Trans issues and psychodrama

Thu Mar 11 16:26:48 CST 2010

Hi Jacob, good for your paper on open sessions in the recently published british journal of psychodrama.. I would have preferred it to be in "our" USA journal, but it is still in hiatus. I am hopeful that it will get started up again. I've heard some rumblings to that effect. 
          I hope my encouragement and feedback on open sessions material was helpful to you.

   About Transgendered and the idea of an apology. What an interesting challenge. My association to this sentence of yours (Feb 18) of yours:  JG  . . .  I am still secretly waiting for a general announcement of apology form the once mighty psychoanalytic community for all the lives they ruined under the pretense of helping them. 

    reply by AB: first:  a book by Edward Dolnick titled : Madness on the Couch Blaming the victim in the heyday of psychoanalysis was published in 1998 (Simon & Schuster).
           Second: I enjoy the history of medicine, and the history of psychotherapy, and have lived through the ups and downs of psychoanalysis, and now am riding the ups and downs of other fashions in psychotherapy and psychiatry. 
           I want to point out, as this aforementioned book did, that in the 1950s psychoanalysis was the hottest frontier going! (Just as psychopharmacology was in the 1980s.) 
              Hmm... but: 
      New developments in science over-reach themselves---all of them do. The threat of nuclear annihilation was an extension of the work of Einstein, Oppenheimer and others in the 1930s and '40s. For a while in the later 19th century so many diseases were being attributed to the newly discovered realm of microbial infection that for several decades it obscured the recognition of vitamin deficiency diseases.    . Now it's biological causes of psychiatric disorders that has arguably become a source of over-diagnosis and treatment. 
     So, psychodramatically, I will take on the role of a fancy-pants head of psychoanalysis (as if this motley group of often conflicting sub-schools and sub-associations had a single spokesperson---which they clearly do not), and say. Soorrrry. Excuuuse me!  No, let me re-do that. Okay, my bad. Oops. But at the time it seemed pretty plausible. 
    Now, what?  What would that apology, if it did appear in TIME magazine or on TV or something, what would that lead to? Who would do what differently? This is a straight question meant to lead us to imagine...  a good sociodrama, so to speak.

      To me, history continues to show the pattern of overshoot, of over-estimating. And I wonder, for example, if in any ways we in psychodrama may fall prey to this pitfall. But even knowing about this danger, I see my own life and future generations overshooting, under-shooting, what in artillery is called "bracketing," trying to get closer to the most practical truth. 

     At any rate, this is a truly useful category for our continued growth, consciousness-raising, etc. What do your fellow mental health professionals, your fellow psychodramatists, me, need to learn so that any residual stereotypes, misnuderstandings, bits of ignorance, can be rectified? Identifying a "what every professional should know about... " list might be useful.
     This also applies about other categories that we may still be learning about. 

    Warmly, Adam 

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jacob Gershoni 
  To: Regina Sewell 
  Cc: list at grouptalkweb.org ; Jen 
  Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2010 11:39 AM
  Subject: Re: Trans issues and psychodrama

  Dear Regina, Jen and Grouptalkers, 

  I am glad to see a discussion about psychodrama work with transgender persons.

  Since 1998 I have been leading weekly psychodrama groups for the LGBT community, and transgender issue are emerging in a more visible way each year. I also wrote about some of my experiences in a chapter in my book "Psychodrama in the 21st Century" although at the time of the publication I had only gay and lesbian clients in my groups. I happen to live and work in New York where there are many resources for this community. Last Sunday (Valentine Day) I lead a workshop at the LGBT Community Center in Manhattan and as usual used sociometry and psychodrama. 

  It is good to know that other colleagues are working with this population. It's always been an honor to note that Moreno never joined the bandwagon of psychiatrists and mental health professionals who, in spite of no or little knowledge about this community, did not hesitate to pathologize, ostracize and oppress so many people.

  Regina, from your area code I assume that you work in Upstate New York. Is that so? 

  One last comment on language: No need to add "ed" at the end of "transgender" just as you would not do it to other orientations ( LesbianED? HeterosexualED?).

  Best regards, 

  Jacob Gershoni, LCSW, CGP, TEP

  19 West 34th Street, Ph floor

  New York, NY 10001-3006

  212.795.1192

  212.947.7111

  Email: JacobG12 at gmail.com

  www.GrouPsychodrama.com

  Regina Sewell wrote: 
    Jennifer, 

    I do a lot of work with the GLBT community and have worked a lot w/ transgendered clients.  Psychodrama is a great way to work w/ transgendered clients.  In my experience, it allows them to explore their inner realities and dialogue with the people who people their lives.  What I have learned with working with transgendered people is how much of gender is on one hand socially constructed and how on the other hand, perhaps because of this social construction, there is a continuum to which people feel drawn to roles.  These words on the page sound like trite bullshit but I don't know how to share the depth in brief.  In my experience, the core issues weren't so much about "who am I" but about "how do I deal with a world that is organized around binary gender/sex"  I also know that it is important to proceed with caution -- to help the client sort out who they are and where they are on the contiunuum (modern biology seems to render the xy chromosome distinction as bullshit...  because it's so much more complicated......  there's so much more going on...   and there is more variation among men and among women than between men and women....   so it's more helpful -- to me -- to view it on a continuum ) and help them decide how they want to live and what they are willing to give up (men who want to live as women must give up a great deal of privilige and often times income, women who even take testosterone give up emotions and the sorts of tender connections women have).  There are also guidlines about the surgury or even legel hormemone treatment process.  There are a couple of books written in the last few years that describe this.  Let me know if you'd like these resources and I'll see if I can find them.  (they are in the basement at the moment and not super easily accessible.) 

    also, if you have more questions or whatever -- not that i am the end all be all resource -- please feel free to contact me directly or even call me at 845-264-2287 

    peace, 
    regina 

      From: Jen <jenniferwhitlocklpc at yahoo.com> 
      To: list at grouptalkweb.org 
      Subject: Gender Drama 
      Message-ID: <936796.57457.qm at web54405.mail.re2.yahoo.com> 
      Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" 

      I'm an advanced psychodrama student of psychodrama at HVPI, and I am 
      forming a male to female transgender group as part of my practicum. 

      I think psychodrama would be an excellent method for people who were 
      essentially born into the wrong role, and experience distress at having 
      to either pretend to be in a role that doesn't fit or suffer social consequences for acting in a role others see as inappropriate.  I imagine there will be call for role rehearsal. 

      I welcome ideas from those who have worked with this population in psychodrama, or those who have ideas for exploring gender identity. Many of the individuals in this group are only newly allowing themselves to act on their preferred roles as a woman, and this side of them is isolated and yearning for contact.  It will be a rich group. 

                           Jennifer Whitlock 
                        Licensed Professional Counselor 
                                               Budd Lake and Newton 
                                                 973-222-3750 
                                  www.JenWhitlock.com 

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