Ratgeber für MicroUnternehmen

Enjoyment in Misfortune I

People who enjoying their misfortunes is a very common phenomenon. In Transactional Analysis Game terms this is known as the “Wooden Leg”, as in “What can you expect of someone with a wooden leg?” With any disability or problem, there will always be those who rise above it and those who enjoy it.

The latter are enjoying the secondary gain from it and they relish the opportunity to play the Child role and appeal for sympathy.

“I am not OK, help me “The author personally knew a man who was wheelchair bound and refused treatment, on the grounds that “God wanted him to be like this, that is why he was injured.” It gave him the opportunity to switch into another game as well. When it was suggested that perhaps, by making treatment available, God intended him to recover, he totally rejected the argument. He was very active in a church and in a society for paraplegics, and the secondary gain from his actions was obvious to all cynical bystanders.

Unfortunately, many physically normal people involved in these organizations have their own games to play and are also deriving secondary gain from the sufferers’ disabilities. They therefore often discourage well=meaning attempts to cure the problems on the basis that outsiders don’t understand how difficult it is for the unfortunate ones, and they need so much sympathy and understanding.

This despite the fact that there are many with the same disabilities leading normal independent lives. They enjoy playing the nurturing Parent to the sufferer’s Child. Also, if all were to recover, they might find themselves out of work. If one has a misfortune, one needs to focus strongly on recovery, otherwise it is very easy to get sucked into these games.

There are always those who would prefer patients not to recover, although this is never expressed openly. This is one of the reasons why old people who enter old age homes often deteriorate very quickly. They are often organized to encourage senescence and deterioration, rather than to keep people independent.

(Continued)

Mat21

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