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Model14: A Pathogenic Drama Triangle

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Relational Competence Theory

Abstract

The deadly Drama Triangle – introduced in 1968 by S.B. Karpman – is composed of three reactively and repetitively manipulative roles played contemporaneously and simultaneously by the same individuals involved in an intimate relationship, namely, those of victim, persecutor, and rescuer. All three roles are extension of Model5 (Chap. 7) about the ability or, in this case, the inability to control and regulate oneself according instead to a reactively repetitive and often revengefully abusive style, as reviewed in Model9 (Chap. 11). Here is where the requirement of redundancy presented in Chap. 1 is fully operational. We need at least two other models (Model5 and Model9) to “explain” this model.

This chapter is reprinted with revisions and some changes from an article by the first author published in the American Journal of Family Therapy 37:1–11, 2009, and published here with the permission of the publisher of that journal, Taylor & Francis, Inc.

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Correspondence to Luciano L’Abate .

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L’Abate, L., Cusinato, M., Maino, E., Colesso, W., Scilletta, C. (2010). Model14: A Pathogenic Drama Triangle. In: Relational Competence Theory. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5665-1_16

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