Multiple protagonists, Mark two

[Dr Kate Hudgins]

My take on multiple protagonists in TSM is that the warm up starts in  
a group member because of a feeling the protagonist is projecting and  
that group member identifies with it. See the paper on projective  
identification on my website at www.therapeuticspiral.org for a  
further understanding of how this complex psychological defense  
underlies how TSM brings in almost ALL group members into a drama.   
We say in TSM...there is no audience.

First, I should say, that in TSM what we are putting on the stage is  
not interpersonal relationships, which is the usual psychodrama area  
of action.  We are putting the personality structure, in sets of  
roles on the stage, the internal personality so that it is most often  
a dialogue with parts of self and the internalization of the victim,  
perpetrator and abandoning self roles that are then peopled by others  
playing the role of the people who hurt the protagonist.

So, if a group member is warming up, they get a containing  
double..sometimes a trained auxilary, other times a group member who  
can easily be taught the role.  This helps them stay in a good state  
so they can be brought into the drama as needed.  This can happen  
when either the protagonist is doing his or her own catharsis or when  
the protagonist has lost their warm up.  If the first, we can have  
many people behind the protagonist expressing anger or grief and  
talking, all at the same time, to the antagonists on the stage.   
There I see it as a group of spontaneous multiple protagonists for a  
brief moment in time.

if it is 2nd scneario, when the protagonist has lost their warm up,  
the group members are asked to share their feelings to the  
protagonist so s/he can see if they are there own.  As Ron Anderson  
said, a TSM director will often double an aux own issues so they can  
put it onto the action.  I find that time and time again, the aux  
know MORE about the protag than I do as director if they just trust  
their spontaneity.

For me the only real multiple protagonists drama is when there are  
actually two, or now, more than two, people that are warmed up and  
the group picks them equally when we do sociometric choosing.  We  
almost always do sociometric choosing where several people  sometimes  
as many as 8 in a large group of 60+ put themselves forward as  
protagonist.  They each say a little bit about what they will work on  
and then the group puts their hands on the shoulder of the person  
whose issue is most similiar to theirs...where they feel a tele.   
This always takes longer than asking for a volunteer or making a  
dictor's choice, but I feel it is very importnat when people are  
working on trauma.  The protagonist must select self to be ready, the  
group must support and the director's authority does not take over or  
get in the way.  Most trauma occurs when an authority is not acting  
correctily...even mother nature....and so I try hard to use the power  
of the group in this and many other ways rather than my own strong  
presence as director.

For anyone interested in learning more about TSM psychodrama, I am  
having a workshop March 13-15th.  email if you want more  
information.  It is in Charlottesville, VA where Zerka lives so you  
might get in a visit to her at the same time.

Tele to all, Kate

On Dec 3, 2008, at 12:05 PM, MKarp11444 at aol.com wrote:

> Dear Grouptalkers,
> My God. Because many of you read my email in a disjointed way, Adam  
> says I should do the whole thing over again, so here goes. The  
> rigors of scholarship. My email began like this:
>
>  Hi Walter, I am so glad that the discussion on multiple  
> protagonists has stimulated you to write after a decade. I am  
> enjoying the discussion too. I have emailed the discussion to my  
> old friend, Malcolm Pines, now 82, a group analyst who trained in  
> psychodrama with Dean and Doreen Elefthery in Amsterdam and  
> Belgium. He is enjoying the discussion too as are many of us. The  
> second or third protagonist are distinguished from just an  
> auxiliary role because the second protagonist doesn't wait to  
> express his/her feelings and thoughts but expresses them in the  
> existing scene. They take the opportunity to do so in the scene  
> that is being played out at that moment. That is why they become  
> the second or third protagonist, because they are ready to give  
> birth to their thoughts and feelings in a way that the original  
> protagonist isn't ready or prepared to express at that moment.The  
> second protagonist may want to express something different, in a  
> different way to the original protagonist. However, more often than  
> not, they express something in the neighborhood of the feelings and  
> thoughts unexpressed from the primary protagonist. They may have  
> different details of course. I try to remember to ask the auxiliary  
> ego, playing the dead mother, for example, if she is willing to  
> stay in the role for the second protagonist. The first protagonist  
> stays on the stage and watches. You could say that the second and  
> third protagonists are a double but not really because the second  
> protagonist does it for him/herself and not to support or help the  
> protagonist. Though, unwittingly, he or she often does just that,  
> supports and helps the original protagonist like a brother or  
> sister in the drama though not knowing they are doing so. If there  
> are left over thoughts and feelings from the second and third  
> protagonists, they can continue in the sharing. I try to have the  
> second and third protagonist make their own closure in the scene  
> though, before going back to the primary protagonist. I always end  
> up the session going back to the original protagonist. He or she,  
> having watched the others express what they need to may be warmed  
> up in a new way and be ready to express what they were afraid to  
> say or do and may gain courage from his fellow protagonists. I ask  
> the original protagonist is there anything you would like to  
> complete, finish or express with your dead mother, for example and  
> you can now put it in your own words just the way you would like to  
> say it or do it. Very often the original protagonist gains in  
> courage by watching the others. It seems to work out well and the  
> group feel they have done it together. All the best, Marcia Karp
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Kate Hudgins, Ph.D., TEP

Clinical Psychologist
Director of Training
Therapeutic Spiral International, LLC
ww.therapeuticspiral.org
drkatetsi at mac.com



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