A colleague of mine asked that I write up an explanation of a model I shared in class which I had at first known as the "Triangle of Conflict" in which people have the tendency of falling into three roles: The Villain, The Hero, and the Victim. Her interest sparked my own quick research on the topic and found out it's originally known as Karpman's Drama Triangle from Games People Play, a book utilizing Transactional Analysis (which I love to use). Here's what I wound up writing up for her:
The model has many ways it can be adapted for use in psychotherapy. It's originally called the Karpman Drama Triangle and is a "game" in Transactional Analysis. The original roles are Persecutor, Victim, Rescuer but I have the tendency of using teen-friendly terms and Villain, Victim, and Hero are easy to relate to.
Karpman views all three as being unhelpful roles that increase drama. The persecutor The victim believes self to be helpless and asks to be rescued and overlooks ways to help themself. The persecutor tries to make everyone else wrong. The rescuer acts out of wanting to be needed. (think co-dependent relationship between victim and rescuer).
Drama persists when you merely switch roles instead of leave the triangle altogether. A persecutor/villain/bully who is suddenly told they are the one who's wrong may suddenly switch to victim. Or a rescuer become a persecutor by trying to correct everyone else.
I like to frame it as each role has pros and cons. The Victim gets someone to care for them and meet their needs but is also vulnerable. The Persecutor has power but no one cares for them. The Hero gets to save the day but doesn't get to address their own needs.
You can use this as psycho-education, you could use gestalt and have a person talk with their inner victim, villain, hero. You could have a group role-play the different parts.
Imagine someone who survives abuse. Often you'll see that person settle into the role of victim and potentially form a co-dependent relationship with either a villain or a hero or they may try to prevent themselves from ever becoming a victim again and then either bully others or constantly try to rescue others.
One person can go round and round the triangle. An abuser strikes their partner (persecutor); Look what you made me do! (Victim); Pulls partner in close and says, there there, it's alright. (moving from victim to rescuer). If you didn't _____ then I would never have done that. (back to persecutor)
