Game Alcoholic.
download video
In game analysis, there is neither alcoholism nor alcoholics, but the role of the Alcoholic in some game. If the main cause of excessive alcohol consumption is, for example, physiological disorders, then this is the responsibility of the general practitioner. The object of analysis in the game we propose is completely different from those social transactions that alcohol abuse entails. We called this game «Alcoholic».
When fully expanded, this game has five players, but some roles can be combined so that the game can start and end with just two players. The central role, the role of the Leader, is the Alcoholic himself, whom we will sometimes call White.
The most important partner is the Pursuer. This role is usually played by a member of the opposite sex, most often the spouse. The third role is that of the Savior, usually played by a person of the same sex, often a doctor who takes part in the patient and is generally interested in the problems of alcoholism.
In the classical situation, the doctor «successfully cures» the alcoholic of a bad habit. After six months of complete abstinence from alcohol, the doctor and patient congratulate each other, and the next day White is found under a fence.
The fourth role is the Simpleton. In literature, this role usually belongs to the owner of the diner or any other person who gives White a drink on credit or offers him money in debt and does not pursue him or try to save him. In life, this role can, oddly enough, be played by White’s mother, who gives him money and often sympathizes with him, because his wife, that is, her daughter-in-law, does not understand her husband. With this version of the game, White should have some plausible explanation for the question of why he needs money. And although both partners know perfectly well what he will actually spend them on, they pretend to believe his explanation.
Sometimes the Simpleton develops into another role — not the most essential, but quite appropriate to the situation — the Instigator, Nice Guy, who often offers alcohol to White, even when he does not ask «Come on, have a drink» (hidden transaction «And you will go even faster downhill»).
In all games related to alcohol, there is another auxiliary role that belongs to a professional — a bartender, a barman, that is, a person who supplies White with alcohol. In the game «Alcoholic» he is the fifth participant, the Intermediary, the main source of alcohol, who, moreover, fully understands the alcoholic and, in a sense, is the main person in the life of any drug addict. The difference between the Intermediary and other players is basically the same as between professionals and amateurs in any game.
A professional knows when to stop. Thus, at some point, a good bartender may refuse to serve an Alcoholic, who thus loses the source of alcohol, until he finds a more lenient Intermediary.
In the early stages of the game, the wife can play three supporting roles.
At midnight, the spouse is a Simpleton. She undresses her husband, brews coffee for him and allows him to take out his evil. In the morning she becomes a Persecutor and reviles him for his dissolute life. In the evening, she turns into a Savior and begs her husband to give up bad habits. In the later stages, sometimes in connection with the deterioration of the physical condition, the Alcoholic can do without the Persecutor and the Savior, but he tolerates them if they simultaneously agree to provide him with vital conditions. White may, for example, suddenly go to some soul-saving organization and even agree to «be saved» if they give him free food there. He can handle both amateur and professional scolding if he hopes to get a handout afterwards.
In accordance with the analysis of games, we believe that the consumption of alcohol in itself, if it gives pleasure to White, then only in passing. His main task is to reach the climax, which is a hangover.
An alcoholic perceives a hangover not so much as a bad physical condition, but as a psychological torture. The two favorite pastimes of drinkers are «Cocktail» (how much they drank and what they mixed with what) and «The next morning» («Look how bad I felt») Cocktail is played mostly by people who only drink at parties or from case by case. Many alcoholics prefer to play the mentally charged game of «The Morning After» properly.
… A certain patient (White), coming to a consultation with a psychotherapist after another spree, brought down streams of curses on his head; The psychotherapist remained silent. Later, as a member of a psychotherapy group, White recalled these visits and attributed all his swear words to the therapist with smug confidence. When alcoholics discuss their situation for therapeutic purposes, they are usually not interested in the problem of drinking per se (apparently, they mostly mention it out of respect for the Persecutor), but in the subsequent torment. We believe that the transactional goal of alcohol abuse, in addition to the pleasure of drinking itself, is also to create a situation in which the Child will be scolded in every way not only by his own inner Parent, but also by any parental figure from the immediate environment who accepts big enough participation in the Alcoholic to meet him halfway and play along in his game. Therefore, therapy in this game should be directed not to the habit of drinking, but to eliminating the alcoholic’s desire to indulge his weaknesses and engage in self-flagellation, which are most fully manifested in the game «The Next Morning». This category does not include, however, binge drinkers who do not suffer morally after a hangover.
There is also a non-drinking alcoholic game in which White goes through all the stages of financial decline and social degradation, although he does not drink at all. However, he makes the same moves in the game and requires the same cast of «actors» to play along with him. In this game, the main action also takes place «the next morning.» The similarities between these games prove that they are indeed games. Game Addict is very similar to Alcoholic, but even more dramatic and ominous. It develops faster and more impressively. At least in our society, a lot of the load in it falls on the Chaser (who is always ready). Saviors and Simpletons are extremely rare in this game, but the role of the Mediator becomes even more important.
There are many organizations in the US that take part in the Alcoholic game. Many of them seem to preach the rules of the game, explain how to play the role of an Alcoholic: knock down a glass before breakfast, spend money intended for other needs on drinks, and so on. In addition, they explain the functions of the Savior. For example, Alcoholics Anonymous. Alcoholics Anonymous is an organization that has spread in the United States and many other countries around the world. They play this game, trying to attract an alcoholic to the role of Savior.
Former Alcoholics are preferred because they know the rules of the game and are therefore better able to play along with others than people who have never played the game before. There have even been reports of cases where the “stock” of Alcoholics to work with suddenly ran out, after which some members of the organization began to drink again, because they had no other way to continue the game without a contingent of dying people in need of help.
There are organizations whose goal is to improve the situation of other players. Some of them put pressure on the spouse to change the role of the Persecutor to the role of the Savior. It seems to us that the organization closest to the ideal therapy is one that works with adolescent children with alcoholic parents. She seeks to help the child to completely withdraw from the game of parents. Role reversal doesn’t work here.
Psychological healing of an alcoholic can be achieved, in our opinion, only by his irrevocable withdrawal from the game, and not by a simple change of roles. In some cases, this has been achieved, although one can hardly find anything more interesting for the Alcoholic than the ability to continue the game. Replacing roles in a forced way may be a different game than a game-free relationship.
So-called healed alcoholics are often not very inspiring company; they themselves most likely understand that their life is boring, they are constantly tempted to return to old habits. The criterion for recovery from the game, in our opinion, is such a situation in which a former alcoholic can drink in society without any risk to himself.
From the description of the game, it can be seen that the Savior most often has a strong temptation to play his game: «I’m just trying to help you», and the Persecutor and the Simpleton play their own: in the first case — «Look what you did to me», in the second — «Glorious fellow.» After the emergence of a large number of organizations involved in the rescue of alcoholics and promoting the idea that alcoholism is a disease, many alcoholics have learned to play «Cripple». The focus has shifted from the Persecutor to the Savior, from «I’m a sinner» to «What do you want from a sick person.» The benefits of such a shift are highly problematic, since, from a practical point of view, it hardly helped to reduce the sale of alcohol to binge drinkers. For many people in the US, however, Alcoholics Anonymous still represents one of the best approaches to recovering from self-indulgence.
Antithesis. It is well known that the game «Alcoholic» is played seriously and is difficult to quit. In one of the psychotherapy groups, there was an alcoholic woman who at first took little part in the activities of the group, until, in her opinion, she got to know the members of the group intimately enough to perform her game. She asked to be told what the members of the group thought of her. Since up to now her behavior had been quite pleasant, the majority spoke of her in a benevolent tone.
But the woman began to protest: “This is not what I want at all. I want to know what you really think of me.» It was clear from her words that she was asking for defamatory remarks. After the other members of the group refused to act as the Persecutor, she went home and told her husband that if she had just one more drink, he could divorce her or send her to the hospital. The husband promised to do as she asks. That same evening, the woman got drunk and her husband sent her to the hospital.
In this example, the patients refused to act as Persecutors, which is exactly what the woman expected of them. She could not bear such antithetical behavior of the members of the group, despite the fact that everyone around her tried to reinforce what minimal understanding of the situation that she managed to achieve. And at home, she was able to find a man willingly playing the role she needed.
However, in other cases it is quite possible to prepare the patient in such a way that he still manages to quit the game. The therapist may try to apply a treatment in which he refuses to take on the role of the Persecutor or the Rescuer. We believe that it would be just as wrong from a therapeutic point of view if he took on the role of the Simpleton and allowed the patient to neglect financial obligations or simple punctuality. The transactionally correct therapeutic procedure is as follows: after careful preparatory work, the therapist is advised to take the position of an adult who has entered into a contract with the patient and refuse to play any other roles in the hope that the patient will be able to observe abstinence not only from alcohol, but also from gambling. . If the patient does not succeed, we recommend referring him to the Savior.
Applying the antithesis is especially difficult, since in almost all Western countries the heavy drinker is often a welcome object of censure, alarm, or generosity for charities. Therefore, a person who suddenly refuses to play any of the roles of the game «Alcoholic» is likely to cause public indignation. A reasonable approach can be even more of a threat to Saviors than it is to Alcoholics, which can sometimes be detrimental to the healing process.
Once, in one of our clinics, a group of psychotherapists who were seriously involved in the game of «Alcoholic» tried to cure patients by destroying their game. As soon as the strategy of the psychotherapists became apparent, the charitable committee that subsidized the clinic tried to expel the entire group, and in the future, in the treatment of these patients, did not turn to any of its members for help.
Related games. There is an interesting episode in the game «Alcoholic»:
«Let’s have a drink.» It was pointed out to us by an observant student specializing in industrial psychiatry. White and his wife (a non-drinking Stalker) go on a picnic with Black (a partner) and his wife (both of them Simpletons). White treats the Blacks: «Let’s have a drink!» If they agree, this gives White the freedom to have another four or five drinks. The Blacks’ refusal to drink makes White’s play obvious. In this case, according to the laws of joint drinking, White should feel insulted, and on the next picnic he will find more accommodating companions for himself. What on a social level appears to be Adult generosity is, on a psychological level, simply audacity, as White, through open bribery, obtains a Parental handout from Black under the very nose of Mrs. White, who is powerless to resist it. In fact, Mrs. White agrees to such an event, pretending to be «powerless» to resist her husband. After all, she also wants the game to continue, and she would play the role of the Chaser, as Mr. White also wants (with the only difference that he wants to continue playing the role of the Alcoholic). It is easy to imagine her reproaching her husband the morning after the picnic. This variant of the game is fraught with complications, especially if White is Black’s superior in the service. Actually speaking. Simpletons are not so simple. Often these are lonely people who can benefit a lot from a good relationship with alcoholics.
For example, the owner of a diner, playing the role of Nice Guy, thus expands the circle of his acquaintances; in addition, in his company he can acquire a reputation not only as a generous person, but also as an excellent storyteller.
One of the options for the Nice Guy appears, for example, when a person asks everyone for advice, looking for opportunities on how best to help someone. This is an example of a good, constructive game that should be encouraged in every possible way. The opposite of this game is the role of the Tough Guy, in which a person is looking for ways to inflict pain and damage on people as much as possible. And although, perhaps, he will never hurt anyone, but those around him begin to associate him with such «tough guys» who «play to the end.» And he basks in the rays of this glory. The French call such an instance fanfarone de vice (the fanfaron of evil).
Analysis
Thesis: “Well, I was nasty! Let’s see if you can stop me.»
Purpose: self-flagellation.
Roles: Alcoholic, Persecutor, Savior, Simpleton, Mediator.
Illustrations: «Let’s see if you catch me.» Prototypes of this game are quite difficult to find due to its complexity. However, children, especially children of alcoholics, often perform the maneuvers typical of Alcoholics. When playing Let’s See If You Catch Me, children lie, hide things, ask for slanderous remarks, or look for people to help them. They find, for example, a benevolent neighbor who distributes handouts, etc.
Self-flagellation in this case is, as it were, postponed to a later age.
Social paradigm: Adult — Adult; Adult: «Tell me what you really think of me, or help me stop drinking»;
Adult: «I’ll be honest with you.»
Psychological paradigm: Parent — Child; Child: «Let’s see if you can stop me»; Parent: «You should stop drinking because…»
Moves: 1) provocation — accusation or forgiveness; 2) self-indulgence — anger or frustration.
Rewards:
- internal psychological — a) drinking as a procedure — rebellion, consolation, satisfaction of desire; b) «Alcoholic» as a game — self-flagellation;
- external psychological — avoidance of sexual and other forms of intimacy;
- internal social — «Let’s see if you can stop me»;
- external social — pastime «The next morning», «Cocktail», etc.;
- biological — alternate exchange of expressions of love and anger;
- existential — «Everyone wants to offend me.»