In the book Games People Play (1964), a transactional analysis book, Eric Berne describes a psychological Game as a drama that goes on and on, based on past unresolved moments in life. Berne describes how draining repetitive arguments happen and how sabotage happens below an individual’s level of awareness. When people smile at their own misfortune, this is called a “gallows smile” a discount of the self, something Berne noticed in Games.

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Berne wrote about personalities, social workers, for example, who may play the Rescuer position, kidnapping the child and keeping the family drama high, rather than getting on with the solution of family therapy. According to Organizational TA Practitioner John Parr: “In my view a game is by definition unhealthy. The payoff is to prove something negative in the script. Games are always scenes where someone plays a chosen role, with a hidden agenda, preventing them from change. And with the game, there is no room for intimacy. “Some Games are more harmful than others, and as they confirm destructive script behavior to reinforce the script.”[66] The Game player receives strokes for playing. Children need stroking for Recognition, for Stimulation, and for Certainty. If they don’t get what they need, Games become a viable replacement for intimacy. If children don’t get their needs met, Games afford many strokes.

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There is potential for good stroking or bad stroking, and this sets the microstructure of the brain accordingly. Canadian M.D. Gabor Maté wrote, “Cells that fire together, wire together.”[67]  Mate says that the infants of stressed or depressed parents are likely to encode similar reactions in the womb. Children may develop Rackets. Rackets are inauthentic feelings; feelings learned in childhood, often below an individual's level of awareness, for other feelings, which are used in a conditioned reflex manner to manipulate others.[68] Even perpetual happiness can be a racket if it covers up other, more authentic emotions, like sadness.

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A psychological Game, or manufactured drama, is a distraction and a way to receive stimulation. The worst form of punishment is isolation, so some people spend their time getting strokes, both positive and negative, by living on the Drama triangle. TA is known for its use of Steve Karpman’s psychological model of a psychological Game. This is called the Drama Triangle. Youth activists in university are often on the Drama Triangle. Activists get attention for saving the world while alleviating the guilt or resentment that has been instilled in them by whatever existing power. Activists play a Game for attention and escape from the long-term growth toward wisdom. Developing interdependence involves one–on–one discussions. The crowd mentality prevents wisdom. Youth activists are often expressing racket feelings and groupthink rather than authentic feelings; this is a cue that a Game is afoot and that real knowledge is being lost.