Category: Resources

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Interpsyche – Moreno quote

Marriage and family therapy for instance, has to be so conducted that the “interpsyche” of the entire group is re-enacted so that all their tele-relations, their co-conscious and co-unconscious states are brought to life. Co-conscious and co-unconscious states are by definition such states which the partners have experienced and produced jointly and which can therefore be only jointly reproduced or re-enacted. A co-conscious or a co-unconscious state can not be the property of one individual only. It is always a common property and cannot be reproduced but by a combined effort. If a re-enactment of such co-conscious or co-unconscious state is desired or necessary, that re-enactment has to take place with the help of all partners involved in the episode. The logical method of such re-enactment a deux is psychodrama. However great a genius of perception one partner of the ensemble might have, he or she can not produce that episode alone because they have in common their co-conscious and co-unconscious states which are the matrix from which they drew their inspiration and knowledge.

(Moreno, 1977: vii)

Moreno, J. L. (1977). Psychodrama (Volume One, Fourth ed.) Beacon, New York.

 

 

 

 

 

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Serendipity and the Sociometric Matrix

Just read a post on John Frame’s blog on Serendipity.

Mank

… a strange force called synchronicity, or the coming together of things at one moment in time by that non-linear force called synchronicity. I argued how synchronicity might be related to the two greatest films in Hollywood and one of the most famous books in American history.

Lovely stories about great movies follow.

It made me thing about how drama work… how in psychodrama we use synchronicity – we don’t call it that, but we refer to making the sociometric matrix visible.

Synchronously I was just uploading my 1999 thesis to this blog.  I read it through the other day and I was quite pleased with it.  I am working with trainees who are writing psychodrama thesis.  And it seems to do what I teach now.

Have a clear topic  and audience.  The central “thesis” needs to be present throughout.

Imagine the task of the group leader when faced with diverse individuals and how this might conflict with the desire to have coherent group life.

Join me as a systems thinker, becoming aware of the inter-relationships in the group, to be able to use the imagination to see the life of the group and the life of individuals.

In art, poetry and psychodrama things come together…

The-group-and-its-protagonist-Walter Logeman

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Therapeutic Village


I initiated a submission – a proposal to The Government Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction 2018 Oranga Tāngata,

This is a link to the submission: The Therapeutic Village

There is also a petition on OurActionStation that will be delivered to the Government and again to the Inquiry at the end of November 2018

Please sign and spread the word.

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Podcast — Audio

US inmate advocate Ann Jacobs on RNZ – talking about prisoners.  Note the post-prison care gap!

As I listen to this interview I was glad to have the proposal and petition for the Therapeutic Village online.   I’m determined it will happen!  Listen and notice how the Village idea fills the gap.

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The is from an article in stuff: Art therapy paints a thousand healing words by Georgia Forrester Jul 10 2016,  The photo is by Warwick Smith.

The feature image at the top is one of my sketches.

 

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On being supple

I found this in a free email from Philip Pawson – Alexander Technique teacher. I find it very compelling.

It doesn’t matter how skilful you are. Bend a bent piece of wire to straighten it and you’ve got an extra kink in your piece of wire.

If you bend a young tree over, it gives. It bends supply and pliably. It makes no attempt to keep straight.

But stop bending it and, suddenly, it’s straight again, swaying effortlessly in the breeze.

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Seven Principles inspired by Steve Jobs

Book, and see audio post probably visable in the context related items below.

The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success:

The book is rooted in the Seven Principles inspired by Steve Jobs:

  1. Do What You Love: Think differently about your career.
  2. Put a Dent in the Universe: Think differently about your vision.
  3. Kick Start Your Brain: Think differently about how you think.
  4. Sell Dreams, Not Products: Think differently about your customers.
  5. Say No to 1,000 Things: Think differently about design.
  6. Create Insanely Great Experiences: Think differently about your brand experience.
  7. Master the Message. Think differently about your story.

Overall, it’s business motherhood and apple pie, filtered through the uniquely creative mind of Steve Jobs.   It’s important to recognize, however, that each of us is our own unique person, and the only person who can think or be like Steve Jobs is …. Steve Jobs.

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Relationship and Attachment

How Do Attachment Issues Impact Adult Relationships?
Around twenty years ago we started turning our attention to the attachment system in regards to adult
relationships. Hazan and Shaver were two of the first researchers who postulated that attachment patterns play
out in adult romantic relationships. They developed a series of questions designed to isolate behaviours in adults
that mimic attachment styles in infants; secure, avoidant, ambivalent, dismissive, disorganised and reactive.
What they found was that not only were adults similar to infants in the way that these behaviours played out in
relationships, but that there was a direct correlation between the style in which someone was parented and the
attachment that person would develop later in life. Hazan and Shaver’s research was pivotal for the way that we
see relationships today, and their work ultimately led to the development of many assessment tools attempting to
gauge attachment styles in adults. One of the more popular tools today is the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI)
developed by Mary Main. Yet the field of studying attachment in adults is still vastly unexplored, and this leaves
many adults searching for answers and therapy that would address their issues.
Attachment disruption is one of the hardest problems to address by parents and professionals due to the fact
that solutions are often counter intuitive and that the symptoms often go unrecognised. Below I have compiled a
list of characteristics I often see in both children and adults with attachment issues. This is by no means a
comprehensive list, rather a cluster of symptoms to look out for when treating a client with identified attachment
problems originating from the first three years of their life.

This is a quote from Mark Coen’s paper presented at the NZAP conference this year (I was not there, but just found it on the website, here.) Copy: TheAttachmentContinuum.pdf

The quote is in line with my experience as a therapist, and he goes on the describe the various relationship styles, useful.

The guidelines for treatment, I’ve just checked again to be sure, do not mention couple therapy explicitly and there are no guidelines there for relationship psychotherapy.

This prompts me to present a relationship therapy paper, it is so essential that the relational paradigm is presented. And a paper won’t quite meet my other principle, that experiential learning is the way to make this case, not really papers. Maybe both would be best.

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