Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships is a book by psychiatrist Eric Berne that was first published in 1964. It describes what Berne called transactional analysis (TA), a system of social interaction based on games people play with each other. TA is based on the idea that we all have three ego states—the Parent, the Adult, and the Child—which interact with each other in our interactions with others.
The book became very popular in the 1960s and 1970s, as it offered a way to understand human behavior that was simple yet elegant. It has since been translated into over 20 languages and sold over 5 million copies.