The rescuer may stay put because of felt needs of responsibility. “Improvement” may mean “until I get more of my needs met”, until there are even more considerations offered to me. ‘Victims’ may realise what’s happening but believe they’ll stay until things improve and things will only improve when someone else does something. So why do they persist? What’s the pay-off? Sometimes people remain in such states because they are familiar to the point of seeming absolute. Such experiences, victim, persecutor, or rescuer, are not resourceful. Self-criticism via ‘auto-pilot’ can be as damaging as any external critique. They may come to find the refrigerator a great rescuer! Copious amounts of gelato and chocolate chip cookies can imbue the victim with a sense of comfort and even reassurance! Internal dialogueĪlternatively, an individual’s internal dialogue may be persistently persecuting. For one example, a person may feel like a victim of life itself, feel unappreciated, or generally unfulfilled. Karpman points out that these roles (victim, persecutor, and rescuer) can rotate within a single individual as their negative experiences are assessed in different ways at different times. Or, the critical, controlling persecutor is stopped in their tracks by a reactionary victim and they in turn become the victim feeling disempowered through the imbalance in unconsciously expected power relations. The victim may become a persecutor when they ‘turn’ in frustration and criticise the rescuer for their excessive, even stifling, attentions. The arrows indicate a certain rotation of roles. People who learned to feel like a victim may find the attentions of a rescuer very appealing someone to take care of things, someone to watch over me… People may enter into committed relationships based on apparent ‘compatibility’. In essence, the Karpman drama triangle maps out roles occupied in toxic conflict relationships. Karpman’s use of triangles proved to be a very simple path in assisting understanding of the, often unaware, ‘games people play’ in conflict situations. ![]() The model highlights, with great simplicity, the alternating roles of victim, persecutor and rescuer. It assists clients reach awareness of just what is going on in toxic interpersonal conflicts. In use since the late 1960s, it is also an expedient therapeutic aid. Dr Stephen Karpman’s triangle, aka the ‘drama triangle’ is a useful model for explaining dysfunctional conflict in relationships.
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