Editing Stephen Potter (section)

==Wider influence==
[[Eric Berne]] in his best-selling ''[[Games People Play (book)|Games People Play]]'' readily acknowledges Potter's ''Gamemanship'' as a precursor: 'Due credit should be given to Stephen Potter for his perceptive, humorous discussions of manoeuvres, or "ploys", in everyday social situations'.<ref>Eric Berne, ''Games People Play'' (Penguin) p. 58</ref> Elsewhere he calls Potter 'the chief representative of the humorous exposition of ulterior transactions'.<ref>Eric Berne, ''The Structure and Dynamics of Organizations and Groups'' (1973)</ref>

What has been termed Potter's "blend of flat and serious tone (reminiscent of a gentlemanly sports handbook) united with a sceptical judgement of the values of the English middle-class social scene"<ref>Angus Ross, in David Daiches ed., ''[[The Penguin Companion to Literature|The Penguin Companion to Literature I]]'' (Penguin 1971) p. 426</ref> would thus seem to have fed into Berne's own "sardonically humorous ''Games People Play''&nbsp;... con-games of daily life that Dr Berne describes with desperately penetrating gallows-wit".<ref>G. Legman, ''Rationale of the Dirty Joke Vol I'' (Herts 1973) p. 20</ref>

Potter's ' ''Game Leg''..."Limpmanship", as it used to be called, or the exact use of minor injury'<ref>Stephen Potter, ''The Theory and Practice of Gamesmanship'' (London 1947) p. 36</ref> precedes Berne's "Wooden Leg"; Potter's 'Nice Chapmanship&nbsp;... Being a Nice Chap ''in certain circumstances'' is valuable'<ref>Potter, ''Gamesmanship'' p. 26 and p. 30</ref> precedes Berne's "Good Joe"; Potter's "Advicemanship", whereby 'if properly managed, the mere giving of advice is sufficient'<ref>Potter, ''Gamesmanship'' p. 123 and p. 45</ref> to win, precedes Berne's "I'm Only Trying to Help You", where 'the damage is done while being helpful'.<ref>Berne, ''Games'' p. 127</ref> And 'Just as there are O.K.-words in conversationship',<ref>''Lifemanship'', quoted in J. M. and M. J. Cohen, ''The Penguin Dictionary of Quotations'' (Penguin 1960) p. 290</ref> so too in [[transactional analysis]] there are "''O. K. Words'': Words rewarded by parental approval&nbsp;... those approved by the Parental part of the patient's father, mother, therapist, or other parental person".<ref>Eric Berne, ''What Do You Say After You say Hello?'' (Corgi 1975) p. 444 and p. 329</ref>

Where Potter noted that "each gambit has its answer or 'counterlife{{'"}},<ref>Stephen Potter, ''Some Notes on Lifemanship'' (London 1950) p. 20n</ref> Berne would note how everyone has positive forces in them "counter to the plot of [their] script&nbsp;– a counterscript";<ref>Berne, ''Hello?'' p. 32</ref> where Potter offered 'Counter Psychiatry, which is, of course, a huge subject',<ref>Potter, ''Some Notes'' p. 51</ref> Berne explored how "Psychiatry as a procedure must be distinguished from 'Psychiatry' as a game".<ref>Berne, ''Games'' p. 135</ref>

The sociologist [[Erving Goffman]] also profited from Potter's work, in the sense that it "disclose[s] an elaborate code of conventions which operated in everyday social intercourse, which was nevertheless tacit", and could be exploited by the sociologist: "what Potter's articles perhaps did, by their oblique but recognisable affinity with Goffman's own ideas, was to provide the kind of licence or mandate"<ref>Tom Burns, ''Erving Goffman'' (1992) p. 4</ref> Goffman needed to find his own creative approach.