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1961) gives a clear and tragic example of a hard form of ‘Cops and Robbers’. It concerns a 23-year-old-man who shot his fiancée and then turned himself in. This was not easy to arrange, since the police did not believe his story until he had repeated it four times. Later, he said: ‘It just seemed to me that all my life I was bound to end up in the chair. If that was the way it was, that was the way it would be.’ The author says it was farcical to expect a lay jury to understand the complex psychiatric testimony that was offered at the trial in technical jargon. In game terms, the central issue can be stated in words of no more than two syllables: A nine-year-old boy decides (for reasons clearly brought out at the trial) that he is bound to end up in the chair. He spends the rest of his life headed toward this goal, and using his girl friend as a target, in the end he sets himself up.

2. For further information about ‘Cops and Robbers’ and games played by prison inmates, see: Ernst, F. H., and Keating, W. C., ‘Psychiatric Treatment of the California Felon’, American Journal of Psychiatry, 120:974–979, 1964.

11 · Consulting Room Games

GAMES that are tenaciously played in the therapeutic situation are the most important ones for the professional game analyst to be aware of. They can be most readily studied first hand in the consulting room. There are three types, according to the role of the agent:

1. Games played by therapists and case workers: ‘I’m Only Trying to Help You’ and ‘Psychiatry’.

2. Games played by professionally trained people who are patients in therapy groups, such as ‘Greenhouse’.

3. Games played by lay patients and clients: ‘Indigent’, ‘Peasant’, ‘Stupid’ and ‘Wooden Leg’.

1 · GREENHOUSE

Thesis. This is a variation of ‘Psychiatry’, which is played hardest by young social scientists, such as clinical psychologists. In the company of their colleagues these young people tend to play ‘Psychoanalysis’, often in a jocular way, using such expressions as ‘Your hostility is showing’ or ‘How mechanical can a defence mechanism get ?’ This is usually a harmless and enjoyable pastime; it is a normal phase of their learning experience, and with a few originals in the group it can become quite amusing. (This writer’s preference is, ‘I see National Parapraxis Week is here again.’) As patients in psychotherapy groups some of these people are apt to indulge in this mutual critique more seriously; but since it is not highly productive in that situation, it may have to be headed off by the therapist. The proceedings may then turn into a game of ‘Greenhouse’.

There is a strong tendency for recent graduates to have an exaggerated respect for what they call ‘Genuine Feelings’. The expression of such a feeling may be preceded by an announcement that it is on its way. After the announcement, the feeling is described, or rather presented before the group, as though it were a rare flower which should be regarded with awe. The reactions of the other members are received very solemnly, and they take on the air of connoisseurs at a botanical garden. The problem seems to be, in the jargon of game analysis, whether this one is good enough to be exhibited in the National Feeling Show. A questioning intervention by the therapist may be strongly resented, as though he were some clumsy-fingered clod mauling the fragile petals of an exotic century plant. The therapist, naturally, feels that in order to understand the anatomy and physiology of a flower, it may be necessary to dissect it.

Antithesis. The antithesis, which is crucial for therapeutic progress, is the irony of the above description. If this game is allowed to proceed, it may go on unchanged for years, after which the patient may feel that he has had a ‘therapeutic experience’ during which he has ‘expressed hostility’ and learned to ‘face feelings’ in a way which gives him an advantage over less fortunate colleagues. Meanwhile very little of dynamic significance may have happened, and certainly the investment of time has not been used to maximum therapeutic