A sociatric vision

Wed Apr 15 11:54:04 CDT 2009

Hi all. Building on other's comments: 

     I think that envisioning a world-wide change has at best only the most limited value. In my mind it is as useless as a serious contemplation over what happened "before" the Big Bang or what will happen after the Sun burns out. I'm more focused on what are the possibilities in the next century. To that end, I think of what we can do to build a better world, and as I've said in other contexts, we need specifics. The problem with generalizations is that, like platitudes, they give the illusion that we're going somewhere important and positive, while doing nothing---and even supporting (unconsciously) waiting around for others (mommy) to do something specific. 
         Regarding the word "therapy,"-- Moreno was at that time using the term to be not classical medical-model psychotherapy, but rather as the only word that seemed to fit---remedy, really, or constructive action. The choice of the word "sociatry" was equally misleading (in light of the trends in the field of medicine, becoming increasingly scientific, materialistic, and evidence-based, not to say subsumed under the aegis of managed care administrators. (Docs used to be at the top of the status and authority pyramind, but now are under the bean-counters and often lumped in with any other "service provider" (such as massage therapists) as one who, well, provides a service. Little professionalism is recognized.
      Any way, the "-iatros" greek suffix in sociatry suggests psychiatry, and as I said, that was also back when psychiatry was more psychoanalytic and other approaches (existential, group, etc.), so Moreno was interesting, but not completely out of the mainstream.

       Anyway, my focus has been more educational---but there's a fuzzy area between therapy and education, because part of therapy in the broadest sense is to promote health through self-care, nutrition, stress-management, etc., and that requires a mixture of books, instruction, classes, experiential learning, etc. 
         Many people still view therapy in the medical model of a relatively passive and uninformed patient, but increasingly, especially in the world of psychotherapy, what is recognized is that the process does much better when clients are active and informed. 

       My goal is to help people learn the skills and concepts that begin to build the infrastructure for evolving consciousness. Sociometry offers some facets and methods that have for the most part been overlooked, and I think will be intrinsic to a holistic program.
       One of my concerns is that people will think that knowing sociometry and psychodrama would be sufficient, and as excellent as these components are, I think we need to recognize that the evolution of consciousness will also require the development of knowledge, skills, and practice in hundreds of other areas. 

           Warmly, Adam

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: thana ag 
  To: peter howie ; list at grouptalkweb.org 
  Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 6:15 AM
  Subject: RE: A sociatric vision

  Dear Adam,
  I pointed out to the second sentence as an example of lack of clarity,begging the Q -why therapy.:

  " But no adequate therapy can be prescribed as long as mankind is not a unity in same fashion and as long as its organization remains unknown. "(p.3)
  As I read the sentence: As long as mankind is not in unity,and its  organization (the unity's? therapy's ?)remains unknown-no adequate therapy can be prescribed.
  But if mankind is in unity(either b/c global threat to its existence forces its to unite,and give up on egoism-or else it is will be destroyed,or is in unity due to  education  and enlightened choice,etc,as Adam suggests,and most spiritual leaders-if that is the case-why need therapy?

  Unless therapy then gets redefined-the organization of which is unknown at this point.
  anath

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  From: peterhowie at macquariehouse.com.au
  To: list at grouptalkweb.org
  Subject: Re: A sociatric vision
  Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2009 09:54:40 +1000

  Dear Adam,

  One aspect of the grail legend I like is when the question is put (to a young Arthur? - can't quite remember) "Whom do you serve?" which is such a good question. In some of the men's movements in Qld this is a centrally asked question and is used in rituals and stories. At the web site http://www.pathwaysfoundation.com.au/ you can see some of the work folks are doing in this area. and some is getting grants and others forms of mainstream support. 

  While they could sure use some psychodramatic/sociodramatic methods they do a good job as is. It is one rea I am trying to influence but it is more conservative than the main stream world.

  Cheers

  Peter

  On 15/04/2009, at 1:08 AM, Adam Blatner wrote:

    Hi, all. Re the 2nd sentence of Moreno's WSS: Wow, a big order. ... . But no adequate therapy can be prescribed as long as mankind is not a unity in same fashion and as long as its organization remains unknown. (p.3)

             Well, it's worth analyzing this vision: My own focus tends to be on building the infrastructure. The goal in general is okay. One might re-state it in many ways, but I am reminded of a verse from that 1970s song by the Youngboods "Come on people, smile on your brother, everybody get together, try to love one another right now."      http://www.rhapsody.com/the-youngbloods/best-of-the-youngbloods/get-together/lyrics.html 

               The infrastructure I mentioned involves a development of skills in the general population in the areas of communications, self-awareness, and emotional problem-solving. (   http://www.blatner.com/adam/level2/dramaed.htm )  I see psychodramatic methods' main applications (with the greatest impact in the long run) in the areas of education and community-building, and maybe even recreation. (e.g. improv classes, personal development classes).

               While psychotherapy has been the center of gravity for the mid-late 20th century, it is quickly pricing itself out of access by most people; and its premise appeals primarily to that small, if not tiny minority who are actually interested in changing their own consciousness. (Most folks wouldn't find the idea appealing, it seems to me, and even those words, "consciousness expansion," would seem foreign and "woo-woo" to most folks I encounter. Is that true about not your friends but your relatives?)

         Applications in addictionology are intriguing in one respect: A certain portion of people with addictions are bright and energetic and if they can get it, as did Bill W., they become forces for good in the world. Humbled by having seduced themselves, they may be more able to see how people are being seduced by inner and outer temptations in a score of different ways.

         (My theory of the rite of passage for young people in the postmodern world is a ritual in which they'd see that the battle against evil doesn't involve one demonic bad guy and one to several superheroes, but something a little closer to the grail legend: The real battle is within, the higher, more nobler self being taught and empowered to recognize and challenge the seductions of a hundred inner demons or personifications of lower-self, who would work to achieve the short-term goals of illusory power, complacency, mental insulation, reliance on the cultural conserve, the safety of status, stability of social arrangements, and so forth. I envision a ritual in which all these ways of keeping people caught up in mild psychopathology ---and they're almost universal, to some degree--- would be enacted; the initiate would need to work out in small psychodramas ways of confronting and getting by these seductions or blockages. ... )

        The point here is that people need to stop projecting their shadow complexes outward and trying to fight the evil they see "out there," and begin instead to recognize (a) the dynamic of  projection, which is one of the more powerful aforementioned demons; (b) the need to own and then discipline the sources of shadow complex. Many of these are okay needs that tend to get grabby, overshoot the mark because of fear. So, for example, the healthy desire to be effective gets over-extended into the desire for one-upsmanship; superiority, as Adler meant it, can be a healthy sense of mastery or it can transform into the illusory feeling of being better than---often because one has devalued another! And there are scores of other dynamics to be recognized and overcome, such as the many "Games People Play" described by Eric Berne.

         Warmly, Adam
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