And more, these are funny!
The Group and its Protagonist – Archetypes of Cyberspace
I completed this psychodrama thesis in 1999 after working on it one way and another since about 1984. One feature of this paper is the discussion about the sociometric matrix, a notion that influences my ideas about cyberspace as well and were at the root of another essay I wrote – Archetypes of Cyberspace
I stumbled across this better pdf version of the The Group and its Protagonist – linked to it on my Writing page.
I’m wonering if there is some way to publish something based on these papers?
Occupy London
From Lenin’s Tomb
Readable & interesting report & comment here on Occupy London. While it may be a “punctuating moment” iI seems a very important one as the whole theme of this is like no other demonstrations I have seen, it is against capitalism, like the ones at the global summits, but this time there is no global summit, it global capitalism full stop. The slogan of the 99% is also very unifying, and makes a potent point.
This isn’t a revolutionary situation, but merely a punctuating moment in the temporal flow of class struggle. But the purpose of slogans mentioning ‘Tahrir Square’ is to accentuate the internationalism of the movement, to point to its deep systemic roots, to express solidarity with the Arab Spring, to hope that this is the beginning of our own Spring, and to identify the commune as the political form of these aspirations. At the most prosaic level, it expresses the movement against austerity in its most ‘political’ moment, complementing the ‘economic corporatist’ moment of trade union struggle. It identifies the political class rule of the 1% as the key problem; the colonization of the representative state by big capital. And it proposes its own direct democratic answer.
The psychodrama technique of the mirror
Quotes from Moren follow:
Exaptation – copy & paste in the evolution of tech and culture
Just got a name for something I have grasped for a long time. I used to call it accidental by products of evolution, and had this idea when I was doing biology aged 15. EG the piano is a by product of the evolution of fingers. We as humans have gone beyond what was biologically fittest, accidental by-products just heaped upon themselves and interacted with each other to enable creativity and consciousness.
From What Technology wants by Kevin Kelly page 50: “These inadvertent anticipatory inventions are called exaptations in biology.”
“Exaptation is a term used in evolutionary biology to describe a trait that has been co-opted for a use other than the one for which natural selection has built it.”
“It is a relatively new term, proposed by Stephen Jay Gould and Elisabeth Vrba in 1982 to make the point that a trait’s current use does not necessarily explain its historical origin. They proposed exaptation as a counterpart to the concept of adaptation.
For example, the earliest feathers belonged to dinosaurs not capable of flight. So, they must have first evolved for something else. Researchers have speculated early feathers may have been used for attracting mates or keeping warm. But later on, feathers became essential for modern birds’ flight.
It is a relatively new term, proposed by Stephen Jay Gould and Elisabeth Vrba in 1982 to make the point that a trait’s current use does not necessarily explain its historical origin. They proposed exaptation as a counterpart to the concept of adaptation.
For example, the earliest feathers belonged to dinosaurs not capable of flight. So, they must have first evolved for something else. Researchers have speculated early feathers may have been used for attracting mates or keeping warm. But later on, feathers became essential for modern birds’ flight.
(Perry, 2013)
In the evolution of technology and culture it is all exaptation. The reason is that the basis of tech and cultural evolution are not genetic, the information is carried by social means. Thus nothing goes extinct, and all innovations can be resurrected. In other words we can cut and paste to make new things, that process is far faster and more efficient than evolution in the biological sphere. Sexual reproduction is a form of cut & paste, but still far more primitive than what we can do with our inventions.
For example: Id love to graft the Graffiti handwriting system from the dead Palm onto a current smartphone.
References
Parry, Wynne. (2013, September 16). Exaptation: How evolution uses what’s available. Retrieved February 8, 2016, from http://www.livescience.com/39688-exaptation.html
Don’t live life in the sewer of injustice
Wallace Shawn (My diner with Andre) at occupy Wall Street
Moreno’s concept of tele
A series of quotes follow
Social and cultural atoms – Interact
The pattern of role relations around an individual as their focus is called his cultural atom. Every individual, just as he has a set of friends and a set of enemies, – a social atom – also has a range of roles facing a range of counter-roles.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. 84
~
I am reflecting on how the “imago match” relates to role theory.
The interpsyche occurs then when the role cluster of a couple is particularly intertwined. Love. Upon investigation I imagine there would be a particular quality to the role relationships. The tele would be strong at least in some areas. In the interpsyche the roles in a current relationship are likely to match the roles and social atom of the family of origin. The tele with the roles matched to the original social atom of each party would be strong. The mutual and positive/negative matches would outweigh the neutral?
This is a psychodramatic look at what Harville Hendrix calls the “Imago”. Sociometrically it can be explored in great depth. In couple therapy we are looking at role relationships. The assessment is a sociometric role analysis.
It would be good to explore this on the stage as part of the role assessment, working with a couple or in a sociodrama or in supervision of couple therapy.
~
More moreno quotes follow on the cultural atom
Entangled
When does the interpsyche kick in?
Who can explain it?
Who can tell you why?
Fools give you reasons,
Wise men never try.
I’ll be foolish enough to try. In group work the underlying dynamics do not take long to surface, and they can even be predicted, for example if a new person joins we can expect inclusion/exclusion dynamics. The interpsyche is co-created yet has a life of its own that the participants don’t have a lot os say in, the members participate but they bring their history with them, their baggage, their culture and there specific family cultures & dynamics.
When does the interpsyche kick in? It does not take much!
Interpsyches are complex varied and each different from the other. If it were a landscape how would it look?
How does this relate to the social and cultural atom?
You can see some of my cultural bagage below:
The sociometric matrix.
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