Sociometry

[Peter Howie]

This is great Ed.

What you have written reminds me of the Stephen Covey idea of "Area of  
Concern" and "Area of Influence" and you are definitely working in  
your area of influence and it is good to read about.

Might I plant a seed as well and at the saem time develop my own  
thinking in this area? Consider doing something like this at  
conferences that are not our own, so to speak. Perhaps after trialing  
it there. There are many conferences that happen on any day around  
your country and around mine. Many of these have very different  
specific purposes however many of them have similar goals. As an  
example (and this way of promoting Moreno is rather new for me as  
well) I am working next week with students at a conference in  
Melbourne where the conference is called "Doing it for ourselves" and  
is full of people keen to be or already are environmental or community  
activists (while still being students).  Now I can easily surmise that  
these keen, intellectually active folks, keen to take action folks,  
keen to collaborate folks, could find enormous value in Morenian  
methods. They could use sociodrama to explore a system they are  
wanting to know and change; they could reverse roles with the people  
they find so daunting in order to find ways to influence them; they  
can get to know through concretisation some of their own self limiting  
beliefs and actions. Applying the theory of role reversal,  
sociodramatic encounter and exploration and sociometric thinking could  
be welcomed by these studetns. Why? Well there is little human  
technology that goes to supporting this kind of work. My dream is to  
warm up a number of these folks to contemplate training in sociodrama  
in order to be more effective activists. Last year I ran a session at  
a conference on "People who self harm" of which I know precious  
little. So I had them role reverse with their clients in order to  
reduce their anxiety about the worlds their clients live in. It was a  
wild success. One of those people is referring potential students to  
our training.

When I think of your panel idea applied in other settings I think like  
this: People at conferences, all conferences, have a speciality or  
particular focus; apart from the speciality or focus they are regular  
people and have regular people problems with their clients; they have  
regular people problems in the organisations they work in; they have  
regular people problems with their colleagues; they have regular  
people problems with the Government or Insurance interface; the have  
regular people problems sustaining themselves in the face of life's  
travails; they have regular people problems trying to find meaning in  
their work; they have regular people problems which means there are  
endless opportunities to present in a Morenian fashion because most  
conferences have sessions focusing on the speciality and not so much  
on the general aspects of their work for which I don't need the  
speciality training. e.g. Lets take Doctors of the standard type and  
develop something along these lines: Doctors reversing roles with  
their clients - problem clients, mad clients, desperate clients,  
depressed clients; Doctors remaining purposeful in the face of  
overwhelming work; Drs finding their vocation again; Drs getting  
organised with Drs; Drs and the sociometry of their clinics; Drs and  
those pesky Insurance companies; Drs and the other things they wanted  
to grow up to be; Drs working with large community concerns; Drs using  
their political leverage as privileged members of the community.

Anyway well done.

At our conference in Dunedin in January we had a colleague who is/was  
also a journalist interview three practitioners who work with  
indigenous people - about 15 minutes each with leading questions.  
Being one of them I can't say how it was to only listen but it felt  
good to be a part of it. So this is another way of doing it that  
brings diverse applications of Morenian methods to our membership.

Cheers

Peter in Brisbane

On 04/07/2009, at 5:53 AM, Edward Schreiber wrote:

> Greetings,
> I am reading a book by Thomas Friedman "Hot, Flat and Crowded".
> It's a very sobering assessment of this time of life for humanity  
> and what we are facing with the environment, warming and the  
> political, economic and social toll it is now taking and the  
> potential for a significant increase in the toll for humankind and  
> the many other forms of life on our planet.  I am struck with  
> Friendman's call for something new to happen to address this - and I  
> keep coming back to Jacob Moreno's theories on sociometry,  
> sociodrama and this aspect, more hidden, called sociatry.   Surely  
> sociatry is a new frontier - a new way to understand and look at  
> sociometry perhaps, a new way to consider sociodrama, perhaps.  I do  
> not suggest this is developed, only that there is a human situation  
> facing humanity that we might consider stepping toward, to address  
> in some new and adequate way.
>
> How to consider doing this?
>
> I am suggesting we put together a panel discussion where (like in  
> Spain, for example) a small group of panel presenters might have 5  
> minutes to offer their thoughts about how to address the situation,  
> bringing the method out further to the fabric of our world.  And  
> this then is a call:  if there are others who would like to be on a  
> panel, please contact me at:  edwschreiber at earthlink.net
>
> I would like to put this together for the 2010 ASGPP Conference as a  
> panel.
>
> If you are interested please send an email to me indicating your  
> interest and what your topic (5 minutes might be).   I would like to  
> make sure it gets to the ASGPP by the end of this month.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ed
>
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