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No. 5923
Anonymous
8th January 2015 Thursday 2:29 am
5923
>>5921
A good chunk of it, yes. Obviously there is no theory that will explain away the entirety of human endeavour, but a good chunk of what we spend our lives doing between cradle and grave is covered. Humans are habitual, ritualistic creatures by nature and the "games" defined when studying behaviour are often ingrained parts of the socialisation process- We sometimes call it politeness or manners, that sort of thing. We are talking about the expected ways for people to behave in social environments, for which there are rewards and punishments if a person (player) plays by the book, or breaks the rules.
Consider if you will Gemma from HR. She always moans about her partner and how controlling and restricting he is- He won't let her go out and take up a night class, for example. She surrounds herself with acquaintances who are happy to gather in the canteen on their morning break and whinge about their respective partners. The object here is not, as it would superficially seem, to console or advise one another about how to improve or remedy the situation. Consider Jen, who has just transferred from Accounts, joins the group one morning and dispenses honest advice about how Gemma and her partner could seek counselling- Jen will soon find herself ostracised from the Morning Canteen Coffee Club, because she does not play by the rules.
The true purpose of the game is to seek reassurance for the shrewd decision Gemma's child ego state has made, to seek a domineering partner who shields her from fear of failure, by holding her back from trying in the first place.
And so it proceeds- Most human activity can be looked at through this lens on a bigger or smaller scale. Things like rape, violence, and addiction can all be seen as forms of a "game" for which the objective is satisfaction for one of the various ego states, between players of the same game, whether winners or losers.
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