survey results

[James Sacks]

Some time ago I placed the following request on Group Talk:

In trying to go beyond general praise, I would like to collect a 
series of simple	statements by Group Talkers of what drew you 
into and holds you in this field. What of Moreno's creation(s) has 
grabbed you or seemed right. I am asking  you to send your 
statement(s) to me directly rather than to Group Talk so that the 
	sentences will be independent of each other. After a month or 
so I will put the summary online and, unless you ask me to withhold 
your sentence or your name, I will put the individual contributions 
online, also. Send to: <jmsacks at mindspring.com>.

I want to withdraw the offer to put all the replies on line because 
some of the replies were so personal that I am reluctant to offer 
only an opt-out rather than the opt-in alternative. In other words, I 
will put up on Group Talk only those replies only if the writer asks 
me to do so.

Secondly, I became aware of a stimulus/response ambiguity. I had 
intended to try to find out what there was about the Moreno 
contributions that had so affected the repliers. This might have 
involved some aspect of a psychodrama session(s), some particular 
passage in Moreno's writings or some secondary source or a Moreno 
influenced classroom experience, in other words, what were the 
essential characteristics of the stimulus which so greatly affected 
their life's work. Many of the replies did exactly that. There were 
others, however, which were quite articulate and honest about their 
response to the Morenian input but little or nothing about exactly 
what was so powerful that it set off the response that it did. Asked 
again, these repliers may be able to fill us in on this important 
point since they are the very people who should know best.

Most of the replies fitted into discrete categories. I will try to 
summarize them. Some of the quotes are not verbatim quotes but 
paraphrases in which I condensed from several similar replies. 

There were those which clustered around the role-playing aspect of psychodrama:

"As soon as one assumes the role of another or, even of one's self, 
and the role					           is not a 
live action but only 'pretend', there a great surge in expressivity, 
		spontaneity and pleasure."

"Psychodrama provides a fail-safe laboratory. The context of play 
acts as a		lubricant for the process.

"Ability to enter into a situation with another and therefore able 
provide comfort and companionship."

There were many repliers who were affected greatly by the action 
aspect of Morenian therapy.

"Because it is action oriented the non-verbal communication becomes visible"


"Action breaks through the distancing maneuvers in mere talking about."

Some of the replies stressed the importance of learning by doing.

"To 'do' is to learn".

"Learning by doing recognizes what needs to be done."

For others it was sociometry that most entranced them.

"Failures in mental health is laid bare in relationships both in 
reality as measured by sociometry and in fantasy as enacted in 
psychodrama performance"

"Sociometry is a brilliant way of seeing quickly what is really 
important in		interpersonal life"

There were also responses which drew by Moreno's metaphysical theories.

"The centrality of the concepts and Godhead and Spirituality".

Some responses common to group therapy in general.

"The sense of trust that develops in a therapy group."

Finally, there were the experienced group therapist responses.

"It fits well with other therapy models"

I was truly surprised by the variety of the impressions. I assumed 
that what appealed to me was more or less what struck everyone right 
away. But, no; they were extremely diverse. There was evidently a 
good reason that this kind of therapy was not developed long before 
Moreno came onto the scene. Evidently it required a polymath, someone 
who makes contributions in many areas in one lifetime, to be 
acceptable to many different people for many different reasons. 
Consider Moreno: group therapy, psychodrama, sociometry, theology, 
sound-recording, theater architecture, theology, cosmology and 
perhaps Zerka can tell us about others.
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