Paranoid fantasies, when discounted, lead to exaggerated paranoid distortions and ultimately madness. All paranoias are based on an intuitive grasp and have a grain of truth. When a group member agrees to hear another's paranoid fantasy, she works to validate the grain of truth. Power plays can be crude or subtle, aggressive or defensive. Eric Berne believed that without strokes people shrivel up and die.
Strokes can be positive or negative, depending on whether they feel good or bad.