our purpose

[Adam Blatner]

I was corresponding with a colleague who had been feeling somewhat disenchanted with ASGPP. And after I responded, I thought maybe I'd share it with you all. . 

   I wrote: 
     Is there any chance that I can lure you back towards the ASGPP? 

  My reasoning is that while our professional group may be as beset with organizational vulnerabilities as much as many other professional societies, and indeed, what's going on in national politics, I still think it's important to support it. It's not just the organization that needs it, though certainly they do. It's because the tools developmed by Moreno are just substantially good things that need to be refined and applied in the world.

   It's because the world needs all the help it can get in every way---that's the focus of my passion---
        And it needs the dissemination of good tools  (a secondary passion-point)
             and the tools---the concepts and techniques---developed by Moreno and refined further by several generations of other professionals in our field and associated fields---just happen to be really useful. 

      It seems to me that only through united action will more folks in many different fields, in and beyond therapy,  find out about them, learn to use them. 
        People with training in psychodrama know stuff hardly anyone else in the world knows! (Oh maybe only several thousand others scattered around the world). But the larger world is facing big challenges, and it needs to know how to utilize the powers of imagination, harness the practical applications of play and drama in the service of consciousness raising, conflict resolution, developing communications that are more meaningful, promoting activities that add joy and a pay-off to doing the work.

   I believe the World really needs this stuff! 
          I could go on and offer a more cosmic, theological speculation and myth-building, but that might lay it on a bit too thick. 

    So that's why I put up with imperfections. Let's try to work towards improving those imperfections, but realize that what we're dealing  with as our organizational and national leaders are reasonably bright (but far from omniscient) people who have shown some willingness to step up to the plate and take on the burdens of leadership. They (our organizations' officers, including the organizations in other countries) don't claim to know ahead of time just how to fix it all. The do what they can, they improvise. It's not good enough. They need encouragement, feedback, support, appreciation, and if you have any ideas on how exactly to do it better, well, let 'em know. But realize that they don't know. Nor do our political leaders.

     I think of humanity as very fragile, only barely emerging into near civilization, and that breaks down easily. Only ten thousand or so years beyond cave-men (excuse the gendering), only a couple of million years out of near-monkey-brains. I think of us as only 5-15% evolved into our potential. 

    I write this because there's a prevalent tendency to project parental transferences on organizational leaders. That transference says something like, "Here I am the victim of your decisions. You better know what you're doing! I don't like a lot of the things you make me do. I think you do know how to make it all better, but sometimes you are thoughtless and uncaring and don't bother. So I get angry with you, openly on occasion, passive-aggressive a lot."   
    What doesn't exist in the parental transference: "Oh, my. You are loving and good but you really don't know how to make things better. You haven't a clue. You really want to, but you don't know; and I don't know; and I don't know who does know. You do some things better than I do, you know some things I don't. But there's tons neither of us know. Perhaps I should thank you for what you do give of yourself instead of pouting and sulking in the hopes that my evident discontent will spur you to do it right once and for all." 

And my reading is that large numbers of seemingly mature people still operate with unresolved parental transference.

   Well, so much for that digression. I hope this mild rant expresses my rah rah for the cause. (smile). 

I welcome modifications and comments. Warmly, Adam

  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://grouptalkweb.org/pipermail/list_grouptalkweb.org/attachments/20090709/cdd43ae7/attachment.html>