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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Hi Grace and Hamish and others.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial> I think role is a
good language tool, collapsing many variables into one. I see some analogies
between the function of a "note" in music and the function of "role" in
psychology. It has the advantages of including many levels of being.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial> So it's a "whole way of
being" in a sense, but also that may be a bit too general. A person can be
committed to a role at any level, from 0.5% to 100% So role distance
is a variable. Some roles in my mind/feeling represent "shadow" complexes, parts
of me that I don't feel strongly or let them live out their implications; some I
do let be expressed in dramatic surplus reality; some I notice, acknowledge, and
then contain; and so forth. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial> I am very very
enthusiastic about role theory... and some day may expand the three chapters in
Foundations of Psychodrama (4th ed, 2000)... maybe into a book... there are
other papers on my website.plus bibliography. <A
href="http://www.blatner.com/adam/psyntbk/role-theory-bibliography.html">http://www.blatner.com/adam/psyntbk/role-theory-bibliography.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial> I
very much agree with the different ways of approaching role theory. There are
many ways of classifying them, and the approaches used by Clayton, Daniels, and
others---the recognition of the ways that some roles are still developing, some
are mature, some are needing revision, which ones tend to be fixed--- these are
indeed useful. Other comments about the degrees of spontaneity brought to the
role, also useful. Have you heard of the idea of role taking (just putting on
the external elements), role playing (performing the role with some
understanding), and role creating (beginning to play with (explore and
vary) the way the role is played (performed)---including even daring to explore
how the role definition might be revised, re-defined, etc. In a sense,
this is a spectrum of skill development in many skill areas---e.g., riding a
bike, climbing, etc.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial> Further comments
below: </FONT> <A title=grace@quantumshift.co.nz
href="mailto:grace@quantumshift.co.nz">Grace</A> , December 21, </DIV>
<DIV> <FONT color=navy size=2 face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: navy; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> When I consider a
role as a whole way of being (comments above) ... I don’t get so caught up with
the notion that it must be visibly ‘enacted’ or played out. (AB: excellent
point! Yes!)</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=navy size=2 face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: navy; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">
From this perspective, those parts that people hide are still roles that
have a thinking and feeling and not so visible action component. (AB: what
psychodrama does is often to help people by enacting the role to become more
conscious of those role elements that are repressed---out of consciousness. Some
role elements are suppressed because of wisdom and tact, though---see my paper
on <A
href="http://www.blatner.com/adam/psyntbk/fivelevelsawareness.html">http://www.blatner.com/adam/psyntbk/fivelevelsawareness.html</A>
each of these representing a deeper playing out of a given role
relationship.)</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=navy size=2 face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: navy; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: navy; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN><FONT
color=#000080 size=2 face=Arial>Hamish writes: . . .I<FONT size=3
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> have been engaged by the
thread also - and reflective about my own use of Role
Theory.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><FONT color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial>
</FONT>Congruent with a move in this part of the world I see roles as 'whole
ways of being' - containing thinking, feeling and action components including
motivation and values. </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> ab: yes! it is useful
because it is a gestalt or complex that combines many variables. Yet it is not
completely amorphous. If it could be enacted, even with help of psychodramatic
methods, then it's a role. There are some abstractions and dimensions that
cannot be enacted and i might be persuaded that those things are not roles.
</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> And some abstractions
would be enacted in different ways (and exploration of those makes for
axiodrama), Different individuals and cultures might portray different ways
of "loving," for example, or "sexual attraction," or
"comforting." </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Hamish: </SPAN></FONT><FONT size=3
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> Perhaps this is not
much of a change in some ways but it warms me up to appreciating the
psychological complexity of what I might name as role. I can at once
appreciate the social function and effect of the role as it is enacted in a
group and can come to appreciate the formation of the role in the persons
history and personality (for example in a psychodrama). AB:
yes!<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">I guess in saying this i don't much hold with <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Moreno</st1:place></st1:City>'s original
categories of somatic, psychodramatic and social. I think of <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Moreno</st1:place></st1:City> as creating an idea
and a context and the many people who have come later as filling this idea out
and integrating it more with related developments in social sciences
and psychology. </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> AB: Agree! His taxonomy was
preliminary. It's up to us to continue to elaborate it! </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Hamish.. I really like his notions of the Matrix of
all identity, AB: I'd like to hear more about how this notion
is used by you and others. </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> H: </SPAN></FONT><FONT
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">doubling, mirrioring
and role reversal as developmental stages.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><FONT
size=2> AB: I
partly agree, in that elements of these methods and principles do apply for
parenting skills; but as you said about original categories, there are many
other refinements that also need to be integrated.</FONT> </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> H: The gem to me is that, for example, doubling
is both a developmental stage and a way of being I can adopt with my client or
produce in a drama. Similarly role is both personal and specific to the
client and an element of the life of the group in the present. To me this
linking of social and personal is a valued aspect of <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Moreno</st1:place></st1:City>'s
genius. </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> AB:
agree<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> H As a psychotherapist I
find value in the notion that roles can be categorised as fragmenting, coping or
progressive / generative. I am sorry i do not remember the author that
first created these categories however Max Clayton took them up and developed
them. </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <FONT size=2>AB:
Interesting! I thought Max originated them, but perhaps not. Here's an
opportunity for some medium-period history research!</FONT> </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> H Coping roles seem to me to be related
to what psychoanalytic psychotherapists call defences, i.e. ways of being that
are defensive or self protective in orientation... </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <FONT size=2>AB: Yes, I
want to make this point in my presentation in April: It is possible to play
almost if not all of the defenses as voices that are part of the double's
role---so it should be part of the training of the trained auxiliary or double
to learn this---and/also many of the internalized interpersonal games (described
by Berne) and manipulations. The master game (in the sense of healthy play) is
to learn to recognize these in oneself as well as in clients, and perhaps choose
other coping strategies that are more inclusive or otherwise
mature.</FONT></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> On the other hand when Grace speaks of being
Strength Based I warm up to the functioning form and working to strengthen
progressive functioning.... ab: yes. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></FONT></DIV>
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