Dr. Berne meets Frank Sinatra

After the success of 'Games People Play', Dr. Berne met the famous singer Frank Sinatra at a popular private discotheque in Beverly Hills (1966).  During the show the 56 year-old psychiatrist caught himself and the 50-year old singer ogling an attractive girl.  “Ha, Ha!” said Dr. Berne to Mr. Sinatra, “you’re as big a lecher as I am.”  Later, a crew of thugs showed up and informed Dr. Berne, “Keep it up and you’ll have your teeth down your throat”.

Dr. Berne relates the nightclub story to his TA model, that every human being consists of three separate and competing ego states: Parent, Adult and Child (P.A.C.).  At the discotheque, Dr. Berne's ‘Child’ attempted to engage with Mr. Sinatra’s ‘Child’.  What he got was Frank’s puritanical ‘Parent’.  Offended, the ‘Parent’ tried to punish the naughty ‘Child’ by using thug power.  Within the T.A. framework, only the thugs behaved as Adults.