In 1964, Eric Berne, MD, captured our imagination when he wrote Games People Play,' in which he described ill some common life experiences as repetitive social exercises requiring participants to assume specific roles to achieve an objective or situation about which they were not always aware. He provided fairly involved transactions! analyses of each game. It has occurred to me that the dean's excuse or medical excuse procedure at Duke University may resemble such a game. I will endeavor to describe the Medical Excuse Game below, but will dispense with the psychological analysis, since I am an internist, not a psychiatrist.
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