Spontaneity operates in the present, now and here; it propels the individual towards an adequate response to a new situation or a new response to an old situation. It is… the least developed among the factors operating in our world; it is most frequently discouraged and restrained by cultural devices.
Moreno “Who Shall Survive?” 1978:42
The definition is often as spontaneity being “an adequate response to a new situation or a new response to an old situation.” Here, spontaneity propels us.
So what is it that does that?
We can look to the three related psychodramatic concepts. Spontaneity can’t be seen in isolation from them:
- Cultural conserve
- Warm-up
- Creativity
Spontaneity emerges from warm up and is in a dynamic relationship with creativity and results in the creation of cultural conserves.
That is the “Canon of creativity”
The Canon is part of the “Doctrine of Spontaneity and Creativity”. See the section in “Who Shall Survive?” starting Page 39.
It still comes back to the responses of the person. Spontaneity is in the response. But a qualitatively new response.
I like ‘propels us‘. As if the warm-up is a path to a jetpack that shoots us into a new realm of being. Moreno does refer to spontaneity as a catalyst.
The thing is that it is not just a behaviour it is one where we are propelled into newness as if out of nothing, a new response! Amazing we can be born into newness. The art is getting onto that path, getting into the zone, letting ourselves be propelled.