Drama Triangle

The Drama Triangle has been evolved byDr Stephen Karpman as originally described in his famous 1968 article, ‘Fairy Tales and Script Drama

Analysis'. This is a psychological and social model of human interaction as expressed in the Transactional Analysis and is widely made use of by the psychologists and psychotherapists.

The three sides to the Drama Triangle are the roles that people take in playing games in the context of Transactional Analysis. These three role-takers are denominated as the Persecutor, the Rescuer and the Victim. It is an inverted triangle; the angle on which the triangle rests is usually that which depicts the Victim role-taker. The Persecutor, The Rescuer and the Victim are placed in the clock-wise direction on this triangle.

However, these dramatic roles displayed by the triangle, depicts the highly unstable, recurring and emotional responses which might generate misery or discomfort for both the people involved in the transaction.

The Persecutor in the drama triangle has a haughty approach to the other party in the transaction, who the former thinks cannot think, feel or act on his own. The Persecutor inherently likes to punish or brush off people in some way to establish his high-handedness and ventilate the hidden anger. He acts from a critical parent ego state. This role depicts a distorted version of the masculine aspect.

The Rescuer plays the role of a benefactor, who ostentatiously tries to help others and considers it is his duty and the need of the others. The hidden belief on his part is that the other person cannot help himself and needs his competence for coming out of the problem.  He typically is fault-finding, critical, unpleasant and has a hidden feeling of inadequacy that drives him to bully the other person. Thus this role-taker too behaves with a one-up-man-ship attitude. This role depicts a distorted version of the feminine aspect.

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