DRAMA TRIANGLE

Aleksandra Bubera M.D.Psychiatrist, CTA,“Psihopolis” InstitutTA centre – ATAS Serbia

mob. tel. +381642266448e-mail: aleksandrija @gmail.com buberica72@yahoo.com

Introduction:

Drama triangle is concept within Transactional analysis, originally proposed by Stephen B. Karpman M.D. in 1968. and is used widely since to analyse the story line of life script(Karpman(1)) and roles of psychological games. It’s a simple and useful concept, easy to understand by trainees and clients.

Only three roles are necessary in drama analysis to depict the emotional reversals that are drama(Karpman(2)).

The positions on the corners of the drama triangle are: Rescuer, Victim and Persecutor.These are roles, not the real victims, rescuers or persecutors.

Drama begins when these roles are established, but also, there is no drama unless there is a switch in the roles(2).

Person is acting her/his role with some valid elements, but is also discounting from its position in triangle.

Discounting:

Discounting means to believe or act as though some, or all, aspects of the self, other people or reality are less significant than they actually are(Mellor,Schiff(3)).

Person is also not aware that she is discounting , nor that she/he discounts her/his own responsibility. They also do not realise that they are not real victims, rescuers or persecutors – for them , role and “other people’s-situation’s-destiny’s fault” is correct picture of reality.

Roles:

Victim role Valid component of the Victim position: Person accurately realize

that he/she is suffering(Choy(4)) Discounts are that Victims act like they do not have the resources to solve their

problems, resources for solving must come from outside and they can feel OK only if someone else either changes or does something instead of them. This would be true in cases of genuine catastrophe(4), captivity, or similar which would make them real victims.

Victim behaviour: they do not use clear thinking, problem solving skills, may believe their neediness and strong feelings prevent them from being able to do so, they discount their ability to think and feel at the same time(4).

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They do not accept their responsibility for being Victims; they don’t do anything efficient to leave their role.

Rescuer role Valid component of Rescuer position: Rescuers are genuinely concerned about

Victims, but more often they rescue in order to feel superior or convince themselves they are OK(4), and they must be helpful to achieve this.

Discounts: they express their concern for the Victim by taking over the thinking and problem solving – discounting Victim’s ability to assess the situation, take appropriate action, and ask for help if needed. They are also discounting their own awareness of what they really want(4).

Rescuer behaviour: They do something they don’t want to do, or do more than their share is, they are not clear about what is “a fair distribution of a burden” (4). They are often incompetent for help they are trying to offer, or smother others with unnecesarry help that think they should offer. Proverb “Road to hell is paved by good intentions” suites them well.

Persecutor role Valid component of the Persecutor position: they are satisfying their own needs and

acting in their own best interest. Discounts: They behave in such a way that others are inconvenienced or suffer, thus

discounting the feelings and importance of the persons who are affected because of their actions.

Persecutor behaviour: It can be active, retaliatory or passive. Active Persecutors use their energy to get their own needs met, but

do not care about other people, for example, a colleague enters the room and picks up one of books that he needs without asking his colleague who is momentarily absent. She turns back and can not find her book which she needs to learn for an exam.

Retaliatory Persecutors have in part the aim of punishing and experiencing triumph with punishment and revenge, which is good entry for getting them persecuted again(4). They can be OK only if they get revenge. Proverb “Eye for an eye and tooth for tooth” suites them well.

Passive Persecutors do not do what they should do and by this are discounting others, for example as nurse who is not responding to patient’s call.

Most people take the Rescuer or Persecutor position in attempt to either temporarily avoid the Victim role or keep things going until they switch to Victim themselves(Woolams,Brown(5)).

Any of above excludes the only healthy, “ I’m OK ; You’re OK “ (or ++) life position in the OK Corral(5, Milivojević(6)).

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Switch:

Having entered from one of the three positions on the corners of Drama triangle, individuals “switch” to different role on the triangle(4). Each role can switch to any of two other roles on the triangle. And it is possible to have multiple switches during game,drama or script.

For example(4): the Rescuer who gets tired of not getting his/hers own needs met begins feeling victimized and ends up persecuting the Victim with impatience, accusing Victim for incompetence or similar.

Or the Victim gets tired of being patronized; with things out of his/hers control and starts to persecute the Rescuer.

Or, the Persecutor moves into the Rescuer because feels guilt or because his/hers Victim retaliates actively by being nasty upon him, or passively by avoidance of intimacy.

Consequently, all individuals involved end up feeling badly sooner or later(4), most commonly in the Victim position, concluding that either them, or other people, or both are not OK, most probably finishing drama (or game) wondering : “Why is this always happening to me?”

The concept of Drama triangle is useful in teaching and practicing Transactional analysis and very helpful to illustrate and confront games, discounting, passivity, grandiosity, life scripts , “real” and “racket” emotions...

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REFERENCES:

4. Acey Choy “The winner’s triangle” Transactional Analysis Journal, Vol.20,No 1, 1990

6. Dr Zoran Milivojević “Teorija strouka i diskaunta” i “OK pozicije” Materijali za edukaciju iz Transakcione Analize, TA centar, Novi Sad, 2004.

3. Ken Mellor, Dip.Soc.Studs., Eric Schiff “Discounting” Transactional Analysis Journal, 5:3,1975

2. Stephen B. Karpman, M.D. “Fairy tales and script drama analysis” Transactional Analysis Bulletin 7:26 , 1968.

1. Stephen B. Karpman “1972 Eric Berne memorial scientific award lecture” Transactional Analysis Journal III 1973.

5. Stan Woollams, Michael Brown “Transactional Analysis”, Huron Valley Institute Press,1978.

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DRAMA TRIANGLE

P R

V

Operation: Operation:

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Get – away -from (GAF)

- +Position resulting:

I -am – not- OK - with – me – and -You - are – OK - with – me

Get - on - with (GOW)

+ +Position resulting:

I – am- OK- with - me – and -You – are – OK – with – me

Operation:

Get - nowhere-with (GNW)

_ _Position resulting:

I - am - not – OK- with - me - andYou - are – not- OK - with – me

Operation:

Get – rid - of (GRO)

+ -Position resulting:

I -am – OK- with – me – and -You – are - not – OK – with - me

OK CORRAL

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