sociatry

[Peter Howie]

hi Adam,

I think this is a kind of artistic, testimonial type of language - like man 
religious writings and needs to be taken as such. It is inspirational (to 
some) and of course stands up to no scrutiny whatsoever. However neither, I 
might add, does any of the spiritual or god imagery that passes around 
here. It goes something like this "If I feel it to be true that what is 
said is simple fact. If I don't feel it to be true then it is wild, 
unprovable speculation that is not even attractive and must have been 
written by losers, tossers, ding bats or other wastrels with nothing better 
to do then engage in idle speculation". Sorry - I go carried away with the 
language but you get my drift.

I was in a Non Violent Communication (NVC) workshop yesterday - and they 
have the opposite belief - that each person has absolutely no 
responsibility for anyone else - though I didn't go deep enough to see 
whether this is an assertion that they want people to take up or whether 
they actually believe it. It leads to a certain type of intimacy and a 
certain type of isolation which I found anti-Morenian. However interesting 
ways of using language were presented - and of course they stopped at 
empathy rather than role reversal. But you can see, Adam, where Moreno's 
dictum, wonderfully overblown as it is  -  is a powerful antidote/contrary 
idea to that one.

You might enjoy some of the copy I have written for programs at our Moreno 
Collegium web site - they too are over blown. But I find the language 
valuable to me and some other but certainly not everyone. Try 
<http://www.morenocollegium.com.au/psychodrama_sociodrama_sociometry_role_training_and_group_work_training_brisbane/open_night_series_s>this 
one and <http://www.morenocollegium.com.au/node/155>this one.

Cheers

Peter in Brisbane




At 12:30 PM 5/5/2008 -0500, Adam Blatner wrote:
>Comment on Moreno quote:
>          "Reducing man's responsibility to the psychological, social or 
> biological
>department of living makes him an outcast. Either he is co-responsible for 
>the whole
>universe or his responsibility means nothing. The life and future of the 
>universe is
>important, indeed the only thing which matters..."---JLM,  p. 201 "Origins 
>and Foundations
>of Interpersonal Theory, Sociometry and Microsociology" (1949) in 
>Sociometry, Experimental
>Method and the Science of Society by J.  L. Moreno, Beacon, NY, Beacon 
>House, 1951.
>
>        I appreciate Moreno's scope of vision, but this quote is the kind 
> of thing that
>embarrasses me when I have to interact with folks beyond the circle of 
>those who seek the
>deeper meanings. On the surface, the hyperbole is absurd. How am I 
>responsible for the
>collision of galaxies, for the destruction of life on a planet as a nearby 
>supernova
>irradiates it and then blasts it? How am I responsible even for an 
>earthquake as the
>deeper mother-earth (the geological planet) shifts Her mantle and 
>generates earthquakes
>and volcanoes?  This kind of hyperbole, of excessive over-generalization, 
>may express the
>perhaps over-generous spirit of Moreno, but it also gives our field a bit 
>of a tarnish. I
>mention this because it is tempting to consciously or unconsciously 
>imitate him in a
>spirit of what edges into pathological spontaneity, a willingness to edge 
>into excess to
>make a point. I think such behaviors may be one of the reasons why our 
>field has suffered
>a decline in its status relative to other types of psychotherapy in the 
>eyes of other
>professionals.
>
>        The value of his point is fair, of course: Let us open our minds 
> to how else we
>might be able to consider our responsibility, and the exploration of those 
>domains are
>worthwhile. (They can also be facilitated through sociodrama and axiodrama.)
>           Ah, wording. Warmly, Adam
>
>
>Grouptalk mailing list
>List at grouptalkweb.org
>http://grouptalkweb.org/mailman/listinfo/list_grouptalkweb.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://grouptalkweb.org/pipermail/list_grouptalkweb.org/attachments/20080506/1884d904/attachment.html