selfexpress2

[Erica Hollander]

So, Adam, are you saying that there is some other thing you work  
toward in psychodrama, not self expression?  Or are you saying there  
is no such thing at all and that psychodrama or other therapy is not  
aimed at any one thing but shifts depending on what the therapist  
perceives is needed?  And what constrains that, then?  That might  
bring us back to Rosalie's idea that transference may play a role in  
what gets expressed and what does not get expressed, I guess, among  
other things.

Closer, but still an open question to me.  I recall after Carl's  
death that painting seemed like a lifeline to me, even though I had  
not done it at all before.  When I researched survivors of the loss  
of a loved one to suicide, I found that support groups for such  
survivors were tremendously important to them, some members  
continuing for many years in the groups.  Clearly they were  
communicating their experiences to one another, and getting returns  
for that.  It seemed to me that the members were forging new  
identities for  themselves which incorporated the tragedies which  
they had lived through.  Maybe I was painting to create a new  
identity piece for myself, too, though I am not sure I see that.
erica