PSYCHOLOGY
The Karpman Drama Triangle Explained
​
This amazon bestselling book is about how people get trapped in playing roles: Victim. Persecutor or Rescuer. We also lure other people into playing these roles, and can 'switch' them from one role to another.
At a conscious level, this is painful and puzzling. Why do we do it, then? How can we stop? How can we protect ourselves from this stuff? Can we make the world a nicer place by stopping ourselves and others from acting out in this way?
The first part of this book explains how the roles get learnt and how we turn them into 'Drama'. The second looks at ways of solving this problem.
It is a practical primer for living a happier, more sociable, more truthful life, based on a model that is widely used in coaching, management training and therapy - but which is still not nearly as widely understood at it should be.
​
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Explained
​
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is one of the most commonly used models in management training, therapy and coaching. Essentially it creates a pyramid with five levels of need, and argues that we have to fulfil needs at one level before we can move on to the next one.
​
The implication is that we can become trapped at one level - often that of our need for security - and repeat patterns of understanding the world and of acting in the light of that.
​
This book presents a more refined version of that model - the one Maslow himself later adopted. It is less deterministic - our entrapment at a level is not total. We can escape - but until we have sorted the issues at that level, we will find ourselves drawn back to it.
What are the five levels? How do they affect our worldviews and behaviours? How can we move on beyond them? Can events push us back onto them? How can we help others who seem 'stuck'?
In the end, Maslow's message is a very positive one. We were made to 'self-actualize', which sounds selfish but is actually about living a generous, creative life in society.
​
This book gives a clear outline of Maslow's model, looks at some criticisms of it, and considers how it has been applied to various types of human activity, from sales to political theory.
​