Walter Logeman: Journal
As a couple therapist, when coaching a couple to be together – I have to chose who to coach. One to listen better or the other to present their story so it is heard. Either would do, but I can only coach one at a time. So I move quickly from one to the other. I am the conductor they are the orchestra.
Here is my score sheet:
Working with Couples – A Two Day Workshop in Christchurch
with Walter Logeman
Friday 12 – Saturday 13 April 2024
If you work with couples, or would like to, this workshop you. The aim is to build on the work you already do and to gain confidence and competence with couples. Whatever your training, you will learn to be present with the couple.
The invisibility of the structure of human society
Becoming objective toward society encounters more obstacles than being objective toward our own mind. Perhaps we can pretend to grasp the involvement of the ego because it operates within us. However, we cannot pretend to know the involvement of the socius as it is outside us; but it is an outside to which we are inescapably tied.
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I’m meditating by rewriting a passage by Moreno. The lines above are where I got to. The gender & grammar needed fixing etc. I think his idea shines through in the passage above. See his original below.
I love seeing the equivalence of ego and socius.
Here is the original:
“but the degree of invisibility of the structure of human society, of its sociodynamics, is much greater than that of the single individual. The effort of becoming objective toward the socius encounters many more obstacles than to be objective toward his own individual mind. The involvement of the ego he can still grasp, perhaps he can pretend to know it because it operates within him. The involvement of the socius, however, he cannot pretend to know as it operates outside of him; but it is an outside to which he is inescapably tied.”
See this post. Where there is more on this topic.
Just read an article on Alfred Adler: For Socialist Psychologist Alfred Adler, Collective Feeling Was the Cure.. Wikipedia is pretty good on him too.
I wonder where Moreno stood on this Red Vienna thing?
Searching in “Who Shall Survive?” — After a scathing account of psychoanalysis Moreno writes:
Adler’s system* started with another calamity, the inferiority of organs and the feelings of inferiority .
– With this footnote:
* Adler developed in his later years a supplementary system but he could never free himself from an analytic position .
“Who Shall Survive?” page lii
Describing a split in the group psychotherapy field Moreno writes:
It is significant to note that many adherents of the analytic schools with a strong sociological and actional orientation, like the Adlerians, the Jungians and the neo-Freudians are inclined towards our original society, whereas those with an individual and verbal orientation tend towards the secession group.
“Who Shall Survive?” — page xcviii
That does not tell me much but it a small piece in the puzzle.
A couple is truly a couple when the hitherto hidden dimensions of pain surface in the relationship. The couple may not see it, but there is an interconnected web of role relationships that involve projections and yearnings from childhood. Thus a defining aspect of couplehood is:
Of course there are other aspects of couplehood:
Some of these will apply and some may not.
The crucial aspect of couplehood is an uncanny reciprocity of pain. Hedy Schleifer refers to the “deepest desires meeting the darkest resistance, and vice versa.” This can appear like a disconnect, but it is the relationship doing its purposeful work, a profound connection.
Psychodrama refers to ‘the interpyche’ with an interplay of co-conscious and co-unconscious ways of being. Evocative and useful words. Imago relationship therapy has the word ‘imago’, a word meaning image, referring to the match of the unconscious dynamics involving the unmet needs from childhood, mixed with the love that was there.
One word for it: trouble! Captured well in the image above: Snow Storm by J.M.W Turner.
Who wants it? Who knows how to get through this impasse when one person’s deep desires meet the other person’s fears? And vice versa. It gets harder as regression seeps in and our usual adult functioning goes out the window. I’d rather look at facebook or go for a walk.
There is another side to the story, trouble means opportunity. The ‘interpsyche’ is not so stupid! This mystical third entity wove a web for us to climb through impasses. They are not impossible passes, we can get through, with help. And once through we continue the adventure with new vigour.
For the therapist it is easy! “Wow, you two are here, facing this trouble! Well done. This is normal, this is healthy, this is natural and right and you can work through this. Talk and listen. Listen with great care! Talk without blame. I’ll help you do it.”
Its is not so easy when you are in it. Love is blind, and so is trouble. Have a look at this feast of quotes about love: 90 Beautiful Love Quotes from Literature I wish there were as many beautiful quotes about the purpose of trouble as there are about the glorious magic of love.
This Journal has Just come out. — Clipped the whole page here. Note the articles are online! I love that. I’m interested in the psyche and climate.
The cover by Nigel brown is great.
clip follows:
Continue reading “Ata: Journal of Psychotherapy Aotearoa New Zealand”
My deepest longing pushes against your most darkest resistance, and vice versa.
Hedy Schleifer
A simple, well structured, psychodrama.
This is a good example of how a psychodrama can be presented publicly. Well prepared auxiliaries.
I thought this was well done.
A passage from “Who Shall Survive?”
Continue reading “Spontaneity, Anxiety and the Moment — a passage from “Who Shall Survive?””
