Quotessence
Home / Authors / Eric Berne
Eric Berne

Eric Berne Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllPsychologyMenSocial GamesHumansIntimacyPersonsThinkingWorldAwarenessBehavior

Famous Eric Berne Quotes

“It can be shown experimentally that eidetic perception evokes affection, and that candidness mobilizes positive feelings, so that there is even such a thing as "one-sided intimacy" - a phenomenon well known, although not by that name, to professional seducers, who are able to capture their partners without becoming involved themselves. This they do by encouraging the other person to look at them directly and to talk freely, while the male or female seducer makes only a well-guarded pretense of reciprocating.”

PsychologyIntimacySeductionSocial Games
Book:GAMES PEOPLE PLAY
Create image

“At the end of the party, each person will have selected certain players he would like to see more of, while others he will discard, regardless of how skillfully or pleasantly they each engaged in the pastime. The ones he selects are those who seem the most likely candidates for more complex relationships—that is, games. This sorting system, however well rationalized, is actually largely unconscious and intuitive.”

PsychologySocial GamesLanguage GameSocial SchemaSocial Schemata
Book:GAMES PEOPLE PLAY
Create image

“In technical language, an ego state may be described phenomenologically as a coherent system of feelings, and operationally as a set of coherent behavior patterns. In more practical terms, it is a system of feelings accompanied by a related set of behavior patterns. Each individual seems to have available a limited repertoire of such ego states, which are not roles but psychological realities.”

PsychologyPersonalityEgoBehaviorHuman BehaviorLanguage GamesEgo States
Book:GAMES PEOPLE PLAY
Create image

“Each person decides in early childhood how he will live and how he will die... His trivial behavior may be decided by reason, but his important decisions have already been made: what kind of person he will marry, how many children he will have, what kind of bed he will die in... It is incredible to think, at first, that man's fate, all his nobility and all his degradation, is decided by a child no more than six years old, and usually three... (but) it is very easy to believe by looking at what is happening in the world today, and what happened yesterday, and seeing what will happen tomorrow.”

ThinkingMenWorldYearsFirstsBelieveKindMayChildrenPersonsMadeImportantReasonHappensTodayDiesThreeEasyDecisionFateSeeingHappenedChildhoodEvolutionTomorrowBedBehaviorSixHappeningsDecidedIncrediblesYesterdayNobilityWorld TodayDegradationEarly ChildhoodSix Year OldsImportant Decisions
Author:Eric Berne
Create image