The Empowerment Dynamic (TED)

The Empowerment Dynamic (TED) has been proposed as an alternative to the

Karpman drama triangle. The drama triangle is a psychological and social model of
human interaction in transactional analysis (TA) first described by Stephen Karpman in
1968. The drama triangle is used in psychology and psychotherapy to describe the
insidious way in which people who present themselves as "victims", "persecutors", and
"rescuers" can get caught in a cycle that is hard to escape, because in a sense, none of the
three roles may actually be honest ones. For many years, the key to escaping this triangle
was thought to be awareness plus willpower. However, there was no clear alternative to
the drama triangle.

In 2005, David Emerald Womeldorff published a short book The Power of TED to
provide a new model that offers an antidote to and escape from Karpman's drama
triangle. TED also involves three key roles that mirror those found in the drama triangle:
the victim, instead of looking for others to validate their victimhood, becomes a creator
who is attempting to discover what they truly want in the situation; the persecutor, instead
of belittling and distracting with criticism mind games, is using criticism constructively
as a challenger to aid the victim in this self exploration, and the rescuer becomes a coach
to the others, rather than seeking their dependence or his own egoic gain.

Contents

1 The drama triangle

2 The empowerment dynamic
3 Use
4 References
5 Further reading

The drama triangle

In the Karpman drama triangle, the major role is known as the victim. The victim is
someone who sees life as happening to them and who feels powerless to change their
circumstances. Victims place the blame for their status on a persecutor, who can be a
person or a situation. Being powerless, the victim ostensibly seeks a rescuer to solve the
problem for them, but also has a covert interest in validating their problem as being
unsolvable. The rescuer in turn ostensibly seems to want to help the victim but in fact acts
in a way that is geared to their own covert psychological gains (such as gaining desired
feelings, or being seen positively as the supporter despite hardship of a dependent
victim).
A rescuer in this situation would not be someone dealing with a true genuine emergency
in an honest way, such as a firefighter; rather by definition, it means a person who
ostensibly strives to solve a victim's problems, but in fact does so in ways that for
practical purposes, result in the victim having less power or self-dependence, and which
benefit the rescuer's agenda more than the victim's. This is a form of mind-game that can
be found in transactional analysis. This is a self-perpetuating cycle designed to keep the
Victim down and powerless.
This dynamic is cyclical and repeats as one problem replaces another, creating a rollercoaster effect of tension and relief in a person's life. These roles are intrinsic to the idea of
victimhood or, as Womeldorff describes it, the "victim orientation".

The empowerment dynamic

The empowerment dynamic is oriented towards goals or outcomes, and it replaces the
drama triangle roles as follows. In the TED framework, the victim shifts into the role of

creator. The persecutor takes on the role of challenger, and the rescuer assumes the new
role of coach. A creator is someone who stops to think about what they want - what their
long-term goal or vision is. Creators are outcome-oriented as opposed to problemoriented. Problems will always occur, but instead of acting as a persecutor, the problem
now takes on the form of challenger. A challenger is a person or situation that forces you
to clarify your goal. Challengers encourage us to get clearer about what it is we do want,
then focus our efforts towards moving closer to that goal. Womeldorff calls this "dynamic
tension". Dynamic tension is the difference between current reality and the envisioned
goal or outcome. By taking what Womeldorff calls "baby steps" a creator gets closer to
and clearer about the goals or outcomes they are trying to create in their lives.
The final role of the TED triangle is that of coach. Instead of Rescuing someone, a coach
asks questions that are intended to help the individual to make informed choices. The key
differentiation between a rescuer and a coach is that the coach sees the individual as
capable of making choices and of solving their own problems. A coach asks questions
that enable the individual to see the possibilities for positive action, to focus on what they
do want instead of what they do not want. Coaches see victims as creators in their own
right and meet them as equals. This process interrupts the drama cycle and puts the
former victim in the powerful position of creator where they make informed choices and
focus on outcomes instead of problems.
The power of TED: creator, challenger and coach
The last couple of years have been an amazing journey for me. Creating this article is a
good example. It all started with a previous article on victimhood on my Dutch site
Patrick Schriel Coaching & Training which was picked-up by a local radio station. They
asked me to do a radio interview about people who complain all the time, victimhood and
the drama triangle. To prepare I a bit I wrote the drama triangle: persecutor, rescuer and
victim article, which I also posted on this site.
Shortly after that I received a comment from someone working for David Emerald team
letting me know there is a book called The Power of TED (The Empowerment Dynamic).
One thing led to another and I agreed to do a review on David Emeralds book.
In the drama triangle: persecutor, rescuer and victim I concluded that there is an antidote
to the drama triangle: the winners triangle, Instead of being the persecutor you can
become more assertive. Transform victimhood into vulnerability and take responsibility
for your own life. And once you stop being the rescuer you can become caring towards
others, helping others only when they ask for it.
The Power of TED takes on another approach. TED (The Empowerment Dynamic] is an
antidote to the drama triangle. David Emerald presents TED to us as a story in which the
lead character David is taking some time off at the beach to contemplate on his life, his
divorce, and all the things that went wrong in his life. He wants to find an escape from his
own victimhood. It is there where he meets Ted who introduces him to the creator,
challenger and coach roles.

As a story the power of TED is brilliantly simple, as all good things are in life, but the
message and examples are very recognizable, uplifting and can lead to real
transformation. Ive seen other explanations of the drama triangle before and how to
escape from it, but Dave Emerald takes this to a whole new level. His message is simple
but clear: Most people are living their lives from within the victim orientation seeing all
the things that are happening to them as problems. As they try to solve then, what they
get in return are more problems in their lives to solve.
Once you find an escape from the dreaded drama triangle you can take on the role of
creator, focusing on your goals and visions. At this point the drama triangle transform
into TED where creator is the opposite of victim, challenger the opposite of persecutor
and coach that of rescuer. You now focus on solutions instead of problem.