Games People Play_ The Psychology of Human Relationships - Eric Berne [54]
Relatives. A close relative of ‘Want Out’ is an operation called ‘You’ve Got to Listen’. Here the inmate of an institution or the client of a social agency demands the right to make complaints. The complaints are often irrelevant. His main purpose is to assure himself that he will be listened to by the authorities. If they make the mistake of thinking that he expects the complaints to be acted on and cut him off as too demanding, there may be trouble. If they accede to his demands, he will increase them. If they merely listen patiently and with signs of interest, the ‘You’ve Got to Listen’ player will be satisfied and cooperative, and will not ask for anything more. The administrator must learn to distinguish ‘You’ve Got to Listen’ from serious demands for remedial action.2
‘Bum Rap’ is another game that belongs in this family. A straight criminal may holler ‘Bum Rap’ in a real effort to get out, in which case it is part of the procedure. The inmate who plays ‘Bum Rap’ as a game, however, does not use it effectively to try to get out, since if he gets out he will no longer have much excuse to holler.
3 · LET’S PULL A FAST ONE ON JOEY
Thesis. The prototype of this game is ‘The Big Store’, the big-time confidence game, but many small grifts and even the badger game are FOOJY. No man can be beaten at FOOJY unless he has larceny in his veins, because the first move is for Black to tell White that dumb-honest-old-Joey is just waiting to be taken. If White were completely honest, he would either back off or warn Joey, but he doesn’t. Just as Joey is about to pay off, something goes wrong, and White finds that his investment is gone. Or in the badger game, just as Joey is about to be cuckolded, he happens to walk in. Then White, who was playing his own rules in his own honest way, finds that he has to play Joey’s rules, and they hurt.
Curiously enough, the mark is supposed to know the rules of FOOJY and stick to them. Honest squawking is a calculated risk of the con mob; they will not hold that against White, and he is even allowed a certain latitude in lying to the police to save his face. But if he goes too far and accuses them falsely of burglary, for example, that is cheating, and they resent it. On the other hand, there is little sympathy for a con man who gets into trouble by working a mark who is drunk, since this is improper procedure, and he should know better. The same applies if he is stupid enough to pick a mark with a sense of humour, since it is well known that such people cannot be trusted to play the straight man in FOOJY all the way down the line through the terminal game of ‘Cops and Robbers’. Experienced con men are scared of marks who laugh after they have been taken.
It should be noted that a practical joke is not a game of FOOJY, because in a practical joke Joey is the one who suffers, while in FOOJY Joey comes out on top, and White is the one who suffers. A practical joke is a pastime, while FOOJY is a game in which the joke is arranged to backfire.
It is evident that FOOJY is a three- or four-handed game, with the police playing the fourth hand, and that it is related to ‘Let’s You and Him Fight’.
NOTE
Thanks are due to Dr Franklin Ernst of the California Medical Faculty at Vacavilie, Mr William Collins of the California Rehabilitation Center at Norco, and Mr Laurence Means of the California Institution for Men at Tehachapi, for their continued interest in studying the game of ‘Cops and Robbers’ and for their helpful discussions and criticisms.
REFERENCES
1. Frederick Wiseman, in ‘Psychiatry and the Law: Use and Abuse of Psychiatry in a Murder Case’ (American Journal of Psychiatry, 118:289–299,