This game can be maddening for the person who is the “Psychiatrist” so pick someone who is a good sport.
Set Up
Ask a player to volunteer to be the Psychiatrist for this game and have them go into another room where they can’t hear the instructions for the game.
After the Psychiatrist is out of the room have students sit in chairs in a circle. Instruct the players that they all have the same problem, which is they think they are the person to their right. This means if the person to the right is a girl, and you are a boy, then you are now a girl. If your shirt is black but her shirt is blue you are wearing a blue shirt, etc.
Give the students about a minute to study the features of the person to their right, they need to know what color their clothes, hair, and eyes are because the psychiatrist is going to attempt to figure out what is wrong with everyone by asking questions about appearance.
Also, inform the students that if anyone gives an answer that is incorrect someone is to shout “PSYCHIATRIST!” and they all have to scramble to change seats. This means there is a new person to their right, and they will need to discretely look at what they are wearing.
Playing the Game
Ask the Psychiatrist to come back into the room and stand in the center of the circle. Tell him that he may only ask the players questions about their appearance and that everyone is suffering from the same problem and he needs to figure out what it is. Don’t tell the Psychiatrist that if someone answers incorrectly everyone will change seats because it’s fun to watch their face when everyone gets up and runs! After it happens, tell them that the player answered incorrectly and that’s what happens.
This can get very frustrating and sometimes they will need help thinking of questions. Some good ones are “what color is your hair?” “do you have piercings?” “are you wearing socks?” “do you wear glasses?” Ultimately the Psychiatrist needs to say “you all think you are the person to your right” (or the person next to you works too).
SARA GALYON is the Episcopal Youth Community Director for ST MATTHEW’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH in Madison, AL. She has been working with youth in some capacity for 15 years, and has an MA in Youth Ministry from Memphis Theological Seminary. She is a wife to a fellow youth minister, mom to two boys and two dogs, and underfunded world traveler.
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