For the full treatise on this subject in printable form click: The Drama and Equality Triangles
The Drama Triangle was originally developed in 1968 by Stephen Karpman, a Transactional Analysis trainer, as a way of describing the dance that occurs whenever we make someone else responsible for how we feel. According to Karpman, any time we don’t take responsibility for our feelings, we are acting in a part of the Drama Triangle. The Drama Triangle is a simple yet powerful mechanism for understanding dynamics in a relationship.
The Drama Triangle is based on unequal relationships. The roles are akin to those in a parent/child relationship where the parent “knows best” and enforces compliance on the child. The roles of the drama triangle are: Victim, Persecutor and Rescuer. Karpman shows the relationship among these three roles by putting them on an upside down triangle. This shows the Persecutor and Rescuer in the one-up (parent) position that they take to the Victim. The Victim considers himself to be powerless while seeing the others as powerful, a child-like view.
- A Persecutor is someone who puts other people down and therefore goes one-up. The Persecutor often defends himself by claiming good intention, thereby seeing himself as the Rescuer.
- A Rescuer also goes one-up. They do more than their share and they do things they don’t really want to do. They often profess to know how you should live your life better than you do. In this sense, a Rescuer is a Persecutor in sheep’s clothing. The victim will often see the Rescuer as the Persecutor.
- A Victim doesn’t take responsibility for himself. They will often feel overwhelmed with their feelings or even numb to them. The Victim takes the viewpoint that the solution to his problem is 1) for others to change or 2) for someone else to fix it for him. Hopelessness, helplessness and inevitability are the hallmarks of the Victim.
It is important to distinguish between taking the life-view that “I am a victim” versus “I have been victimized”. People are sometimes truly victimized by such forces as crime, abuse, war, societal prejudices, or religious or political persecution. Seeing life as “I am a victim” (helpless, whiney, depressed, hopeless, cynical, complaining) is independent of being victimized. This latter state of mind is the subject of this paper.
The role names are part of our everyday language. The drama in the Triangle comes from the switching of roles. As the drama triangle is played out, people change roles or tactics. Others in the triangle will then switch to match this. Sooner or later the Victim, sick of the one-down position, turns on the Rescuer. Or the Rescuer becomes fed up with a lack response or any appreciation of their efforts, becomes persecuting. The Drama Triangle has been around long enough for there to be many derivatives and modifications.
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The Drama Triangle Roles and Interactions |
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Victim |
Rescuer |
Persecutor |
| Reality |
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| Characteristics |
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While the Drama Triangle illustrates the conflictual pattern quite clearly, it’s not always that easy to see a way out when you are in the middle of the drama. The way out is through the Persecutor corner. You have to become willing to allow the other players to see you as the Persecutor in order to stop playing this game.