Confuse the designated psychiatrist by acting like other people in the group. The psychiatrist must guess who is who and why!
This game works best for ages 13+. It works great with medium to large sized groups of 6+ people. Nothing is needed except a timer or stopwatch. Indoors is the ideal setting.
How to set up the Psychiatrist Game
There is no required setup. Players should be seated in a circle. The “psychiatrist” will be in the center of the circle.
How to play:
- Organize the group so that one person is chosen as the “psychiatrist” while the others are the “patients.” The psychiatrist can be a volunteer or selected based on criteria of your choice such as who has the nearest birthday.
- Have the psychiatrist leave the room and wait to be fetched by one of the patients or yourself. While they’re out of the room, the patients should all talk amongst themselves and discuss who is going to act like whom. This must be based on a specific pattern that will not change. For example: Patients can decide that they will each act like the person to their immediate left. No matter if they move around or switch places with each other, the pattern will stay the same.
- Bring the psychiatrist back into the room and line up the patients. Start the timer for a certain amount of time (recommended to be at least 5 minutes). The psychiatrist must question people and try to figure out who is acting like whom while the patients are acting like others based on their secret pattern. If the psychiatrist asks a question and the patient answers incorrectly, the person they are pretending to be must yell out “psychiatrist!” and everyone will get up and rearrange themselves.
- Even when everyone is rearranged, the pattern of who is acting like whom will stay the same. The game ends when the psychiatrist guesses the pattern correctly or when the designated time runs out. When the game is over the last person to have spoken to the psychiatrist will become the new psychiatrist if you are playing for another round.
Winning the game
If the psychiatrist can correctly guess the pattern that the patients came up with, they will be the winners of the game. If the time runs out and the psychiatrist cannot guess the pattern within the set amount of time than they will lose the game and the patients will be the winners. Have fun!
