epitaph

[Michael Wieser]

Dear Adam,
the epitaph in Vienna is written in German. 
https://elearning.uni-klu.ac.at/moodle/file.php/655/1.History/Photos/Vienna/Grave_of_Moreno/Viherlahti/Grave_of_Moreno_B_4_2005.jpg 
Here my translation:
"The man who brought joy and laughter into psychiatry."
warmly
Michael

>>> "Adam Blatner" <ablatner at verizon.net> 19.05.2009 04:52 >>>
"Jenny Wilson" <jenny at blennerhassett.gen.nz>  : May 18, 2009 writes: Okay this sounds like 
a good game! I hope others will join in.  Reflecting on the questions I might ask I 
realize I have made some attempts to answer them myself by drawing on ideas from other 
theories, so I'll add that,  but am very keen to  see what you make of these questions 
particularly being able to draw on a broad psychodrama knowledge.

QUESTION 1: If we accept that human functioning is guided by/ arranged somehow into roles 
(maybe this statement will be the first point of discussion/challenge) then I would assume 
some evolutionary advantage to having us wired this way (I guess this statement too could 
be debated!).
         a. AB: I concede nothing when it is phrased as "is"---rather than "it is useful 
to imagine that...."  Role theory and all psychological theory is a construct that is 
likely to change as new paradigms emerge. I don't know that I can think of any statement 
that is fully true without qualifications when it comes to the humanities. Mind-issues 
operate at a level of complexity quite different from the simpler realms of "hard 
science."
         b. JW. Can you comment about roles from an evolutionary  perspective ? to put the 
question more bluntly:  How did we end up wired this way?   AB: I suggest that role 
expansion is a primary drive that fits the growing capacity of human minds to adapt to the 
broadest range of circumstances. The more different roles one can play, the more types of 
skills, etc., the more adaptive. This is why humans may occupy the widest ecological 
range. Certainly there are lichens and other families or even genera that have ranges that 
are even wider, including high temperatures in water, frozen in ice, etc., but I don't 
know that any other species has such a range. Maybe the cockroach. (hee hee.)

    JW: In trying to answer this question myself I am drawn to Aaron Beck's theory about 
cognition and patterns of cognition, recognising the evolutionary advantage of narrowing 
of thinking at times of danger and high stress, of having different lenses to view reality 
in times of danger versus times of mate selection!  I delight in this linking of current 
function to our evolutionary past somehow it makes "problems" like anxiety reassuringly 
normal. Those writing about positive psychology make a start on valuing the evolutionary 
advantage of the the "positive" emotions but I have a sense that potentially 
psychodramatists could enrich this perspective. (maybe Moreno or other psychodramatists 
have written about this?)
        AB: You bring up several points here.
   a. Danger and mate selection are such oversimplified and reductionistic concepts. I am 
actually somewhat wary about the field of evolutionary psychology. There may be a few 
positive aspects---I've read a few books that impressed me---but more often I find that 
much of the writing to be specious. That is, evolutionary psychology as a field is laced 
with mediocre thinkers who make claims that sound clever, but are not falsifiable (as 
Popper might require)---that is, they make what I call "Aunt Minnie" diagnoses---that is, 
whatever is claimed might plausibly be true also for your Aunt Minnie.
     b. I'm not sure what you're saying about positive psychology---evidently you're for 
it. I am too. I think Moreno was, too, in many ways---emphasizing creativity, spontaneity, 
encounter, etc. His desired (and fulfilled) epitaph that "here lies the man who brought 
laughter and play back into psychotherapy" also supports this. So I find these two strains 
very congenial.
          Yes, I think Morenians can add a number of qualities to the positive psychology 
movement, such as the joy of being creative, imaginative, etc. I've just been reading a 
remarkably good book recently published about positive psychology. Recommended: 
Fredrickson, Barbara: "Positivity."  2008?

        Let's keep playing. Warmly, Adam 


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