These words: roles, the social and cultural atom, the sociometric matrix and interpsyche, surplus reality, co-unconscious, co-conscious are all words JL Moreno used to describe various aspects of the psyche. While the psyche is such that any metaphor will work, consistent metaphors and language will help to explore the psyche, produce psychodramas.
I’m trying to relate this to the role dynamics in couples, who as Moreno states, have an interpsyche.
A quote below relate to sociometric matrix, which I’d like to get a better grasp of.
It is heuristic value to differentiate the social universe into three tendencies or dimensions, the external society, the sociometric matrix and the social reality. By external society I mean all tangible and visible groupings, large or small, formal or informal, of which human society consists. By the sociometric matrix I mean all sociometric structures invisible to the macroscopic eye but which become visible through the sociometric process of analysis. By social reality I mean the dynamic synthesis and interpretation of the two. It is obvious that neither the matrix nor the external are real or can exist by themselves, one is a function of the other. As dialectic opposites they must merge in some fashion in order to produce the actual process of social living.
Who Shall Survive? p. 79
The structure of the sociometric matrix is more difficult to recognize. Special techniques called sociometric are necessary to unearth it; as the matrix is in continuous dynamic change the techniques have to be applied at regular intervals so as to determine the newly emerging social constellations. The sociometric matrix consists of various constellations, tele, the atom, the super-atom or molecule (several atoms linked together), the “socioid†which may be defined as a cluster of atoms linked together with other clusters of atoms via inter- personal chains or networks; the socioid is the sociometric counterpart of the external structure of a social group; it is rarely identical with what a social group externally shows because parts or its social atoms and chains may extend into another socioid. On the other hand, some of the external structure of a particular social group may not make sense configuratively as a part of a particular socioid but may belong to a socioid hidden within a different social group. Other constellations which can be traced within a sociometric matrix are psycho-social networks. There are in addition large sociodynamics categories which are frequently mobilized in political and revolutionary activities; they consist of the interpenetration of numerous socioids and represent the sociometric counterpart of “social class†as bourgeoisie or proletariat; they can be defined as sociometric structure of social classes or as “classoidsâ€.
Who Shall Survive? pp. 80-81
The sociometric concept of social change has four chief references: a) the spontaneity-creativity potential of the group, b) the parts of the universal sociometric matrix relevant to its dynamics, c) the system of values it tries to overcome and abandon and d) the system of values it aspires to bring to fulfillment.
Who Shall Survive? p. 115
The greater the contrast between official society and the sociometric matrix the more intensive is the social conflict and tension between them. Social conflict and tension increases in direct proportion to the sociodynamic difference between official society and sociometric matrix.
Who Shall Survive? p. 710
Social atom, operational definition: plot all the individuals a person chooses and those who choose him, all the individuals a person rejects and those who reject him; all the individuals who do not reciprocate either choices or rejections. This is the “raw†material of a person’s social atom.
Conceptual definition: the smallest unit of the sociometric matrix.
Who Shall Survive? p. 721