Dr. Stephen Karpman first theorized the Drama Triangle in the late 1960s. It demonstrates the three roles of Victim: Diploma of Holistic Therapies Assignment, TUA, Australia

Dr. Stephen Karpman first theorized the Drama Triangle in the late 1960s. It demonstrates the three roles of Victim, Persecutor, and Rescuer, and their interplay to describe common approaches humans use to control their anxiety and fear.

Each of the roles sees the other roles as problems to react to. Each of the drama roles is created as a survival strategy by the ego to help manage anxiety and fear about what we don’t like or want. Some aspects of the roles may be useful and even allow us to learn to cope and survive. At some point in our lives, one or all the roles would have served us to get us what we wanted.

If we do not come to the point of recognizing and working with the drama roles, they will remain an autonomic function of our subconscious mind and will continue to be the only strategies we use to get through life’s challenges. Whatever usefulness or effectiveness the drama roles may have, over time, they become obsolete and disempowering. Their continued use eventually causes damage to our relationships and our self-esteem.

The drama roles are not intrinsically “bad”; however, they can prevent us from seeing the root causes of problems and prevent us from developing more positive, practical, and empowering ways to resolve life’s challenges and interact with others.

When we begin to recognize the role patterns as they arise, we become able to observe them in action and then choose a more useful way to respond rather than react.

When we understand the Karpman Drama Triangle, it can lead to a more authentic assessment of our behavior and habits and a deeper understanding of other people’s behaviors. Most of us are affected by the drama triangle to some extent. Usually, the only people who aren’t caught up in the drama triangle are those already aware of the concept, who has worked on managing their reactive behavior patterns.

Here is a straightforward test to discover if the drama triangle is operative in yourself. You must ask yourself these questions and really be honest with yourself in answering them.