ‘professional’ gambler is one whose chief interest in life is gambling. But at the psychological level there are two different kinds of people who are professional gamblers. There are those who spend their time gaming, i.e., playing with Fate, in whom the strength of the Adult’s desire to win is exceeded only by the strength of the Child’s need to lose. Then there are those who run gambling houses and actually do earn a living, usually a very good one, by providing opportunities for gamesters to play; they themselves are not playing, and try to avoid playing, although occasionally under certain conditions they will indulge themselves and enjoy it, just as a straight criminal may occasionally play a game of C & R.
This throws light on why sociological and psychological studies of criminals have been generally ambiguous and unproductive: they are dealing with two different kinds of people who cannot be adequately differentiated in the ordinary theoretical or empirical frameworks. The same is true in studying gamblers. Transactional and game analyses offer an immediate solution for this. They remove the ambiguity by distinguishing transactionally, below the social level, between ‘players’ and ‘straight professionals’.
Let us now turn from this general thesis to consider specific examples. Some burglars do their jobs without any waste motion. The ‘Cops and Robbers’ burglar leaves his calling card in gratuitous acts of vandalism, such as spoiling valuable clothing with secretions and excretions. The straight bank robber, according to reports, takes every possible precaution to avoid violence; the C & R bank robber is only looking for an excuse to vent his anger. Like any professional, a straight criminal likes his jobs to be as clean as circumstances permit. The C & R criminal is compelled to blow off steam in the course of his work. The true professional is said never to operate until the fix is in; the player is willing to take on the law barehanded. Straight professionals are well aware, in their own way, of the game of C & R. If a gang member shows too much interest in the game, to the point of jeopardizing the job, and particularly if his need to be caught begins to show, they will take drastic measures to prevent a recurrence. Perhaps it is just because straight professionals are not playing C & R that they are so seldom caught, and hence so rarely studied sociologically, psychologically and psychiatrically; and this also applies to gamblers. Hence most of our clinical knowledge about criminals and gamblers refers to players rather than to straight professionals.
Kleptomaniacs (as opposed to professional shoplifters) are examples of how widely trivial C & R is played. It is probable that a very large percentage of Occidentals, at least, have played C & R in fantasy, and that is what sells newspapers in our half of the world. This fantasy frequently occurs in the form of dreaming up the ‘perfect murder’, which is playing the hardest possible game and completely outwitting the cops.
Variations of C & R are ‘Auditors and Robbers’, played by embezzlers with the same rules and the same payoff; ‘Customs and Robbers’, played by smugglers, etc. Of special interest is the criminal variation of ‘Courtroom’. Despite all his precautions, the professional may occasionally be arrested and brought to trial. For him’ Courtroom’ is a procedure, which he carries out according to the instructions of his legal advisers. For the lawyers, if they are compulsive winners, ‘Courtroom’ is essentially a game played with the jury in which the object is to win, not lose,