Recognizing Invisible Oppression With the Drama Pyramid: Adding the Bystander Role and the Cultural Parent to the Drama Triangle

Abstract

This article explores the Bystander role in greater depth and redefines its position from one of being an onlooker to one having an integral element in the drama triangle, which makes the triangle a three-dimensional drama pyramid. This new visualization highlights the role of the Cultural Parent lodged within one’s psyche, which impacts all the drama roles. Recognizing invisible oppression allows us to see the game roles that we may be taking on without awareness. Including the Cultural Parent in the drama pyramid invites contextual awareness and challenges theory that primarily focuses on intrapsychic processes, thereby inviting contextual awareness. The authors propose functional fluency as a useful model that can enables us to step out of game roles. Case examples from a training session are presented where trainees recognized invisible oppression in everyday situations and found options to intervene using the functional fluency model.

Keywords:

• Transactional analysis
• drama triangle
• bystander
• Cultural Parent
• invisible oppression
• functional fluency
• games
• radical psychiatry

Disclosure Statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes on contributors

Aruna Gopakumar

Aruna Gopakumar is a Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst (psychotherapy) who runs training, supervision, and therapy groups in Bangalore, India. She is currently President of the South Asian Association of Transactional Analysts (SAATA). She set up Navgati, a leadership development firm, in 1999. Today, with over 500 organizational clients, Navgati is a market leader in running creative, powerful, and unique learning events. Aruna is an engineer from Anna University (1991), a Management Graduate from IIM-Bangalore (1993), and an MCC (Master Certified Coach with the ICF). She can be reached at L-111, 3^rd B Main, Sector XI, Jeevan Bima Nagar, Bangalore - 560075, India; email: [email protected].

Aparna Vaidik

Dr. Aparna Vaidik is a historian of South Asia and Professor of History at Ashoka University, India. She has previously taught at Georgetown University, Washington, DC, and University of Delhi. A recipient of grants from the British Academy and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, her publications include Waiting for Swaraj: Inner Lives of Indian Revolutionaries (Cambridge University Press, 2021), My Son’s Inheritance: A Secret History of Lynching and Blood Justice in India (Aleph, 2020), and Imperial Andamans: Colonial Encounter and Island History (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). Aparna can be reached at A-19, Press Enclave, Saket, New Delhi - 110017, India; email: [email protected].