Ambition

[Adam Blatner]

Dear Grace in New Zealand (and other grouptalkers)
      I enjoyed your take on that ambiguous work, ambition. On one hand, the word (semantically) implies a degree of egotism and ruthlessness, as when Shakespeare's character of Marc Antony gives his famous speech about the recently assasinated Julius Caesar and gets all ironic about "ambition."
       But what is it that gets me going on my projects? The vision of some mixture of expressing, helping, participating, communing... it does indeed connect to whatever tickles my spontaneity buttons. There's a kind of tele in our interests: Some things leave me cold, others, I hear old Blue Eyes (Frank Sinatra) singing, "I get a kick out of you."
    I was most intrigued, though, with your mid-2nd paragraph below, the idea that some people you've encountered seem to have "a somewhat conserved response to what 'forms' of ambition are 'acceptable' and what do not 'go' with their notion of the 'spirit of psychodrama'."  
        Can you say more about this? It might be important for us to clarify what may seem incompatible with psychodrama's spirit, and what might be wrong understanding.

   I also find certain themes in psychodrama to apply to our lives (and wrote a chapter in Gershoni's recent anthology on applications in everyday life), so that also resonated. 

        Thanks for your input.

     (As a side issue, amusingly, what appeared in my box was Grace: Ambition.   Things like this are so close to spam that I almost deleted it. I remembered there was a theme connection and opened it--glad I did. But for our various readers, we might want to put in the subject line some reminder that the subject has to do with psychodrama, the initials pd  -pd,  gptk  (grouptalk), something.. )

          Warmly, Adam
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Grace 
  To: list at grouptalkweb.org 
  Sent: Thursday, July 20, 2006 9:49 PM
  Subject: RE: Ambition


  Kia ora Peter,

   

  I too have thought long and hard on ambition.  Here are some thought from me:

   

  When I worked fully in the community and education sectors I always considered I had little ambition, and I took this as a given about myself.  Having taken the plunge into creating a lifestyle for myself that centres on promoting psychodrama and Morenian processes in ALL I do, I find that my ambition to make it work is what gets me up and going in the morning!  It is also what sustains me when my flaws and foibles get away on me and I don't manage to create what I am seeking (i.e. I fail).  It also assists greatly assisting me to identify the criteria for making choices, whether it be who I associate with, how I construct my support networks, what work I do etc.  Yay for ambition I say!

   

  I have found that the tendency for psychodrama to be practiced mainly as a therapeutic and community-based method here in Aotearoa New Zealand (and probably Australia) has had a significant influence on a range of factors influencing in promotion of the method.  This includes, I would suggest with a little trepidation, a somewhat conserved response to what 'forms' of ambition are 'acceptable' and what do not 'go' with their notion of the 'spirit of psychodrama'.   I have observed people from other sectors come into the community and initially become very excited about the potential application of the method for their own work.  However it seems they tend to go again after a relatively short period of time satisfied that they have gained personally but discouraged and sometimes disillusioned that there is any application in a wider context.  

   

  From my own experience my observation is that ambition is an expression of spontaneity, not sparked by comfort (a little like spontaneity), nor nurtured by isolation (ditto).  I have watched my ambition grow as I get closer to being able to live spontaneously in all aspects of my life.  My understanding of Moreno's method and his notion of sociatry, is that it is 'inclusive' of all that exists as human endeavour, and when I read his work, such as Who shall Survive? and the Words of the Father, I feel encouraged that Moreno saw his method applied widely for the benefit of humankind whatever the context.  I find this very exciting!

   

  I'm not sure if this is the sort of thing you were asking about, but here you go anyway.

  Cheers

  Grace 

   

   

   


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  From: list-bounces at grouptalkweb.org [mailto:list-bounces at grouptalkweb.org] On Behalf Of Peter Howie
  Sent: Friday, 21 July 2006 11:47 a.m.
  To: list at grouptalkweb.org
  Subject: Ambition

   

  Hi all,

  I've been thinking recently about what keeps me going at times, what keeps others going and thing of this nature. Watching Frank Lowy in a documentary, a multi-billionaire Aussie with 180 mega-shopping complexes around the world, who funded the turn-around of Australian soccer/football and helped get us to international status, when asked what kept him going he said he was still full of ambition.

  I'm imagining that J L Moreno was also full of ambition, ambition to do many things, one of which was to promote and teach his remarkable method and to try and set up systems to support its ongoing practice, teaching, methodological review and improvement and philosophical development. 

  I'm thinking on this and wondering about my own level of ambition. Psychodramatists with ambition that I know of would be Kate with the Spiral model work, Marcia Karp, Max Clayton - and there would be heaps of others. I am not thinking about abilities or skills as a trainer, educator or practitioner. More about their ambition to relentlessly push forward in creating a world that they would like to live in, surrounded by colleagues who support and challenge them and keeping going despite their own human flaws and foibles.

  Anyway - this rises for me as I contemplate doing things a bit differently around here with how I spend my time promoting psychodrama and Morenian processes. How much do I have. Ho much do those around me support or parallel me. Things like this.

  So how does this idea of ambition sit with some of you?

  Cheers for now

  Peter Howie
  Brisbane, Australia



   



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