The Real Karpman Triangle
The Karpman Drama Triangle is a Transactional Analysis model, published in 1968 by the American psychiatrist Stephen B. Karpman. It describes the three roles we take in psychological games, Persecutor, Rescuer and Victim, and its second side, the Compassion Triangle, describes three positions for stepping out of them: Power, Reaching out and Vulnerability.
- Author
- Stephen B. Karpman, psychiatrist, San Francisco
- Published
- 1968, “Fairy Tales and Script Drama Analysis”
- Award
- Eric Berne Memorial Scientific Award, 1972
- Two sides
- Drama Triangle and Compassion Triangle
Why speak of the real Karpman Triangle?
Most books and courses stop at the Drama Triangle and its three roles. Stephen B. Karpman drew a triangle with two sides. The dark side, the Drama Triangle, describes how we enter games. The bright side, the Compassion Triangle, describes how we step out of them.
Pierre Agnèse and Jérôme Lefeuvre are Dr Karpman’s only two reference experts worldwide. He passed his research on to them, and they teach the complete model.
Karpman draws both triangles pointing downwards and insists on this orientation.
The Drama Triangle: three roles for entering a game
In the 1960s, Karpman watched the San Francisco 49ers, notebook in hand. He observed the players’ fakes and looked for a diagram to sum them up. After twenty-nine pages of sketches, he had a triangle with a fake at each corner. He called them roles.
True to the principles of his friend Eric Berne, he reduced the diagram to three roles and wrote it in everyday language.
Persecutor
The person comes across as hostile, cutting or belittling. They attack to keep the upper hand.
Rescuer
The person decides on behalf of others what is good for them, sacrifices themselves and comes to the aid of someone who asked for nothing.
Victim
The person complains, puts themselves down and waits for someone else to solve their problem.
During a game, the players switch roles: the Victim turns Persecutor, the Rescuer ends up as the Victim. At the end, each player leaves with a familiar, unpleasant feeling.
The Compassion Triangle, the other side of the triangle
For each role of the Drama Triangle, Karpman sets out a healthy position. The person keeps the energy of the role and changes its direction.
Power
The healthy side of the Persecutor. You stand your ground and say what you want and what you refuse, with respect.
Reaching out
The healthy side of the Rescuer. You offer your help when the other person asks for it, and you leave them their share of the work.
Vulnerability
The healthy side of the Victim. You say what you are going through and ask for what you need.
How do you step out of the Drama Triangle?
Spot the invitation
Before every game, someone sends an invitation: a reproach, a complaint, help that nobody asked for. Karpman describes nine of them.
Name the role you are about to take
Ask yourself which role you are on the point of taking: attacking, rescuing or complaining.
Respond from the healthy position
Stand your ground, offer help the other person asks for, or say what you are going through.
The Karpman Triangle at work
Take two directors who disagree. One attacks, the other complains to the CEO, and the CEO settles the matter for them. Three roles, and nobody decides. With the Karpman Triangle, a leadership team spots these games and learns to leave them.
I use this model alongside the Systemic Resonance Model (MRS®) and Process Communication: seeing the organisation, reading the relationships, understanding the people. Support for leadership teams
Jérôme Lefeuvre has worked with leaders and leadership teams for thirty years. Trained and recommended by Stephen B. Karpman and Taibi Kahler, he co-wrote two books on the model with Pierre Agnèse, both with a foreword by Karpman: Manuel pratique du Karpman Process Model and Déjouer les pièges de la mauvaise foi et de la manipulation. He and Pierre Agnèse translated Karpman’s book into French under the title Le Triangle Dramatique.
Stephen B. Karpman tells how he created his triangle
In this interview, Stephen B. Karpman tells how he drew his triangle while watching American football players fake their moves, and how Eric Berne welcomed the idea: write it up, Berne told him, and people will talk about it for two hundred years.
At the end of the interview, Karpman thanks Pierre Agnèse and Jérôme Lefeuvre for modelling his work and giving it a name: the Karpman Process Model (KPM).
Learn the real Karpman Triangle
Pierre Agnèse and Jérôme Lefeuvre run this programme with Training is Art: both sides of the triangle, the nine invitations to play and your Personal Diagnosis of Resistance to Psychological Games. Our sessions take place in Paris in French, or online in English. For an international team, book a call with Jérôme Lefeuvre.
Book a callYour questions about the Karpman Triangle
Who created the Karpman Triangle?
Stephen B. Karpman, a psychiatrist in San Francisco, friend and student of Eric Berne, the founder of Transactional Analysis. He published the model in 1968 in the article “Fairy Tales and Script Drama Analysis” and received the Eric Berne Memorial Scientific Award in 1972.
Are the Karpman Triangle and the Drama Triangle the same thing?
No. The Drama Triangle is one of the two sides of the Karpman Triangle. The other side is the Compassion Triangle.
What are the three roles of the Drama Triangle?
Persecutor, Rescuer and Victim. During a game, the players move from one role to another.
How do I know if I am in the Drama Triangle?
You leave a conversation with a familiar, unpleasant feeling, as if you were replaying the same scene with the same people.
What is the Compassion Triangle?
The second side of the Karpman Triangle. It describes three healthy positions, Power, Reaching out and Vulnerability, which take the place of the Persecutor, the Rescuer and the Victim.
What is the Karpman Process Model?
The Karpman Process Model (KPM) brings Karpman’s research together: both triangles, the invitations to play and the response protocols. KPM certification is for trainers and coaches.
Where can I train in the Karpman Triangle?
In Paris, in French or in English online, with Pierre Agnèse and Jérôme Lefeuvre, Dr Karpman’s only two reference experts worldwide. For an international team, contact Jérôme Lefeuvre.
Source: Stephen B. Karpman, “Fairy Tales and Script Drama Analysis”, 1968 (original article).
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