The Words of Jacob Levy Moreno

THE WORDS OF JACOB LEVY MORENO:
Vocabulary of Quotations from Psychodrama,

Group Psychotherapy, Sociodrama and Sociometry
ROSA CUKIER
Copyright © 2007
All rights reserved by the author. No part of this publication may
be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any
form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of
the author.
CONTENTS
I- INTRODUCTION
II- J. L. MORENO BOOKS SELECTED FOR
REFERENCE
III- FOOTNOTES AND TEXT HIGHLIGHTS
IV- ITALICS
V- TRANSLATION ERRORS
VI- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
VII- INDEX
THIS BOOK IS A TRIBUTE OF GRATITUDE TO
JACOB LEVI MORENO AND TO PSYCHODRAMA
The Words of Jacob Levy Moreno
1
INTRODUCTION
The idea of writing a vocabulary of Moreno’s concepts has
been dogging me for about fifteen years, give or take a few, ever
since I myself started writing about Psychodrama. I discovered
that I needed, now and again, to consult Moreno’s books to
search for quotations or definitions that I had read somewhere or
other, but didn’t remember quite where. My reference work was
the Vocabulary of Psychoanalysis by Laplanche and Pontalis1 a
work that I have consulted frequently throughout my career as a
psychologist.
Moreno, as you have probably already noticed, is a complex
writer, even prolix with a writing style midway between
philosophy, religion, literature and experimental science. Some
parts of his theories seem inconclusive or contradictory,
allowing different interpretations; certain concepts are quoted
only once in a whole book and never again, whilst others are
repeated exhaustively, giving the impression that the author is
copying himself; texts are presented in diagram form for better
comprehension, sometimes making them doubly confusing;
poems and metaphors are also used to clarify ideas.
All this, together with a type of belligerent attitude of liking
to oppose classical philosophers, psychologists, and economists
such as Spinosa, Freud and Marx for example – Moreno
criticizes parts of these works, presenting Sociometry as if it
were the truth about the subject in question, and obliging the
reader to read the work referred to in order to check the
properties of Moreno’s ideas.
Anyway, taking a trip through Moreno’s works is a difficult
adventure which was only made possible for me in 1992, starting
from when I joined the GEM2 – Moreno’s Group of Studies –
DAIMON – and I began to count on colleagues from different
disciplines and with different personal styles. Together we
compiled a glossary of information on psychology, philosophy,
1 Laplanche J.; Pontalis J.B.- “The Language of Psychoanalysis” , Paperback, Karnack Books, 1988.
2 GEM- Moreno’s Studies Group- DAIMON, a group of studies coordinated by Dr. José Fonseca and Dr. Wilson
Castello de Almeida, that started in 1995 to read and discuss all Moreno’s books IN S.Paulo, Brazil.
Rosa Cukier
2
sociology, pedagogy and humor, which allowed us to continue
our quest.
Initially I intended to collect, transcribe and give a reference
to the page of the book where Moreno mentions categorically the
main concepts of Sociometry, in order to make research easier. I
kept to this idea, only adding, during the work, the page of the
book in English and Spanish with the idea of making the
collection useful to our foreign colleagues.
One of the problems that I faced was how to cut parts of
Moreno’s work, in other words, which concepts to transcribe. I
decided to partially follow my “researcher’s intuition” and
choose Moreno’s definitions, concepts and opinions, which to
me seemed interesting and likely to be researched. I also
accepted, during all the making of this dictionary (almost nine
years) the suggestions from my colleagues at GEM and, finally I
researched books and articles on Psychodrama published in the
last ten years looking for any references that authors had made to
Moreno’s writings.
Obviously, the vocabulary is not exhaustive. Distinguished
researchers will have distinguished `cuttings`; for this reason I
would like anyone who reads the book and has a suggestion
about concepts to write to me and I will undertake to add them to
future editions.3
3 E-mail: rosa.cukier@pobox.com
3
J. L. MORENO BOOKS SELECTED FOR REFERENCE
One of my biggest concerns during the creation of this book
was deciding which edition of Moreno’s books was to be used as
the basis for page referencing. I decided to use the latest editions
published in Portuguese – with future generations of students in
mind – and the English and Spanish editions that I own. If this
book happens to be translated into other languages, I would like
the most recent editions of each book to be used as a base for
the same reasons.
Concerning the English and Spanish publications, they do
not always correspond to the Brazilian ones, which made me go
a little bit through the story of the original publications of
Moreno’s work. I will list below what I could find and what I
used to find out the pages in the books in other languages:
1. The book Psychodrama has its last two sessions published
separately in Spanish, composing another book entitled
Psychomusic and Sociodrama. This same book is published in
three volumes in English, the second one being correspondent to
the Brazilian and Spanish edition called Foundations of
Psychodrama. The third volume has some parts of chapters
found in the Brazilian and Spanish book called Group
Psychotherapy and Psychodrama, but it also has chapters not
translated into Latin languages.
2. The book Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama,
originally published in German, has only Spanish, Portuguese
and French versions and was not published in English. Some
articles from this book are, in fact, part of Moreno’s Monographs
sold separately by the Beacon House and occasionally published
in the old magazines released by Moreno’s Institute. These
magazines4 were first released under the name Journal of
Sociatry, but its name changed as time went by and it was
published under other names, as follows: Journal of Group
Psychotherapy; Journal of Psychotherapy and Psychodrama;
4 Authors note: this explanation comes from Zerka Moreno, and has been published in “Group Psychotherapy,
Psychodrama and Sociometry”, vol.xxxiii, 1980,p.5.
Rosa Cukier
4
Journal of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama and
Sociometry.
3. Moreno used to write the introduction to his books
published in other languages himself. There are introductions for
the Brazilian, Spanish and English editions and so on. Most of
the time these introductions exist only the original language.
Therefore the concepts expressed on those pages have no
corresponding versions in other languages.
4. The book Who shall survive? comes in three volumes in the
Brazilian publication and only in one in the English and Spanish
ones. Apart from that, in the Portuguese and English
publications, there is a very important chapter “Preludes to the
Sociometric Movement”, which does not come in the Spanish
publication. Another thing that does not exist in the Spanish
publication is the last session named “The Sociometric System
and The Advanced Sociometric Theory”.
Here is a list of the publications of Moreno’s books that I
used:
1. O Teatro da Espontaneidade. São Paulo, Summus Editorial,
Ltda, 1973
El Teatro de la Espontaneidad. Buenos Aires: Vancu, 1977.
The Theatre of Spontaneity. New York, N.Y.: Beacon House,
1973.
2. Psicodrama. Editora Cultrix, São Paulo: 1975.
Psicodrama. Buenos Aires: Hormé,
Psychodrama. New York, N.Y.: Beacon House, 1977, v.1.
3. Quem sobreviverá? Fundamentos da Sociometria,
Psicoterapia de Grupo e Sociodrama, Dimensão Editora e
Distribuidora Ltda, Goiânia, Brasil, 1992, v.1, 2 e 3.
Fundamentos de la Sociometria. Buenos Aires: Paidós, 1972.
Who Shall Survive? Foundations of Sociometry, Group
Psychotherapy and Sociodrama. Beacon House Inc., N.Y.
1978.
5
4. Fundamentos do Psicodrama. Editorial Summus, São Paulo,
1983.
Las Bases del La Psicoterapia, Editorial Paidós, Buenos
Aires.
Psychodrama: Foundations of Psychotherapy; Beacon House,
v.2, New York, 1975. (in collaboration with Moreno, Z. T).
5. Psicoterapia de Grupo e Psicodrama, Editora Livro Pleno
Ltda., Campinas, 1999.
Psicoterapia de Grupo y Psicodrama: Introducción a la
Teoria y la Praxis, Fondo de Cultura Económica, México:
1976.
English – there is no publication. I found many articles from
this book published in some magazines, listed bellow:
Psychodrama: Action Therapy & Principles of Practice, v. 3,
Beacon House, New York, N.Y.: 1975. (In collaboration with
Moreno, Z. T).
Group Psychotherapy – American Society of Group
Psychotherapy And Psychodrama, V. X, N.1, March 1957, p.
143-144.
Moreno, J. L and Jennings H.H. – Sociometric Control Studies
of Grouping and Regrouping, Sociometry Monographs N. 7,
Beacon House, 1947.
Moreno, J. L., Psychodramatic Shock Therapy, A Sociometric
Approach to the Problem of Mental Disorders in Group
Psychotherapy and Psychodrama, v. xxvii, N. 1-4, 1974, p. 9-
10.
J.L. Moreno “Hypnodrama and Psychodrama in Group
Psychotherapy”, Beacon House, N. 1, v. iii, April 1950, p.2.
Moreno, J. L. “Fragments from the Psychodrama of a Dream”,
in Jonathan Fox – “The Essential Moreno”, Springer
Publishing Company, N.Y., 1987, p. 118.
Moreno, J. L. – “Code of Ethics of Group Psychotherapist” in
Group Psychotherapy, Beacon House, v. x, N. 1, March 1957,
p. 143-144.
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6
Moreno, J. L. – “Ontology of Group Formation” in Group
Psychotherapy, A Quarterly, v. x, N. 4, December 1957, p.
348.
Moreno, J. L. – “The Three Branches of Sociometry” –
Sociometry Monographs N. 21, Beacon House, 1947, p. 7.
Moreno, J. L. – “The Actual Trends in Group Psychotherapy”,
in Group Psychotherapy, v. VI, September 1963, N. 3, p. 126.
Moreno, J. L. – “Psychodramatic Rules, Techniques and
Adjunctive Methods” in Group Psychotherapy, v. xviii, N. 1-
2, March-June, 1965, p. 81-82.
Moreno, J. L. – “Fragments from the Psychodrama of a
Dream”, in Group Psychotherapy, March 1951, N. 4, v. iii, p.
365.
Moreno, J. L. – “Psychodramatic Production Techniques”, p.
244 in Group Psychotherapy, v. iv, N. 4, March, 1952.
7
FOOTNOTES AND TEXT HIGHLIGHTS
In order to be brief, I clipped the most significant parts of
Moreno’s concepts I was looking for in his texts, sometimes
cutting down a phrase and continuing it from a specific passage
of another one. The ellipsis sign (...) shows these interruptions,
and it also shows when a specific chosen passage begins in the
middle of a phrase.
I sometimes found it necessary for a better understanding to
warn the readers on what the passage was about, mainly when
the subject was implied in a previous phrase to the one I had
clipped. In these cases I added a footnote containing the missing
information.
ITALICS
All the Italics in the texts are original italics from J. L.
Moreno’s editions of the book in Portuguese.
TRANSLATION ERRORS
There are various errors in the Portuguese translations of all
J. L. Moreno’s works. For example, the word “iniciador”,
(“starter” in English) which is normally used to refer to the
beginning of a warm-up, is translated erroneously as “arranque”
in Portuguese; the word “adestramento” (“training” in English)
is used incorrectly instead of “treinamento”, etc.
I decided to leave the translation errors in the dictionary in
order to make it easier for the students to recognize the passage
quoted.
Rosa Cukier
8
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
One cannot write a book like this alone. I counted on many people’s
collaboration and I want to thank and name each of them:
To Maria Angélica Sugai and Cristine Georgette Massoni,
psychodramatist colleagues and supervisors, thank you very much for
the dedication and the responsibility on the general revision of this
work, for the good mood with which we spent so many Tuesday
afternoons together – I will always keep in my heart the tenderness of
this “teamwork”.
To the GEM colleagues – Moreno’s Group Studies – Thanks for
being the interlocutors of my doubts and anguishes during the making
of this book. I would like to give special thanks to Luiz Russo for
donating me his precious time, searching here and there for a page I
had lost, and also for suggesting concepts that I had skipped.
To José Fonseca for the never-ending help and support during my
psychodramatist carrier, for Moreno’s English books and magazines
he lent me and above all, for the opportunity of studying Moreno the
GEM propitiated me.
To Antônio Carlos M. Cesarino for the good sense of humor with
which he found an old Moreno book in Spanish and dedicated it to me,
as if it had been Moreno himself to autograph it to me. You did make
me laugh, Cesarino, thank you!
To the young psychodramatists: Cely Regina Batista Blessa, for
her competent English typing, and Renata Marmelstejn and Branca
Brener
for their initial help in the making of this dictionary.
To all the colleagues from the “Internet Grouptalk” – Group of the
International Association of Group Psychotherapy, that discusses
psychodrama on the Internet. Special thanks to Dr. Adam Blatner for
having talked over my doubts so many times and also for having sent
me some of Moreno’s articles, and to Dr. James Sacks for his care
and disposition on sending me an English copy of the original Moreno
monograph: “A Paranoid case treated by Psychodrama”.
To Dr. Pablo Poblacion – Spain seemed to be right next to me when I
received the book you sent. Thank you, Pablo, you are a great friend!
Or: you are one of a kind!
Finally, I thank Dr. Dalmiro Bustos for having taught me how to
derivate creativity from happiness and from gratitude instead of from
resentment!
9
INDEX
ABREACTION...................................................................... 35
ACT HUNGER...................................................................... 35
ACTING OUT....................................................................... 36
ACTING-OUT/TWO TYPES IRRATIONAL X
THERAPEUTIC ..................................................................... 37
ACTION INSIGHT............................................................... 38
ACTOR .................................................................................. 39
ADEQUACY OF RESPONSE............................................. 39
ADLER................................................................................... 40
ADULTS VERSUS CHILDREEN....................................... 41
AMBICENTRIC CRISIS ..................................................... 41
AMBIVALENCE OF CHOICE........................................... 42
ANIMISM.............................................................................. 43
ANONYMITY....................................................................... 43
ANTEROS ............................................................................. 44
ANXIETY .............................................................................. 44
ANXIETY/FEAR.................................................................... 44
ANXIETY/SCHIZOPHRENIA ............................................. 45
ANXIETY/TIME ANXIETY ................................................. 45
ARISTOTELE (see Tele/Aristotele).................................... 46
ATOGRAM ........................................................................... 46
ATOM .................................................................................... 47
ATOM/CULTURAL............................................................... 47
ATOM/SOCIAL ..................................................................... 48
ATTENTION......................................................................... 52
AUDIENCE ........................................................................... 52
AUDIENCE/AS A PATIENT IN A PICTURE...................... 53
AUDIENCE/HOMOGENEOUS GROUP.............................. 53
AUDIENCE/RELATIONSHIP DIRECTOR- AUDIENCE... 53
AUTHORSHIP/MORENO .................................................. 54
AUTO-TELE (SEE TELE/AUTOTELE)........................... 55
AUXILIARY-EGO ............................................................... 55
AUXILIARY-EGO/ALTER-EGO ......................................... 55
AUXILIARY-EGO/AUDIENCE EGOS................................ 55
AUXILIARY-EGO/AUDIO-EGOS ....................................... 56
AUXILIARY-EGO/BEGINNING OF THE CONCEPT........ 56
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AUXILIARY-EGO/BEGINNING OF THE
CONCEPT/RESCUE PLAYER ............................................. 58
AUXILIARY-EGO/CLIENT AS AN AUXILIARY-EGO.... 58
AUXILIARY-EGO/CONCEPT.............................................. 59
AUXILIARY-EGO/CRITICISM AGAINST THE CLASSIC
PSYCHIATRIST .................................................................... 59
AUXILIARY-EGO/DEVELOPMENT/TRAINING ............. 60
AUXILIARY-EGO/FUNCTIONS OF ................................... 61
AUXILIARY-EGO/INVOLVEMENT................................... 64
AUXILIARY-EGO/MORENO CHOOSES THE EGOS....... 64
AUXILIARY-EGO/MOTHER AND FATHER AS
AUXILIARY-EGOS............................................................... 65
AUXILIARY-EGO/NUMBER OF ........................................ 66
AUXILIARY-EGO/PATIENT’S AUXILIARY EGO
TECHNIQUE.......................................................................... 66
AUXILIARY-EGO/PSYCOSIS ............................................. 66
AUXILIARY-EGO/TRANSFERENCE/SCIENTIFIC
OBJECTIVITY....................................................................... 67
AXIODRAMA ...................................................................... 70
BEACON................................................................................ 71
BIOATRIC ............................................................................ 71
BIRTH.................................................................................... 71
BIRTH CONTROL ................................................................ 72
BIRTH CONTROL/CRITICISM AGAINST CATHOLIC
POSITION .............................................................................. 72
BIRTH/PSYCHODRAMA .................................................. 72
BODY..................................................................................... 73
BODY/BODILY CONTACT ................................................. 73
BODY/BODY LANGUAGE.................................................. 74
BODY/BODY POSITION...................................................... 74
BODY/PHYSICAL TRAINING/PLAYERS ......................... 74
BOOK..................................................................................... 75
BOOK/THE WORDS OF THE FATHER.............................. 75
BOOK/WHO SHALL SURVIVE?......................................... 75
BREACH/REALITY & FANTASY.................................... 76
BREASTFEEDING .............................................................. 77
CARL JUNG ......................................................................... 78
CATHARSIS ......................................................................... 78
11
CATHARSIS/ACTION .......................................................... 78
CATHARSIS/ACTIVE & PASSIVE ..................................... 79
CATHARSIS/COLLECTIVE................................................. 79
CATHARSIS/HISTORY........................................................ 80
CATHARSIS/INTEGRATION .............................................. 81
CATHARSIS/INTELLECTUAL AND ANALYTIC
CATHARSIS........................................................................... 81
CATHARSIS/MENTAL......................................................... 82
CATHARSIS/PSYCHODRAMA & SOCIODRAMA........... 83
CATHARSIS/PSYCHODRAMATIC CATHARSIS ............ 83
CATHARSIS/SOMATIC ....................................................... 84
CATHARSIS/SPONTANEITY.............................................. 84
CATHARSIS/TOTAL ........................................................... 84
CHILD (SEE INFANT) ........................................................ 85
CHOICES .............................................................................. 85
CHOICES/CHOICE OF THE THERAPIST ......................... 85
CHOICES/GROUP MEMBERS ............................................ 85
CHOICES/INTENSITY OF CHOICE.................................... 86
CHOICES/RECIPROCATED CHOICE ................................ 86
CHOICES/SOCIOMETRIC CHOICE.................................... 86
CLASSOID ............................................................................ 89
COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE................................................. 90
COMMUNICATION............................................................ 90
COMMUNICATION/THE ACT OF COMMUNICATION.. 90
COMMUNICATION/LARGE GROUP
COMMUNICATION/MASS-MIDIA..................................... 91
COMMUNICATION/SPONTANEOUS COMMUNICATION
................................................................................................. 91
CONFLICT............................................................................ 91
CONSCIOUS/UNCONSCIOUS ......................................... 91
CONSERVE........................................................................... 92
CONSERVE/CULTURAL/ENERGY.................................... 92
CONSERVE/EUGENY.......................................................... 92
CONSERVE/EXCESS............................................................ 93
CONSERVE/POPULAR ROLES........................................... 93
CONSERVE/SPONTANEITY............................................... 94
COSMIC HUNGER.............................................................. 97
COSMIC MAN...................................................................... 97
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COUCH ................................................................................. 98
COUCH/RESEARCH............................................................. 98
COUPLE PSYCHOTHERAPY........................................... 99
COUPLE PSYCHOTHERAPY/PATERNITY....................... 99
CREATIVE ACT.................................................................. 99
CREATIVE ACT/PHILOSOPHY OF THE CREATOR ..... 100
CREATIVE ACT/REVOLUTION THROUGH .................. 100
CREATIVE SEEDS............................................................ 100
CREATIVITY..................................................................... 101
CREATIVITY/CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CREATIVE
ACT....................................................................................... 101
CREATIVITY/PHILOSOPHY OF THE CREATIVE ACT 102
CREATIVITY/SPONTANEITY ......................................... 102
CREATOFLEX................................................................... 103
CREATOR ENVY .............................................................. 103
CREATOR LOVE .............................................................. 104
CREATURGY VERSUS DRAMATURGY ..................... 105
CRITERIA........................................................................... 106
CRITERIA/ACTION CRITERIA ........................................ 106
CRITERIA/DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA .............................. 106
CRITERIA/SOCIOMETRIC CRITERIA ............................ 106
CRITICISM......................................................................... 108
CRITICISM/ADLER............................................................ 108
CRITICISM/BERGSON....................................................... 108
CRITICISM/EXISTENTIALISM ........................................ 109
CRITICISM/FEED BACK THEORY.................................. 110
CRITICISM/FREUD ............................................................ 110
CRITICISM/FREUD/PSYCHOANALYSIS/EDUCATIONAL
PSYCHOANALYSIS........................................................... 111
CRITICISM/FREUD/PSYCHOANALYSIS/PLAY THERAPY
............................................................................................... 111
CRITICISM/FREUD/PSYCHOANALYSIS/PSYCHOLOGY
............................................................................................... 111
CRITICISM/FREUD/PSYCHOANALYSIS/SEXUALITY 114
CRITICISM/FREUD /PSYCHOLOGICAL DETERMINISM
............................................................................................... 116
CRITICISM/FREUD/WILD PSYCHOANALYSIS ........... 118
CRITICISM/HERBERT G. MEAD ..................................... 119
13
CRITICISM/JUNG ............................................................... 119
CRITICISM/LEARNING SYSTEM .................................... 120
CRITICISM/MARX ............................................................. 120
CRITICISM/MONTESSORI................................................ 121
CRITICISM/MOTION PICTURES ..................................... 122
CRITICISM/RADIO............................................................. 122
CRITICISM/REGRESSIVE SCENE ................................... 122
CRITICISM/ROUSSEAU .................................................... 123
CRITICISM/THEORIES OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT .... 123
CULTURE........................................................................... 124
CURRENTS ........................................................................ 124
CURRENTS/EMOTIONAL CURRENTS........................... 124
CURRENTS/PSYCHOLOGICAL CURRENTS.................. 125
DAS DING AN SICH ......................................................... 126
DAS DING AUSSER SICH................................................ 126
DELUSION.......................................................................... 126
DEUS/EX-MÁQUINA........................................................ 127
DEVELOPMENT/MENTAL GROWTH......................... 127
DEVELOPMENT/STAGES................................................. 127
DIAGNOSIS ........................................................................ 128
DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT ..................................... 128
DIALOGUE......................................................................... 128
DIRECTOR ......................................................................... 128
DIRECTOR/ABSTINENCE................................................. 128
DIRECTOR/ACTION........................................................... 129
DIRECTOR/DRAMATIC QUALITY ................................. 129
DIRECTOR/FUNCTION ..................................................... 130
DIRECTOR/OBJECTIVITY................................................ 131
DIRECTOR/RELATHIONSHIP WITH THE CLIENT....... 131
DIRECTOR / RELATHIONSHIP WITH THE SPECTATOR
............................................................................................... 131
DRAMA/CATEGORIES OF................................................ 132
DRAMA/CATHARSIS....................................................... 132
DRAMA/DRAMATIS PERSONAE .................................... 132
DRAMA/HEALING............................................................. 133
DRAMA/HISTORY ............................................................. 133
DRAMA/MEANING OF THE WORD................................ 134
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DRAMATIC QUALITY..................................................... 134
DRAMATIST ..................................................................... 135
DRAMATIZATION ........................................................... 136
DRAMATIZATION/FUNCTION OFF ............................... 136
DREAMS ............................................................................. 136
DURÉE................................................................................. 137
DURÉE/HENRY BERGSON............................................... 137
EDUCATION AND PSYCHODRAMA ........................... 138
EMOTIONAL EXPANSIVENESS .................................. 139
EMOTIONAL EXPANSIVENESS/JEWS........................... 140
EMOTIONAL EXPANSIVENESS/SOCIAL
EXPANSIVENESS............................................................... 140
EMOTIONAL EXPANSIVENESS/SOCIOMETRIC TEST141
EMOTIONAL EXPANSIVENESS/TESTING .................... 141
ENCOUNTER..................................................................... 141
ENERGY.............................................................................. 141
ENVY ................................................................................... 142
ENVY/CREATOR ENVY (SEE IN CREATOR ENVY).... 142
ENVY/GERMAN’S ENVY ................................................. 142
ETHICS OF GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPIST................. 142
ETHICS/GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY / HIPPOCRATIC
OATH.................................................................................... 143
ETHICS/GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/HERE AND NOW143
EXISTENTIALISM............................................................ 143
EXISTENTIALISM/MORENO ........................................... 143
EXTERNAL SOCIETY ..................................................... 143
FAMILY .............................................................................. 144
FAMILY/INTROVERTED ORGANIZATION................... 144
FAMILY/FAMILY THERAPY/PSYCHODRAMA............ 145
FREE ASSOCIATION....................................................... 147
FREE ASSOCIATION/SPONTANEITY............................. 147
FREUD/MEETING FREUD-MORENO.......................... 148
FUTURE .............................................................................. 148
FUTURE/MAN..................................................................... 150
FUTURE/MASS MIDIA ...................................................... 151
FUTURE/SEXUALITY........................................................ 152
FUTURE/SOCIATRY/SOCIOMETRY............................... 152
FUTURE/SPONTANEITY VERSUS CREATIVITY ........ 153
15
GENIUS/HEROES.............................................................. 153
GENIUS/SPONTANEITY AND WARMING UP............... 154
GENIUS/TELE ..................................................................... 155
GOD...................................................................................... 156
GOD/GODHEAD ................................................................. 156
GROUP COHESION.......................................................... 160
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/AGE OF THE MEMBERS
............................................................................................... 161
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/BEGINNINGS/HISTORY . 161
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/CHILDREN......................... 164
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/CHOICE OF THE THERAPIST
............................................................................................... 164
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/DEFINITIONS ................... 164
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/FEES.................................... 166
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/GROUP’S SOCIAL DEFENSE
MECHANISM ...................................................................... 166
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/INCLUSION OF NEW
MEMBERS........................................................................... 166
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/INDICATION .................... 167
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/PATERNITY ...................... 167
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC
SUCCESS OR FAILURE .................................................... 168
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/SIZE OF THE GROUP....... 168
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/SMALLEST GROUP.......... 169
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/SOCIODRAMA ................. 169
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/SUBJECT............................ 169
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/VERSUS INDIVIDUAL
PSYCHOTHERAPY............................................................. 170
GROUP/NORMAL X THERAPEUTIC........................... 171
GROUP/STAGES OF .......................................................... 172
HAPPENING....................................................................... 172
HEALING............................................................................ 173
HEALING/MENTAL HEALING PROCESSES ................. 173
HEALING/SECOND TIME................................................. 173
HEALING/SPONTANEITY ................................................ 173
HENRY BERGSON............................................................ 174
HERE AND NOW............................................................... 175
HERE AND NOW/ETHICS................................................. 175
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HISTORY ............................................................................ 176
HISTORY/FIRST CONGRESS OF GROUP
PSYCHOTHERAPY ............................................................ 176
HISTORY/VIENA OF 1910................................................. 176
HUMOUR............................................................................ 176
HUMOUR/THERAPY ......................................................... 176
HYPNODRAMA AND HYPNOSIS.................................. 177
IDEE FIXE .......................................................................... 179
IDENTITY/IDENTIFICATION........................................ 179
IDENTITY/SUBJECTIVE VERSUS OBJECTIVE............. 181
IMAGES/THERAPEUTIC IMAGES............................... 182
IMPROVISATION............................................................. 182
IMPROVISATION/AS A PRIMARY PRINCIPLE............. 182
INFANT ............................................................................... 184
INFANT/LONG PREGNANCY .......................................... 186
INFANTILE AMNESIA..................................................... 187
INFANTILE AMNÉSIA/FIRST 2-3 YEARS OF LIFE....... 187
INFANTILE AMNESIA/RETROACTIVE AMNESIA ...... 187
INSTITUTIONS.................................................................. 188
INSTRUMENTS OF THE PSYCHODRAMATIC
METHOD ........................................................................... 188
INTERPERSONAL SITUATION..................................... 191
INTERPSYCHE.................................................................. 191
INTRAPSYCHIC................................................................ 191
INTROJECTION................................................................ 192
INTROJECTION/TELE ....................................................... 192
ISOLATE............................................................................. 193
ISOLATE/INVOLUNTARY ISOLATES............................ 193
ISOLATE/VOLUNTARY ISOLATES ................................ 194
JESUS................................................................................... 195
JEWS.................................................................................... 195
JEWS /ATTRACTION BETWEEN JEWS AND GERMANS
............................................................................................... 195
JEWS/EMOTIONAL EXPANSIVENESS........................... 196
JEWS/EXCESS OF EFFORT/PRIVILEGED POSITIONS. 196
JEWS/GERMAN’S ENVY................................................... 196
JEWS/JEWISH ANTI-SEMITISM ...................................... 197
JEWS/LEADER PRODUCTION......................................... 197
17
JEWS/TELE EFFECT .......................................................... 197
KIERKEGAARD................................................................ 198
KURT LEWIN .................................................................... 198
LANGUAGE........................................................................ 199
LANGUAGE/BASIC LANGUAGE .................................... 199
LANGUAGE/DEVELOPMENT.......................................... 200
LAW/THE LAW OF SOCIAL GRAVITATION............ 200
LAW/THE SOCIODYNAMIC LAW................................... 201
LAW/THE SOCIOGENETIC LAW..................................... 203
LEADERSHIP..................................................................... 204
LEARNING ......................................................................... 205
LEARNING/AUTONOMY.................................................. 205
LEARNING/OVERLEARNER/UNDERLEARNER........... 206
LEARNING/SPONTANEITY.............................................. 206
LEARNING/WARMING UP .............................................. 207
LIVING NEWSPAPER...................................................... 207
LIVING NEWSPAPER/DISUSE ......................................... 209
LIVING NEWSPAPER/HISTORY...................................... 209
LIVING NEWSPAPER/PRESS REACTION ..................... 210
LOCOGRAM ...................................................................... 211
LOCUS................................................................................. 211
LOCUS/LOCUS NASCENDI .............................................. 211
LOCUS/MATRIX/STATUS NASCENDI ........................... 212
LOGOID .............................................................................. 213
LONGEVITY ...................................................................... 213
LONGEVITY/PREVENTING LONGEVITY ..................... 213
MAGIC................................................................................. 214
MAGIC/PSYCHODRAMA AS MAGIC ............................. 214
MAGIC/SCIENCE VERSUS MAGIC................................. 214
MAN/MANKIND................................................................ 215
MAN/MANKIND/HOW TO STUDY.................................. 215
MAN/MANKIND/HUMAN PERSON ................................ 215
MARTIN BUBER ............................................................... 216
MATRIX OF IDENTITY................................................... 216
MATRIX OF IDENTITY/DELUSIONS.............................. 217
MATRIX OF IDENTITY/TIMING/AMNESIA .................. 217
MEETING ........................................................................... 218
MEGALOMANIA............................................................... 218
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MEGALOMANIA/NORMAL FUNCTION ........................ 219
MEMORY............................................................................ 219
MEMORY/SPONTANEITY................................................ 220
MENTAL HEALTH........................................................... 220
MENTALLY RETARDED GROUP................................. 221
METAPHYSICS ................................................................. 221
METAPRAXIS.................................................................... 222
METATHEATER............................................................... 224
METHOD ............................................................................ 224
METHOD/FUTURE PROJECTION.................................... 224
METHOD/DEEP ACTION METHODS.............................. 225
METHOD/PSYCHODRAMATIC METHOD ..................... 225
METHOD/SPONTANEOUS IMPROVISATION............... 225
MIRROR TECHNIQUE.................................................... 226
MITTENDIRF- ................................................................... 226
MITTENDIRF/THE FIRST SOCIOMETRIC PLAN .......... 226
MOMENT............................................................................ 227
MOMENT/HENRY BERGSON .......................................... 229
MOMENT/THEATER/IMPROVISATION......................... 231
MORENO............................................................................ 229
MORENO/DENYING ANY KIND OF FATHERS ............ 229
MORENO/MORENO’S INVENTIONS/VEHICLES ABD
GRAPHIC INVENTIONS.................................................... 230
MORENO/U.S.A. ................................................................. 230
MOTHER ............................................................................ 231
MOTHER/AS AN AUXILIARY EGO ............................. 231
MOTHER/RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MOTHER AND
CHILD .................................................................................. 232
MOTHER/ROLE OF MOTHER .......................................... 232
MOTION PICTURE........................................................... 233
MOTIONPICTURE/THERAPEUTIC PICTURE/AUDIENCE
............................................................................................... 233
MOTION PICTURE/THERAPEUTIC PICTURE/AUDIOEGOS
.................................................................................... 234
MOTIONPICTURE/THERAPEUTIC PICTURE/CAST..... 234
MOTIONPICTURE/THERAPEUTIC PICTURE/CATHARSIS
............................................................................................... 234
19
MOTIONPICTURE/THERAPEUTIC PICTURE/DEFINITION
............................................................................................... 235
MOTIONPICTURE/THERAPEUTIC PICTURE/DIRECTOR
............................................................................................... 236
MOTIONPICTURE / THERAPEUTIC PICTURE/HISTORY
............................................................................................... 237
MOTIONPICTURE/THERAPEUTIC PICTURE/MAIN
OBJECT................................................................................ 237
MOTIONPICTURE/THERAPEUTIC
PICTURE/METHODOLOGY.............................................. 237
MOTIONPICTURE/THERAPEUTIC PICTURE /PRE-TEST
............................................................................................... 238
PICTURE/PRODUCTION................................................... 238
MOTIONPICTURE/THERAPEUTIC PICTURE/PSEUDO
THERAPEUTIC ................................................................... 239
PICTURE/THERAPEUTIC FACTOR................................. 239
MUSIC ................................................................................. 241
MYSTICS AND MONKS................................................... 241
NARCISSISM...................................................................... 241
NETWORK ......................................................................... 242
NETWORK /FEAR OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL
NETWORKS......................................................................... 242
NETWORK/MANIPULATION OF NETWORKS.............. 242
NETWORK/PSYCHOGEOGRAPHICAL........................... 242
NETWORK/SOCIOMETRIC .............................................. 243
NEUROSIS .......................................................................... 243
NEUROSIS/HISTRIONIC NEUROSIS............................... 243
NEUROSIS/INTERPERSONAL NEUROSIS ..................... 244
NEUTRALITY.................................................................... 244
NORMÓTIC........................................................................ 244
ORGANIZATIONS ............................................................ 245
ORGANIZATIONS/INTROVERTED FAMILIES.............. 245
ORGANIZATIONS/KINDS OF ORGANIZATIONS......... 245
ORGANIZATIONS/KINDS OF ORGANIZATIONS
/CHANGE OF ORGANIZATIONS ..................................... 246
ORIGINALITY................................................................... 247
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PARANOIA......................................................................... 248
PARANOIA/REALIZATION PARANOIA......................... 248
PARANOIA/SOCIOMETRIC PARANOIA ........................ 248
PARTICIPANT OBSERVER ........................................... 248
PATHOLOGY/PSYCHO- AND SOCIO-PATHOLOGY249
PERSONA............................................................................ 250
PERSONA/PSYCHOSIS...................................................... 250
PERSONALITY.................................................................. 251
PERSONALITY / ANALYZING OTHERS PERSONALITY
............................................................................................... 251
PHYSICAL ATTRACTION.............................................. 252
PHYSICAL CONTACT/LIMITATION........................... 253
PLAY.................................................................................... 253
PREGNANCY..................................................................... 254
PRESENTIFICATION ...................................................... 254
PRINCIPLE OF SOCIOMETRIC TRANSPLANTATION
............................................................................................... 255
PROJECTION .................................................................... 255
PROLETARIAT ................................................................. 256
PROLETARIAT/SOCIOMETRIC PROLETARIAT .......... 256
PROMETHEUS/THE MYTH OF PROMETHEUS AND
PSYCHODRAMA............................................................... 256
PROSTITUTES................................................................... 257
PROSTITUTES/AIM OF THE WORK WITH.................... 257
PROTAGONIST................................................................. 258
PROTOCOLS...................................................................... 259
PROTOCOLS/ADOLESCENT CASE................................. 259
PROTOCOLS/BÁRBARA CASE........................................ 259
PROTOCOLS/HITLER CASE............................................. 259
PROTOCOLS/MARIE CASE .............................................. 259
PROTOCOLS/PSYCHODRAMA OF A DREAM.............. 259
PROTOCOLS/PSYCHODRAMA OF A MARRIAGE ....... 259
PROTOCOLS/ROBERT CASE ........................................... 260
PSYCHE .............................................................................. 260
PSYCHODRAMA .............................................................. 260
PSYCHODRAMA/BEGINNINGS ..................................... 260
PSYCHODRAMA/CLASSIFICATION/“A DEUX”........... 262
21
PSYCHODRAMA/CLASSIFICATION/“A
DEUX”/TECHNIQUE OF SELF PRESENTATION........... 264
PSYCHODRAMA/CLASSIFICATION/CONFESSIONAL 264
PSYCHODRAMA/CLASSIFICATION/INDIVIDUAL...... 264
PSYCHODRAMA/CLASSIFICATION/PEDAGOGIC ..... 265
PSYCHODRAMA/CONCEPT/DEFINITION..................... 266
PSYCHODRAMA/DREAM WORK ................................... 268
PSYCHODRAMA/HISTORY.............................................. 270
PSYCHODRAMA/INTERPRETATION............................. 270
PSYCHODRAMA/KING’S PSYCHODRAMA ................. 270
PSYCHODRAMA/MAGIC.................................................. 271
PSYCHODRAMA/MEANING OF THE NAME ................ 271
PSYCHODRAMA/PSYCHOANALYSIS ........................... 271
PSYCHODRAMA /PSYCHOANALYSIS /COMPLIMENTS
TO FREUD ........................................................................... 272
PSYCHODRAMA/PSYCHODRAMATIC METHOD........ 272
PSYCHODRAMA/PSYCHODRAMATIC
METHOD/COUNTER-INDICATIONS............................... 273
PSYCHODRAMA/PSYCHOSIS ......................................... 273
PSYCHODRAMA/RESEARCH ......................................... 273
PSYCHODRAMA/SESSION/END OF A SESSION.......... 273
PSYCHODRAMA/SETTING .............................................. 274
PSYCHODRAMA/SOCIO-PSYCHODRAMA .................. 274
PSYCHODRAMA/SUBJECT.............................................. 274
PSYCHODRAMATIC EFFECT....................................... 274
PSYCHODRAMATIC SHOCK TREATMENT ............. 275
PSYCHODRAMATIC SHOCK
TREATMENT/DIFFICULTIES........................................... 276
PSYCHODRAMATIC SHOCK TREATMENT/METHOD 277
PSYCHODRAMATIC SHOCK TREATMENT/PSYCHOSIS
............................................................................................... 277
PSYCHODRAMATIC SHOCK TREATMENT/TIMING .. 278
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE ............................. 278
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/ANALYSIS AFTER
EVERY SCENE.................................................................... 278
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/AUXILIARY WORLD
............................................................................................... 276
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PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/DOUBLE
TECHNIQUE/DEFINITION................................................ 280
TECHNIQUE/HISTORY ..................................................... 281
TECHNIQUE/MIRROR TECHNIQUE .............................. 282
TECHNIQUE/MOTHER –CHILD RELATIONSHIP ........ 282
TECHNIQUE/MULTIPLE DOUBLE.................................. 283
TECHNIQUE/PSYCHOSIS ................................................. 283
TECHNIQUE/SOLILOQUY-DOUBLE TECHNIQUE ...... 284
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE /END OF A SESSION
............................................................................................... 284
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE /LEADER TENSIONS
............................................................................................... 284
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/LYING TO THE
CLIENT/JUSTIFICATION .................................................. 284
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/MAGIC SHOP
TECHNIQUE ....................................................................... 285
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/MIRROR................. 285
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/MIRROR/AIMS...... 285
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE /MIRROR /CLIENT AS
A SPECTATOR.................................................................... 286
PSYCHODRAMATIC
TECHNIQUE/MIRROR/DEVELOPMENT STAGES ........ 286
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/PLAY
TECHNIQUES/CHILDREN ................................................ 287
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/ROLE REVERSAL
TECHNIQUE ....................................................................... 289
TECHNIQUE/AIMS............................................................. 289
TECHNIQUE/AUXILIARY EGOS..................................... 290
TECHNIQUE/CONCEPT .................................................... 290
23
TECHNIQUE/DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES ................... 291
TECHNIQUE/DOUBLE TECHNIQUE .............................. 287
TECHNIQUE/EMPATY ...................................................... 294
TECHNIQUE/ETHNIC ISSUES.......................................... 295
TECHNIQUE/SOCIAL STATUS ....................................... 297
TECHNIQUE/SOCRATES ................................................. 297
TECHNIQUE/TECHNIQUES.............................................. 298
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/SELF PRESENTATION
TECHNIQUE ....................................................................... 298
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/SELF REALIZATION
TECHNIQUE ....................................................................... 299
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/SOLILOQUY.......... 300
PSYCHODRAMATIC
TECHNIQUE/SOLILOQUY/DIFFICULTIES .................... 300
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/SYMBOLIC
TECHNIQUE ....................................................................... 300
PSYCHOGEOGRAPHIC MAPPING ............................. 300
PSYCHOGEOGRAPHICAL PROJECTION.................. 301
PSYCHOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY................................ 301
PSYCHOLOGICAL NETWORK..................................... 302
PSYCHOMUSIC................................................................. 302
PSYCHOMUSIC/BUSINESS OF THE MUSICIANS ....... 304
PSYCHOMUSIC/HISTORY ............................................... 304
PSYCHOMUSIC/IMPROVISATION IN MUSIC .............. 305
PSYCHOSIS ....................................................................... 305
PSYCHOSIS/AUXILIARY EGO......................................... 307
PSYCHOSIS/AUXILIARY WORLD ................................. 307
PSYCHOSIS/INTERVIEW ................................................. 307
PSYCHOSIS/PSYCHODRAMA ......................................... 308
PSYCHOSIS/SOCIAL ATOM............................................. 309
QUOTIENT......................................................................... 309
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QUOTIENT/CULTURAL QUOTIENT............................... 309
QUOTIENT/SPONTANEITY QUOTIENT......................... 310
QUOTIENT/SPONTANEITY QUOTIENT/MOTION
PICTURE.............................................................................. 311
QUOTIENT/SPONTANEITY QUOTIENT/THEATRE ..... 311
RACIAL QUOTIENT ........................................................ 312
RACIAL SATURATION POINT...................................... 312
RACISM .............................................................................. 313
REALITY ............................................................................ 313
REGRESSION .................................................................... 313
RELIGION .......................................................................... 314
RESISTANCE..................................................................... 315
RESISTANCE/AUXILIARY EGO...................................... 315
RESISTANCE/SOCIOMETRIC TEST................................ 316
RESISTANCE/SPONTANEOUS ACTOR.......................... 319
RESISTANCE/TO DRAMATIZE ....................................... 319
RETROJECTION............................................................... 321
RETROPATHY .................................................................. 321
REVOLUTION ................................................................... 322
REVOLUTION/CREATIVE REVOLUTION ..................... 322
REVOLUTION/TREE REVOLUTIONS PSYCHIATRIC.. 322
ROBOT ............................................................................... 323
ROBOT/MAN ...................................................................... 324
ROBOTS/FUTURE .............................................................. 324
ROBOTS/HOW TO LIVE WITH THEM............................ 325
ROBOTS/HUMAN REASONS FOR ITS INVENTION..... 325
ROBOTS/IMMORTALITY ................................................. 326
ROBOTS/PATHOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES .............. 326
ROBOTS/TOYS/DOLLS ..................................................... 326
ROLE/ .................................................................................. 327
ROLE/BEGINNING OF THE CONCEPT .......................... 327
ROLE/CATEGORIES OF ROLES ...................................... 328
ROLE/COMPLEMENTARY ROLE.................................... 328
ROLE/CONCEPT................................................................. 329
ROLE/DEVELOPMENT OF ............................................... 330
ROLE/G.H.MEAD/CRITICISM .......................................... 331
ROLE/HISTORY.................................................................. 331
ROLE/MATRIX OF IDENTITY.......................................... 332
25
ROLE/MULTIPLE ROLES.................................................. 332
ROLE/PSYCHODRAMATIC ROLE................................... 333
ROLE/PSYCHOSOMATIC ROLES.................................... 333
ROLE/ROLE PLAYING ...................................................... 334
ROLE-PLAYING/ROLE THERAPY .................................. 337
ROLE/ROLE TAKING ........................................................ 339
ROLE/SELF/EGO................................................................. 340
ROLE/SOCIAL ROLE ......................................................... 342
ROLE/TESTING ROLES..................................................... 343
RORSCHACH X PSICODRAMA ................................... 345
RULE.................................................................................... 346
RULE/RULE OF DYNAMIC DIFFERENCE IN GROUP STRUCTURE,
PERIPHERAL VERSUS CENTRAL....................................................................346
RULE/PERFORMANCE................................................... 346
RULE / RULE OF COACTION OF THE RESEARCHER
WITH GROUP...................................................................... 346
RULE/RULE OF GRADUAL INCLUSION OF ALL
EXTRANEOUS CRITERIA................................................. 347
RULE/RULE OF THE WARMING UP PROCESS OR
ACTIVE PRODUCTIVITY.................................................. 347
RULE /RULE OF UNIVERSAL PARTICIPATION IN
ACTION................................................................................ 347
SCIENCE............................................................................. 348
SCIENCE/CRITICISM AGAINST ...................................... 348
SCIENCE/GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC PRACTICE
VALIDATION...................................................................... 349
SCIENCE/HUMAN NARCISSISM..................................... 349
SCIENCE/MAGIC BELIEFS............................................... 350
SCIENCE/MORENO - SCIENTIST .................................... 350
SCIENCE/PSYCHODRAMATIC METHOD AND
OBJECTIVITY..................................................................... 351
SELF..................................................................................... 353
SELF/ACTOR/OBSERVER ................................................ 353
SELF/CREATIVE................................................................. 354
SELF/DEFINITION.............................................................. 354
SELF/PARTIAL SELF/MANY SELVES............................ 355
SELF/MEASURING............................................................. 356
SELF/STRUCTURE OFF THE SELF ................................. 356
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SELFISHNESS.................................................................... 357
SEXUALITY ....................................................................... 357
SITUATION MATRIX....................................................... 358
SITUATION TEST............................................................... 358
SLANG................................................................................. 358
SOCIAL ATOM (SEE ATOM/SOCIAL)......................... 358
SOCIAL ATOM/PSYCHOSIS............................................. 358
SOCIAL CHANGE............................................................. 359
SOCIAL DISTANCE.......................................................... 360
SOCIAL ENTROPY .......................................................... 360
SOCIAL FUNCTION VERSUS PSYCHOLOGICAL
FUNCTION ......................................................................... 361
SOCIAL QUOTIENT......................................................... 361
SOCIAL REALITY ............................................................ 361
SOCIAL TRICOTOMY..................................................... 362
SOCIATRY.......................................................................... 363
SOCIATRY/HYPOTHESES................................................ 363
SOCIATRY/SOCIOMETRY................................................ 364
SOCIODRAMA .................................................................. 364
SOCIODRAMA/GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY.................. 364
SOCIODRAMA/GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/INDIVIDUAL
PSYCHOTHERAPY/COLLECTIVE GROUP
PSYCHOTHERAPY ........................................................... 365
SOCIODRAMA/ROOTS...................................................... 366
SOCIODRAMA/SUBJECT.................................................. 366
SOCIODRAMA/TEACHING TECHNIQUE ...................... 366
SOCIODRAMATIST ......................................................... 367
SOCIODYNAMIC EFFECT ............................................. 367
SOCIOGENICS/EUGENICS ............................................ 368
SOCIOGRAM..................................................................... 368
SOCIOGRAM/OBSERVER................................................. 369
SOCIOID ............................................................................. 369
SOCIOMATRIX................................................................. 370
SOCIOMETRIC AND SOCIOGENIC DEMOCRACY. 370
SOCIOMETRIC CLASSIFICATION.............................. 370
SOCIOMETRIC CLASSIFICATION/COMMON TERMS 371
SOCIOMETRIC CONSCIOUSNESS............................... 371
SOCIOMETRIC GEOGRAPHY...................................... 372
27
SOCIOMETRIC INVESTIGATOR ................................ 372
SOCIOMETRIC LEADER................................................ 373
SOCIOMETRIC LEVELS ................................................ 374
SOCIOMETRIC MATRIX................................................ 374
SOCIOMETRIC MOVEMENT/HELPERS .................... 375
SOCIOMETRIC QUESTIONNAIRE ............................. 376
SOCIOMETRIC SCORE .................................................. 376
SOCIOMETRIC STATUS................................................. 377
SOCIOMETRIC STATUS/ACCIDENT PRONENESS ...... 377
SOCIOMETRIC STRUCTURES...................................... 377
SOCIOMETRIC TEST/SOCIOMETRIC SELF-RATING
............................................................................................... 378
SOCIOMETRIC TEST/SOCIOMETRIC SELFRATING/
SOCIOMETRIC PERCEPTION TEST ............... 379
SOCIOMETRIC TRANSPLANTATION/SOCIOMETRIC
ASSIGNMENT.................................................................... 380
ASSIGNMENT/ASSIGNMENT VALUE............................ 380
SOCIOMETRIC TWINS ................................................... 381
SOCIOMETRY................................................................... 381
SOCIOMETRY/ADVANTAGES ........................................ 381
SOCIOMETRY/ATTRACTION AND REPULSION ......... 382
SOCIOMETRY/CONCEPT ................................................. 382
SOCIOMETRY /CURRENT SOCIOMETRIC TERMS
COINED BY J. L. MORENO............................................... 383
SOCIOMETRY/CURRENT SOCIOMETRIC TERMS
INTRODUCED BY OTHER ............................................... 383
SOCIOMETRY/ETHICS...................................................... 384
SOCIOMETRY/HISTORY .................................................. 384
SOCIOMETRY/HYPOTHESES.......................................... 385
SOCIOMETRY/QUANTITATIVE EXACTNESS ............. 387
SOCIOMETRY/RELIGION................................................. 387
SOCIOMETRY/SUBJECT................................................... 388
SOCIOMETRY /THREE DEPARTMENTS OF RESEARCH
............................................................................................... 388
SOCIOMETRY/TRAINING THE SOCIOMETRIC
INVESTIGATOR ................................................................. 388
SOCIOMETRY/URBANISM............................................... 389
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SOCIONOMIC HIERARQUY.......................................... 389
SOCIO-PSYCHODRAMA ................................................ 389
SOCIOSIS/SOCIOTIC....................................................... 390
SOCRATES/ROLE REVERSAL...................................... 390
SOLILOQUY ...................................................................... 391
SOLILOQUY/THERAPIST SOLILOQUY ......................... 391
SPACE FOR PSYCHODRAMA....................................... 391
SPEECH DISORDERS ..................................................... 392
SPONTANEITY.................................................................. 393
SPONTANEITY/CATHARSIS............................................ 393
SPONTANEITY/CONCEPT................................................ 393
SPONTANEITY/CONCEPT/BEGUININGS ...................... 394
SPONTANEITY/COUNTER SPONTANEITY................... 395
SPONTANEITY/CULTURAL CONSERVES .................... 395
SPONTANEITY/CURE ....................................................... 396
SPONTANEITY/DISCIPLINE ............................................ 396
SPONTANEITY/FEAR OF SPONTANEITY ..................... 396
SPONTANEITY/FORMS OF SPONTANEITY.................. 396
SPONTANEITY/FUTURE .................................................. 397
SPONTANEITY/OPERATIONAL DEFINITION ............. 399
SPONTANEITY/PATHOLOGY OF ................................... 399
SPONTANEITY/PHYLOGENY.......................................... 400
SPONTANEITY/RESIDUA OF SPONTANEITY ............. 401
SPONTANEITY/ROOTS OF THE WORD......................... 401
SPONTANEITY/S FACTOR/ENERGY/CATALYST........ 403
SPONTANEITY /S FACTOR/INTELLIGENCE
/CREATIVITY...................................................................... 405
SPONTANEITY/S FACTOR/PHYSICAL
DEVELOPMENT/MENTAL DEVELOPMENT................. 408
SPONTANEITY/SOCIOMETRIC NETWORK.................. 409
SPONTANEITY/SPONTANEITY STATE......................... 410
SPONTANEITY/TEST ........................................................ 412
SPONTANEITY/TEST/AUDIENCE................................... 414
SPONTANEITY/TEST/PROCEDURE................................ 414
SPONTANEITY/TEST/SAMPLE........................................ 414
SPONTANEITY/THEORIES ABOUT................................ 414
SPONTANEITY/TRAINING............................................... 415
SPONTANEITY/WARMING UP PROCESS...................... 418
29
STAGE ................................................................................. 419
STAGE/DIVÃ....................................................................... 419
STAGE/HISTORY ............................................................... 422
STANISLAVSKI................................................................. 423
STANISLAVSKI/CONSERVE............................................ 423
STANISLAVSKI/FREUD.................................................... 423
STANISLAVSKI/IMPROVISATION/AS A PRIMARY
PRINCIPLE .......................................................................... 424
STARTER............................................................................ 425
STARTER/BODILY STARTERS........................................ 425
STARTER/ECONOMIC STARTER.................................... 425
STARTER/MENTAL STARTER ........................................ 426
STARTER/RELATIONSHIP STARTER ............................ 426
STARTER/THERAPEUTIC IMAGES ................................ 427
STATUS .............................................................................. 427
STATUS/LEADERS ........................................................... 427
STATUS/NASCENDI .......................................................... 427
STATUS NASCENDI/LOCUS/MATRIX .......................... 428
STATUS/SOCIOMETRIC STATUS/EXPOSITION TO
INJURY................................................................................. 429
STATUS/SOCIOMETRIC STATUS/OPERATIONAL
DEFINITION ........................................................................ 429
STATUS/SOCIOMETRIC STATUS/PARTIALITY........... 429
STATUS/SOCIOMETRIC STATUS/STABILIZATION.... 429
STATUS/SOCIOMETRIC STATUS/VERBAL EXCHANGE
............................................................................................... 430
STATUS/SOCIOMETRIC STATUS/VOLUME OF
INTERACTIONS.................................................................. 431
STUTTERING..................................................................... 432
SUICIDE/TO COMMIT SUICIDE................................... 433
SULLIVAN.......................................................................... 434
SURPLUS REALITY ......................................................... 434
SURPRISE........................................................................... 434
TECHNIQUE (SEE PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE)
............................................................................................... 436
TECHNOLOGY.................................................................. 436
TECHNOLOGY/TECHNOLOGICAL DEVICES............... 436
TELE.................................................................................... 436
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TELE/ARISTOTELE............................................................ 436
TELE/AUTOTELE............................................................... 437
TELE/BEGINNINGS ........................................................... 439
TELE/COGNITIVEVERSUS CONATIVE TELE ............. 439
TELE/DEFINITIONS .......................................................... 440
TELE/DEVELOPMENT ...................................................... 442
TELE/GROUP TELE .......................................................... 443
TELE/INFRATELE.............................................................. 443
TELE/MUSICAL TELE....................................................... 444
TELE/PSYCHOTHERAPY.................................................. 444
TELE/RACIAL TELE ......................................................... 445
TELE/ROOTS OF THE NAME .......................................... 445
TELE/SEXUAL TELE ......................................................... 446
TELE/SIXTY SENSE/HEIGHTENED SENSITIVITY....... 446
TELE/SOCIAL ATOM......................................................... 448
TELE/SOCIOMETRIC SELF-RATING.............................. 448
TELE/SPONTANEITY VERSUS CREATIVITY............... 449
TELE/TELE EFFECT........................................................... 450
TELE/TELE FACTOR ......................................................... 450
TELE/TELE MATRIX/ACTION MATRIX ........................ 450
TELE/TELE VERSUS GENE.............................................. 451
TELE/TRANSFERENCE/EMPATHY ................................ 451
TELEVISION...................................................................... 453
TELEVISION/ADVANTAGES........................................... 454
TELEVISION/DIRECTOR .................................................. 454
TELEVISION/FUTURE....................................................... 455
TELEVISION/GRATITUDE ............................................... 455
TELEVISION/LIMITATIONS ............................................ 455
TELEVISION/RESEARCH ................................................. 456
TELEVISION/TECHNOLOGY/PSYCHODRAMA .......... 456
TEST .................................................................................... 456
TEST/ACQUAINTANCE TEST.......................................... 456
TEST/ACQUAINTANCE TEST/USES............................... 457
TEST/ACTION PERCEPTION TEST ................................. 458
TEST/QUOTATION TEST.................................................. 458
TEST/ROLE/CONCEPT ...................................................... 458
TEST/ROLE/METHOD ....................................................... 459
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC PERCEPTION TEST .................... 459
31
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC SELFRATING/SOCIOMETRIC
PERCEPTION....................................................................... 459
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/SUPPLEMENTARY
TECHNIQUES...................................................................... 459
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/ADVANTAGES.................. 460
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/ATTRACTION AND
REPULSION ........................................................................ 460
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/CONCEPT........................... 461
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/LIMITS................................ 462
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/MAIN SUBJECT................. 462
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/NEAR-SOCIOMETRIC
SITUATIONS ...................................................................... 463
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/PHASES OF THE TEST .... 463
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/REQUISITIONS ................. 464
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/RESISTANCE .................... 465
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/SOCIOMETRIC
CONSCIOUSNESS ............................................................. 466
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/SOCIOMETRIC SCORE ... 467
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/SOCIOMETRIC SELFRATING/
SOCIOMETRIC PERCEPTION TEST (SEE IN
SOCIOMETRIC TEST/SOCIOMETRIC SELFRATING/
SOCIOMETRIC PERCEPTION TEST) .............. 467
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/SUB-GROUPS ................... 468
TEST/SPONTANEITY (see in spontaneity/test).................. 468
TEST/SPONTANEITY/AUDIENCE (see in
spontaneity/test/audience) ..................................................... 468
TEST/SPONTANEITY/PROCEDURE (see in
4spontaneity/test/procedure) ................................................. 468
TEST/TEST OF EMOTIONAL EXPANSIVENESS (A158see
in emotional expansiveness/testing)...................................... 468
THEATRE OF SPONTANEITY....................................... 469
THEATRE OF SPONTANEITY/AIMS............................... 469
THEATRE OF SPONTANEITY/ARTISTS,
PSYCHOLOGISTS AND ANALYSTS THAT BELONG TO
THE STEGREIFTHEATER................................................. 469
THEATRE OF SPONTANEITY/AUDIENCE THEATRE 470
THEATRE OF SPONTANEITY/CONCEPT....................... 470
THEATRE OF SPONTANEITY/FUNCTIONS OF ............ 471
Rosa Cukier
32
THEATRE OF SPONTANEITY/ IMPROMPTU THEATRE
............................................................................................... 472
THEATRE OF SPONTANEITY/PREMISES...................... 473
THEATRE OF SPONTANEITY/PROBLEMS WITH THE
AUDIENCE ......................................................................... 473
THEATRE OF SPONTANEITY/THE LEGITIMATE
THEATRE ............................................................................ 474
THEATRE OF SPONTANEITY/THEATRE OF CONFLICT
............................................................................................... 475
THEOMETRY .................................................................... 475
THEORY ............................................................................. 475
THEORY/PSYCHODRAMA .............................................. 475
THEORY / THEORY OF INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS
............................................................................................... 476
THEORY/THEORY OF SPONTANEOUS LEARNING.... 476
THERAPEUTIC AGENT.................................................. 477
THERAPEUTIC THEATER............................................. 477
THERAPEUTIC THEATRE/CONCEPT............................. 477
THERAPEUTIC THEATRE/THEATRE OF SPONTANEITY
............................................................................................... 479
THERAPIST/PSYCHODRAMA ...................................... 479
THEATRE/THERAPY ..................................................... 479
THERAPIST/PSYCHODRAMA/INVOLVEMENT........... 480
THERAPY........................................................................... 481
THERAPY/AT A DISTANCE ............................................. 481
THERAPY/INTERPERSONAL........................................... 481
THERAPY/INTERPERSONAL/MORENO ........................ 481
THERAPY/INTERPERSONAL/SULLIVAN...................... 482
TOTALITY OF HUMAN SOCIETY .............................. 482
TOYS.................................................................................... 482
TOYS/DOLLS ...................................................................... 482
TRANSFERENCE.............................................................. 484
TRANSFERENCE/COUNTER-TRANSFERENCE............ 484
TRANSFERENCE/TRANSFIGURATION ......................... 485
TRANSFORMATION HUNGER .................................... 485
TRAUMA............................................................................. 485
TREMBLING...................................................................... 486
TRIAD/THERAPEUTIC TRIAD ..................................... 486
33
UNCONSCIOUS ................................................................. 486
UNCONSCIOUS/BEGINNINGS OF THE CONCEPT....... 486
UNCONSCIOUS/COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS........... 487
UNCONSCIOUS/COMMON UNCONSCIOUS/C0-
UNCONSCIOUS .................................................................. 487
UNCONSCIOUS/CRITICISM AGAINST JUNG ............... 490
UNIVERSAL AXIOMA..................................................... 490
UNIVERSE/FIRST UNIVERSE........................................ 491
UTOPIA/MORENIAN UTOPIA....................................... 491
UTOPIA/MORENIAN UTOPIA/SOCIOMETRIC TEST... 491
UTOPIA/MORENIAN UTOPIA/TELE............................... 493
UTOPIA/MORENIAN UTOPIA/THERAPY ...................... 493
VISUALIZATION/BEGINNINGS OF NA INTERNAL
PSYCHODRAMA............................................................... 494
WARMING UP PROCESS................................................ 495
WARMING UP PROCESS/ABORTIVE............................. 496
WARMING UP PROCESS/ACTORS ................................ 496
WARMING UP PROCESS/ACTORS/BODY TRAINING OF
............................................................................................... 496
WARMING UP PROCESS/BEGINNING........................... 497
WARMING UP PROCESS/DIRECTOR ............................. 497
WARMING UP PROCESS/FEED-BACK........................... 497
WARMING UP PROCESS/FOR GROUPS ........................ 498
WARMING UP PROCESS / INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
............................................................................................... 499
WARMING UP PROCESS/LOVE....................................... 499
WARMING UP PROCESS/MISSING OF .......................... 499
WARMING UP PROCESS/SPONTANEITY...................... 499
WARMING UP PROCESS/STARTER/CATEGORIES/BODY
POSITION GENERATING EMOTIONS............................ 500
WARMING UP
PROCESS/STARTER/CATEGORIES/OVERHEATED -
RUDIMENTARY................................................................ 501
WARMING UP
PROCESS/STARTER/CATEGORIES/PHYSICAL ........... 502
Rosa Cukier
34
WARMING UP
PROCESS/STARTER/CATEGORIES/PHYSICAL VERSUS
VERBAL .............................................................................. 503
WARMING UP
PROCESS/STARTER/CATEGORIES/PHYSICAL/MENTAL VERSUS
PHYSICAL WARM UP..............................................................................................503
WARMING UP
PROCESS/STARTER/CATEGORIES/SELFSTARTER.......................................................
......................
503
WITHDRAWAL FROM REALITY ................................ 504
WORD.................................................................................. 504
WORDS/WORDS VERSUS ACTION ................................ 504
ZONES................................................................................. 506
ZONES/LOCUS NASCENDI/WARMING UP PROCESS. 506
ZOOMATICS...................................................................... 507
ZOOMATICS/ROBOTS ...................................................... 507
ZOOMATICS/ROBOTS/DOLLS ........................................ 509
ZOOMATICS/ROBOTS/FUTURE...................................... 509
ZOOMATICS/ROBOTS/HOW TO LEAVE WITH THEM 509
ZOOMATICS/ROBOTS/PHATOLOGICAL
CONSEQUENCES............................................................... 510
ZOOMATICS/ROBOTS/REAZONS FOR IT´S INVENTION
............................................................................................... 510
ZOOMATICS/ROBOTS/ROBOTS IMORTALITY............ 511
35
A
ABREACTION
... A variety of improvisation is often called “abreaction.”
Whereas improvisation has an esthetic aim and is characterized
by some degree of freedom, abreaction has no conscious esthetic
aim, it is unfroze and compulsory. Both have a low degree of
mental organization.
Theatre of Spontaneity p. 79
El Teatro de la Espontaneidad p. 141
Teatro da Espontaneidade p. 96
Psychodramatic production consists of structured scenes,
each scene of structured roles, and each role of structured
interactions. The various abreactions are obviously interwoven
into a symphony of gestures, emotion, strivings and interactions.
Several individuals – the protagonist, the auxiliary egos, the
director, and the group – take part in their development. A great
deal of emotion, thinking, a scientific and artistic skill goes into
their making.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. xii
Psicoterapia de Grupo y Psicodrama p. 368 (Similar)
Psicoterapia de Grupo e Psicodrama p. 349 (Similar)
ACT HUNGER
Hypothesis VI: The “act hunger” of an individual is
continuously looking for situational opportunities for expression.
Psychodrama v. 2 p. 98
Las Bases de la Psicoterapia p. 166
Fundamentos do Psicodrama p. 114
15. The memory of the child is in his act, not in his memory. The
act hunger of the child causes his memory to be short-lived. The
acts follow one another so swiftly that the memory spans
between them are short.
17. Hunger for expression is act hunger before it is word hunger.
18. The infant is so immersed in the act that he has no memory
of it after it has been consummated. As the intensity of the act
Rosa Cukier
36
hunger syndrome decreases, the memory range of the child
increases.
Psychodrama v. 2 pp. 156-157
17. Hunger for expression is act hunger before it is word hunger.
Psicoterapia de Grupo e Psicodrama p. 239
ACTING-OUT
... The confusion here is particularly increased by the different
meanings of the term “acting out”. When I introduced this term
(1928), it meant acting that out which is within the patient, in
contrast to acting a role which is assigned to a patient by an
outsider. It did not mean that they should not be acted out
because they camouflage a form of resistance of the patient
(psychoanalytic view). I meant just the opposite – that they
should be acted out because they may represent important inner
experiences of the patient which otherwise remain camouflaged
and difficult if not impossible to interpret. In psychodramatic
thinking, acting from within, or acting out, is a necessary phase
in the progress of therapy; it gives the therapist an opportunity to
evaluate the behavior of the patient and gives the patient a
chance to evaluate it for himself (acting insight).
Psychodrama v. 1 p. x
Psicoterapia de Grupo y Psicodrama p. 367
The whole problem of noninvolvement goes back to the
original attitude of many of the early psychoanalysts – fear of
direct love or direct hostility, their fear of acting out of the
patients toward them and their own acting out toward the
patients. The confusion here is particularly increased by the
different meanings of the term “acting out”. When I introduced
this term (1928), it meant acting that out which is within the
patient, in contrast to acting a role which is assigned to a patient
37
by an outsider. It did not mean that they should not be acted out
because they camouflage a form or resistance of the patient
(psychoanalytic view). I meant just the opposite – that they
should be acted out because they may represent important inner
experiences of the patient which otherwise remain camouflaged
and difficult if not impossible to interpret. In psychodramatic
thinking, acting from within, or acting out, is a necessary phase
in the progress of therapy; it gives the therapist an opportunity to
evaluate the behavior of the patient and gives the patient a
chance to evaluate it for himself (acting insight).
Psicodrama (Spanish) there is none
Psicodrama p. 34
... He has the urge to act-out the situation, to structure an
episode; to act-out means to “live it”, to structure it more
thoroughly than life outside would permit. The problem he has is
often shared by all the members of the group.
Psicodrama Espanhol p. 308
... Hypothesis VIII: Acting out of a situation in a controlled
environment can be a preventive measure against irrational
acting out in life itself.
ACTING OUT/TWO TYPES IRRATIONAL X
THERAPEUTIC
... But if natural behavior is persistently prohibited, the
psychodramatic effort is in danger of deteriorating to a game of
words, a parlor game without feeling and with reduced
therapeutic value. In order to overcome the semantic confusion I
suggested the we differentiate two types of acting out, irrational,
incalculable acting out in life itself, harmful to the patient or
Rosa Cukier
38
others, and therapeutic, controlled acting out taking place within
the treatment setting.
Psicodrama pp. 34-35
... It is advisable, therefore, to differentiate between controllable
forms of acting out taking place within the framework of the
therapeutic situation, which have a constructive aim, and
uncontrollable, irrational acting out outside of it. By making
acting out techniques official and legitimate parts of therapy the
patient will expect to act out in front of the therapist the various
fantasies and plans which urge him at the moment, instead of
frustrating them and turning them into resistance against cure.
The aim of the therapeutic methods must be to provide the
patients with a variety of flexible settings able to portray the
“multi-dimensional” character of life.
Espanhol p. 166
... In order to overcome the semantic confusion I suggested the
we differentiate two types of acting out, irrational, incalculable
acting out in life itself, harmful to the patient or others, and
therapeutic, controlled acting out taking place within the
treatment setting.
Psicoterapia de Grupo y Psicodrama p.367
Psicoterapia de Grupo y Psicodrama p.348
ACTION INSIGHT
... In psychodramatic thinking, acting from within, or acting out,
is a necessary phase in the progress of therapy; it gives the
therapist an opportunity to evaluate the behavior of the patient
and gives the patient a chance to evaluate if for himself (action
insight).
39
Psychodrama v.1, p. x Introduction to 3rd Edition
Psicodrama p. 34, Introdução à 3ª Edição original Inglês
ACTOR
The internal, material structure of the group is only in rare
instances visible on the surface of social interaction; and if it is
so, no one knows for certain that the surface structure is the
duplicate of the depth structure. In order, therefore, to produce
conditions by means of which the depth structure may become
visible – operationally the “organisms” of the group have to turn
into “actors”; they have to emerge presently in behalf of a
common goal, a point of reference (criterion), and the
“environment” of “field” has to turn into specific, action-filled
situations, charged with motivating provocations. ...The
organism in the field becomes “the actor in situ”. Whole
cultures can be “acted out” piecemeal in the experimental
settings of axiodrama and sociodrama, with protagonists as
creators and interpreters.
Who Shall Survive? pp. 60-61
Fundamentos de la Sociometria p. 66
Quem Sobreviverá? v.1 p. 165
ADEQUACY OF RESPONSE
Adequacy of response. The fourth consideration is that of
appropriateness. A man can be creative, original, or dramatic,
but not always have spontaneously an appropriate response to
new situations. ...There are three possible responses an
individual may show in a novel situation confronting him:
a. No response in a situation. This means that no s factor is in
evidence...
b. An old response to a new situation. ... – a response for which
there was no precedent – it is here where the s factor comes
into being, in the inventiveness of engineers and in the
organization of their ideas.
c. New response to a new situation. ...A new response cannot
be produced without s, although others factors must
participate, such as intelligence, memory, etc.
Rosa Cukier
40
Thus the response to a novel situation requires a sense of
timing, an imagination for appropriateness, an originality of selfpropelling
in emergencies, for which a special s function must be
made responsible. It is a plastic adaptation skill, a mobility and
flexibility of the self, which is indispensable to a rapidly
growing organism in a rapidly changing environment.
Psicodrama (Spanish) pp. 139-140
ADLER
(4) The question of how Adler would react to the application of
interpersonal techniques to the treatment of ensembles and
groups is easier to answer. I knew well personally and am sure
that he would have accepted most of these techniques with
enthusiasm. He was sympathetic to all therapeutic and social
investigations, as long, of course, as they gave proper
acknowledgment to his “Individual Psychologie”.
... It cannot be denied that Adler emphasized the importance of
social relations in the therapy of mental disorders long before
others and at a time when psychoanalytic writers were stuck in
the sterile discussion of intrapsychic conflicts. But, on the other
hand, the weakness in Adler was great and explains the
difficulties he encounters in finding a place “outside” of the
Freudian orbit. He was primarily a keen observer and analyst of
behavior, but he never developed a technology of his own, he
was a poor stylist, a fragmentary, aphoristic thinker, unable to
arrange his brilliant ideas into an organized whole.
Psicoterapia de Grupo e Psicodrama pp. 147-148
41
ADULTS VERSUS CHILDREN
A cleavage between groups of children and groups of adults
emerges – a social cleavage, from about six to seven years on. It
coincides in our culture with going to school, but because of the
potential readiness of the group structures formed at this age
such a social cleavage would set in and grow in any other
environment, even if there were no schools – as soon as
“permanent” contacts with peers becomes possible in one way or
another outside of the home.
Who Shall Survive? p. 701
Fundamentos de la Sociometria p. não há
Quem Sobreviverá? v.3, p. 190
AMBICENTRIC CRISIS
The first spontaneous enactment of a theme is the most
effective. The more often the same theme is improvised the
poorer, the more empty becomes the performance, in spite of the
gradually developed routine. And the more often one and the
same theme is repeated, the more the memory of the player goes
back to former parallel conditions; and the stronger this memory
grows the more violent a searching for the words once spoken
and the gestures once made sets in, in consequence of psychic
inertia. … Two simultaneous and opposite tendencies are in
process, and the more energetic these are, the more desperate is
the crisis. One tendency is centered on the same state by the
traitor memory. (The memory of the player corresponds to the
memoranda of the prepared speech in the case of the orator in his
vain endeavor to recall what he has forgotten.) The second
tendency is directed to the unknown material in order to find a
stop-gap in the depths, or, if need be, to find a suitable catchphrase
floating near the surface, in the vain effort to create
something new. This collision can be called the ambicentric
crisis.
Psicodrama (Spanish) p. 206
Psicodrama p. 202
Rosa Cukier
42
AMBIVALENCE OF CHOICE
28. Hypothesis of “ambivalence” of choice. When an individual
chooses and rejects another individual in the same test the causes
may vary. a) Two or more criteria enter into their relationship
and mix up their feelings, for instance, A chooses B because he
is sexually attracted to her, but he rejects her because she is a
Negro. Here a private and a collective criterion are in conflict
and produce an ambivalent choice. Another illustration is: A
chooses B as a working partner but he rejects him as a
roommate; the ambivalence is explained if the two criteria are
separated and two different tests constructed. However, if a
vague criterion is used, for instance, “Who is your best friend
here?” an ambivalent choice might result. In this manner
sociometric analysis is able to resolve so-called unconscious
psychodynamics. b) If an individual is attracted to three
individuals for the same reason and with equal strength he may
put them on the same preference level. He will then have three
first choices. But he has to decide upon one person whom he
actually marries; that may produce some degree of resentment
against the one whom he does marry because he could not marry
all the three choices, at least in our culture and so ambivalence
of feeling ensues. c) The ambivalence is at times due to the
mixing up for roles in a sociometric choice, for instance, she is
attracted to him as a provider, she rejects his as a lover, she is
attracted to him as the father of her child, she rejects him
because he is the son of her mother-in-law and she rejects him
because he is a half-Jew. We see here that many factors enter
into a “choice”; private and collective criteria, physical and
axiological criteria. But whatever the dynamic factors are which
enter into choice-making, the fact that a specific choice and
decision is made by an individual indicates that the quantitative
strength is, at least at the time when the test is given, in favor of
the particular individual chosen. d) The ambivalence may be due
to internal criteria, to the autotele structure in mental patients.
43
ANIMISM
... It was the destiny of the scientific mind to destroy magic
beliefs and to pay with a loss of spontaneity, imagination and a
divided philosophy of life. ... Science fiction is but one
illustration, Walt Disney’s fabulous world of animated
characters is another; it is the use of auxiliary egos on the level
of motion pictures. The auxiliary ego technique itself is a form
of primitive “psycho”-animism. The techniques of the animistic
philosopher rejected by analytic anthropologists as infantile
magic is returning on the therapeutic level and has been made
productive in psychodrama. It is the return of magic methods of
the early cultures in a scientific age in behalf of new objectives.
Las Bases de la Psicoterapia pp. 253-254
ANONYMITY
All my books (nine) published between 1919 and 1925, were
anonymous. The greatest plague of the twentieth century is its
worship of the ego, its “egolatry”. Anonymity is the natural
reaction against it.
Who Shall Survive? p. xxxvii Preludes
Quem Sobreviverá? v. 1 pp. 41-42 Prelúdios
... But nature did not arrange that several women should share in
the conception and pregnancy of an infant, although it is feasible
for society to arrange that several women share in its upbringing.
...In our own civilization efforts have been made to counteract
the special position, which the physical mother and the “cultural
mother”- as a genius could be called – hold in our society. … On
the cultural level too, many efforts have been made to counteract
the special position of genius; one method is well know as the
scientific method, which is the organized revolt of mediocrity
against genius “in the name of science”. Another method, little
understood, is the method of anonymity. … If there is no name
attached to a given product no ownership and no paternity is
Rosa Cukier
44
claimed. The origin of an idea is removed from an individual
creator and is returned to universality.
Who Shall Survive? pp. xxxviii-xxxix Preludes
Quem Sobreviverá? v. 1 p. 43 Prelúdios
ANTEROS
In Greek mythology Eros is the god of love and Eris is the
god of discord. Less well known is the interesting brother of
Eros, Anteros, the god of mutual love. That is how the Greeks
accounted for the forces of attraction and repulsion among men.
Quem Sobreviverá? v. 2 p. 126
ANXIETY
... But the individual craves to embody far more roles than those
he is allowed to act out in life, and even within the same role one
or more varieties of it. Every individual is filled with different
roles in which he wants to become active and that are present in
him in different stages of development. It is from the active
pressure which these multiple individual units exert upon the
manifest official role that a feeling of anxiety is often produced.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. V
Psicodrama (Spanish) no há
Psicodrama p. 28
ANXIETY/FEAR
Anxiety is cosmic; fear is situational. Anxiety is provoked by a
cosmic hunger to maintain identity with the entire universe
(perhaps to restore the original identity of the infant in the matrix
of identity).
45
ANXIETY/SCHIZOPHRENIA
VI. ORIGINS OF ANXIETY AND THE
“TRANSFORMATION HUNGER” IN SCHIZOPHRENIA
of identity). This cosmic hunger manifests itself in a)
“retrojection”, drawing and receiving from other organisms
signals, ideas or feelings, to add strength to the self (expansion)
or to find identity with himself (confirmation); or b) dread of all
organisms with whom he cannot co-act and share existence;
psychodramatically speaking, with whom he cannot reverse
roles. These dreads are provoked by his desire to be transformed
into them as his only definite assurance of having identity. The
cosmic hunger of the child strives towards “world” realization.
Self realization is only a stage in-between.
Psicoterapia de Grupo y Psicodrama pp. 253-254
ANXIETY/TIME ANXIETY
Psychodrama v. 1 pp. 185-220 (A case of Anxiety Neurosis
Complicated by Matrimonial Conflict.)
Psicoterapia Grupo y Psicodrama pp. 280-313
Psicoterapia de Grupo e Psicodrama pp. 266-295 (Case
Robert)
... His problem is a “time” anxiety. In his anxiety he inflicts pain
upon himself, and, if necessary, upon others. As he wants to use
allotted time most efficiently, he wastes it.
... Anxiety results from “loss” of spontaneity.
Rosa Cukier
46
Anxiety is a function of spontaneity. ... If the response to the
present situation is adequate – “fullness” of spontaneity –
anxiety diminishes and disappears. With decrease of spontaneity
anxiety increases. With entire loss of spontaneity anxiety reaches
its maximum, the point of panic.
... Anxiety sets in because there is spontaneity missing, not
because “there is anxiety”, and spontaneity dwindles because
anxiety rises.
ARISTOTELE (see TELE/ARISTOTELE)
ATOGRAM
…The therapist utilizes this and other similar guidelines to a
better understanding of the group atogram and the group
sociogram and consequently, to a better understanding of these
clients.
In “Friedmann, Psychotherapy in Switzerland” pp. 321-322.
“Progress in Psychotherapy” Ed. Frieda From Reichmann
and J. L. Moreno, Grune & Stratton, New York, 1956.
These methods were utilized in Switzerland by A.
Friedmann (Biel-Bienne) and H. Zulliger in groups of children..
The “atogram” of Friedemann (it is a modification of mine
action diagram that he combines with the sociogram), it is a high
valuable method of diagnostic. Friedemann was the first
European psychiatrist that used in 1926, the Psychodramatic
methods in psychiatric clients, based on my book about the
theatre of improvisation.
47
In “Friedmann, Psychotherapy in Switzerland” pp. 321-322.
“Progress in Psychotherapy” Ed. Frieda From Reichmann
and J. L. Moreno, Grune & Stratton, New York, 1956.
ATOM
Atom is derived from a Greek word “atoms” meaning “any very
small thing”. The term was introduced into scientific language
by Democritos.
ATOM/CULTURAL
… 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.
Psicodrama p. 135
… The use here of the word “atom” can be justified if we
consider a cultural atom as the smallest functional unit within a
cultural pattern. The adjective “cultural” can be justified when
we consider roles and relationships between roles as the most
significant development within any specific culture (regardless
of what definition is given to culture by any school of thought).
Psicomúsica y Sociodrama p. 128, Horme
... The focal pattern of role-relations around an individual is
called his cultural atom. We are here coining a new term,
“cultural atom”, since we know of no other which expressed this
peculiar phenomenon of role relationships. Obviously, the term
is selected as an analogue to the term “social atom”. The use of
Rosa Cukier
48
the word “atom” here can be justified if we consider a cultural
atom as the smallest functional unit within a cultural pattern. The
adjective “cultural” can be justified when we consider roles and
relationships between roles as the most significant development
within any specific culture. The socio-atomic organization of a
group cannot be separated from its cultural-atomic organization.
The social and cultural atoms are manifestations of the same
social reality.
ATOM/SOCIAL
The social atom is the nucleus of all individuals toward
whom a person is emotionally related or who are related to him
at the same time. It is the smallest nucleus of an emotionally
toned inter-personal pattern in the social universe. The social
atom reaches as far as one’s tele reaches other persons. It is
therefore also called the tele range of an individual. It has an
important operational function in the formation of a society.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. 184 (footnote)
Psicodrama Espanhol p. 254 (footnote)
Psicodrama p. 239 (footnote)
47. Our social atoms and the changes which are registered in
them are continuously interiorated as well as exteriorated. In the
course of sociometric interiorization the individual has all the
individuals of his social atom and the relations between them
interiorated. He can “send” messages (choice and rejections) out
to them and can receive them without any external exchange
taking place.
Quem Sobreviverá? v. 3 pp. 205-206
...Viewing the detailed structure of a community we see the
concrete position of every individual in it, also, a nucleus of
relations around every individual which is “thicker” around
49
some individuals, “thinner” around others. This nucleus of
relations is the small social structure in a community, a social
atom.
A social atom is thus composed of numerous tele structures;
social atoms are again parts of still a larger pattern, the
sociometric networks which bind or separate large groups of
individuals due to their tele relationships. Sociometric networks
are parts of a still larger unit, the sociometric geography of a
community. A community is again part of the largest
configuration, the sociometric totality of human society itself.
... Perhaps a mind not distracted by the gross facts in society will
be able to discover the smallest living social unit, itself not
further divisible, the social atom.
... A person needs a number of other persons to accomplish his
ends and the other persons need him to help them accomplish
theirs. The problem would have a simple solution, then, if all the
persons concerned mutually reciprocated.
...The central social atom appears surrounded with planetary
social configurations but each of these planetary social atoms
themselves are like the central suns, each surrounded with
numerous planetary social atoms, and so forth, ad infinitum.
Rosa Cukier
50
Fundamentos de la Sociometria p. 207-208
... It is as if a director of a great theater has evolved a succession
of most colorful and attractive settings and scenes, masks of
heroes and dialogues of eternity to distract our minds from the
facts beneath. Similarly, on the stage of the social universe,
millions of kinds and varieties of collectives, families, schools,
factories, churches, nations, are spread before our eye in most
fascinating patterns; we are ourselves actors on this stage and as
if by blind necessity, we ceaselessly and indeterminately
continue to bring forth ever new collectives to resign as others
fade. Because we are ourselves enmeshed in this network it has
been so hard to break the door to the actual world beneath, to
recognize the human universe in all its forms as a summation,
interpenetration and dynamic multiplication of social atoms.
... The total social atom of an individual is multi-criterial.
However, it may well be that there are individuals who are
found, at certain points of time in their lifeline, to be unchosen in
regard to all the criteria in which they are involved.
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.
51
7. The hypothesis of the social atom states that a) an individual
is tied to his social atom as closely as to his body; b) as he
moves from an old to a new community it changes its
membership but its constellation tends to be constant.
Notwithstanding that it is a novel social structure into which he
has entered, the social atom has a tendency to repeat its former
constellation; its concrete, individual members have changed but
the pattern persists.
8. Ratio of acquaintance volume to social atom volume.
a) The social atom volume of an individual increases in direct
proportion to his acquaintance volume.
b) The individual whose acquaintance volume and social atom
volume are constantly identical approximates an ideal
sociometric status; for him no social contact is lost, each turn
immediately into a social reality.
Who shall survive? pp. 705-706
The social atom is that peculiar pattern of inter-personal
relations which develops from the time of human birth. It first
contains mother and child. As times goes on, it adds from the
persons who come into child’s orbit such persons as are
unpleasant or pleasant to him, and vice-versa, those to whom he
is unpleasant or pleasant.
J. L. Moreno, Psychodramatic Shock Therapy, A
Sociometric Approach to the Problem of Mental Disorders in
“Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama” v. xxvii, nº 1-4,
1974, p. 3
Rosa Cukier
52
ATTENTION
(...) Immediately before the beginning of an actor or of a speech
attention is divided into two portions, one upon the outside,
centering upon the external stimuli coming from the play
partners, the other to the preparatory initiation within himself,
his own productivity.
AUDIENCE
The theatre for spontaneity brings to the poet-dramatist an
old-new mission, the immediate contact with the people.
... The new poet-dramatist is not left to his own self-isolated
method of old, to choose ideas and dialogues which he alone
composes, condenses and finishes, but he synthesizes his
inspirations in front of the people and the desire to reach them
and to be in accord with them will push him, at least at times, to
the production and presentation of ideas which he may have
rejected if he would have carried on his work in the splendid
isolation of his cell.
Theatre of Spontaneity pp. 80-81
The fifth instrument is the audience. The audience itself has
a double purpose. It may serve to help the patient or, being itself
helped by the subject on the stage the audience becomes the
patient. In helping the patient it is a sounding board of public
opinion. Its responses and comments are as extemporaneous as
those of the patient, they may vary from laughter to violent
protest. The more isolated the patient is, for instance because his
drama on the stage is shaped by delusions and hallucinations, the
more important becomes, to him, the presence of an audience
which is willing to accept and understanding him. When the
audience is helped by the subject, thus becoming the patient
itself, the situation is reversed. The audience sees itself, that is,
one of its collective syndromes portrayed on the stage.
53
Psychodrama v. 1 p. c
Psicodrama Espanhol p. no há
Psicodrama p. 19
1) They were open, that is, problems which the audience
members raised were presented on the stage before them,
personal and social conflicts which heretofore were hidden in a
consultation office were brought out into the open; and 2)
spontaneous participation of the audience.
Who Shall Survive? p. xlii
AUDIENCE/AS THE PATIENT IN THE FILM
… The audience is really the patient for whom the film is made,
and the benefit it derives from it is the final test of the film’s
usefulness.
Psychodrama v.1 p. 390
Psicomúsica y Sociodrama pp. 94-94, Horme
Psicodrama p. 451
AUDIENCE/HOMOGENEOUS GROUP
... The audience must be built at times homogeneously around
certain mental syndromes, father-son conflicts, suicide conflicts,
and so forth.
Psicomúsica y Sociodrama p.201, Horme
Psicodrama p. 451
AUDIENCE/RELATIONSHIP DIRECTOR- AUDIENCE
It is the director himself or a special type of actor who
establishes the contact of the stage with the audience. Often he
appears at the proscenium when a drama has reached a climax or
crucial point, and confers with them about the possible
alternatives of solution which the conflict might have, asking
them which of the alternatives they themselves would like to see
portrayed. At times he may ask them whether they prefer a
Rosa Cukier
54
happy to a tragic solution, or whether they would prefer the play
to end with the conflict, without any solution.
... Here it is important that the director, too, be able to see every
spectator. This has two reasons; the polarity is double. The
psychodramatic director should see every member of the
audience and thus establish, if not more, at least an illusion of
direct communication with them; and it is of equal therapeutic
value that every spectator be able to see the director. A skilful
psychodramatic director should always create an illusion of
communication by letting his eyes pass over everyone in the
audience.
Psicodrama p. 383
AUTHORSHIP/MORENO
Because of the importance which my theory of interpersonal
relations plays in the psychotherapy of today, it is of interest to
point out the first systematic presentation of “The
Psychopathology of Interpersonal Relations” in literature. It
happened as recently as two decades ago and appeared in
Sociometry, a Journal of Interpersonal Relations, Volume I, and
pages 7 to 76, 1937. It contained the following terms and
concepts now widely circulated: interpersonal therapy (p. 9),
interpersonal neurosis (p. 11), interpersonal relationship
(between husband and wife or any other dynamic involvement
between people and not only between doctor and patient, p. 14),
interpersonal balance (p. 14), interpersonal catharsis (p. 22),
interpersonal tensions and maladjustments (p. 26), interpersonal
conflict (p. 46), interpersonal process (p.46), interpersonal
situation (p. 48), interpersonal analysis (p. 52), interpersonal
dynamics (p. 60), interpersonal crisis (p. 61), interpersonal
resistance (p. 63), interpersonal transference (p. 71),
interpersonal assignment (p. 73), interpersonal realities (p. 74),
55
the participant observer of the social laboratory (p. 209),
interpersonal structure (p. 214), interpersonal resistance (p. 219).
Fundamentos do Psicodrama pp. 250-251
AUTO-TELE (SEE TELE/AUTOTELE)
AUXILIARY-EGO
AUXILIARY EGO/ALTER-EGO
The “double situation” in psychodrama is a clinical technique in
which the client is interacting with his double, portrayed by an
alter (auxiliary) ego; it can also be used as an experimental
design, it provides an observer with an excellent opportunity for
the study of the interweaving of empathy and transference in the
tele process. Certain facts stand out and have been identified by
many observers.
A) There is the feeling in of the alter (auxiliary) ego into the
subject. The alter ego (therapist or counselor) is the active,
empathizing agent; the patient, client or subject is the object.
AUXILIARY-EGO/AUDIENCE EGOS
A term coined by Abraham L. Umansky, see “Psychodrama
and the Audience”, Sociometry, Volume VII, Nº 2, 1944.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. 387 (Footnote)
Psicodrama p. 447 Rodapé
… The audience egos, or short the audio-egos, react to roles, to
King Lear, Othello, Electra, or Hamlet, and to an actual setting
into which all these roles are interwoven.
Psychodrama v.1 p. 387-388
Rosa Cukier
56
Psicomúsica y Sociodrama p.196, Horme
Psicodrama p. 448
AUXILIARY EGO/AUDIO-EGOS
... The tele-empathy-transference complex undergoes a third
realignment of forces; it moves from the stage to the audience,
initiating among the audio-egos intensive relations.
… The citizen is his home should feel that he is taking part in the
session physically, he should feel that his own representative, an
audio ego, is acting in his behalf on the screen, on the stage as in
the audience. It produces not only the illusion of most intimate
personal participation in the psychodramatic session, but a form
of audience catharsis similar to the audience’s experience in
flesh and blood sessions.
Psicodrama p. 481
AUXILIARY-EGO/BEGINNING OF THE CONCEPT
... He was still the main agent in the process of healing. ... When
the interrelationships involved in a social neurosis became too
large, he was compelled to make use of other therapeutic agents
and to remove himself from the scene to become an auxiliary
ego at a distance.
Psicodrama p. 300
The director should work with the minimum expenditure of
emotional energy. Once a production has begun he should leave
its development to the subject. When and where guidance is
required he should leave this to the auxiliary ego co-acting in the
scenes. He should take advantage of the fact that the auxiliary
egos are extensions of his own self, permitting them to be
57
subjectively involved but keeping himself at a distance,
objective and uninvolved. This has the advantage that he is left
out of transference and tele relations but he can watch and
correct transference and tele relations which develop between
the subject and auxiliary egos on the stage in the course of
action. Many a time we have seen that the subject has fallen in
love with or has become dependent upon the auxiliary egos
working with him. This phenomenon which often becomes fatal
in the psychoanalytic situation can easily be corrected in
psychodramatic procedure because the chief engineer of therapy
himself is outside of the situation and can either change the role
and tactics of the auxiliary ego towards the subject or the
auxiliary ego can be replaced by another therapeutic actor.
Psicodrama p. 314
... There are four reasons why the auxiliary ego was introduced
into psychodramatic therapy, one was an economic reason. It
was because the physical distance made it impossible to bring
people who live far away to the scene. Two, a sociological
reason. The individuals who populate the private world of the
patient are prevented from participating by social obligations of
their own. Three, a psychological reason, it helped the therapist
not to get involved to maintain his objectivity and neutrality. The
auxiliary ego removes the therapist from the obligation to play a
part towards the patient. The chief therapist can afford to be
neutral and objective and it helps the patient to maintain a
reasonable psychological distance from him. Four, a therapeutic
reason, it is often preferable not to have the other real person
present.
Rosa Cukier
58
AUXILIARY-EGO/BEGINNING OF THE
CONCEPT/RESCUE PLAYER
The director of spontaneous production must be able to act
sub specie momenti. There are individuals who are more or less
talented for the job of director, but there are skills of directing
which can be learned. He has in the background a staff of
reserve players whom he sends out to the stage with a “saving
idea” in dangerous situations. When the director gives a rescue
signal the rescue players as well as the players on the stage know
that a crisis is imminent. ... The rescue player remains upon the
stage and takes part in the play until the critical phase has come
to an end.
... But the disturbance in a scene may be so great that the director
is forced to bring the play to a rapid ending – and still make the
play into an esthetic unity. Then he sends out a special type of
rescue player, the “end player.”
El Teatro de la Espontaneidad pp. 128-129
AUXILIARY-EGO/CLIENT AS AN AUXILIARY-EGO
... A particularly effective relationship found in psychodramatic
work is a reversal method, that is, letting an auxiliary ego be the
chief actor – the patient, the patient himself acting in a minor
role, like an auxiliary ego to himself.
Psicodrama p. 458
... The auxiliary egos are actors who represent absentee persons
as they appear in the private world of the patient. The best
auxiliary egos are former patients, who have made at least a
temporary recovery and professional therapeutic egos who come
from a sociocultural environment similar to the patient’s. if there
is a choice, “native” auxiliary egos are preferable to professional
egos, however, well trained the latter may be.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. xvii Introduction to 4th edition
59
Psicodrama p. 42 Introdução à 4ª Edição
AUXILIARY-EGO/CONCEPT
... “The tangible aspects of what is known as ‘ego’ are the roles
in which he operates...
Psicodrama p. 214
SAME IN
... We have called an extension of one’s ego, which is necessary
for his adequate living performance and which has to be
provided for him by a substitute person, an auxiliary ego.
Psicodrama p. 109
AUXILIARY EGO/CRITICISM AGAINST THE CLASSIC
PSYCHIATRIST
... The function of the psychiatrist once again had to be
considered. First we had found him wanting because of the rigid
office situation and because of his rigid role of physician. To
overcome this handicap we developed the function of the
auxiliary ego which we hoped would enlarge the scope and
increase the flexibility of his role.
Psicodrama p. 298
… Throughout all this we cherished the notion that the
psychiatrist alone is the healer, that all the therapeutic tele
derives from him and nowhere else is so concentrated and
effective. However, sociometric studies revealed to me that a
great deal of the therapeutic tele is distributed all over the
Rosa Cukier
60
community and that the question was only to make it effective
and to guide it into the proper channels. … The chief psychiatrist
had to put out of action to be removed from the scene; he
became an auxiliary ego at a distance. His function reduced
itself to deciding who might be the best therapeutic agent to
whom, and aid in the picking of these agents. … He had lost all
the insignia of all-mightiness, of personal magnetism, and status
of counsel. The face-to-face physician had become a physician
at a distance. He adjusted his function to the dynamics of a tele
world.
Psicodrama Espanhol pp. 326-327
But the change of locus of therapy has other unpleasant
consequences. It revolutionizes also the agent of therapy. The
agent of therapy has usually been a single person, a doctor, a
healer. Faith in him, rapport (Mesmer), transference (Freud)
towards him, is usually considered as indispensable to the
patient-physician relation. But sociometric methods have
radically changed this situation. In particular group a subject
may be used as an instrument to diagnose and as a therapeutic
agent to treat the other subjects. The doctor and healer as the
final source of mental therapeutics has fallen.
Psicodrama p. 375
AUXILIARY EGO/DEVELOPMENT/TRAINING
… The initial phase of co-experience and collaboration with the
stronger ego, provides the child with an incentive for
independent action.
As the infant matures, although still within the matrix of
identity or unified experience, the amount of assistance which
the auxiliary egos has to render to the infant becomes less and
less, and the amount of activity with which the infant
participates becomes larger and larger; in other words, the
auxiliary ego (the mother) is an aide in shaping the infant’s own
61
roles, permitting him gradually more independence. This process
of intercommunication between infant and mother is the
nourishing matrix of the first independent role taking of the
infant.
Psicodrama p. 114
The auxiliary ego needs training very different from that of
the chief therapist. His function is primarily that of a participant
actor not of an observer or analyst. His neutrality would defeat
the purpose of therapy. He has to play the role required of him in
the full sense of the word. He has to learn how to play the game
of the patient and still not be carried away by it. But if the role
requires him to get involved with the patient as it is in life itself,
he should carry out the prescription. It should also be
remembered that in contrast to psychoanalysis in the
psychodramatic situation the therapist is not alone with the
patient. There are other individuals present; therefore, the
neutrality and objectivity of the therapist is better safeguarded.
AUXILIARY EGO/FUNCTIONS OF
… The functions of the auxiliary ego are threefold: the function
of the actor, portraying roles required by the patient’s world; the
function of the therapeutic agent, guiding the subject; and the
function of the social investigator.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. c
Psicodrama Espanhol p. não há
Psicodrama p. 19
… The auxiliary ego has, in the psychodramatic situation, two
functions – that of portraying roles and that of guidance. The
first function is that of portraying a role of a person required by
the subject; the second function is that of guiding the subject by
Rosa Cukier
62
warming up to his anxieties, shortcomings, and needs in order to
guide him towards a better solution of his problems.
Psicodrama p. 109
… The auxiliary ego has in this form of therapy two functions;
a) as an extension of the primary ego: he is identified with him
and represents him towards others; b) as a representative of the
other person, the absentee, until the two primary subjects
themselves are ready to meet.
Psicodrama p. 289
… The function of the auxiliary ego is therefore to attain unity
with a person, to absorb the patient’s wishes and needs and to
operate in his behalf without being able however, to become
identical with him.
Psicodrama p. 297
The function of the auxiliary ego has been found
indispensable in the experimental setting of the psychodrama as
a concept for the understanding of the interpersonal process on
the stage as well as a tool for treatment.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. c Introduction to 4th edition
Espanhol p. no há
Psicodrama p. 19
... The auxiliary egos are not necessarily used in every session.
They are just available if can occasion arises. The director may
choose not to use them and to prefer anonymous subjects from
the group.
63
Psicodrama p. 421
The fourth instrument is a staff of auxiliary egos. These
auxiliary egos or therapeutic actors have a double significance.
They are extensions of the director, exploratory and therapeutic,
but they also extensions of the patient, portraying the actual or
imagined personae of their life drama. The functions of the
auxiliary ego are threefold: the function of the actor, portraying
roles required by the patient’s world; the function of the
therapeutic agent, guiding the subject; and the function of the
social investigator.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. c Introduction to 4th edition
Espanhol p. no há
Psicodrama p. 19
In order to overcome the grave errors which may arise in
and from the investigator himself, we resort to a sociometric
approach which is especially adapted to the microscopic study of
social phenomena. The participant observer – in one particular
form of this work – does not remain “objective” or at a distance
from the persons to be studied: he becomes their friend. He
identifies himself with their own situations; he becomes an
extension of their own egos. In other words, the “objective”
participant becomes a “subjective” one. As a subjective
participant he can enter successively or simultaneously into the
lives of several individuals, and then function as a medium of
equilibration between them. This is the first step.
If we consider the investigator who gives out questionnaires
as being in a situation of maximum formal objectivity then the
investigator who identifies himself successively with every
individual participating in the situation approaches a maximum
of subjectivity. A professional worker acting in this fashion
produces excellent therapeutic effects, but the method does not
improve upon the intended objectification of the investigator,
himself.
Rosa Cukier
64
The crucial therapeutic agents are the auxiliary egos. They
are assistants to the chief therapist, but simultaneously they are
closely related to the world of the patient. The auxiliary ego
deliberately assumes the role which the patient needs or wishes
him to assume. The success of intervention depends upon how
well the auxiliary therapist is able to embody the person the
patient desires to encounter.
AUXILIARY EGO/INVOLVEMENT
On portraying the role is expected that the ego will identify
himself privately with the role to the best of his ability, not only
to act and pretend but to “be” it. The hypothesis here is that what
certain patients need, more than anything else, is to enter into
contact with people who apparently have a profound and warm
feeling for him. … The warmer, more intimate, and genuine the
contact is, the greater are the advantages which the patient can
derive from the psychodramatic episode. The all-out
involvement of the auxiliary ego is indicated for the patient who
has been frustrated by the absence of such maternal, paternal, or
other constructive and socializing figures is his lifetime.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. xvii/xviii Introduction to 4th edition
Psicodrama p. 43
AUXILIARY EGO/MORENO CHOOSES THE EGOS
Moreno: Who are they? (Motions to two female auxiliary egos to
come up on the stage, they get up from the audience and come
forward.)
Martin: My mother, there’s a sister of mine.
Moreno, J. L. “Fragments from the Psychodrama of a
Dream”, in Jonathan Fox, The Essential Moreno: New York,
Springer Publicity Company, 1987, p. 118
65
AUXILIARY-EGO/MOTHER AND FATHER AS
AUXILIARY-EGOS
... The mother is the ideal example of an instinctive auxiliary
ego.
Psicodrama p. 135
… From the point of view of the child, these helpers appear like
extensions of his own body, as he is too weak and immature to
produce these actions by his own effort.
Psicodrama p. 109
… Sociometric investigators have pointed out that the organic
isolation of the embryo is continued for a short period after birth
until the emergence of the tele starts the first interpersonal
structures. But some infants perpetuate the pattern of organic
isolation by social isolation.
Psicodrama p. 122
13. Every parent is a natural but untrained auxiliary ego. To
be an effective auxiliary ego to one’s own child every parent
needs professional training. Auxiliary ego technique should be
applied when there is a clear indication for it. For instance, a
parent complains that his child has the tendency to throw stones
at dogs and cats, or to hit them. The therapist must realize that
the day may come when he will throw stones at another child or
a grown up.
Rosa Cukier
66
AUXILIARY-EGO/NUMBER OF
… The technique demanded usually more than one therapeutic
aid for the patient, such as aids to start off the patient himself
and representatives of the principal roles the situation and the
patient might require. Instead of one, numerous auxiliary egos
were needed. Therefore it lead to this: the original auxiliary ego,
the psychiatrist, remained at a distance but surrounded himself
with a staff of auxiliary egos whom he co-coordinated and for
whom he outlined the course and the aim of psychodramatic
treatment.
Espanhol p. 251
Psicodrama p. 236
AUXILIARY-EGO/PATIENT’S AUXILIARY EGO
TECHNIQUE
Another method is to let the patient (A) step back into the
group and start with another patient (B) and then call patient A
back to be an auxiliary ego in any episode to B, for instance
acting as his father, a policeman or a doctor. This is the
“patient’s auxiliary ego technique”. A, who did not want to
present his own problems, may be willing to help another
member of the group present his.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. viii-ix Introduction to 3rd edition
AUXILIARY-EGO/PSYCHOSIS
The crucial therapeutic agents are the auxiliary egos. They
are assistants to the chief therapist, but simultaneously they are
closely related to the world of the patient. The auxiliary ego
deliberately assumes the role which the patient needs or wishes
him to assume. The success of intervention depends upon how
well the auxiliary therapist is able to embody the person the
patient desires to encounter.
67
... The auxiliary ego attempts to make the patient’s
hallucinations unnecessary, or to weaken their impact by
providing him with actual and tangible embodiments of an
acceptable mother figure.
... It is obvious that here the utmost caution has to be practiced to
prevent excesses, or to prevent the auxiliary ego from taking
advantage of the patient in order to satisfy his own needs. A
great responsibility rests upon the ego.
... A significant phenomenon took place during the stagings of
the realization scenes. She became dependent upon the auxiliary
egos because they were the people who gave flesh to her Johns
and other delusionary experiences. They became like parts of
herself. That is one of the genuine functions of an auxiliary ego,
to free a subject from that extreme form of isolation -
hallucination.
AUXILIARY-EGO/TRANSFERENCE/SCIENTIFIC
OBJECTIVITY
The auxiliary ego brings to the function of the social
investigator a quality which is impossible to the investigator in
the natural sciences. ... The bias of the auxiliary ego – his social
and cultural limitations – cannot be studied except in the light of
his actual work.
Rosa Cukier
68
Psicodrama p. 316
The director should work with the minimum expenditure of
emotional energy. Once a production has begun he should leave
its development to the subject. When and where guidance is
required he should leave this to the auxiliary ego co-acting in the
scenes. He should take advantage of the fact that the auxiliary
egos are extensions of his own self, permitting them to be
subjectively involved but keeping himself at a distance,
objective and uninvolved. This has the advantage that he is left
out of transference and tele relations but he can watch and
correct transference and tele relations which develop between
the subject and auxiliary egos on the stage in the course of
action. Many a time we have seen that the subject has fallen in
love with or has become dependent upon the auxiliary egos
working with him. This phenomenon which often becomes fatal
in the psychoanalytic situation can easily be corrected in
psychodramatic procedure because the chief engineer of therapy
himself is outside of the situation and can either change the role
and tactics of the auxiliary ego towards the subject or the
auxiliary ego can be replaced by another therapeutic actor.
Psicodrama p. 314
69
… Therefore, the auxiliary ego must learn to detach himself as
far as possible from everything in his own collective life which
might bias him toward one or another of the cultures portrayed.
Elaborate spontaneity training may be necessary before his own
collective conflicts cease to affect his function as an auxiliary in
inter-cultural relations. However, the most careful preparation
and training of director and egos should not turn them into
stereotyped role-takers. It should give them a solid basis for
undertaking a difficult social and cultural project. … Last but not
least, they must be able to subjectify rapidly the experiences of
the actual informants. In order to do this it takes vigilance and
spontaneity.
Psicodrama p. 422
... The psychodramatic method has a technique which might
have furthered the cause of psychoanalysis, the technique of the
auxiliary ego or auxiliary therapist. In the psychodramatic
situation the chief therapist or analyst, if you wish, has associate
therapists, so called auxiliary egos, on hand, who are permitted
to enter into closer, more intimate relation with the patient. The
immediate target of transference then switches from the therapist
himself to the auxiliary egos. ... The auxiliary egos are like
assistants in a surgical operation, an integral function in helping
the patient to present and solve his problem. They are, therefore,
not only on the side of the chief therapist but even more on the
side of the patient; the danger of transference “love” is towards
him, to an extent, at least, milder or transformed because it is a
part of psychodramatic technique to permit the feelings of love
and hate overtly to be expressed by the protagonist as well as by
the auxiliary therapists. ... The emotions between auxiliary egos
and patients are not transference-produced, they approximate
real love and real hate.
Rosa Cukier
70
Hypothesis V: The interpolation of auxiliary therapists tends
to decrease transference tension between chief therapist and
patient and to increase the tele communications between them.
AXIODRAMA
... The organism in the field becomes “the actor in situ”. Whole
cultures can be “acted out” piecemeal in the experimental
settings of axiodrama and sociodrama, with protagonists as
creators and interpreters.
Axiodrama deals with the activation of religious, ethical and
cultural values in spontaneous-dramatic form. The original
“content” of psychodrama was axiological. Contrary to the
statement in current textbooks, I started with psychodrama from
the top down. First it was axiodrama (1918), second came
sociodrama (1921); psychodrama and its application to mental
disorders was the last stage of the development.
Who Shall Survive? p. xxvi Preludes
Fundamentos de la Sociometria p. no há
It focuses on Ethics and general Values; it is a synthesis of
axiological meanings with Psychodrama; it attempts to
dramatize the eternal verities, truth, justice, beauty, grace, piety,
perfection, eternity and peace.
71
B
BEACON
... The mental hospital which was built around the theatre was to
give the most acutely ill representatives of our culture the benefit
of antidotes.
The format of the modern mental hospital tends towards the
extroverted type. Elegant landscaping, colorful rooms and shiny
walls, authoritarian habits and discipline, orderliness, cleanliness
and meticulousness are the order. The benefits of this style of
mental care notwithstanding, it has not been able to give
adequate expression to the patients’ needs. The psychodramatic
sanitarium aspires towards the introverted type; it creates for the
patient’s anchorages modeled after their own spontaneous
aspirations, however confused.
Who Shall Survive? p. lxvii Preludes
BIOATRIC
... There is a higher form of “bioatric” and sociometric
democracy in which the unborn, the living and the dead are
partners – instead of keeping the unborn and the dead out of
partnership.
BIRTH
… The moment of birth is the maximum degree of warming up
to the spontaneous act of being born into a new setting, to which
he must make a rapid adjustment. It is not a trauma, but the end
stage of an act for which nine months of preparation were
required.
Psicodrama p. 105
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72
... There is ample evidence that the spontaneity of the infant has
“something to do” with his arrival in this world. During
pregnancy he warms up to the act of birth. The length of
gestation is largely determined by the genotype of the fetus and
not by the dam of the carrying individual. The infant wants to be
born. Birth is a primary and creative process. It is positive before
it is negative, it is healthy before it is pathological, it is a victory
before it is a trauma. Anxiety results from “loss” of spontaneity.
BIRTH CONTROL
In principle at least, there is an alternative to birth control which
we should bring to our consciousness as a categorical imperative
even if it would never be realized: let everyone be born and let
us “share” with them what there is to be had. Let us rather
reduce the length of life of the existing populations in order to
permit everyone who is conceived to be born.
BIRTH CONTROL/CRITICISM AGAINST CATHOLIC
POSITION
… In the sense of the imperative of unlimited birth even the
Catholic position of rhythmic birth control is unethical and in
essence no different from all other forms of interference.
BIRTH/PSYCHODRAMA
... Psychodrama was born on Fool’s Day, April 1, 1921, between
7:00 and 10:00 p.m.
The locus nascendi for the first official psychodramatic
session was the “Komoedien Haus”, a theatre for the drama in
Vienna. ... When the curtain went up the stage was bare except
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for a red plush armchair which had a gilded frame and a high
back – like the throne of a king.
Psicodrama p. 49
When I was four and a half years old my parents lived in a
house near the river Danube. They had left the house on a
Sunday to pay a visit, leaving me alone in the basement of the
house with neighbor’s children. … The children said: “Let’s
play”. One child asked me: “What?” “I know”, I said, “let’s play
God and angels”. … The first inspiration may well have come
from this personal experience.
BODY
BODY/BODILY CONTACT
... “Bodily contact” is a basic form of communication. It is not,
however, always indicated. In some cases the intimacy and
warmth of contact, especially bodily contact, may be
contraindicated. There are, for instance, some schizophrenic
patients who resent being touched, embraced, or kissed. They
would prefer their auxiliary egos to portray symbolic and
omnipotent roles.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. xviii Introduction to 3rd edition
Psicodrama p. 43
Physical contact and physical attack – from caressing and
embracing, to pushing and hitting – is permissible in
psychodramatic therapy if it is of benefit to the patient.
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BODY/BODY LANGUAGE
... According to psychodramatic theory a considerable part of the
psyche is not language-ridden, it is not infiltrated by the
ordinary, significant language symbols. Therefore, bodily
contact with subjects, if it can be established, touch caress,
embrace, hand shake, sharing in silent activities, eating, walking
or other activities, are an important preliminary to
psychodramatic work itself.
Espanhol pp. 79-80
BODY/BODY POSITION
18. Psychodramatic tests have confirmed the hypothesis that the
body position of the subject in the course of a testing or a
therapeutic operation has a constant influence upon the feelings,
thoughts and interpersonal responses. As the scene changes the
subject may sit on a chair, lie on a couch or in a bed, stand up or
move around; each position of the body stimulates a different
therapeutic relationship.
Espanhol no há
BODY/PHYSICAL TRAINING/PLAYERS
The body of the player must be as free as possible, it must
respond sensitively to every motive of mind and imagination. It
must have the power to perform as large a number of motions as
possible, and perform them easily and rapidly. These motions
must, indeed, be spontaneous so that the player may not fail in a
crisis, it may well happen that an idea may occur to a player
unaccompanied by any hint of a suitable gesture, and if he is not
resourceful the whole act may go to pieces. To eliminate this
danger, a) as large a supply of possible movements must be
stored up in the body as the player can acquire, so that these may
called forth by the ideas as these occur, b) creating of responses
(“creatoflex”) must be learned.
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BOOK
The book is the archetype of all cultural conserves – the
cultural conserve par excellence.
Psicodrama p. 158
BOOK/THE WORDS OF THE FATHER
... The Words of the Father I wrote with red link on the walls of
an Austrian castle. The publisher had to send two secretaries to
decipher and copy the sayings. WHO SHALL SURVIVE? I
dictated into a typewriter. ... I was literally playing two roles, the
role of a religionist and the role of a scientist. ... This requires an
explanation: nature has given us a master model for creativity –
the way a woman conceives and carries a baby alone, up to
delivery; as soon as the infant is born, other individuals may step
in to help.
Who Shall Survive? pp. xxxvii - xxxviii
BOOK/WHO SHALL SURVIVE?
The meaning of the title of this book WHO SHALL SURVIVE?
Is the survival of creativity, of man’s universe? The survival of
human existence is at stake, not only of the fit; * * fit and unfit
are in the same boat. These new enemies are common to all men,
not only to one or another group; ... ... These odd enemies are
technical animals which can be divided into two classes, cultural
conserves and machines. The more popular word for them is
robots.
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BREACH/REALITY & FANTASY
The infant begins to develop two emotional tracks in his
universe. They may run independently, never to meet again. The
infant would live then in two dimensions at the same time, the
one real, the other unreal, without being disturbed by the
division, or it may be that the two tracks, A and B, may from
time to time strive towards a reunion, a re-establishment of the
original status. These strivings may bring about collisions
between the two tracks, produce blocking and bring the flow of
spontaneity to inertia. It is the latter which actually happens to
human personality. As long as he lives, he tries to merge the
original breach and because he remains, in principle,
unsuccessful, the human personality, even in its most integrated
examples, has a tragic touch of relative imperfection. There is
this continuous struggle within the individual trying to maintain
a balance between these two different routes into which his
spontaneity attempts to flow. He is like a man who has two
saving accounts and deposits in one such things that he would
not or cannot deposit in the other.
Psicodrama p. 124
Out of the breach between reality and fantasy, two new sets
of roles emerge. As long as this breach did not exist, all real and
fantasy components were merged into one set of roles,
psychosomatic roles. … But from the division of the universe
into real and fictitious phenomena gradually a social world and a
fantasy world emerge separated from the psychosomatic world
in the matrix of identity. Forms of role playing are now
emerging which correlate the infant to persons, things, and goals
in an actual outside of himself, and to persons, objects and goals
which he imagines are outside of him. They are called
respectively social roles [the parent] and psychodramatic roles
[the god].
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... The psychodramatic and social roles develop later, the domain
of the psychodramatic roles being far more extensive and
dominating than the domain of social roles. After the breach
between fantasy and reality is established, the division between
psychodramatic and social roles, which have been up to point
merged, begins gradually to become differentiated.
Psicodrama p. 129
BREASTFEEDING
As long as the baby was breast fed the mother could not separate
herself from her own breast, leave the baby, and do some work
by herself. She had to stay in closet proximity to the baby,
providing him with food as well as with her person, her
mothering, a stimulating and at times, an over stimulating agent.
The replacement of an auxiliary ego, the mother, by an
auxiliary object, the bottle, cannot be without serious
consequences – at least, in a period during which the emotional
foundations of learning are being built.
Psychodrama v. 1 p.70
... Sociometric investigators have pointed out that the organic
isolation of the embryo is continued for a short period after birth
until the emergence of the tele starts the first interpersonal
structures. But some infants perpetuate the pattern of organic
isolation by social isolation. ... the question is whether the
auxiliary ego in the form of the mother has not had, since time
immemorial, a deeper function to fulfill than just to be the source
of the infant’s food.
Psicodrama p. 122
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78
C
CARL JUNG
“Extroverted” and “introverted” are psychological concepts
introduced by Carl Jung which are widely used to connote
specific individual reaction patterns. But extroverted and
introverted group organization are sociometric concepts and
have no relation to introverted and extroverted as used in the
psychological sense.
CATHARSIS
One of the important achievements of psychodramatic
theory is the development of the idea of catharsis. Breuer* and
Freud** were ignorant of the psychotherapeutic implications of
the drama milieu to which Aristotle had referred in “De Poetic”.
It remained for psychodrama to rediscover and treat the idea of
catharsis in its relation to psychotherapy.
Psicodrama p. 63
The difference between abreaction and the psychodramatic
process is one of quality and not of quantity. Various abreactions
come forth from the patient and the auxiliary egos as well as
from the audience, and these are integrated into the
psychodramatic production. Psychodramatic production consists
of structure scenes, each scene of structured roles, and each role
of structured interactions.
Psychodrama v. 1 pp. xi-xii
CATHARSIS/ACTION
… It is into the stream of action catharsis that all rivulets of
partial catharsis flow.
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Psychodrama v. 1 p. e
Psicodrama p. 20
CATHARSIS/ACTIVE & PASSIVE
… In other words, in the Greek situation the process of mental
catharsis was conceived as being localized in the spectator – a
passive catharsis. In the religious situation the process of
catharsis was localized in the actor, his actual life becoming the
stage. This was an active catharsis.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. xiv
… In other words, in the Greek situation the process of mental
catharsis was conceived as being localized in the spectator – a
passive catharsis. In the religious situation the process of
catharsis was localized in the actor, his actual life becoming the
stage. This was an active catharsis. … These two developments
which heretofore have moved along independent paths have
been brought to a synthesis by the psychodramatic concept of
catharsis. From the ancient Greeks we have retained the drama
and the stage, from the Hebrews we have accepted the catharsis
of the actor. The spectator has become an actor himself.
Psicodrama p. 39
CATHARSIS/COLLECTIVE
… It was clear to all of us that even if we would have used some
of the actual rioters in person on the stage, the purpose of their
enactments would not have been for the sake of exploring
individual situations and producing individual catharsis, but for
the sake of exploring collective situations and producing a
collective catharsis.
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Psicodrama p. 419
CATHARSIS/HISTORY
Catharsis, as a concept, was introduced by Aristotle. He used
this term to express the peculiar effect of the Greek drama upon
his spectators. In his Poetics he maintains that drama tends to
purify the spectators by artistically exciting certain emotions
which act as a kind of relief from their own selfish passions.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. XIII
Psicodrama p. 38
There have been two avenues which led to the
psychodramatic view of mental catharsis. The one avenue led
from the Greek drama to the conventional drama of today and
which it went the universal acceptance of the Aristotelian
concept of catharsis. The other avenue led from the religions of
he East and the Near East. These religions held that a saint in
order to become a savior, had to make an effort; he had, first, to
actualize and save himself.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. XIV
Psicodrama p. 39
It remains to clarify what kind of a process catharsis is, by
what forces it is brought about, - its causations, and what results
it has, - its effects. Aristotle maintained that it purifies the mind
of the spectators by holding a mirror before them, how
unfortunate was Oedipus, how miserable Cassandra, and how
mournful and destitute Electra. It arouses fear and pity in them,
liberating them from the temptation of falling into the abyss of
madness and of perversion themselves. Aristotle has well
indicated one of the effects, but he has left unsaid by what force
the process of purification is caused. Freud would ascribed this
effect to a psychological mechanism which he called
unconscious identification, which is closely akin to the
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Aristotelian interpretation – the spectator, by living through the
dramatic events, in identifying himself with the characters, finds
at least temporary relief from his deeper unconscious conflicts.
But identification is in itself a symptom and not a cause. It is not
the primary process. Aristotle was handicapped in giving the
causes leading up to catharsis, by the fact that the tragedy was
for him an irreducible fixed entity. He did not return step by step
to its status nascendi, the social and cultural sources out of which
the form of the drama emerged. … In a sociodramatic session
hundreds of individuals bring their conflicts in status nascendi
with them. … The director is searching for a conflict which may
stir up the group to the deepest possible catharsis, and for actors
to portray this conflict.
Psicodrama p. 423
CATHARSIS/INTEGRATION
... When he can be the person he hallucinates, not only do they
lose their power and magic spell over him but he gains their
power for himself. His own self has an opportunity to find and
reorganize itself, to put the elements together which may have
been kept apart by insidious forces, to integrate them and to
attain a sense of power and of relief, a “catharsis of integration”
(in difference from a catharsis of abreaction).
CATHARSIS/INTELLECTUAL AND ANALYTIC
CATHARSIS
At times the tele relations reach far into the psychological
networks of the community. Then all the individuals involved
have to be considered in the treatment (social and network
catharsis). Creative catharsis, intellectual and analytic catharsis,
and social and network catharsis may each play a role in the
different stages of the Psychodramatic shock procedure.
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J. L. Moreno, Psychodramatic Shock Therapy, A
“Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama” v. xxvii, nº 1-4,
1974, p. 6.
CATHARSIS/MENTAL
Now that we have described the five basic instruments
required to run a psychodramatic session we may ask ourselves:
to what effect? We will limit ourselves here to the description of
a single phenomenon, mental catharsis (stems from the Greek, it
means purging, purification).
Psychodrama v. 1 p. d
… They would have recognized that in the psychodramatic
situation the patient is the recipient of the three basic forms of
mental catharsis, the one in the author – the creator and patient
of the private drama – the other in the actor who lives it out, and
the third one in the audience which co-experiences the events.
Psicodrama p. 66
... The process which took place in and around Anna can be
described as a mental catharsis through reassignment to another
group.
... Mental catharsis is here defined as a process which
accompanies every type of learning, not only a finding of
resolution from conflict, but also of realization of self, not only
release and relief but also equilibrium and peace. It is not a
catharsis of abreaction but a catharsis of integration.
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CATHARSIS/PSYCHODRAMA & SOCIODRAMA
... The psychodramatic approach deals with personal problems
principally and aims at personal catharsis.13 in psychodramatic
procedure a subject whether it is a Christian, a Communist, a
Negro, a Jew, a Jap, or a Nazi is treated as a specific person,
with his private world. His collective situation is considered only
as far as it affects his personal situation. Therefore, he has to be
himself the chief actor in the treatment procedure. In
sociodramatic procedure the subject is not a person, but a group.
Therefore it is not an individual Negro who is considered, but all
Negroes, all Christians, all Jews, are considered. ... The
protagonist on the stage is not portraying dramatis personae, the
creative output of the mind of an individual playwright, but a
collective experience.
CATHARSIS/PSYCHODRAMATIC CATHARSIS
There have been two avenues which led to the
psychodramatic view of mental catharsis. The one avenue led
from the Greek drama to the conventional drama of today and
with it went the universal acceptance of the Aristotelian concept
of catharsis. The other avenue led from the religions of the East
and the Near East. These religions held that a saint, in order to
become a savior, had to make an effort; he had, first, to actualize
and save himself. In other words, in the Greek situation the
process of mental catharsis was conceived as being localized in
the spectator – a passive catharsis. In the religious situation the
process of catharsis was localized in the actor, his actual life
becoming the stage. This was an active catharsis. In the Greek
concept the process of realization of a role took place in an
object, in a symbolic person on the stage. In the religious
concept the process of realization took place in the subject – the
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84
living person who was seeking the catharsis. One might say that
passive catharsis is here face to face with active catharsis;
aesthetic catharsis with ethical catharsis. These two
developments which heretofore have moved along independent
paths have been brought to a synthesis by the psychodramatic
concept of catharsis. From the ancient Greeks we have retained
the drama and the stage…
CATHARSIS/SOMATIC
The old idea of somatic catharsis has been revived by
psychodramatic methods; they bring the body back into action,
consciously and systematically, as a center of training and
retraining in regard to all of its functions.
Psicodrama p. 65
CATHARSIS/SPONTANEITY
… I discovered the common principle producing catharsis to be:
spontaneity.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. d
Psicodrama p. 20
CATHARSIS/TOTAL
There are a number of elements able to produce partial
catharsis. But the synthetic integration of all elements total
catharsis can be obtained. ... Therefore my aim has been to
define catharsis in such a way that all forms of influence which
have a demonstrable cathartic effect can be shown as positive
steps within a single process of operation.
85
CHILD (SEE INFANT)
CHOICES
Choices: choices are fundamental facts in all ongoing human
relations, choices of people and choices of things. It is
immaterial whether the motivations are know to the chooser or
not; they are significant only as clues to his cultural and ethical
index. It is immaterial whether they are inarticulate or highly
expressive, whether irrational or rational. They do not require
any special justification as long as they are spontaneous and true
to the self of the chooser. They are facts of the first existential
order.
CHOICES/CHOICE OF THE THERAPIST
41. The choice of the therapist is frequently emphasized by
psychoanalysis. The choice of therapist in individual psychology
has its counterpart in the choice of the participant members in
group psychotherapy. It is here, however, of far greater
importance than in individual psychotherapy.
CHOICES/GROUP MEMBERS
40. The outstanding single factor determining success or failure
in group psychotherapy is the spontaneous choice of members or
the spontaneous affinity between them. They must hang together
by spontaneous affinities in order that one becomes a therapeutic
agent of the other. It does not make any difference whether these
choices are mature decisions, the adequate result of sociometric
procedure, or unconsciously acquired by an experiment of
nature. But would these affinities have existed automatically as a
matter of course, like we imagine that ants are chained together
in an anthill, a sociometry would not have been needed and
come into existence.
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86
CHOICES/INTENSITY OF CHOICE
Intensity of choice: this is measured by the amount of time
actually spent with the individuals chosen against the amount of
time one wants to spend with them. (See “Time as a Quantitative
Index of Interpersonal Relations”, Bibliography)
CHOICES/RECIPROCATED CHOICE
Reciprocated choice: choosing and being chosen on the same
criterion, a pair.
Pair: choosing and being chosen on the same criterion, a
reciprocated choice.
Triangle: three individuals choosing each other on the same
criterion.
Chain: an open series of mutual choices on any criterion – A
chooses B, B chooses A, B chooses C, C chooses B, C chooses
D, D chooses C, etc.
Star: an individual who receives the expected number or more
than the expected number of choices on the same criterion. [Note
the difference between star and popular leader].
CHOICE/SOCIOMETRIC CHOICE
23. Hypothesis of constancy of choice. The choice of
individuals, although it is of the greatest ethical
importance that it be made by that individual (and not for
him) is by no means “individual”. The individual is rather,
consciously or unconsciously, the passage way for
important collective values and aspirations. But as this
passage way is not an automaton but a live, spontaneous
87
agent, whenever choice emerges there is a meeting
between the collective and private forces of the
community. It appears that the seat of choice and decision
is the cerebral cortex. Although the physiological
perspective has no direct bearing upon this research is still
points out the importance of “choice training”. As choice,
decision and action are central elements in the sociometric
method, the development of these capacities is enhanced
whenever a test is given or an experiment is undertaken
by the individuals.
Choices have a tendency to be constant, that is, to be
repeated in distant points in time in proportion to the
freedom for spontaneity the individuals enjoy at the time
of the test.
24. Hypothesis of social equilibrium, “sociostasis”. If the
outgoing and incoming choices of a group are
approximately equal (1:1) its organization and the
behavior of its members will tend towards equilibrium.
This rule indicates the direction which group behavior
takes but it does not suggest that 50 in and 50 out is the
optimal distribution of social feeling in a group. In order
to determine this a structural analysis has to be made. The
optimum may differ from criterion to criterion and from
group to group.
25. Hypothesis of social disorganization. If the majority of
the choices go outside (centrifugal) of a group, its
organization will tend towards dissolution and the
behavior of its members towards irregularities. The trend
towards dissolution of a group will increase in direct
proportion to the number of outgoing choices and will
reach its maximum when all choices are directed towards
members of the outgroup and none to members of the
ingroup.
26. Hypothesis of social “in-breeding”. If the majority of
the choices go inside the group (centripetal) its
organization will tend towards infiltration because of
overlapping of choice and the behavior of its members
towards mutual irritation; with an excess of ingroup
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choices, an overwhelming majority of choices, an excess
of ingroup rejections will be stimulated.
27. Hypothesis of sociodynamic decline, social entropy.
The cooling off of the emotional expansiveness of the
members of a given community or the sociodynamic
decline of interest in others has reached its climax when
the influx of any new members into the community does
not arouse its inhabitants to new choices: the collective
spontaneity has reached its zero, its social entropy. Social
entropy reaches its maximum when choices and rejections
are entirely extinct. Indifference alone prevails. The group
spontaneity has “withered away” and is replaced by an
aggregation of individuals entirely left to change.
28. Hypothesis of “ambivalence” of choice. When an
individual chooses and rejects another individual in the
same test the causes may vary. a) Two or more criteria
enter into their relationship and mix up their feelings, for
instance, A chooses B because he is sexually attracted to
her, but he rejects her because she is a Negro. Here a
private and a collective criterion are in conflict and
produce an ambivalent choice. Another illustration is: A
chooses B as a working partner but he rejects him as a
roommate; the ambivalence is explained if the two criteria
are separated and two different tests constructed.
However, if a vague criterion is used, for instance, “Who
is your best friend here?” an ambivalent choice might
result. In this manner sociometric analysis is able to
resolve so-called unconscious psychodynamics. b) If an
individual is attracted to three individuals for the same
reason and with equal strength he may put them on the
same preference level. He will then have three first
choices. But he has to decide upon one person whom he
actually marries; that may produce some degree of
resentment against the one whom he does marry because
he could not marry all the three choices, at least in our
culture and so ambivalence of feeling ensues. c) The
ambivalence is at times due to the mixing up for roles in a
sociometric choice, for instance, she is attracted to him as
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a provider, she rejects him as a lover, she is attracted to
him as the father of her child, she rejects him because he
is the son of her mother-in-law and she rejects him
because he is a half-Jew. We see here that many factors
enter into a “choice”; private and collective criteria,
physical and axiological criteria. But whatever the
dynamic factors are which enter into choice-making, the
fact that a specific choice and decision is made by an
individual indicates that the quantitative strength is, at
least at the time when the test is given, in favor of the
particular individual chosen. d) The ambivalence may be
due to internal criteria, to the autotele structure in mental
patients.
34. If the members of a group which has reached a mature
objectivity of sociometric consciousness, respond freely as to
their choice-rejection-indifference towards each other in
reference to all social criteria which are active in the community
at the moment, the warm up will lead them, by virtue of the
dynamics of the situation in which they are involved, to deeper
and more inclusive concentrated and articulate revealing of their
social situation by means of instruments which are able to
mobilize and expose more complicated expression. In other
words, the true sociometric test is the basic first step in the
unfoldment of ongoing social processes and cannot be bypassed.
CLASSOID
... There are in addition large sociodynamic 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
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bourgeoisie or proletariat; they can be defined as sociometric
structure of social classes or as “classoids”.
COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE
In the strict sense of the spontaneous drama the actors of the
Commedia dell’Arte were improvisers and not spontaneous
actors. … The actors at best varied the dialogue which they had
to fit into the situations made to order and which they were not
permitted to change. Improvisation in the Commedia dell’Arte
had therefore a prescribed direction, but the spontaneous drama
must be created void of the premises which have been
conditional to date, the types, or roles, the interaction, the scenes
and the dialogue.
COMMUNICATION
COMMUNICATION/THE ACT OF COMMUNICATION
In the process of graduated training one of the most
important technical problems is how to get the subject started. ...
The instructor, himself warmed up to that state and role,
discloses to the subject the role to be enacted by him. This
procedure wherein the instructor transfers to the subject the role
and the possible form it may take is called the Act of
Communication. The Act of Communication itself has only the
significance of providing a “starter”. The rest of the procedure
remains the free expression of the subject.
Psicodrama p. 188
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COMMUNICATION/LARGE GROUP
COMMUNICATION/MASS-MIDIA
... Furthermore, it can reach large groups of people, and by using
radio or television it can affect millions of local groups and
neighborhoods, in which inter-cultural conflicts and tensions are
dormant or in the initial phases of open warfare.
... The significance of symbolic acquaintance and symbolic
judgment is more far-reaching still when it is related to an
individual because he is a member of a collective. For instance,
LS is rejected because she is Jewish; 7 of the girls rejecting her
had never made her acquaintance.
COMMUNICATION/SPONTANEOUS COMMUNICATION
Spontaneous Communication aims at the transfer of
spontaneity states from one person to another.
Psicodrama p. 188
CONFLICT
... Social conflict and tension increases in direct proportion to
the sociodynamic difference between official society and
sociometric matrix.
CONSCIOUS/UNCONSCIOUS
... Indeed, instead of confronting Cs (consciousness), Pcs and
Ucs it would be more productive to hypothecate a scale from Cs
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(highest level of consciousness) to Pcs and Ucs with many
intermediary stages down to the lowest level of unconsciousness.
CONSERVE
“Conserve”, says Webster, “means to keep in a safe or sound
state; to preserve it”. It is derived from the Latin con servare,
meaning to guard. I use the word “conserve” as a noun preceded
by the adjective “cultural”.
Psychodrama p. 123
Psicodrama p. 464
It is obvious that the history of the cultural conserve within
man’s own mental and social apparatus – a history dating back
thousands of years – is the greatest single barrier to the
infiltration of the spontaneity principle into the total pattern of
present-day civilization.
Psicodrama p. 465
CONSERVE/CULTURAL/ENERGY
In spontaneity theory energy as an organized system of
psychological forces is not entirely given up. It reappears in the
form of the cultural conserve. But instead of being the
fountainhead, at the beginning of every process such as libido, it
is at the end of a process, an end product.
Psicodrama p. 137
CONSERVE/EUGENY
The eugenic dreamer and the technological dreamer have
one idea in common: to substitute and hasten the slow process of
nature. Once the creative process is encapsulated in a book it is
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given; it can be recapitulated eternally by everybody without the
effort of creating anew. Once a machine for a certain pattern of
performance in invented a certain product can be turned out in
infinite numbers practically without the effort of man. Once that
miraculous eugenic formula will be found a human society will
be given perfect and smooth at birth, like a book off the press.
Fundamentos de la Sociometria pp. 409-410
... Technology may be able to improve the comfort of mankind
and eugenics the health of mankind, but neither is able to decide
what type of man can and should survive.
CONSERVE/EXCESS
... An excess if the dramatic function may permit sterile cultural
conserves and social stereotypes to live on, prosper, and block
the rise of original and creative efforts. On the other hand, an
excess of the creative function may appear in certain individuals
and groups before the environment is established in which the
ideas and inventions are a fitting response.
Psicodrama p. 152
… Stereotyped psychic structures are ultimately built out of s
units, replacing and reducing them.
Psicodrama p. 153
CONSERVE/POPULAR ROLES
The theatre for spontaneity is also exposed to the danger to
which the Commedia dell’Arte fell victim – to freeze into a
series of plots with definite role-taking. We have noted such
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tendencies in popular roles, as the judge, the fool, the king, and
so forth. But the true form of an art of the moment is the
unrestrained spontaneous drama production.
… At the beginning of national cultures, the cultural forms,
dance, music, drama, religion, custom, are improvised, created in
the moment, but as the moments of inspiration pass man
becomes more fascinated by the contents which have remained
from the by-gone created acts, by their careful conservation and
estimation of their value, than to continue creating. It seemed to
man a higher stage of culture to forsake the moment, its
uncertainty and helplessness, and to struggle for contents, to
select and idolize them, thus laying ground for our type of
civilization, the civilization of the conserve.
CONSERVE/SPONTANEITY
Spontaneity and cultural conserves do not exist in pure form,
one is a function, a parasite of the other.
Psicodrama p. 156
… Spontaneity and the cultural conserve are tangible and
observable phenomena in human experience. They are interrelated
concepts; one is a function of the other. Neither absolute
spontaneity nor absolute conserve can be achieved, but they have
been found to be useful heuristic principles.
Psicodrama p. 464
95
… The cultural conserve renders to the individual a service
similar to that which it renders as a historical category to culture
at large – continuity of heritage – securing for him the
preservation and the continuity of his ego. This provision is of
aid as long as the individual lives in a comparatively still world;
but what is he to do when the world around him is in a
revolutionary change and when the quality of change is
becoming more and more a permanent characteristic of the
world in which he participates?
Psicodrama p. 157
… Thus, a “cultural conserve” is the matrix, technological or
otherwise, into which a creative idea is placed for preservation
and repetition. Two forms of the cultural conserve are referred to
in my writings: the technological conserve, as books, motion
pictures, robots, and the “human” conserve, the conserve which
uses the human organism for its vehicle.
Psicodrama p. 175
The book is the archetype of all cultural conserves – the
cultural conserve par excellence.
Psicodrama p. 158
… The cultural conserve is thus a consoling and a reassuring
category. … It must have appeared to our ancestors much more
useful and valuable to put all their energy into the development
of cultural conserves and not reply upon momentary
improvisations in individual and social emergencies. Cultural
conserves served two purposes: they were of assistance in
threatening situations and they made secure the continuity of a
cultural heritage.
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96
Psicodrama p. 159
… But the more developed the cultural conserves became – the
more widely they were distributed, the greater their influence
became. … the more rarely did the people feel the need for
momentary inspiration. Thus the spontaneous components of the
cultural conserves, themselves, were weakened at the core and
the development of the cultural conserve – although it owed its
very birth to the operation of spontaneous processes – began to
threaten and extinguish the spark which lay at its origin.
Psicodrama p. 159
… The problem was to replace an outworn, antiquated system of
values, the cultural conserve, with a new system of values in
better accord with the emergencies of our time – the spontaneitycreativity
complex.
Psicodrama p. 160
Man has created a world of things, cultural conserves, in
order to produce for himself a semblance of God.
Psicodrama p. 165
The struggle with the cultural conserves is profoundly
characteristic of our particular culture; it expresses itself in
various forms of trying to escape from them. The effort from the
conserved world appears like an attempt to return to paradise
lost, the “first” universe of man, which has been substituted
step-by-step and overlapped by the “second” universe in which
we live as adults today. It is probable that all cultural conserves
are the final projections of the tremendous abstractions which
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man’s conceptual mind developed in a struggle for a superior
existence.
Psicodrama p. 352
COSMIC HUNGER
... This cosmic hunger manifests itself in a) “retrojection”,
drawing and receiving from other organisms signals, ideas or
feelings, to add strength to the self (expansion) or to find identity
with himself (confirmation); or b) dread of all organisms with
whom he cannot co-act and share existence; psychodramatically
speaking, with whom he cannot reverse roles. These dreads are
provoked by his desire to be transformed into them as his only
definite assurance of having identity. The cosmic hunger of the
child strives towards “world” realization. Self realization is only
a stage in-between.
COSMIC MAN
Man has often been called the symbol-creating animal. For
some, this condition has been considered as the root of his
psychopathology (Trigant Burrow). Others have considered it as
his greatest achievement (G. H. Mead and Korzybsky). Both
positions are one-sided. The capacity to transcend the here and
now by means of symbols has to be replaced by the capacity to
integrate the most far-flung symbols into the most immediate
here and now. We may distinguish, therefore, three phases in the
evolution of man (1) the here and now of the animal; (2) the
symbol-creating animal transcending the here and now, and (3)
the symbolic creativity integrated into the concrete here and
now. This new man may be called the “cosmic man”. He is just
as real as the animal and just as symbolic as homo sapiens, but a
synthesis of both.
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Man has often been called the symbol-creating animal. For
some, this condition has been considered as the root of his
psychopathology (Trigant Burrow). Others have considered it as
his greatest achievement (G. H. Mead and Korzybsky). Both
positions are one-sided. The capacity to transcend the here and
now by means of symbols has to be replaced by the capacity to
integrate the most far-flung symbols into the most immediate
here and now. We may distinguish, therefore, three phases in the
evolution of man, (1) the here and now of the animal; (2) the
symbol-creating animal transcending the here and now, and (3)
the symbolic creativity integrated into the concrete here and
now. This new man many be called the “cosmic man”. He is just
as real as the animal and just as symbolic as homo sapiens, but a
synthesis of both.
Las Bases de la psicoterapia pp. 357-358
COUCH
... Whatever unconscious material is delivered on the couch,
group and action methods can elicit more easily and, in addition,
materials which the couch vehicle hinders in being delivered.
COUCH/RESEARCH
... In my desperation – it was in the early days of my psychiatric
research – I put a group of five patients through the following
test: Each of the five was placed on a couch, encouraging a sort
of a group psychoanalysis. Each used the technique of free
association and I waited patiently for some lead for the
unconscious content they may have in common. But the couch
technique, each patient free associating side by side, remained
unrewarding.
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COUPLE PSYCHOTHERAPY
COUPLE PSYCHOTHERAPY/PATERNITY
... (for instance when I started to treat husband and wife, or any
other two co-related persons in separate sessions or
simultaneously, this was anathema then; it was a psychoanalytic
rule that each should be treated by a different therapist).
Who Shall Survive? p. lx Preludes
CREATIVE ACT
The first character of the creative act is its spontaneity, the
second character is a feeling of surprise, of the unexpected. The
third character is its unreality which is bent upon changing the
reality within which it rises, something prior to and beyond the
given reality is operating in a creative act. Whereas a living act
is an element in the casual-nexus of the life process of the real
person, the spontaneous-creative act makes it appear as if for one
moment the casual-nexus has been broken or eliminated.
(...) The fourth character of the creative act is that it means
acting sui generis. During the process of living we are far more
acted upon than acting. It is the difference between a creature
and a creator.
But these process determine not merely psychic conditions;
they produce mimetic effects. Parallel to the tendencies that lift
certain process into consciousness are others that lead to their
mimetic embodiment. This is the fifth character of the creative
act.
El teatro de la Espontaneidad pp. 79-80
Teatro da Espontaneidade pp. 57-58
Same in
Psicodrama p. 68
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100
CREATIVE ACT/PHILOSOPHY OF THE CREATOR
FIRST: it has to interpret and elaborate a philosophy of the
creator as an anti-mechanical corrective to our age.
SECOND: to state the already known Impromptu techniques,
and to enlarge the knowledge about them through collaboration
with many experimental groups.
THIRD: to record creations accomplished with the aid of
various Impromptu techniques on the spur of the moment.
Psicodrama p. 80
CREATIVE ACT/REVOLUTION THROUGH
There is a way, simple and clear, in which man, not through
destructiveness nor as a part of social machinery, but as an
individual and a creator, or as an association of creators can fight
back. … This strategy is the practice of the creative act, man as
an instrument of creation changing his products continuously.
Psicodrama p. 95
CREATIVE SEEDS
... The delivery of a spiritual product however, comes easier to
one writing quietly at his writing desk, to the other in the form of
the loud monologue – to a third producing on a stage before a
public. What is decisive is only whether the spontaneous creative
seeds have reached in him some degree of maturity.
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CREATIVITY
CREATIVITY/CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CREATIVE
ACT.
The first character of the creative act is its spontaneity, the
second character is a feeling of surprise, of the unexpected. The
third character is its unreality which is bent upon changing the
reality within it rises, something prior to and beyond the given
reality is operating in a creative act. Whereas a living act is an
element in the casual-nexus of the life process of the real person,
the spontaneous- creative act makes it appear as if for one
moment the casual-nexus has been broken or eliminated. … The
fourth character of the creative act is that it means acting sui
generis. During the process of living we are far more acted upon
than acting. It is the difference between a creature and a creator.
But these processes determine not merely psychic
conditions; they produce mimetic effects. Parallel to the
tendencies that lift certain processes into consciousness are
others that lead to their mimetic embodiment. This is the fifth
character of the creative act.
… In this paper and in similar researches which we have
published, spontaneity and creativity are regarded as primary
and positive phenomena and not as derivatives of libido or any
other animal drive.
Psicodrama p. 99
… It is possible to reconstruct the situation of creativity at a time
prior to the conserves which dominate our culture. The “preconserve
man”, the man of the first universe, had no musical
notations with which he could project the musical experiences of
his mind, no alphabetic notations with which he could project his
words and thoughts into writing. … He must have been guided
by the warming-up process inherent in his own organism, his
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master tool, isolated in space, unspecialized yet, but working as
a totality, projecting into facial expressions, sounds, movements,
the vision of his mind.
CREATIVITY/PHILOSOPHY OF THE CREATIVE ACT
FIRST: it has to interpret and elaborate a philosophy of the
creator as an anti-mechanical corrective to our age.
SECOND: to state the already known Impromptu techniques,
and to enlarge the knowledge about them through collaboration
with many experimental groups.
THIRD: to record creations accomplished with the aid of
various Impromptu techniques on the spur of the moment.
Psicodrama p. 80
CREATIVITY/SPONTANEITY (SEE ALSO SPONTANEITY
/CREATIVITY)
… In this paper and in similar researches which we have
other animal drive.
Psicodrama p. 99
... Spontaneity and creativity are thus categories of a different
order; creativity belongs to the categories of substance – it is the
arch substance – spontaneity to the categories of catalyzer – it is
the arch catalyzer.
103
Spontaneity and creativity are not identical or similar
processes. They are different categories, although strategically
linked. In the case of Man his s may be diametrically opposite to
his c; an individual may have a high degree of spontaneity but be
entirely uncreative, a spontaneous idiot. Another individual may
have a high degree of creativity but be entirely without
spontaneity, a creator “without arms”.
CREATOFLEX
crisis, it may well happen that an idea may occur to a player
called forth by the ideas as these occur, b) creating of responses
(“creatoflex”) must be learned.
CREATOR ENVY
... This phenomenon might be called “creator envy”. Promethian
individuals, the precursors of the “public relations” men of our
enlightened age, may have made their appearance frequently in
the course of history, the heroes of the people acting like antigenius
and genius at the same time. ... there were rival geniuses
in conflict with one another, the fire was stolen in every
generation and thus gradually the scientific method developed.
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104
... This involvement was deeply enforced by the key individuals
linked to him and resulted in a network composed of chain
reactions; one could call this phenomenon sympathy with the
pioneer or “creator love”; 2) rejecting the pioneer, the
protagonist, either directly or indirectly through the individuals
charged with negative tele and in disfavor with the protagonist.
The psychodramatic production revealed a profound hostility,
being reinforced by one or two key individuals and rivals, which
resulted at times in a distorted perception of the pioneer and his
work. A chain reaction produced a social network of negation
which might be called antipathy for the pioneer or “creator
envy”.
The phenomenon of creator envy was not without its good
social points. It helped to deliver the scientific method.
CREATOR LOVE
... This involvement was deeply enforced by the key individuals
linked to him and resulted in a network composed of chain
reactions; one could call this phenomenon sympathy with the
pioneer or “creator love”; 2) rejecting the pioneer, the
protagonist, either directly or indirectly through the individuals
charged with negative tele and in disfavor with the protagonist.
The psychodramatic production revealed a profound hostility,
being reinforced by one or two key individuals and rivals, which
resulted at times in a distorted perception of the pioneer and his
work. A chain reaction produced a social network of negation
which might be called antipathy for the pioneer or “creator
envy”.
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CREATURGY VERSUS DRAMATURGY
To derive a science from this, and to have laws governing it,
is the object of “Dramaturgy.” On the other hand, “Creaturgy” is
not concerned with events that are contained in dramas nor with
laws that may be derived from them. It is concerned with the
drama of creation itself.
While Dramaturgy follows after the drama, Creaturgy must
function with it. One figure of the personae dramatis after the
other arises in the soul of the author and speaks.
... Our immediate concern is with the pure, creative theatre in
which each event happens once and never again.
Psicodrama p. 90
The matrix of the Impromptu Theatre is the soul of the
author. Let us surrender ourselves to the illusion that the figures
of the drama there in process of production have become visible,
audible and tangible. In this ideal performance all conditions are
met: the act of creation is contemporaneous with the production;
there is harmony of situation and word.
To derive a science from this, and to have laws governing it, is
the object of “Dramaturgy”. On the other hand, “Creaturgy” is
not concerned with events that are contained in dramas nor with
laws that may be derived from them. It is concerned with the
drama of creation itself.
While Dramaturgy follows after the drama, Creaturgy must
function with it.
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106
CRITERIA
CRITERIA/ACTION CRITERIA
... An action criteria involves a different situation. It prompts the
subjects to a different warming up process. ... An illustration of
an action criterion in application is the sociometric planning of a
new settlement. The settlers come to a town meeting and they
preparing to move into the new settlement. Whom do you want
there as a neighbor?” ... The people have an immediate goal to
which they are warmed up. The choices they make are very real
things, they are not only wishes. ... Choices are then decisions
for action, not “reportings” of actions.
CRITERIA/DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA
Another consideration which may be useful would be to
differentiate between diagnostic and action criteria. An
illustration of a diagnostic criterion is “Whom do you invite to
have meals in your house?” It is specific but it does not provide
the subjects with the opportunity to get into immediate action.
...in other words, the test provides only for information but not
for action.
CRITERIA/SOCIOMETRIC CRITERIA
39. A criterion which is significant in one culture may be
relatively insignificant in another or entirely non-existent.
Sociometric criteria are in microsociology what social norms
and standards are in macrosociology. ... What gives every
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sociometricaly defined group its momentum is the “criterion”,
the common motive which draws individuals together
spontaneously, for a certain end. ...They give to the overt and
tangible human society a deeply unconscious and complicated
“infra” structure. It is difficult to uncover the latter because of its
remoteness from immediate experience and because there is no
strict separation between the infra and the overt structures. One
is interwoven with the other.
... Sociometrists have been particularly interested in groups
which are built around strong criteria; formal and institutional
groups were the first and the most rewarding targets, home
groups, work groups, school groups, cultural groups.
We started with the simplest possible social value clusters
which we called “sociometric criteria”, microscopic norms. An
illustration is “living in proximity”, in the same room, the same
cabin, the same house. ... These criteria are so universally
constructed that they can be applied to groups of any culture,
sex, race or age, whether the household is a Christian family, a
harem, a family of the Jibaro Indian Tribe,... ...Other criteria
were “working in proximity” and “visiting each other”. Such
criteria as these three we found in all communities surveyed.
Then there are criteria which are found in some communities but
not in others, as going hunting, fishing, boating, ... ...The number
of criteria increases with the complexity of the society in which
they emerge.
... All criteria have this in common: that the respondents have
some actual experience in reference to them, whether ex post
facto or present; in sociometric language, they are still “warmed
up” to them otherwise the questions would not arouse any
significant response.
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108
CRITICISM
CRITICISM/ADLER
... Adler’s system* started with another calamity, the inferiority
of organs and the feelings of inferiority. Rank started with a
different calamity again, with the trauma of birth. All therapeutic
prescriptions in these three systems were made to overcome the
initial calamity which the human actor encounters.
Who Shall Survive? p. lii Preludes
CRITICISM/BERGSON
Bergson, by making the élan vital a fetish, developed the
other extreme. The total denial of determinism is just as sterile as
its full acceptance. Whereas Freud’s psychic determinism did
not leave any room for the s factor, Bergson left, so to speak, so
much room to the creative that everything outside of it became a
demonic distortion. … whereas Bergson made his élan vital so
creative, one instant being as creative as the other, that all
instants resolved in an absolute durée of creativity, with the
result that a category of the moment could not developed a
significance of its own.
Psicodrama p. 154
Bergson came closer to the problem than any of the modern
philosophers. He was sufficiently sensitive to the dynamics of
creativity to postulate time, itself, as being ceaseless change – as
being totally creative. In such a scheme there was no place,
however, for the moment as a revolutionary category since every
particle of time – “duration”, as he called it – was creative in
every one of its instants, in any case.
109
Psicodrama p. 157
CRITICISM/BERGSON/NIETZSCHE
The lack of an adequate concept of the moment has spoiled
any attempt at forming a theory of creativity and spontaneity.
This is shown in the confusion in the works of Nietzsche and
Bergson, for instance, whenever they had to deal with related
problems.
The gods and heroes who became the basis for Nietzsche’s
value-theory were like Beethoven, Bach, Wagner and others,
persons who lived in the service of the cultural conserve. Since
their achievements were “works, i.e., high-grade cultural
conserves, these became the frame of reference for Nietzsche’s
valuations.
CRITICISM/EXISTENTIALISM
Just as Kierkegaard drew the picture of the prophet,
Nietzsche postulated the superman, a goal which he set for man
to attain. Both were existential romanticists. They found
representatives of their ideal man in the “past”, Kierkegaard in
Christ, Nietzsche in Zaratrustra. Nietzsche and Kierkegaard, far
from being prophets or supermen themselves, were frustrate
individuals, but they set the imagination of the next generations
aflame.
The modern intellectual existentialism is everything but
heroic. It has become commonplace. Its chief concerns are the
philosophical problems of existence, not existing and existence
itself. Men like Jaspers, Heidegger and Sartre are philosophers
and psychologists; the heroic-socratic existentialism of
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110
Kierkegaard has gradually turned into a kind of intellectual
existentialism of the middle class. Its exponents are intellectuals
rather than doers; Jaspers is nearer to Dilthey and Freud than to
Kierkegaard. Heidegger is nearer to Hegel and Kant than to
Socrates and Christ.
CRITICISM/FEED BACK THEORY
... It is thoughtless to transfer terms describing sheer mechanical
phenomena to spontaneous human relations. To substitute
warming up by feedback is an oversimplification; it may appeal
to the academicians as another “semantic withdrawal from
reality”.
CRITICISM/FREUD
… “Well, Dr. Freud, I start where you leave off. You meet
people in the artificial setting of your office, I meet them on the
street and in their home, in their natural surroundings. You
analyze their dreams. I try to give them the courage to dream
again.
Psicodrama p. 54
4) It appears that Freud did not make clear, either to himself or
to his patients, the full significance of the couch technique in the
psychoanalytic situation. He has left things unconscious which
he might better have made conscious, and tried to make such
things conscious which may have better remained unconscious.
Las bases de la Psicoterapia pp. 173-174
111
... Freud was a great scientist but a poor poet.
Who Shall Survive? p. lv Preludes
CRITICISM/FREUD/PSYCHOANALYSIS/EDUCATIONAL
PSYCHOANALYSIS
... That educational psychoanalysis produces a basic change in
the personality of the therapist cannot be taken seriously.
Irrational trends in his behavior continue. It provides him at best
with a method of therapeutic skill. According to this we could
just as well call the physician’s response transference and the
patient’s response counter-transference. It is obvious that both
the therapist and the patient may enter the treatment situation
with some irrational fantasies.
Las bases de la psicoterapia p. 19
CRITICISM/FREUD/PSYCHOANALYSIS/PLAY THERAPY
It should be remembered that they were the greatest barrier
to the application of the play principle to therapy in the crucial
decade from 1914 to 1924. Remember also, in connection with
this, that Anna Freud and Melanie Klein published their work on
play techniques many years later, after I had established a
receptive climate for them.
Who Shall Survive? p. xxviii Preludes
CRITICISM/FREUD/PSYCHOANALYSIS/PSYCHOLOGY
... Freud has failed in two respects, first by the rejection of
religion. ... Second, by his indifference towards social
movements as socialism and communism.
Psicodrama p. 56-57
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112
It is not quite accurate to say that psychoanalysis is a
dialogue between two. It could be said with more justification
that it is a monologue, held in the presence of an interpreter.
Psychodrama v. 1 p.xiii Introduction to 3rd Edition
Psicodrama p. 37. Introdução à 3ª Edição
... The psychoanalytic situation is a patient-physician relation, it
is a form of verbal interview; the real stuff of life, the situations
and conflicts, when and as they occur, are kept out of it.
Psicodrama p. 462
... Psychoanalysis tried to overcome its first crisis by renouncing
hypnosis and Freud gives some good logical argument for this
change. Free association makes a more universal application of
analysis possible and it is an easier skill to learn, but, close
inspection of the history of psychoanalysis may show that the
change was precipitated if not caused by a crisis which took
place in the “personal” field, the relationship between Doctor
Breuer, Frau Breuer and one of his patients, Miss Anna O., and
between Doctor Breuer and Doctor Freud. ... It was “carried
over” beyond the therapeutic situation into life, producing the
vicious chain which involved the four persons. The patient lost
her analyst (Breuer), Freud lost his friend and psychoanalysis
lost its first leader. The only who may have gained something
was Frau Breuer: she gave birth to a baby.
Hypothesis I: the very format of the psychoanalytic situation
induces the development of transference and resistance neurosis,
a) the physical conditioning, the couch and a doctor sitting
behind, b) the unreal relation between therapist and patient; the
patient shares the same room with a persistently non-interacting
observer, c) the set relation of a superior versus a subordinate, d)
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the horizontal position on the couch, not being able to get up, is
associated in the mind of the patient with sleep, dream and sex,
with subordination, withdrawal from reality, and lovemaking.
... He probably thought that keeping the patient uninvolved,
apart from any complicated interpersonal disturbances, as
reclining on a couch, would make the process of analysis more
objective and scientific.
... It is the error of psychoanalysis that it failed to understand the
processes going on in artists as specific phenomena of the
creative ego – but derived its forms and materials more or less
exclusively from the sexual or biological history of his private
person (complexes).
Psicodrama p. 85
Psychometric tests and psychoanalysis of the child and of
the adolescent, however contrasting in procedure, have one thing
in common. They throw the subject into a passive state, the
subject being a role of submission. The situation is not motivated
for him. This tends to produce an attitude of suspicion and
tension on the part of the subject towards the tester and to
attribute to him ulterior motives in inducing the subject to submit
to the test. This situational fact has to be considered irrelevant to
how valuable and significant the revelations may be which come
from psychometric testing and from psychoanalysis. ... Through
the sociometric, spontaneity and role playing tests the artificial
setting of the psychoanalytic situation and of the Binet
intelligence tests can be substituted by natural or life settings.
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114
My critique is not directed against Freud the scientist, but
against Freud, the metaphysician, the system builder. Although
he again and again assured his contemporaries that
“psychoanalysis is not a system”, the fact is that he has built one
just the same and that his pupils have turned it into a bulwark of
strength and security in order to continue the identity of the
movement.
Who Shall Survive? p. li Preludes
CRITICISM/FREUD/PSYCHOANALYSIS/SEXUALITY
... But Freud, instead of associating sex with “spontaneity”,
associated it with anxiety, insecurity, abreaction, frustration and
substitution. His system shows strong inclinations towards the
negative and for negation, a tendency which grew stronger in
him with age. ... It was not the sexual actor and his warm up
towards orgasm, it was not sexual intercourse and the interaction
of two in its positive unfoldment, but rather the miscarriages of
sex, its deviations and displacements, its pathology rather than
its normality, to which he gave his attention.
Who Shall Survive? p. lii Preludes
... Freud looked at man from below; he saw man “upside down”
and from the position from which he looked at man he saw first
his sexual organs and his rear.
Who Shall Survive? p. liii Preludes
... Whereas the psychoanalytic system was stillborn to start with
the psychoanalytic techniques were vigorous and unsurpassed at
the time they were made. What has happened since is that new
115
instruments, sociometry, psychodrama and group psychotherapy
have opened up new areas of research, which have made the
Freudian method antiquated and the Freudian discoveries part of
more inclusive ones.
Who Shall Survive? p. liv Preludes
... The libido lives on in the sociometric system as a subform of
creativity. The unconscious lives on as a by product of the
warming up process. The psychoanalytic couch has become a
piece of furniture in the sociodynamic field of the
psychodramatic stage. Free association is a limited and often
artificial adjunct of acting out; spontaneous acting out is a
universal function of human behavior, a sequel to the act-hunger
of the infant; acting out, which appeared to Freud as a sign of
resistance and a phenomenon to be forbidden in the couch
situation, has become one of the steeringwheels of therapeutic
interaction.
Quem Sobreviverá? v.1 p. 57 Prelúdios
... The conclusion is that the unconscious motivation behind the
model is fear of the analyst of being put in the position of acting
out towards the patient and being acted upon by him. It is a
safety device against overt love and overt aggression. The
difficulty is, of course, that by this life itself was banned from
the chamber, and the treatment process became a form of
shadowboxing.
... As he was blind to the true meaning of spontaneity and
creativity, he did not see that libido occupies but a small part and
that the human and non-human universe is filled with ongoing
“prelibidinal” and “extralibidinal” creativity. The spontaneousRosa
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creative forces are more universal and older than libido. It is a
truism that the universe is maintained in part by systems of
repetition and organs of reproduction, but they are not always
linked to sexual organs.
CRITICISM/FREUD/PSYCHOLOGICAL DETERMINISM
Freud worked with two “containers”- conscious and
unconscious. If he could not draw determinants from the one he
could draw them from the other source. But the principle of
psychic determinism can be carried too far when it is considered
uninterrupted and absolute as Freud suggests in his
“Psychopathology of Everyday Life” from which the above
quotations are taken. It becomes a fetish. The desire to find
determinants for every experience and for these determinants
further determinants farther back...
Hypothesis II: the motive for the change from the hypnotic
technique to the free association technique was its inferiority as a
research method and Freud’s dread of acting out. He dreaded the
implications of the sexual and homicidal acting out inherent in
the situation. It is amusing to think that he who discovered the
importance of sex in the development of the neuroses should be
eventually halted by the fear of its consequences. It is evident
that Freud felt that the hypnotic technique was unpleasant. The
acting out of the patient during and after the session was more
difficult to control and besides, he did not like himself in the role
of a hypnotizing actor.
Las Bases de la Psicoterapia. 159
117
... The psychoanalytic vehicle was the couch. The antiquated
couch was transformed into a multi-dimensional stage, giving
space and freedom for spontaneity, freedom for the body and for
bodily contact, freedom of movement, action and interaction.
Free association was replaced by psychodramatic production and
audience participation, by action dynamics and dynamics of the
groups and masses. With these changes in the research and
therapeutic operation the framework of psychoanalytic concepts,
sexuality, unconscious, transference, resistance and sublimation
was replaced by a new, psychodramatic and sociodynamic set of
concepts, the spontaneity, the warming up process, the tele, the
interaction dynamics and the creativity. These three
transformations in vehicle, form and concept, however,
transcended but did not eliminate the useful part of the
psychoanalytic contribution. The couch is still in the stage –
which is like a multiple of couches of many dimensions, vertical,
horizontal and depth – sexuality is still in spontaneity, the
unconscious is still the warming up process, transference is still
in the tele; there is one phenomenon, productivity-creativity, for
which psychoanalysis has given us no counterpart.
The vehicle in which learning takes place symbolizes the
kind of learning which is contemplated. An illustration is the
psychoanalytic couch. The patient has to lie down passively in a
horizontal position. If he wants to be in a more elevated position
he has to stretch the legs of the couch and raise the mattress. If
he wants to be in a lower position he has to take the legs off and
if he wants to move from one position to the other he has to
transform the couch into one with several layers. If he wants to
stand on his feet safely he needs a couch with a hard, perhaps
wooden surface and if he wants to move around freely,
expansively and into all directions, he needs wide spaces, an
extensive field of action. When he is through with these
manipulations a new vehicle has been born, the old couch has
changed into a theatre of spontaneity.
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... Then it becomes evident that the frequencies of the sociologist
are the surface expression of deeper structural layers in the
make-up of populations; that mass psychological findings, as, for
instance, the loss of individuality in mass actions, are an
impressionistic description, the comprehension of mass
processes from a spectator’s point of view and not from that of
the participants; that projections of hysteria, neurosis, Oedipus
complex, etc., from an individual to a mass are undue
generalizations and symbolizations.
... But as no scientific study of the great American emancipator
has been made during his lifetime there was no justification for
any attempt to analyze his personality from what is related about
him by laymen.
Who Shall Survive? p. xlv Preludes
CRITICISM/FREUD/WILD PSYCHOANALYSIS 5
him by laymen.
... But psychoanalysis claims that it has added the novel element
of being able to penetrate the intimate dynamics of a dead hero
5 Author’s note: wild psychoanalysis refers to the use of psychoanalytic
theory to analyze dead people or people who were not there.
119
by using the phenomena of his recorded life as clues. It is
obvious that even in a strictly psychoanalytic sense the analysis
of a dead person is symbolic rather than actual. According to
psychoanalytic tenets an actual analysis is not possible without
display of “transference” and “resistance” of the subject. Neither
transference nor resistance can be expected from a dead person.
Who Shall Survive? p. xlvi Preludes
... Similarly, it would have been more interesting to find out why
Freud picked on Moses and to analyze Freud as to his own
involvements in Moses rather than to follow Freud in his
analysis of Moses. It is from the analysis of the psychoanalyst in
situ, when he is involved in the process of analyzing someone
else who is dead that one of the most important contributions of
Psychodramatic theory developed – the subjectification of the
apparently objective investigator.
Who Shall Survive? p. xlvi Preludes
Quem Sobreviverá? v. 1 p. 50-51 Prelúdios
CRITICISM/HERBERT G. MEAD
... For Herbert G. Mead the self- and a society of selves – are
language ridden. Freud’s exploratory outlook too, was language
ridden. ... Both neglect the pre-semantic and a-semantic
development of the psyche and of the group.
Psicodrama p. 210
CRITICISM/JUNG
... Jung does not apply the collective unconscious to the concrete
collectivities in which people live. There is nothing gained in
turning from a personal to a collective unconscious if on the way
of doing this the anchorage to the concrete, whether individual
or group, is diminished.
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120
CRITICISM/LEARNING SYSTEM
At present the pupil is usually treated like a frog whose
cerebral cortex has been removed. He is allowed to reproduce
only roles which are conserved.
The reproductive process of learning must move into second
place; first emphasis should be given to the productive,
spontaneous-creative process of learning. The exercises and
training in spontaneity is the chief subject of the school of the
future.
... Many emotional disturbances in the growing personality are
an immediate result or the perplexities and incongruities of our
educational system.
Psicodrama p. 185
This would appear to be the problem of all higher education,
and it is here that our present systems are lacking. By common
consent we forget most of our school learning and even those
who retain facts in their memories seldom find those facts the
solutions of the problems of the hour.
Psicodrama p. 195
CRITICISM/MARX
Marx, by reducing his analysis of merchandise and
production to the part which labor puts into it, has left out,
perhaps unconsciously, the deeper forces without which the
labor process itself could not be realized. The capitalist as well
121
as the Marxistic view of the labor process are both derivatives
and functions of a more universal system of creative economics.
... Schemes like Marxism, and others, which have attempted
worldwide reorganization of human relationships, have been
analyzed and the causes of their failure disclosed. Their failure
seems to have been due to a lack of knowledge of the structure
of human society as it actually existed at the time of the attempt.
A partial knowledge was not sufficient; knowledge of the total
structure was necessary.
A fifth line of thought was represented by economic
planning based on an analysis of society as an economicmaterialistic
process (Marx). Economic planning was a real
advance. But the tacit basis of this planning was the collective,
the collective of symbolic membership. It attempted to function
in disregard of the individual as a psychological energy and of
society as a growing complex continuously pressed by
psychological currents and the networks they form. Or better
said, it had so little regard for the psychological factor that it
thought to suppress or denaturalize without expecting any
particularly harmful consequences. As the planning progressed
and began to manage the nature of man and society according to
the economic criterion curious disturbances appeared...
CRITICISM/MONTESSORI
As our studies have proved, utter reliance on nature’s wise
guidance without the invention of a special technique of the
moment to keep spontaneity permanent is without value. This
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122
mistake of Rousseau’s has also misled his followers, Froebel,
Montessori, and others, who influenced by Rousseau’s doctrines,
defended the child’s particular rights, and thought to foster and
preach spontaneity.
CRITICISM/MOTION PICTURES
7. The psychodramatic approach to motion pictures has been in
the networks for several years, but experiments like “Lady in the
Dark” or “Now Voyager” are not adequate try-outs. To the
contrary, they are abhorrent examples of a form of the drama
neither fish nor flesh, neither entertainment nor therapy, because
they try to provide both.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. (footnote)
Psicodrama p. 453 (nota de rodapé)
CRITICISM/RADIO
... Surveying the last twenty years of radio work, we can see the
whole field being with few exceptions practically controlled by
the conserve.
Psicodrama p. 465
CRITICISM/REGRESSIVE SCENE
... The acting out of regressive patterns offers certain advantages
to the individual acting, they relax the patient because they
reduce his involvement with the complicated present situation to
a minimum; he can replace the expected response to the current
situation by a simple one and so live with a low amount of
spontaneity. Resistance is a function of spontaneity, it is due to a
decrease or loss of it.
123
CRITICISM/ROUSSEAU
The name of Rousseau is commonly attached to the change
in educational theory during the last century. His appeal to go
back to nature has certainly been a stimulant towards a
revaluation of the human instincts, but notwithstanding this, his
faith in nature’s guidance of the child developed to be rather
reactionary than progressive. If the human instincts are let loose
in their “crude” spontaneity the result of the processes will not
be spontaneity, but its opposite, the finished, organized product.
The law of inertia will subdue nature’s spontaneous beginning
and attempt to relieve her from continuous efforts through the
establishment and conservation of patterns.
Psicodrama p. 198
CRITICISM/THEORIES OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT
A theory of personality, for instance, is needed, especially a
theory of child development, which is in better accord with the
dimensions of study in which an increasingly large number of
child psychologists, social psychologists, analysts, and therapists
are engaged. They still carry on with antiquated concepts which
do not quite meet new situations. The theories of child
development, as evolved by behaviorism, the Gestalt School,
and psychoanalysis have lost their magnetism in some quarters,
probably because they have lost their usefulness in empirical and
experimental study.
Psicodrama p. 98
The psychological study of the newborn has been pursued
largely in two dimensions – the one dimension is that of animal
psychology, which studies the behavior of the young animal and
compares it with human infants. Illustrations are Pavlov’s
experiments with dogs and the maze experiments with rats.
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124
The second dimension is the interpretation of the infant,
largely in terms derived from the mental syndromes of the
neurotic adult. The best illustration is the psychoanalytic
theory…
CO-UNCONSCIOUS/CO-CONSCIOUS
... 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 reenacted.
A co-conscious or a co-unconscious state cannot be the
property of one individual only.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. vii
CULTURE
The concept underlying this approach is the recognition that
man is a roleplayer, that every individual is characterized by a
certain range of roles which dominate his behavior, and that
every culture is characterized by a certain set of roles which it
imposes with a varying degree of success upon its membership.
Fundamento de la Sociometria p. 81
CURRENTS
CURRENTS/EMOTIONAL CURRENTS
The social organization of the total community has beneath
its outer appearance another aspect. Although separately housed,
there are attractions and repulsions between white and colored
girls which gravely affect the social conduct in this community.
The “emotional currents” radiating from the white and colored
girls, and vice versa, have to be ascertained in detail, their causes
determined, and their effects estimated.
125
CURRENTS/PSYCHOLOGICAL CURRENTS
Psychological currents consist of feelings of one group
towards another. The current is not produced in each individual
apart from the others of the group; it is not ready in everyone
only to be added together to result in a sum,... ... The
contribution of each individual is unequal and the product is not
necessarily identical with the single contributions. One or two
individuals may contribute more towards determining what
feeling directs the current than the rest.
Who shall survive? p. 436
Fundamento de la Sociometria pp. 288-289
We can differentiate psychological currents (1) according to
their causation into (a) sexual, (b) racial, (c) social, (d) industrial,
and (e) cultural currents; and (2) according to the principle of
their formation into (a) positive and negative currents, (b)
spontaneous and counter currents, (c) primary and secondary
currents, (d) initial and terminal currents, and (e) main and side
currents.
These psychological currents do not rest in individuals but
run into space and there they do not run entirely wildly but
through channels and structures which are erected by men:
families, schools, factories, communities etc.
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126
D
DAS DING AN SICH
DAS DING AUSSER SICH
But this illusion acted out by the people who have lived
through it in reality, is the unchaining of life – “das Ding ausser
sich.”
DELUSION
It is probable than the material tapped by sociometric and
action perception tests can give us important clues as to the
development of delusions and hallucinations in the mental
patient. The messages and signals which the patient “sends out”
and “receives” can draw their inspirations from the tele and
action matrices which have developed since early childhood.
... Delusions and hallucinations are given flesh-embodiment on
the stage – and an equality of status with normal sensory
perceptions.
... Hallucinatory Psychodrama
The patient enacts the hallucinations and delusions he is at
present experiencing. ... Auxiliary egos are called to enact the
various phenomena expressed by the patient, to involve him in
interaction with them, so as to put them to a reality test.
127
DEUS/EX-MÁQUINA6
In the spontaneity theatre, the situation is different – at least,
in part. The decisive factor is not as much the total work, but the
force of the individual scenic “atoms.” The performers cannot
depend upon a deus ex machina like a prompter to come to the
rescue when they forget a word or a gesture in their parts. Here
they do not fill a pre-established measure, time, with words and
gestures. They must act in the moment – first in one moment and
then in another.
El Teatro de la Espontaneidad p.97
DEVELOPMENT/MENTAL GROWTH
… Psychodramatic forms of role playing as role reversal, role
identification, double and mirror playing, contribute to the
mental growth of the individual.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. v Introduction to 3rd Edition
DEVELOPMENT/STAGES
... The main lines of (child) development may be summarized as
follows: a stage of organic isolation (italics as in original) from
birth on, a group of isolated individuals each fully self-absorbed;
a stage of horizontal (italics as original) differentiation of
structure from about 20-28 weeks on, the babies begin to react
toward each other, the factor of physical proximity and physical
distance making respectively for psychological proximity or
psychological distance, the ‘acquaintance’ beginning with
neighbors first, a horizontal differentiation of structure; a stage
6 "DEUS EX MÁQUINA" Deus ex machina: from Greek Latin antiquity, means a kind of dramaturgic resource where
a god falls slowly down the scene in order to give an arbitrary end to the conflict. (Houaiss Dicionário da Lingua
Portuguesa, Editora Objetiva, 2001,S.P., Brazil)
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128
of vertical differentiation of structure from about 40-42 weeks
on, one or another infant commands disproportionate attention
shifting the distribution of emotion within the group from the
horizontal to a vertical differentiation of structure, the group
which had been up to this point equally ‘leveled’, develops more
prominent and less prominent members, a ‘top’ and a ‘bottom’.”
Psychodrama v. 1 pp. 80-81 Supplementary Notes
Psicodrama p. 132 Notas Suplementares
DIAGNOSIS
DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT
... But often diagnosis and treatment have to go hand in hand. A
diagnostic clue is discerned on the spot and immediately used for
therapeutic aims.
DIALOGUE
The Dialogue as an aesthetic category has a counterpart in
therapeusis in all forms of Psychotherapy which are in the
broadest sense of the world conversational. To this class belongs
the hypnotic seance, suggestion therapy, psychoanalysis and any
type of treatment in which the physician of healer is faced by
one person only.
DIRECTOR
DIRECTOR/ABSTINENCE
... The atmosphere of abstinence and of asceticism, of scientific
and analytic objectivity from the side of the chief therapist as
required by the psychoanalytic rule is still maintained because
the chief therapist or analyst does not have to enter into the
production itself except for certain indications. He just watches
and evaluates material coming forth.
129
DIRECTOR/ACTION
... It was seen that three major patterns of the director’s actions
were scrutinized: (a) the “interview-position”, that is, the
position in which he opens a session and interviews a subject, (b)
and (c) the “observer-position” and the “spectator-position”.
DIRECTOR/DRAMATIC QUALITY
In contrast modern psychodrama is always new and fresh,
unrepeated in every session. We have shown that there are new
ways and new goals. The great problem which has yet to be
solved is to bring the quality of the creation and the stability of
the performances to a higher level. We have definitely noted that
in hundreds of places with every possible group of persons a
meaningful psychodrama can be created. But however
worthwhile the therapeutic effects may be, the level of
production is frequently very low. How can we bring the level to
a higher development? The question of quality hangs together
with this. The quality depends to the largest degree upon the
choice of director and auxiliary egos. They are not always of the
same quality and seldom reach the highest level of esthetics and
therapeusis. The question remains: “How can we overcome these
difficulties?” The answer: through analysis of the production and
by practice.
An overview of thousands of psychodramatic directors has
yielded the following result: from among the many practicing
directors at best one percent has the quality, the spontaneity, the
charisma, the persistent energy to inspire a production which
reaches the same level as Shakespeare or Ibsen. Naturally, one
cannot compare Psychodrama with the old form of theatre, they
are totally different processes in themselves. The task of the
psychodramatic academy is, therefore, to discover of the highest
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130
culture and to train them. Not all the directors whom we have
trained are of the same quality. We must therefore eliminate
many persons in the course of selection for directorial training.
Just as there is a rank order among the directors, so there is a
rank order among protagonists and also among auxiliary egos.
There are protagonists who have unheard of capacity for selfpresentation,
but then there are also protagonists of lesser talent.
The same goes for auxiliary egos in their ability to take the roles
of others.
Theatre of Spontaneity p. Foreword to the second, enlarged
edition e-f
DIRECTOR/FUNCTION
The psychodramatic director has three functions: (a) he is a
producer, (b) chief therapist and (c) social analyst.
As a producer he is an engineer of coordination and production.
... As a therapeutic agent, the last responsibility for the
therapeutic value of the total production rests upon his shoulders.
... The psychodramatic director, in his function as a social
investigator, is a sort of “super-auxiliary ego”.
Psicodrama p. 308-309
The third instrument is the director. He has three functions:
producer, therapist and analyst. As producer he has to be on the
alert to turn every clue which the subject offers into dramatic
action, to make the line of production one with the life line of the
subject, and never to let the production lose rapport with the
audience. As therapist attacking and shocking the subject is at
times just as permissible as laughing and joking with him; at
times he may become indirect and passive and for all practical
purposes the session seems to be run by the patient. As analyst
he may complement his own interpretation by responses coming
from informants in the audience, husband, parents, children,
friends or neighbors.
131
Psychodrama v. 1 p. c Introduction to 3rd Edition
DIRECTOR/OBJECTIVITY
In classic psychodrama, similar to classic psychoanalysis, the
chief therapist does not take part in the production itself. He is
like a conductor in an orchestra; he does not play an instrument
himself, but supervises, directs and observers. He keeps a certain
distance from the patient.
DIRECTOR/RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CLIENT
The fight between therapist and patient is in the
psychodramatic situation extremely real; to an extent they have
to assess each other like two battlers, facing each other in a
situation of great stress and challenge. Each of them have to
draw spontaneity and cunning from their resources so that
whatever amount of projected transference operates from patient
towards the therapist is pushed into the background or reduced to
a small element. Positive factors, which are shaping the
relationship and interaction in the reality of life itself, take their
place: spontaneity, productivity, the warming up process, tele
and role processes.
J. L. Moreno, Hypnodrama and Psychodrama, in “Group
Psychotherapy”, Beacon House, nº1, April 1950, v.iii, p. 3
DIRECTOR/RELATHIONSHIP WITH THE SPECTATOR
... Here it is important that the director, too, be able to see every
spectator. This has two reasons; the polarity is double. The
psychodramatic director should see every member of the
audience and thus establish, if not more, at least an illusion of
director communication with them; and it is of equal therapeutic
value that every spectator be able to see the director. A skilful
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132
psychodramatic director should always create an illusion of
communication by letting his eyes pass over everyone in the
audience.
Psicodrama p. 383
DRAMA
DRAMA/CATEGORIES OF
An analysis of the dramatic literature of all ages, radio
scripts and films would show a division in several categories, the
category of the entertaining drama, the category of the esthetic
drama, and the category of the social, (religious, moral,
educational) drama. But one category would be missing – at
least in a pure form – the therapeutic drama. Psychotherapy as
an exclusive aim of the drama has never been attempted.
Psicodrama p. 445
DRAMA/CATHARSIS
There is an argument which we must dispose of first, before
elaborating on the idea of the therapeutic drama. That is, that
good drama is entertaining, beautiful and therapeutic at the same
time; if it is beautiful it must eo ipso, produce catharsis and what
is fine and beautiful is always the best entertainment.
Psicodrama p. 446
DRAMA/DRAMATIS PERSONAE
If we imagine the author as apart from the types that came
forth from him, the following process may be observed. Each of
these personae dramatis is his own creator, and the poet is he
who combines them into a unified whole. There you have the
primary concept of the Impromptu performance.
133
Psicodrama p. 91
... Every Impromptu actor is, in fact, the creator of his dramatis
persona, and the Impromptu producer (alias the author) must
synthesize the processes of each dramatis persona in a new
whole.
Psicodrama p. 91
... The patient has as dramatis personae either the real people of
his private world, his wife, his father, his child, etc., or actors
portraying them, auxiliary egos.
DRAMA/HEALING
...The magnification of reality into a drama makes him free from
reality. It is a process of cure similar to the serum injection of
smallpox, to check the full breakout of smallpox. The patient
acts like a dramatist who writes Hamlet to scare the latter away
from him.
DRAMA/HISTORY
There are three forms of the drama to which an experiment
based upon the philosophy of the moment lends itself: the
spontaneity theatre, as a dramatic art of the moment, the
dramatized or living newspaper, and the therapeutic theatre, * or
the theatre of catharsis.
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134
DRAMA/MEANING OF THE WORD
Drama is a transliteration of the Greek ... which means
action, or a thing done. Psychodrama can be defined, therefore,
as the science which explores the “truth” by dramatic methods.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. a Introduction to 3rd Edition
DRAMATIC QUALITY
In contrast, modern psychodrama is always new and fresh,
unrepeated in every session. We have shown that there are new
ways and new goals. The great problem which has yet to be
solved is to bring the quality of the creation and the stability of
the performances to a higher level. We have definitely noted that
in hundreds of places with every possible group of persons a
meaningful psychodrama can be created. But however
worthwhile the therapeutic effects may be, the level of
production is frequently very low. How can we bring the level to
a higher development? The question of quality hangs together
with this. The quality depends to the largest degree upon the
choice of director and auxiliary egos. They are not always of the
same quality and seldom reach the highest level of esthetics and
therapeusis. The question remains: “How can we overcome these
difficulties?” The answer: through analysis of the production and
by practice.
An overview of thousands of psychodramatic directors has
yielded the following result: from among the many practicing
directors at best one percent has the quality, the spontaneity, the
charisma, the persistent energy to inspire a production which
reaches the same level as Shakespeare or Ibsen. Naturally, one
cannot compare psychodrama with the old form of theatre, they
are totally different process in themselves. The task of the
psychodramatic academy is therefore, to discover directors of
the highest culture and to train them. Not all the directors whom
we have trained are of the same quality. We must therefore
eliminate many persons in the course of selection for directorial
training.
135
Just as there is a rank order among the directors, so there is a
rank order among protagonists and also among auxiliary egos.
There are protagonists who have an unheard of capacity for selfpresentation,
but there are also protagonists of lesser talent. The
same goes for auxiliary egos in their ability to take the roles of
others.
Theatre of Spontaneity pp. e-f
... The first7 form under consideration is that of dramatic quality
of response. It is that quality which gives newness and vivacity
to feelings, actions, and verbal utterances which are nothing but
repetitions of what an individual has experienced a thousand
times before – that is, they do not contain anything new, original,
or creative. ... It makes disassociated automoton-like acts be felt
and look like true expression.
Psicodrama p. 140
DRAMATIST
The spontaneity theatre revolutionized the function of the
dramatist. He is a part of the immediate theatre. His subjective
being is still controlled by the dramatic theme he wants to
produce. He is not yet freed from it since it is not yet finished.
He experiences an inspired, individual struggle for expression –
the birthpangs of creativity – far more strongly than he
experiences his “work of art” itself. The dramatist is the all
important and interesting phenomenon, as long as the work is
unfinished within his mind. His individuality may lose all its
importance once it is finished, however. This may explain why
the sight of the dramatist when he appears on the legitimate
stage at the end of the first night of his play is almost invariably
an anticlimax and sometimes provocative of humor at his
expense.
7 Author’s note: Moreno is talking about spontaneity here.
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136
DRAMATIZATION
But this mad passion, this unfoldment of life in the domain
of illusion does not work like a renewal of suffering, rather it
confirms the rule: every true second time is the liberation from
the first. Liberation is an exaggerated definition of what takes
place because complete repetition of a process makes its subject
look foolish or ridiculous.
Psicodrama p. 28
DRAMATIZATION/FUNCTION OF
Second, is the period of retraining. The pupil undertakes the
same acts as in the first stage, but the objective properties are
gradually removed. He eats imaginary steak, drinks from an
imaginary glass and puts on an imaginary coat. During this
process the models of real life are so to speak in repair, they are
being remodeled by images. In this way manners are “repaired”,
quick judgment is built, social behavior acquired.
Psicodrama p. 195
DREAMS
... If this theory is correct... ... the infant does not dream during
the first period. It has been pointed out in our discussion on
amnesia that the infant is unable to register or remember events,
and this inability is the greater the younger the infant is; that, in
itself, would limit the possibility of dreaming to such dreams as
are provoked momentarily in the course of sleeping.
137
... In other words, the only type of infantile dream which can be
theoretically visualized is the one which is immediately
provoked by a situation which stimulates or scares the infant on
the spur of the moment, without awakening it.
Psicodrama p. 120
... This would indicate that dreams, as we know them, cannot be
produced in the period of all-identity...
Psicodrama p. 120
... The dream does not reach endlessly into the past, but it has a
beginning, an origin. It cannot originate earlier than the period
in which wake existence has a structure similar to the nocturnal
dream.
Psicodrama p. 121
... It is not until the period of all-reality emerges that imageries
appear in the wake life of the infant which resembles the
nocturnal dream structure.
Psicodrama p. 121
DURÉE
DURÉE/HENRY BERGSON
... To Henri Bergson, for one, goes the honor of having brought
the principle of spontaneity into philosophy (although he rarely
used the word), at a time when the leading scientists were
adamant that there is no such thing in objective science. But his
“données immediates”, his “élan vital” and “durée” were
metaphors for the one experience which permeated his life’s
work – spontaneity – but which he vainly tried to define. There
is no “moment” in his system, only durée. “Duration is not one
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instant replacing another … duration is a continuous progress of
the past which gnaws into the future … the piling up of the past
upon the past goes on without relaxation.” Bergson’s universe
cannot start and cannot relax, it is a system in which there is no
place for the moment. ... But without the moment as locus
nascendi, a theory of spontaneity and creativity threatens to
remain entirely metaphysical or to become entirely automatic.
E
EDUCATION AND PSYCHODRAMA
... Every public school, high school and college should have a
psychodrama stage as a guidance laboratory for their everyday
problems. Many problems which cannot be adjusted in the
classroom itself can be presented and solved before the
psychodramatic forum especially designed to such tasks.
Psicodrama p. 197
The problem of a curriculum for play schools has to
reconsider three elements. First: The age old habit of
surrounding the child with finished playthings or with play
material for the making of toys encourages in the child the
conception of a mechanical universe of which he is the only
uninhibited ruler; the cruelty and the lack of sympathy that
children often display towards living beings is due to prolonged
occupation with inanimate objects. Second: The curriculum must
be partly enlarged by the addition of all subjects which are
offered to the public school and the high school student, only
these are to be presented and experienced on a correspondingly
lower level. Third: Techniques of teaching these subjects in
accordance with spontaneity principles have to be invited.
139
Psicodrama p. 199
EMOTIONAL EXPANSIVENESS
4. The emotional expansiveness of communities can be
measured by permitting its members unrestrained exercise of
choices, to the point where their spontaneity and tele become
extinguished.
4. Emotional and social expansiveness develop with age.
... Not only the quality but perhaps also the quantity, the
expansiveness of emotional interest has been molded by the
family group. A family being a group of few persons forces the
growing child to limit his attention to the development of few
relationships, to parents and to siblings. His thirst to expand is
thus early cut and channeled; he gets used to being content with
a small number of relations. When grown up he feels that he
cannot absorb more than a small number of relations. Indeed, the
quantum of his active acquaintances will rarely rise or fall above
or below the average. ... He cannot go beyond a certain limit, it
seems, to keep a balance.
Score of emotional expansiveness: the number of different
persons whom, an individual chooses or to whom he is attracted
on any criterion.
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... In the sociometric analysis of behavior it stands between the
sociometric test and the spontaneity test.
EMOTIONAL EXPANSIVENESS/JEWS
... Jews may have developed, for sociodynamic reasons, a larger
emotional expansiveness than Germans. We should not conclude
that this condition is characteristic for Jews per se because
certain levels of aspiration are forbidden to them, economically,
professionally, socially, culturally. Another sociometric finding
has been that the emotional expansiveness of individuals grows
with their acquaintance volume and that the effect of differences
in individual emotional expansiveness will be multiplied
proportionate to the growth of interaction between members of
the two groups. The greater the restrictions on making
acquaintance with members of the majority group, the greater
will become the load of frustration upon the emotional
expansiveness of the minority members and the tensions
between the two groups will increase in intensity.
EMOTIONAL EXPANSIVENESS/SOCIAL
EXPANSIVENESS
The test of emotional expansiveness measures the emotional
energy of an individual which enables him to “hold” the
affection of other individuals for a given period of time, in
difference from social expansiveness which is merely the
number of individuals with whom he is in social contact
regardless of whether he is able to hold them or not.
141
EMOTIONAL EXPANSIVENESS/SOCIOMETRIC TEST
... The emotional expansiveness is more directly related to
behavior and action than the more inclusive sociometric test. It
does not matter here how many are chosen, but how many an
individual can hold and satisfy in his immediate needs. In the
sociometric analysis of behavior it stands between the
sociometric test and the spontaneity test.
Fundamentos Sociometria p. 199
EMOTIONAL EXPANSIVENESS/TESTING
The test of emotional expansiveness measures the emotional
energy of an individual which enables him to “hold” the
affection of other individuals for a given period of time, in
difference from social expansiveness which is merely the
number of individuals with whom he is in social contact
regardless of whether he is able to hold them or not.
ENCOUNTER
1. The fundamental principle underlying all forms of
psychotherapy is the encounter and not the transference of
psychoanalysis.
ENERGY
... According to sociometric theory there are two forms of
energy, “conservable” and “unconservable” energy. An
illustration of conservable energy is the law of conservation of
energy as postulated by physics, or the “cultural conserve” as
described by sociometry. An illustration of unconservable
energy is spontaneity.
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The distribution of energy in social space takes place in
accord with the law of social gravitation. The sociometric
formula of social gravitation is “People 1 (P1) and people 2 (P2)
move towards each other – between a locality X and a locality Y
– in direct proportion to the amount of attraction given (a1) or
received (a2), in inverse proportion to the amount of repulsion
given (r1) or received (r2), the physical distance (d) between the
two localities being constant, the facilities of communication
between X and Y being equal.
ENVY
ENVY/CREATOR ENVY (SEE IN CREATOR ENVY)
ENVY/GERMAN’S ENVY
... As the majority of the development groups are German, we
can imagine feelings of resentment arising among the German
leader groups, together with the conviction that they have a more
“natural right” than the Jewish leaders to direct the German
masses of workers and farmers.
ETHICS
ETHICS OF GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPIST
Moreno, J. L.- “Code of Ethics of group Psychotherapist” in
Group Psychotherapy, Beacon House, v.x, nº 1, March 1957,
pp. 143-144 (role article)
143
ETHICS/GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/HIPPOCRATIC OATH
8. The Hippocratic Oath binds the physician to keep all matters
of his professional practice secret. In group psychotherapy the
Hippocratic Oath is extended to all patients and binds each with
equal strength not to reveal to outsiders the confidences of other
patients entrusted to them .
Moreno, J. L. “Code of Ethics of Group Psychotherapist” in
Group Psychotherapy, Beacon House, v.x, nº 1, March 1957,
pp. 143-144
ETHICS/GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/HERE AND NOW
... I discovered the spontaneous man again when I began to run
role playing and psychodramatic sessions. In the course of
thousands of sessions I have run in the last four decades,
whenever I worked with groups, I felt that I must work within
the here and now and that any rehash would not only be
unethical but also untruthful and finally, also untherapeutic.
Las bases de la Psicoterapia p. 227
EXTERNAL SOCIETY
... By external society I mean all tangible and visible groupings,
large or small, formal or informal, of which human society
consists.
EXISTENTIALISM
EXISTENTIALISM/MORENO
The radical realism of phenomenologists like Husserl and
Scheler gave rise to a new development in existentialism which
is particularly pronounced in the works of Jaspers, Heidegger,
Sartre. The new development reflects itself in their search for
validation. Tacitly or overtly the emphasis has shifted to the
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144
relation between existential and scientific validation. The
original existentialism of Kierkegaard has practically vanished
from the scene except for some rancorous religious writers. The
reason may be in the growing vogue of agnosticism and atheism
among them and the desire to reconcile existentialist
philosophies with scientific methods. I believe that I have shown
beyond any doubt that the existentialism of today, of which
Kierkegaard is often called its founder, has lost its original
characteristics. It has little to do with Kierkegaard’s philosophy.
But there is one development in modern thought in which this
dilemma of existentialism has been anticipated and treated, in
sociometry and particularly through its psychodramatic method.
F
FAMILY
But the true symbol of the therapeutic theatre is the private
home.
Psicodrama p. 75
FAMILY
FAMILY/INTROVERTED ORGANIZATION
We could divide the members of a cottage in Hudson into
two groups: those who want to stay (the stayers) and those who
want to move away (the movers). The proportion between these
two groups decided whether or not a cottage group had an
introverted or an extroverted organization. We saw then that
groups with an introverted organization disclosed a stronger
craving for difference and distinction. This feeling of difference
and distinction could easily turn into a current of aggression
against intruders from other cottages. This phenomenon appears
to have universal application. ... In every community there are
stayers and movers. Communities with an introverted
145
organization also tend to produce restrictive and protective
currents against intruders. Although the motivations for these
phenomena are complex, these restrictive and protective currents
appeared to further social differentiation and integration within
communities. An intimate study of the population structure in a
local geographical area will probably demonstrate that the
consanguine groups, the family trees, are the strongest centers of
introverted organization and that the craving for difference and
distinction is most strongly focussed in them.
FAMILY/FAMILY THERAPY/PSYCHODRAMA
... But when two persons live together and meet one another
daily, then the true dramatic situation begins, giving joy or
suffering. It is this situation which produces the conflict. It turns
the lonely inhabitants of the house into a community.
From the moment that the conflict has set in, the brutal fact
of space and time which they share broadens and increases the
network of their relations and the intensity of their problem. The
anxiety in the house can become so great that the two or the
many are not helped by silence – because two or many live in it.
A conversation does not help them because the disturbance is not
only in the intellect, it is already in their bodies.
... It is a situation of two beings who do not understand one
another, because and in spite of fullest clarity and knowledge of
one another. … Everything which happens and which is
attempted is in vain. They live in eternal recurrence and
deepening of the same problems.
... The conflict is an inner pretext to hide themselves more
deeply. But out of this labyrinth of complication with father and
mother, wife and child, friend and enemy, accumulated in the
course or a lifetime, growing into one’s world because or
understandings and misunderstandings, one question emerges at
last: How shall the birth, the goodness, the truth, the lie, the
murder, the gossip, the hate, the fear, the horror, the pain, the
stupidity, the madness, the recognition, the knowledge, the
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withdrawal, the death, the mourning, the salvation, the limitless
variations and combinations of these processes one with another,
how shall they all be saved?
... It can be done through the last theatre – the therapeutic
theatre.
The players of the therapeutic stage are the inhabitants of the
private house. If a person lives alone the procession of
sensations, feelings, and thoughts of a private, personal world
can take place as in a dream without resistance. But when two
persons live together and meet one another daily, then the true
dramatic situation begins, giving joy or suffering. It is this
situation which produces the conflict. It turns the lonely
inhabitants of the house into a community.
Psicodrama p. 76
... Not only the quality but perhaps also the quantity, the
expansiveness of emotional interest has been molded by the
family group. A family being a group of few persons forces the
growing child to limit his attention to the development of few
relationships, to parents and to siblings. His thirst to expand is
thus early cut and channeled; he gets used to being content with
a small number of relations.
FANTASY
... The fantasy or psychodramatic function is free of these extrapersonal
resistances, unless he interpolates his own resistance.
Psicodrama p. 124
147
FREE ASSOCIATION
... The technique of free association, for instance, involves
spontaneous acting of the individual, although it is restricted to
speaking out whatever goes through his mind. What is working
here is not only the association of words but the spontaneity
which propels them to associate. The larger the volume of word
association is, the more significant and more spontaneous is its
production.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. XII
Psicoterapia de Grupo e psicodrama p. 349
The process of starting, especially the use of bodily starters,
in the warming up process, brings up the question of how
reliable free word-association may be as a guide to the deeper
levels of the psyche. We have seen that the position and the role
the patient is in when the words emerge determine largely the
kind of associations he will produce.
Psicoterapia de Grupo y Psicodrama p. 299-300
FREE ASSOCIATION/CRITICISM
The process of starting, especially the use of bodily starters,
in the warming up process, brings up the question of how
reliable free word-association may be as a guide to the deeper
levels of the psyche. We have seen that the position and the role
the patient is in when the words emerge determine largely the
kind of associations he will produce.
Espanhol p. 276
Psicodrama p. 255
FREE ASSOCIATION/SPONTANEITY
... Mental healing process requires spontaneity in order to be
effective. The technique of free association, for instance,
involves spontaneous acting of the individual, although it is
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148
restricted to speaking out whatever goes through his mind. What
is working here is not only the association of words but the
spontaneity which propels them to associate. The larger the
volume of word association is, the more significant and more
spontaneous is its production. Other conditions being equal, this
is true of all other methods designed to assist in mental cures.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. XII
FREUD/MEETING FREUD-MORENO
... I met Dr. Freud only on one occasion. It occurred in 1912
when, while working at the Psychiatric Clinic in Vienna
University, I attended one of his lectures. Dr. Freud had just
ended his analysis of a telepathic dream. As the students filed
out he asked me what I was doing. “Well, Dr. Freud, I start
where you leave off. You meet people in the artificial setting
of your office, I meet them on the street and in their home, in
their natural surroundings. You analyze their dreams. I try to
give them the courage to dream again.
Psicodrama p. 54
FUTURE
A careful analysis of Man’s total situation has made clear to
us that the process of secularization of his religious, social and
cultural institutions has developed too fast; he ran into the acts of
secularization almost with the same degree of blindness as he
showed when he made in an earlier period of history the same
institutions prematurely sacred. There is no question that Man
has to trace his steps back from the secular to the sacred planes
of living, from the technological back to the spiritual plane, in
order that the growing expansion of the self can find an inner
equilibrium; it is a paradox, but the realization methods of the
saint and the technological methods of the physicist, the two
extremes – in between fall the realization methods of
149
biometrists, psychometrists, sociometrists, etc. – must meet and
merge before the dawn of hope can rise again.
But the expansion of the self from the plane of the individual
organism to the comic plane of ruler of the universe cannot be
imagined to be a process of cold engineering. It will be a
realization process of, by and through the self, a movement from
the lower plane to a superior plane, the time for each movement
equaling that of a historical epoch. No one can predict for
instance, how much time and effort it will take until the social
self on the plane of human society will have attained as high a
degree of integration as the degree of integration such as has
been attained by the most highly regarded single human
individuals of history.
... Peace will come to men in the distant future when they learn
to get along although they do not understand one another.
Fundamento de la Sociometria p. não há
... With the cooperation of “all” the people we should be able to
create a social order worthy of the highest aspirations of our
times. This is the meaning of revolutionary, dynamic
sociometry.
The lifeline of the new era is marked by the combination of
three developments: the diagnostic – sociometry, the actional –
psychodrama and the therapeutic – group psychotherapy.
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150
... The greater the number of valid studies in the years to come,
the more accurate and complete will be our psycho-geographical
model of the world, as compared with the still sketchy and
primitive model which is available to us today.
Future anthropologists will give to the animistic and
totemistic philosophers of past cultures a high place of honor.
Psychodrama: Foundations of Psychoterapy v. 2 p. 154
FUTURE/MAN
There is one to whom we always have ascribed the power of
infinite expansiveness. It is God. In our religions it is perfectly
natural to think that God has a private relation to each person of
the universe separately. He has no relationships em masse. ...
Will the man of the future be more similar to our image of God?
... There will then be two possibilities of survival for man: one,
as a zootechnical animal, the other, as a creator.
... If the future of mankind can be “planned”, then conscious
evolution through training of spontaneity-creativity opens a new
vista for the development of the human race.
151
The battle between zoon (living animal) and zoomaton
(mechanical animal) approaches a new peripety. The future of
man depends upon counterweapons to be developed by
sociometry, sociatry, bioatry and similar disciplines.
FUTURE/MASS MIDIA
... It is probable that once studios for therapeutic motion
pictures are permanent, the actors will be trained for every
type of syndrome. But whatever the future developments,
they should never be permitted to finish a production by
themselves, without the censorship of actual informants.
... I foresee that in the not too distant future theatres for
therapeutic television and motion pictures will be just as
common place as newsreel theatres are today. Each will have a
psychiatric consultant. They will provide the most effective
vehicle for mass psychotherapy ever devised.
Psicodrama p. 481
... It is advisable to organize dramatized, living newspapers to
be broadcast from television stations throughout the world. This
is more than the usual photographic reel of events but an
instrument by means of which the living creative genius on this
planet can communicate directly and instantly with their
fellowmen.
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152
FUTURE/SEXUALITY
According to spontaneity research of the sexual act, the warming
up process towards orgasm develops into two different
directions, one with the goal of conception, the other with the
goal of avoiding conception. If this division attains more and
more a permanent character and becomes a cultural pattern the
psychosomatic characteristics of the rp orgasms may differ more
and more from sa orgasms. The dilemma of the future may turn
out to be, instead of human fertility and overproduction human
“in” fertility and underproduction.
FUTURE/SOCIATRY/SOCIOMETRY
... A sociatrist is thus one skilled in sociatry. A doctorate, or
diplomat of sociatry is a degree to be given in the future not
exclusively to doctors of medicine, as it is now with psychiatry,
but to doctors of education, psychology and sociology as well.
... Therefore, all in all, the sociometric experiment is still a
project of the future.
... The major experiment was visualized as a world-wide project
– a scheme well-nigh Utopian in concept – yet it must be
recalled again and again to our attention lest it be crowded out
by our more practical daily tasks in sociometry.
... The sociometric experiment will end in becoming totalistic
not only in expansion and extension but also in intensity, thus
marking the beginning of a political sociometry.
153
FUTURE/SPONTANEITY VERSUS CREATIVITY
It was in the year 1923 when I set forth the dictum:
“Spontaneity Training is to be the main subject in the school of
the future”.
Psicodrama p. 181
... If we want to develop and sustain a spontaneous and flexible
personality make-up, a technique of Spontaneity Training as
described must come to the rescue to offset the resignation and
inertia of the individual.
Psicodrama p. 191
... When the twentieth century will close its doors that which I
believe will come out as the greatest achievement is the idea of
spontaneity and creativity, and the significant, indelible link
between them. It may be said that the efforts of the two centuries
complement one another. If the nineteenth century looked for the
“lowest” common denominator of mankind, the unconscious, the
twentieth century discovered, or rediscovered its “highest”
common denominator – spontaneity and creativity.
G
GENIUS/HEROES
... Last but not least, the human species is the genius among the
primates – and a prolonged latency period is commonly found
with geniuses.
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Psicodrama p. 115
... Whereas the “genius” method made the participation in the
sciences and arts an exception, the scientific method strives
towards making the participation universal.
... “It was the influence of psychoanalysis which waged a war
from the rear against all genius in order to reproach him with his
complexes. Psychoanalysis – if one looks at it from a high
historical plane – is the vengeance of mediocrity: after the
devaluation of nature and the devaluation of society, the
devaluation of the spirit.
Who Shall Survive? p. xxxiv Preludes
GENIUS/SPONTANEITY AND WARMING UP
... There were many more Michaelangelos born than the one who
painted the great paintings, many more Beethovens born than the
one who wrote the great symphonies, and many more Christs
born than the one who became the Jesus of Nazareth. What they
have in common are the creative ideas, motivation, intelligence,
skill and education. What separates them is the spontaneity
which, in the successful cases, enables the carrier to take full
command of the resources whereas the failures are at a loss with
all their treasures; they suffer from deficiencies in their
warming-up process.
Psicodrama p. 142
... Analysis of works of genius or of genius in retrospect on the
basis of material gained from analysis of patients of average
mentality is often misleading and erroneous. The task of the
155
psychiatrist is therefore to face a person of creative mentality in
the midst of his dynamic difficulties.
Psicodrama p. 342
The creative artist’s personality is broken up into two
fundamental roles in life. This split is the outcome of a normal
development. It is the outcome of necessity and not of disease.
The one pattern is his private personality. It begins at the
moment of conception and ends with death. The other pattern is
a specific artistic creative process which may begin at any period
during his lifetime.
Psicodrama p. 346
... The creative ego may be using, hurting and destroying the
private ego. ... The person of creative genius is cruel to members
of his social atom and even to himself if it helps the creative
product.
Psicodrama p. 347
… The more original and profound the problem is which a
genius sets himself the more is he compelled to use, like the preconserve
man, his own personality as an experimental tool and
the situation around him as raw material.
Psicodrama p. 352
GENIUS/TELE
On the social plane we have isolated the factor tele which is
able to give the direction which the expansion of the self takes.
In order to understand the operations of the tele, it is useful to
differentiate between projection and what can be called
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“retrojection”. Projection is usually defined as “throwing upon
others persons one’s ideas and assuming that they are objective,
although they have a subjective origin.” Retrojection is drawing
and receiving from other persons (it can be extended to all the
dimensions and subsidiaries) their ideas and feelings, either to
find identity with one’s own (confirmation) or to add strength to
the self (expansion).
The organization of the self within the individual organism
begins early in life. It is universal phenomenon and observable
in every individual. In certain individuals the power of
retrojection is enormously developed. We call them geniuses and
heroes. If a man of genius knows what the people or the time
needs and wants he is able to do this by the retrojective power of
the self, that is, by a tele process, not by projection. They
assimilate with enormous ease the experience others have, not
only by drawing it from the people but because others are eager
to communicate their feelings to them. They recognize these
experiences as similar or identical with their own and integrate
them into their self; that is how they are able to swell it to
enormous expansion. When they lose their mandate, the calling
of the self vanishes and the self shrinks.
GOD
GOD/GODHEAD
The highest value of spontaneity and creativity, the topvalue
on any axiological scale, is a totally spontaneous-creative being,
the Godhead. The question of existence or non-existence of God
does not matter here, as an ideal value postulate he has
axiological significance, comparative to the notions of “infinite”
and zero in mathematics. It establishes a frame of reference for
every possible type of living being – animal, man or superman –
for every type of action, work or permanence, for every possible
type of cultural conserve – memorized matter, the book, or the
motion picture.
157
Psicodrama p. 156
The greatest model of “objectivity” man has ever conceived
was the idea of the Godhead...
Who Shall Survive? p. xli Preludes
... But it is from religious systems that sociometry has drawn its
chief inspiration.
... It was in my philosophical Dialogues of the Here and Now
and later in my Words of the Father that I added a new
dimension to the Godhead, a dimension which unconsciously
was always there but which has never been properly spelled out,
theoretically the dimension of the “I” or God in the “first”
person (in contrast to the “Thou” God of the Christian, and to the
“He” God of the Mosaic tradition), the dimension of
subjectivity, the dimension of the actor and creator, of
spontaneity and creativity.
Who Shall Survive? p. xl-xli Preludes
... It is significant to note, in this connection, that many of God’s
quasi-conserve qualities may have been over-emphasized – His
“works”, His “universe”, His “all-might”, His “righteousness”
and His “wisdom” – whereas His function as a spontaneous
creator – the most revolutionary concept of a god’s function – is
nearly always a neglected one.
Espanhol p. 157
Psicodrama p. 159
... God is an exceptional case because in God all spontaneity has
become creativity. He is one case in which spontaneity and
creativity are identical.
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158
It is also difficult to agree as to the structure of the self. I
have described it as a cluster of rules (private plus collective
roles). It reaches out beyond the skin of the individual organism,
one of the “beyonds” is the inter-personal realm. How far does it
stretch and where does it end, is the question. If the self of Man
can expand in creativity and power, and the whole history of
Man seems to indicate this – then there must be some relation
between the idea of the universal self or God. The modern
apostles of Godlessness, when they cut off the strings which tied
Man to a divine system, a supramundane God, they cut in their
enthusiastic haste a little too much, they also cut off Man’s very
self. By the same act by which they emancipated Man from God
they emancipated also Man from himself. They said God is dead,
but it was Man who died. My thesis is therefore, that the center
of the problem is neither God nor the denial of his existence, but
the origin, reality and expansion of the self. By self I mean
anything which is left of you and me after the most radical
reduction of “us” is made by past and future retroductionists.
Espanhol pp. 34-35
When in one of mankind’s darkest hours ** its religious
civilization crumbled under the feet of marching armies, of
soldiers and comrades, my first impulse was to give Man a new
vision of God and to let him see in a flash the universal religion
of the future, which I was certain would finally and permanently
unite people into a single commonwealth. At a moment of
greatest human misery when the past seemed to be a delusion,
the future a misfortune and the present a fugitive pastime I
formulated in the “Testament des Vaters” ** the most radical
antithesis of our time by making my “I” and “self” of the weak
human bastard the same and identical with the I and self of God,
the Creator of the World. There was no need for proof that God
159
exists and had created the world if the same I’s whom he had
created had taken part in the creation of themselves and in the
creation of each other. If then god was weak and humble, unfree
and doomed to die, he was triumphant just the same. As the ISelf-
God it was he who had made himself unfree, in order to
make a universe of billions of equally unfree beings possible
outside of himself, but depending upon them. The idea of God
became a revolutionary category, removed from the beginning of
time into the present, into the self, into every I. It is the “Thou”-
God of the Christian Gospel who may need the proof of meeting,
but the “I”-God of the Self was self evident.
There is one to whom we always have ascribed the power of
infinite expansiveness. It is God. In our religions it is perfectly
natural to think that God has a private relation to each person of
the universe separately. He has no relationships em masse, ...
...Will the man of the future be more similar to out image of
God?
... The creative definition of “Godplaying” is the maximum of
involvement, the putting of everything unborn from the chaos
into the first moment of being. This preoccupation with the
status and locus nascendi of things became the guide of all my
future work.
Who Shall Survive? p. xvii Preludes
... The only way to get rid of the “God syndrome” is to act it out.
Who Shall Survive? p. xix Preludes
Rosa Cukier
160
The genesis of the Godhead fertilized another idea in my
mind: God was not just a Godplayer in the literal sense. Would
God have been only God, a narcissus in love with himself and
with his own expansion, the universe would never have come
into existence. It is because he became a “lover” and a “creator”
that he could create the world. If God would come into the world
again he would not come into it as an individual, but as a group,
as a collective.
Who Shall Survive? p. xix-xx Preludes
GROUP COHESION.
... There are several indications that a marked change in the
cohesion of the group has taken place: a) the increased number
of choices going into the cottage family, centering interest more
upon members of the group than upon members of other groups;
b) the number of mutual rejections has fallen from 5 to 1; c)
there is no isolate; d) the higher structures have increased, there
are now 2 triangles instead of 1, 1 square instead of 0 and there
is no star of rejections as against 1 in the previous sociogram.
Another feature is the distribution of attractions and rejections
within the group. There were 58% of attractions and 42% of
rejections before; there are now 74% of attractions and only 26%
of rejections. The cottage group was classified before as Inward
Aggressive, more than 50% of its population rejecting some
member of the group. After reconstruction the inward
aggressiveness has receded, only 9 members of its population
reject some member of the group.
Classification: The original Extraverted and Centrifugal
Organization has turned into Introverted and Centripetal
Organization.
161
43. Injury proneness decreases with increase of social cohesion.
Army platoons and crews of workmen should be organized
along sociometric lines, so as to decrease the injury proneness of
soldiers and workers.
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/AGE OF THE MEMBERS
22. The younger the members, the more important is the age of
the individual; the older the members, the more important is the
age of the group.
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/BEGINNINGS/HISTORY
The theory of interpersonal relations is born of religion.
Who Shall Survive? p. xxx-xxxi Preludes
The first sociometric plan of a population was constructed
by me between 1915 and 1918.
Who Shall Survive? p. xxxii m Preludes
Martin Buber was acquainted with my early work; he was a
contributor to Daimon, a monthly magazine of which I was the
editor, 1918-1920.
Who Shall Survive? p. xxxi Preludes. (Footnote)
Quem Sobreviverá? v. 1 p. 37 Prelúdios. (nota de rodapé)
... The government was concerned with three problems and
reflected them into the planning: safety from the enemy,
sanitation, and subsistence. However, social and psychological
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162
planning was not considered, not even conceived of. A staff of
which I was a member was appointed by the government to
supervise the problem of sanitation in the new community. In
this position and later as superintendent of the children’s hospital
established within it, I had the opportunity to study this
community from its earliest beginning to its final dissolution
three years later when at the end of the war the colonists returned
to their homes in Tyrol. During this period a whole community
life developed. Step by step, hospitals, schools, church, theater,
department stores, shops, industry, social clubs, newspaper,
came into function. Yet, in the face of an attempt of the
government to meet the emergency and notwithstanding the
establishment of practically all the outward signs of a
community life, there was great unhappiness and friction among
the population. Whole villages of wine growers were
transplanted into a suburban industrial district, mountaineers
from Tyrol into a flat spot of country near Vienna. They were
thrown together unselected, unaccustomed to the environment,
unadjusted within themselves. I studied the psychological
currents they developed around varying criteria – the criterion of
nationality, of politics, of sex, of staff versus colonists, and so on
– and considered them as the chief contributory sources of the
flagrant maladjustments and disturbances. It was through this
experience that the idea of a sociometrically planned community
began to occupy me.
Who Shall Survive? pp. xxxii- xxxiii Preludes
... I had in mind that what La Salle and Marx had done for the
working class, leaving aside the revolutionary aspect of the labor
movement, was to make the workers respectable, to give the
working man dignity; to organize them into labor unions in order
to raise the status of the entire class. Aside from the anticipated
economic achievements it was accompanied by ethical
achievements.
... But we were optimistic and started to meet groups of eight to
tem girls, two of three times a week in their houses. It was
163
during the afternoon when the Viennese had what is called
“Jauze”; it is the counterpart of the English five o’clock tea. ...
The conferences at first simply dealt with everyday incidents
which the girls encountered, being caught by a policeman
because of wearing too provocative a dress, being put into jail
because of false accusations of a client, having a venereal
disease but being unable to find a hospital to admit her,
becoming pregnant and giving birth to a baby but having to hide
the child before the world under a different name and hiding her
own identity as the mother towards the child. ... They first
noticed superficial results, for example, we were able to get a
lawyer for them to represent them in a court, a doctor to treat
them and a hospital to admit them. ... The girls volunteered to
pay a few dimes a week towards the expenses of these meetings
as well as towards some savings for emergencies like sickness
and unemployment or old age. ... But we began to see then that
“one individual could become a therapeutic agent of the other”
and the potentialities of a group psychotherapy on the reality
level crystallized in our mind.
Who Shall Survive? pp. xxix–xxx Preludes
Quem Sobreviverá? v. 1 p. 35-36 Prelúdios
Four aspects of group psychotherapy struck me already then;
they became later the cornerstones of all forms of group
psychotherapy: 1) the autonomy of the group; 2) that there is a
group structure and the need for knowing more about it, group
diagnosis as a preliminary to group psychotherapy; 3) the
problem of collectivity; prostitution represents a collective order
with patterns of behavior, roles and mores which colors the
situation independent from the private participants and the local
group; 4) the problem of the anonymity. When a client is treated
within the framework of individual therapy, he is alone with the
doctor, his ego is the only focus, he has a name, his psyche is
highly valued private property. But in group psychotherapy there
is a tendency towards anonymity of membership, the boundaries
between the egos weaken, the group as a whole becomes the
important thing.
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164
Who Shall Survive? pp. xxx-xxxi Preludes
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/CHILDREN
1. The earliest tendencies of structure in the evolution of groups
are the stage of organic isolation (identity), the stage of
horizontal and vertical differentiation, the stage of fusion of
differentiated structures to forms of a new and higher identity,
and the stage of cohesion, the integration and stabilization of
group structure as a whole on a certain level of development;
these are recurrent patterns; there is a halo effect of earlier stages
upon later stages; they are found however extensive and
complex the groups have become.
8. A cleavage between groups of children and groups of adults
emerges – a social cleavage, from about six to seven years on.
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/CHOICE OF THE THERAPIST
41. The choice of the therapist is frequently emphasized by
psychoanalysis. The choice of therapist in individual psychology
has its counterpart in the choice of the participant members in
group psychotherapy. It is here, however, of far greater
importance than in individual psychotherapy.
Espanhol p. não há
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/DEFINITIONS
Definition 1: A method which protects and stimulates the
self regulating mechanism of natural groupings. It attacks the
problem through the use of one man as the therapeutic agent of
165
the other, of one group as the therapeutic agent of the other”. l
From Application of the group Method to Classification, p. 104,
1932.
Definition 2: “the groups function for them selves and the
therapeutic process streams through their mutual
interrelationships.” From the same publication, p. 61.
Definition 3: “Group Psychotherapy is the result of well
calculated spontaneous therapy plus proper social assignment….
The leader is within the group, not a person outside”. Same
publication, p. 94 .
Definition 4: “Group therapy will be advantageous for persons
who do not recover by themselves or through some form of
psychological analysis or medication, but only through the
interaction of one more persons who are so coordinated to the
patient that the curative tendencies within are strengthened and
the disparaging tendencies within checked, so that he may
influence the member of his group in similar manner.” Ibid, p.
97
Definition 5: “Spontaneous formation of social groups based on
the enthusiasm of the participants or on common interests and
aims achieves often miraculous results, but cannot be called
grouping in our sense as most of the interrelations remain
unanalyzed. Ibid, p. 72, 1932.
Definition 6: “Group Psychotherapy treats not only the
individual who is the focus of the attention because of
maladjustment, but the entire group of individuals who are
interrelated with him.” Who shall survive? P. 301, 1934.
Definition 7: “A truly therapeutic procedure cannot have less
and objective than the whole of mankind”. Ibid, p. 3.
Moreno, J. L. “Definitions of Group Psychotherapy” in
Group Psychotherapy, v. iii, June 1960, nº 2, p. 119.
... “Group psychotherapy is a method which protects and
stimulates the self-regulation mechanisms of natural groups –
through the use of one man as a therapeutic agent of the other, of
one group as a therapeutic agent of the other”.
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166
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/FEES
6. Should patients of the same therapeutic group pay the same
fee or not? Could charging different fees to member of the same
therapeutic group produce feelings odd inequality and thwart the
therapeutic aim?
Group Psychotherapy, Beacon House, v. x, nº 1, March 1957,
p. 143.
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/GROUP’S SOCIAL
DEFENSE MECHANISM...
They are also met by what may be called the survival of
social and psychological impressions which predispose the
attitude of the group towards them. This phenomenon preserves
the group against any radical innovations the newcomer may
seek to impose suddenly. It is a group’s social defense
mechanism.
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/INCLUSION OF NEW
MEMBERS
1. The greater the original affinity between the newcomer and
the parental figure of the group, the better will the newcomer be
accepted by the whole group. The best chance for a central and
rapid integration into the new environment is a “mutual” first
choice between the parental figure and the newcomer.
2. The greater the original affinity between the newcomer and
the key individual (outstanding star) of the group, the better will
the newcomer be accepted by the whole group. Here a mutual
first choice is the most desirable condition.
167
3. The affinity of the newcomer for the prominent members of
the group to which he is assigned is more significant than their
affinity towards him; centrifugal spontaneity is more essential to
adjustment than centripetal spontaneity.
The question has been raised why 1) first choice, 2) mutuality of
choice and 3) centrifugal spontaneity
Should be important for adequate group inclusion. The answer is
that, just like in every “love”, mutual love from the start of
acquaintance on is an excellent beginning for continuous
partnership; having chosen each other first creates a form of
“axionormative” obligation to make good, trying hard to make
their own decision stick. A person who loves although
unreciprocated is still better off than a person whom everyone
loves but who is not able to reciprocate.
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/INDICATION
... The indication of group psychotherapy or of one particular
method in preference to another must be based on the
sociodynamic changes of structure which can be determined by
means of group tests of which two illustrations have been given
above. Group psychotherapy has come of age and promises a
vigorous development largely because group theory and group
diagnosis have paved the way and have kept pace with the
rapidly expanding needs for application.
Psicodrama p. 380
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/PATERNITY
These are my conclusions: if we think of group
psychotherapy in vague, clinical terms instead of in terms of
rigorous scientific method, it would be only just to consider
Mesmer as the one who used group psychotherapy first. But, if
group psychotherapy is correctly defined as a form of therapy
which is based on knowledge of group structure and which aims
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168
at measurable changes of group dynamics before and after a
therapeutic operation is applied to it – regardless what the
operation is, lecture, interview, discussion, activity, regrouping,
psychodrama, motion picture, or a combination of them – then
Moreno’s claim to the paternity of group psychotherapy is
justified.
Who Shall Survive? p. lix – lx Preludes
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC
SUCCESS OR FAILURE
40. The outstanding single factor determining success or failure
in group psychotherapy is the spontaneous choice of members or
the spontaneous affinity between them. They must hang together
by spontaneous affinities in order that one becomes a therapeutic
agent of the other.
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/SECRECY
8. The Hippocratic Oath binds the physician to keep all matters
of his professional practice secret. In group psychotherapy the
Hippocratic Oath is extended to all patients and binds each with
equal strength not to reveal to outsiders the confidences of others
patients entrusted to them. Like the therapist, every patient is
entrusted to protect the welfare of the co-patients.
Group Psychotherapy, Beacon House, v. x, nº 1, March 1957,
p. 144.
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/SIZE OF THE GROUP
37. The size of the group in group psychotherapy depends upon
the emotional expansiveness positive and negative, of the
members of the group.
169
Quem Sobreviverá? v.-3 p. 203
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/SMALLEST GROUP
... Therefore, we may consider first the smallest possible group
which dominates modern counseling, the group of two, the
“therapeutic dyad”. In every therapeutic situation there are at
least, two individuals, the therapist and the patient.
Psychodrama : Foundations of Psychoterapy v. 2 p. 4
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/SOCIODRAMA
... There is a limit therefore, as to how far the psychodramatic
method can go in fact-finding and solving inter-personal
conflicts. The collective causes cannot be dealt with except in
their subjectified form. … They too, were super-individual, like
the storm which broke the fence, but a social storm, which may
have to be understood and controlled by different means. A
special form of psychodrama was necessary which would focus
its dramatic eye upon the collective factors. This is the way
sociodrama was born.
The true subject of a sociodrama is the group. It is not
limited by a special number of individuals, it can consist of as
many persons as there are human beings living anywhere, or at
least of as many as belong to the same culture.
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/SUBJECT
Rosa Cukier
170
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY/VERSUS INDIVIDUAL
PSYCHOTHERAPY
When the locus of therapy changed from the individual to
the group, the group became the new subject (first step). When
the group was broken up its individual little therapists and they
became the agents of therapy, the chief therapist became a part
of the group (second step) and finally, the medium of therapy
was separated from the healer as well as the group therapeutic
agents (third step). Due to the transition from individual
psychotherapy to group psychotherapy, group psychotherapy
includes individual psychotherapy; due to the transition from
group psychotherapy to psychodrama, psychodrama includes
and envelops group psychotherapy as well as individual
psychotherapy.
Psicodrama p. 376
... Even the so-called group approach in psychodrama is in the
deeper sense individual-centered. The audience is organized in
accord with a mental syndrome which all participating
individuals have in common, and the aim of the director is to
reach every individual in his own sphere, separated from the
other. He is using the group approach only to reach
therapeutically more than one individual in the same session.
The group approach in psychodrama is concerned with a group
of private individuals, which makes the group itself, in a sense,
private.
The difference between psychodrama and sociodrama
should be extended to every type of group psychotherapy. A
difference should be made between the individual type of group
171
psychotherapy and the collective type of group psychotherapy.
The individual type of group psychotherapy is individualcentered.
It focuses its attention upon the single individuals in
the situation, of which the group consists, and not upon the
group in general. The collective type of group psychotherapy is
group centered. It focuses its attention upon the collective
denominators and is not interested in the individual differentials
or the private problems which they produce.
The term and the concept of group psychotherapy which I
have introduced refer to the treatment of the total group. It treats
not only the individual who is the focus of attention because of
maladjustment, but the entire group of individuals who are
interrelated with him in the community...
... Due to the transition from individual psychotherapy to group
psychotherapy, group psychotherapy includes individual
psychotherapy.
GROUP/NORMAL X THERAPEUTIC
I differentiate between natural group, like the family, from
synthetic group like therapy and training groups and further, the
encounter group which is neither, although it has elements of
both.
Moreno, J. L. “Ontology of Group Formation” in Group
Psychotherapy, A Quarterly, v.x, nº4,December 1957, p. 348.
Rosa Cukier
172
GROUP/STAGES OF
(1) amorphous stage
(2) stage of acquaintance
(3) action stage
(1) stage of mutual relations
Psicodrama p. 385
H
HAPPENING8
... “It is noteworthy that the psychodrama has nothing to do with
‘Happening’, although it many; in its vulgarized form, be
confused with it, as for instance, with a psychomusical spectacle
which was arranged by art students in Anthony’s University
Residence in 1959 and which later was considered a happening.
In opposition to its anarchic amorphous theatricality, which in
the happening is played up to a fashionable craze, the aim of
psychodrama is a genuine organization of form, a creative selfrealization
in the act, on a structuring of space, a realization of
human relationships within the scenic action. In the happening
individuals behave in a self-idolizing, self-sufficient manner; as
no form is brought about, also genuine participation of the group
of invited spectators is not possible; everyone is relegated to
himself, dependent only on his completely narcissistic behavior.
Yes, one may say that unrelatedness is the salient feature of
‘Happenings’, whereas the theme of psychodrama is precisely
the relationship of the individual to the group and to society.”
Theatre of Spontaneity p. b
8 Author’s note: this was first said by Paul Portner, in “Psychodrama: Theater
Der Spontaneitat”, Theather Heute,Setembro,1967, p.13.
173
HEALING
HEALING/MENTAL HEALING PROCESSES
... Mental healing processes require spontaneity in order to be
effective. The technique of free association, for instance,
involves spontaneous acting of the individual, although it is
restricted to speaking out whatever goes through his mind. What
is working here is not only the association of words but the
spontaneity which propels them to associate. The larger the
volume of word association is, the more significant and more
spontaneous is its production.
HEALING/SECOND TIME
But this mad passion, this unfoldment of life in the domain
of illusion does not work like a renewal of suffering, rather it
confirms the rule: every true second time is the liberation from
the first. Liberation is an exaggerated definition of what takes
place because complete repetition of a process makes its subject
look foolish or ridiculous. One gains towards his own life,
towards all one has done and does, the point of view of the
creator – the experience of the true freedom, the freedom from
his own nature. The first time brings the second time to laughter.
... But the same pain does not affect the player and spectator as
pain, the same want does not affect him as want, the same
thought does not affect him as thought.
HEALING/SPONTANEITY
... The dynamic role which spontaneity plays in Psychodrama as
well as in every form of Psychotherapy should not imply
however, that the development and presence of spontaneity in
itself is the “cure”. There are forms of pathological spontaneity
Rosa Cukier
174
which distort perceptions, dissociate the enactment of roles, and
interfere with their integration on the various levels of living.
Psicoterapia de Grupo Y Psicodrama p. 369
HENRY BERGSON
Bergson, by making the élan vital a fetish, developed the
other extreme. The total denial of determinism is just as sterile as
its full acceptance. Whereas Freud’s psychic determinism did
not leave any room for the s factor, Bergson left, so to speak, so
much room to the creative that everything outside of it became a
demonic distortion. ... whereas Bergson made his élan vital so
creative, one instant being as creative as the other, that all
instants resolved in an absolute durée of creativity, with the
result that a category of the moment could not developed a
significance of its own.
175
Psicodrama p. 154
HERE AND NOW
From this method of the “here and now and we” three
versions of the psychodrama developed, a) the emergent
psychodrama in situ, b) the group-centered psychodrama and c)
the leader-centered psychodrama.
Who Shall Survive? p. lxxii Preludes
The “here and now” of existence is a dialectic concept. The
only form in which perceived pasts and perceived futures exist is
in the here (this place) and now (this moment). The here and
now may have been in numerous pasts and many move into
numerous futures. The only genuine opposite to the here and
now is the concept of complete nothingness the non-here and the
non-now, the non-past and the non-future, the non-I and the nonyou,
i.e., non-living.
HERE AND NOW/ETHICS
... I discovered the spontaneous man again when I began to run
role playing and psychodramatic sessions. In the course of
thousands of sessions I have run in the last four decades,
whenever I worked with groups, I felt that I must work within
the here and now and that any rehash would not only be
unethical but also untruthful and finally, also untherapeutic.
Rosa Cukier
176
HISTORY
HISTORY/FIRST CONGRESS OF GROUP
PSYCHOTHERAPY
O acontecimento organizador mais importante para a
evolução da psicoterapia de grupo foi o Congresso de Terapeutas
de Grupo celebrado no Hotel Bellevue-Stratford de Filadélfia em
31 de maio de 1932, no quadro da Associação Americana de
Psiquiatria. Mas de cem psicoterapeutas tomaram parte neste
congresso, entre eles William Alanson White, Franz Alexander,
Sandor Lorand, Frederic Wertham, Paul Schröder, V. C.
Branham, Helen Jennings. Vieram ao simpósio para avaliar os
métodos de aplicação da psicoterapia de grupo. Esses métodos se
encontravam em meu primeiro livro, recém-publicado.
Moreno, J. L. “The First Book of Group Psychotherapy”,
Beacon House, 1957, p. 131.
Psicoterapia de grupo e Psicodrama pp. 28-29
HISTORY/VIENA OF 1910
... The Vienna of 1910 was one of the display grounds of the
three forms of materialism which has become since the
undisputed world master of our age, the economic materialism of
Marx, the psychological materialism of Freud, and the
technological materialism of the steamboat, the airplane and the
atomic bomb. All three forms of materialism, however contrary
to each other, had tacitly one common denominator, a deep fear
and disrespect, almost a hatred against the spontaneous, creative
self (which should not be mixed up with individual genius, one
of its many representations).
HUMOUR
HUMOUR/THERAPY
Many things which one girl would not tell another or the
housemother in life she may act out in a play, and the humor of
177
it may prevent and heal many potential grievances which might
otherwise have led to actual let to actual conflict.
HYPNODRAMA AND HYPNOSIS
Hypnodrama is a synthesis of psychodrama and hypnosis.
The idea of hypnodrama came to me through an accident. In the
summer of 1939, the late Dr. Solby brought a young woman for
treatment. She suffered from paranoid delusions accompanied by
nightmares, every night the devil came to visit here. She was
unable to get into a psychodramatic contact with the incident.
After trying the self-directed technique and methods of mild
prompting without results I became highly directive; this put the
patient unexpectedly into a hypnotic trance. I decided to try a
psychodrama under these novel circumstances. With the aid of
two male auxiliary egos she was able to portray two meetings
with the devil, one as it had happened the night before, one as he
expected it to happen the following night. Apparently hypnosis
operated as a “starter” and spurred her spontaneity.
Moreno, J. L. “Hypnodrama and Psychodrama”, in Group
Psychotherapy, Beacon House, nº1, v. iii, April 1950, p. 6.
Although hypnosis is the starting point of a hypnodrama, the
hypnotisand takes part in the production as the central character,
he is exposed to a bombardment of psychodramatic stimuli and
is suggested by the chief therapist to interact during the session
with every auxiliary ego.
Psychotherapy, Beacon House, nº1, v. iii, April 1950, p.7
Psicoterapia de grupo e Psicodrama p. 113
With the entrance of psychodrama into the arena of the
medical therapies, however, a change has been taking place, as
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178
the literature of the last few years discloses. The conversion of
hypnosis can proceed into two directions, a) submitting the
patient to a material analysis after the hypnotic trance is over,
which hypnotists or psychoanalysts trained in hypnosis have
frequently tried to do. But the hypnotic operation turning the
patient unconscious and the psychoanalytic operation, turning
the patient conscious, contradict each other. The other
conversion was to combine hypnosis with dramatic methods and
use analysis supplementary to the process of psychodrama as it
unfolds. These two directions, hypnosis plus psychoanalysis, and
hypnosis plus psychodrama are actually in the process of
developing, the one under the label of hypnoanalysis, the other I
have called it, hypnodrama. But if one watches some of the
hypoanalysts (as well the hypnotists) of today as to what they
actually practice, even if they camouflage it in writings, the more
explicit it becomes the psychodramatic elements are becoming
an intrinsic part of their operation, and that they are becoming
more and more conscious of these elements. When they interpret
them they may or may not use psychoanalytic concepts but what
they do has little similarity to free association; it does have great
similarity to psychodrama.
Psychotherapy, Beacon House, nº1, v. iii, April 1950, pp. 7-8
Hypnosis is induced on the psychodrama stage portion. The
hypnotizant is free to act, to move about, and is given auxiliary
egos to help portray his drama. Hypnodrama is a merging of
hypnotherapy with psychodrama.
179
I
IDEE FIXE
Why I chose the course of the theatre instead of founding a
religious sect, joining a monastery or developing a system of
theology (although they do not exclude one another), can be
understood by taking a view into the setting from which my
ideas sprang. I suffered from an idee fixe, from what might have
been called then an affectation, but of which might be said
today, as the harvest is coming in, that it was by “the grace of
God.” The idee fixe became my constant source of productive; it
proclaimed that there is a sort or primordial nature which is
immortal and returns afresh with every generation, a first
universe which contains all beings and in which all events are
sacred. I liked that enchanting realm and did not plan to leave it,
ever.
... I suffered from an idée fixe, from what might have been called
then an affectation, but of which might be said today, as the
harvest is coming in, that it was by “the grace of God”. The idee
fixe became my constant source of productivity; it proclaimed
that there is a sort of primordial nature which is immortal and
returns afresh with every generation, a first universe which
contains all beings and in which all events are sacred. I liked that
enchanting realm and did not plan to leave it, ever.
Who Shall Survive? p. xviii Preludes
IDENTITY/IDENTIFICATION
... Catharsis in the sociodrama differs from catharsis in the
psychodrama. The psychodramatic approach deals with personal
problems principally and aims at personal catharsis. In
psychodramatic procedure a subject whether it is a Christian, a
Communist, a Negro, a Jew, a Jap, or a Nazi is treated as a
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specific person, with his private world. His collective situation is
considered only as far as it affects his personal situation.
Therefore, he has to be himself the chief actor in the treatment
procedure. In sociodramatic procedure the subject is not a
person, but a group. Therefore it is not an individual Negro who
is considered, but all Negroes, all Christians, all Jews, are
considered. ... The protagonist on the stage is not portraying a
dramatis personae, the creative output of the mind of an
individual playwright, but a collective experience. He, an
auxiliary ego, is an emotional extension of many egos.
Therefore, in a sociodramatic sense, it is not identification of the
spectator with the actor on the stage, presuming some difference
between him and the character which the latter portrays. It is
identity. All Christians, all Jews or all Nazis are collective
characters. Every Christian is, as a Christian, identical with
every other Christian. In the primary phase of collective identity,
there is no need, therefore, for identification. There is no
difference between spectators and actors; all are protagonists.
... Identity should be considered apart from the process of
identification. It develops prior to the latter in the infant and it
operates in all intergroup relations of adult society. For the
infant, “self” and “immediate milieu” are the same thing, there is
no self-other relation. “Self” and “other” are the two yet
undifferentiated portions of the “matrix of identity”. ... to the
Non-Negroes, for instance, all Negroes are taken as identical, the
Negro;... ... This “taking” is like a collective reflex, before some
differential experience changes the instrument. This principle of
identity works also in reverse. Negroes take themselves as a
single collective, the Negro, a condition which submerges all
individual differences,... ... We shall call this identity, the
identity of role.
181
... On the other hand the process of identification is rarely
complete. Most acts of identification are with a phase only of the
other person. (...) 9It was what I called partial identification, not
a full one.
Psicodrama p. 444
... I usually call distorted identification10. In this category fall
many of the transference identifications in the Freudian sense,
projections of a wish or of a fear.
Psicodrama p. 444
Within the fold of identity, the process of infantile role
taking occurs. Infantile role taking consists of two functions –
role giving (giver) and role receiving (receiver). ... The result of
this interaction is that a certain reciprocal role expectancy is
gradually established in the partners of the role process.
Psicodrama p. 113
IDENTITY/SUBJECTIVE VERSUS OBJECTIVE
It is useful to differentiate between subjective and objective
identification, in the process of analysis. By subjective
identification we mean the projection of an individual, usually
unreal feeling into another individual. According to Freud
9Author’s note: Moreno exemplifies with the case of a soldier that could
identify himself with an actor in a repatriated role, but not in a fanatic role.
10 Author’s note: Moreno is talking about an auxiliary ego, deeply touched
when working with a client in a matrimonial crisis, because he was going
through the same problem in his own family.
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identification is due to the transference of the image or, for
instance, one’s own father, the image of authority and
omnipotence, upon a stranger. That stranger may be in fact fully
void of omnipotence as well as of authority the identification of
the stranger with one’s father is therefore of a subjective
character. In objective identification on the other hand, the
experience of an image or situation of another person is fairly
accurate. One of the most important forms of objective
identification is with roles portrayed by other individuals. If for
instance, in this audience social workers feel akin to one another
it is first because of the principle of identity which operates
already on the level of non-acquaintance, and then, as soon as
they become acquainted, because of role identification. This kind
of identification is an objective process.
... The three principles, identity, subjective identification and
role are usually interwoven.
Psychodrama v 1 p. 382
Psicodrama p. 443
IMAGES/THERAPEUTIC IMAGES
The aim or our retraining is to arouse and increase the
spontaneity of the reproducing musician. Therapeutic images are
simply one method which can be used to advantage. ... The
method of activating images is only a crutch to aid the musician
or the pupil in the process of learning to be spontaneous.
IMPROVISATION
IMPROVISATION/AS A PRIMARY PRINCIPLE
The theatre of Spontaneity has no relation to the so-called
Stanislavski method. Improvisation in this method is
supplementary to the aim of playing a great Romeo or a great
King Lear. The element of spontaneity is here to serve the
cultural conserve, to revitalize it. The method of improvisation,
as a primary principle, to be developed systematically in spite of
183
the conserve and the serving it consciously was outside of
Stanislavski’s domain.
El Teatro de Espontaneidad p. 168
IMPROVISATION/METHOD OF
Improvisation is a method used by artists in embarrassing
moments. It is an illegitimate bag of tricks in the “legitimate
theatre.” Ad lib can be defined as the unlicensed freedom,
“laissez faire” of the legitimate actor.
… A variety of improvisation is often called “abreaction.”
Whereas improvisation has an esthetic aim and is characterized
by some degree of freedom, abreaction has no conscious esthetic
aim, it is unfree and compulsory. Both have a low degree of
mental organization.
El Teatro de Espontaneidad pp. 140-141
Impromptu is not a substitute for the theatre, but an
independent art form. The name “theatre” attached to it has
given rise to erroneous analogies.
Psicodrama p. 82
The modern Impromptu Movement departs essentially from
former attempts (Greece, India, etc.), insofar as the scant
historical references permit a comparison. At the beginning of
many national cultures of old and prehistoric age the Impromptu
play (dance, music, drama, etc.) appeared. But its significance
has not been recognized by artists and philosophers of those
times. The discovery of the moment and its relation to the
technique of the creative act was due in our time, as a very late
step in human civilization.
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Psicodrama p. 83
... If we imagine the author as apart from the types that came
forth from him, the following process may be observed. Each of
these personae dramatis is his own creator, and the poet is he
who combines them into a unified whole. There you have the
primary concept of the Impromptu performance.
Psicodrama p. 91
INFANT
... Instead of looking at the infant from the lower organisms up,
trying to interpret him as a little animal, in animal-psychological
terms, and instead of trying to interpret him as a little neurotic or
young savage, from the neurotic angle, it is of relevance to look
at the human infant systematically from the platform of the
highest concrete examples of human embodiment and
achievement – we mean here, literally, the geniuses of the race –
and to interpret him as a potential genius. We assume here that,
in the geniuses of the race, certain dormant capabilities and basic
skills, common to all men, come to their most expression. ...
Their natural and continuous spontaneity and creativity, not only
in rare moments but as a daily expression, give us clues for
understanding the infant which cannot be dismissed, unless we
consider all genial performers of the human race as freaks.
Psicodrama p. 99
... By an accident of nature, it seems the human infant is born
nine months after conception. He might have been born many
months later, and the newborn might have sprung off nearly
ready to take care of himself, as nearly ready as some of the
newborns among other vertebrates. ... therefore, the amount of
help which he needs in order to survive has to be very much
greater and more prolonged than other infant of the primate
class.
185
Psicodrama p. 100
A child between two or three may not be able to understand
when a parent says to him: “You shouldn’t do that. Don’t hit the
dog. Don’t run after the cat. You frighten her”. Such words are
often meaningless and remain without impression. We have to
remember that the child has his memory in the act and not in his
memory (1). Rapid forgetting of incidents is a natural condition,
but he can be taught “in the act” if the bitter pill, so to speak, is
placed in the envelope of action.
The child never gives up his expectations to become the
center and ruler of the world. He may become humble as he ages
and as he learns that the universe has a stubborn structure of its
own which he is unable to penetrate and conquer through magic
methods. He will play any game – the game of the scientific
method or any future improvements on it – as long as it helps by
a detour towards the fulfillment of his profound intention to be
forever connected with existence, to be all-powerful, immortal,
and at least ex post facto to verify at the end of time the words of
genesis: “In the beginning was God, the creator of the world”,
but to reverse the direction* of the arrow from the past to the
future, from the God outside of him towards himself.
Every child has a wonderdrug at his disposal, prescribed to
him by nature itself,
Megalomania “Normalis”
Dosim Repetatur.
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INFANT/INSIDE/ETERNAL CHILD WITHIN THE ADULT
BEING
... Man’s imagination will not quit the eternal child in him. It
will find new ways to fill the universe with fantastic beings even
if he has to create them.
... Man’s imagination will not quit the eternal child in him.
INFANT/LONG PREGNANCY
... The psychoanalytic theory that the intra-uterine existence of
the embryo is too short, implying that a longer pregnancy might
be more desirable, is a misapprehension. If the pregnancy state
of the human infant could be prolonged by an experiment of
nature or, by some technological device, be extended from nine
months, let us say, to fifteen months, the result might be that the
human infant would be born fully developed and would compare
much better with the primate and other vertebrate infants. He
might arrive quite independent and self-sufficient, but he would
have sacrificed the opportunities for which the social placenta
prepares him to a prolonged incubation in a narrow rebounding
environment. He would sacrificed the productive culture-bearing
association with active and highly organized beings to a life in
isolation; last, but not least, he might have arrived, because of
his comparative self-sufficiency, much less in need of help but
also less sensitive for the acculturation of the social heritage
incorporated in the auxiliary egos of the new environment.
Psicodrama p. 115
187
INFANTILE AMNESIA
Infantile amnesia and the act-hunger syndrome. One of the
important characteristics of the first universe is the total amnesia
which we have for about the first three years of our life. ... For
the infant and the young child growing up, the situation is
somewhat different. Some registration takes place, certainly after
the first few months as the infant shows signs of remembering
certain persons and objects like the foods and the mother with
whom he has been intimately acquainted.
... Our explanation of amnesia is based upon the warming up
process to a spontaneous act. ... A certain part of his ego must set
itself aside as a sort of internal participant observer and register
the events. Only if an event has been registered, can it be
remembered, and only if it has been remembered, can it be
forgotten. ... The conclusion is that, in such cases, when nothing
is remembered by the subject of acts and events which have
taken place in and around him, such an inner participant
observer did not develop. It did not establish itself, because
every part of the subject of the person was included in the act.
Espanhol pp. 106-107
Psicodrama p. 116
INFANTILE AMNÉSIA/FIRST 2-3 YEARS OF LIFE
... d) The phenomena of retroactive amnesia of every individual
for the first 2-3 years of life; they are probably due to the “act
hunger syndrome”, the prevalence of psychomotoric
involvement during infancy.
INFANTILE AMNESIA/RETROACTIVE AMNESIA
... This undivided absorption of the infant in the act 6 to which it
is warming up is the basic reason why the two dimensions of
time, the dimension of the past and the dimension of the future,
are undeveloped, or at best, rudimentary. It is the past in which
we store our memories, and it is the future which may profit
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from their registration. ... The infant develops intermittently, so
to speak, a retroactive amnesia even for the slight amount of
registration of acts and events which he has been able to retain.
... We must conclude that the recurrent retroactive amnesia of
the infant sum up to the total amnesia effect which the older
child and the adult have for the first three years of their lives.
Espanhol p. 107
Psicodrama p. 117
INSTITUTIONS
As such, but merely as such, it has, like a court, a church or
a parliament, a stereotype character and is in the mind of the
people connected with a series of ceremonial acts. They form, as
permanent institutions, a sort of legitimate theatre within society
itself.
INSTRUMENTS OF THE PSYCHODRAMATIC
METHOD
The psychodramatic method uses mainly five instruments –
the stage, the subject or patient, the director, the staff of
therapeutic aides or auxiliary egos, and the audience. The first
instrument is the stage. Why a stage? It provides the patient with
a living space which is multi-dimensional and flexible to the
maximum. The living space of reality is often narrow and
restraining, he may easily lose his equilibrium. On the stage he
may find it again due to its methodology of freedom – freedom
from unbearable stress and freedom for experience and
expression. The stage is an extension of life beyond the reality
tests of life itself. Reality and fantasy are not is conflict, but both
are functions within a wider sphere – the psychodramatic world
of objects, persons and events. In its logic the ghost of Hamlet’s
father is just as real and permitted to exist as Hamlet himself.
Delusions and hallucinations are given flesh – embodiment on
the stage – and an equality of status with normal sensory
189
perceptions. The architectural design of the stage is made in
accord with therapeutic requirements. Its circular forms and
levels of the stage, levels of aspiration, pointing out the vertical
dimension, stimulate relief from tensions and permit mobility
and flexibility of action. The locus of a psychodrama, if
necessary, may be designated everywhere, wherever the patients
are, the field of battle, the classroom or the private home. But the
ultimate resolution of deep mental conflicts requires an objective
setting, the therapeutic theater. Like in religion, although the
devout may pray to his God in his own chamber, it is in the
church where the community of believers attain the most
complete confirmation of their faith.
Psychodrama v. 1 pp. a-b Introduction to 4º edition
Psicodrama pp. 17-18 Introdução à 4ª edição
The second instrument is the subject or patient. He is asked
to be himself on the stage, to portray his own private world. His
is told to be himself, not an actor, as the actor is compelled to
sacrifice his own private self to the role imposed upon him by a
playwright. Once he is warmed up to the task it is comparatively
easy for the patient to give an account of his daily life in action,
as no one is as much of an authority on himself as himself. He
has to act freely, as things rise up in his mind; that is why he has
to be given freedom of expression, spontaneity. Next in
importance to spontaneity comes the process of enactment. The
verbal level is transcended and included in the level of action.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. b Introduction to 4º edition
Psicodrama p. 18 Introdução à 4ª edição
The third instrument is the director. He has three functions:
producer, therapist and analyst. As producer he has to be on the
alert to turn every clue which the subject offers into dramatic
action, to make the line of production one with the life line of the
subject, and never to let the production lose rapport with the
audience. As therapist attacking and shocking the subject is at
times just as permissible as laughing and joking with him; at
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times he may become indirect and passive and for all practical
purposes the session seems to be run by the patient. As analyst
he may complement his own interpretation by responses coming
from informants in the audience, husband, parents, children,
friends or neighbors.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. c Introduction to 4º edition
The fourth instrument is a staff of auxiliary egos. These
auxiliary egos or therapeutic actors have a double significance.
They are extensions of the director, exploratory and therapeutic,
but they are also extensions of the patient, portraying the actual
or imagined personae of their life drama. The functions of the
auxiliary ego are threefold: the function of the actor, portraying
roles required by the patient’s world; the function of the
therapeutic agent, guiding the subject; and the function of the
social investigator.
The fifth instrument is the audience. The audience itself has
a double purpose. It may serve to help the patient or, being itself
helped by the subject on the stage the audience becomes the
patient. In helping the patient it is a sounding board of public
opinion. Its responses and comments are as extemporaneous as
those of the patient, they may vary from laughter to violent
protest. The more isolated the patient is, for instance because his
drama on the stage is shaped by delusions and hallucinations, the
more important becomes, to him, the presence of an audience
which is willing to accept and understand him. When the
audience is helped by the subject, thus becoming the patient
itself, the situation is reversed. The audience sees itself, that is,
one of its collective syndromes portrayed on the stage.
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INTERPERSONAL SITUATION
... From the contact between two spontaneity states centering,
naturally, in two different persons, there results an interpersonal
situation.
Psicodrama p. 464
INTERPSYCHE
... Marriage and family therapy for instance, has to be so
conducted that the “…” of the entire group is re-enacted so that
all their tele-relations, their co-conscious and co-unconscious
states are brought to life.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. vii Introduction to 3rd edition
INTRAPSYCHIC
In the original social – atom charts the ego of the patient was
shown in relationship to his numerous partners. A more through
consideration of the position of the individual within his social
atom suggests considering him also in relationship with himself.
As an infant grows he does not only experience other people but
also experiences himself. As a result of this tele-relationship, he
begins not only to feel himself, but also to see himself as one
towards whom persons have acted in a certain way and as one
who has acted towards them in a certain way. Gradually he
develops a picture of himself.
J. L. Moreno, “Psychodramatic Shock Therapy” in “Group
Psychotherapy and Psychodrama”, Beacon House, v. xvii,
nº1-4, 1974 p. 4
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... The self appears in the warming up to a spontaneous state
divided into the spontaneous actor and an inner counteracting
(participant) observer. This division is of great significance in
therapeutic work, but it is also the dynamic foundation for the
tragic and comic phenomenon in the drama.
The position of psychodrama within the sociometric system
is therefore divided. With its major portion as an instrument
which investigates the deeper structures of inter-individual and
inter-group relations, it belongs to Sociometry. With a minor
portion as an instrument which studies personality as a separate
unit, as far as this can be imagined, it is related to the projective
techniques and is a sub-field of psychology.
Psicodrama p. 306
Because we cannot reach into the mind and see what the
individual perceives and feels, psychodrama tries, with the
cooperation of the patient, to transfer the mind “outside” of the
individual and objectify it within a tangible, controllable
universe. ... Its aim is to make total behavior directly visible,
observable, and measurable.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. xxi-xxii Introduction to 3rd edition
Psicodrama pp. 47-48 Introdução à 3ª edição original inglês
INTROJECTION
INTROJECTION/TELE
193
Theatre of Spontaneity p. 8-9
ISOLATE
Isolate: not choosing and being unchosen on any criterion.
He does not sent out or receive any negative choices. His
sociometric score is zero.
ISOLATE/INVOLUNTARY ISOLATES
38. Students are warned not to think that being isolated or
unchosen is a “bad” situation, or being much chosen is in itself a
“good” situation. Such thinking might lead to a “sociometric
astrology”. Sociometric findings are clues and guides for further
investigation, they are not like the fixed position of a peck order.
There are voluntary isolates whose air of determined withdrawal
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may instantly kill the tele towards them in the mind of their
partners. They do not choose and they tell you by their manner
or even overtly: “Do not choose me, I prefer to be alone”.
Furthermore, do not assume that the total structure of a group is
“good” or “bad” because its cohesion is high of low. It often
depends upon the criterion around which the group is formed.
… The study of involuntary isolates or unchosen ones who make
choices but whose choices persistently remain unreciprocated
suggests that they suffer from states of anxiety and insecurity.
They frequently do not have the spontaneity to respond
adequately to a situation in which they find themselves
unwanted. Their anxiety rises and when they try again and again
unsuccessfully, their anxiety rises further; their tele perception is
often not sensitive to differentiate clearly the individuals who
choose them from those who do not.
ISOLATE/VOLUNTARY ISOLATES
38. Students are warmed not to think that being isolated or
investigation, they are not like the fixed position of a peek order.
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J
JESUS
... Jesus, like a chief therapeutic actor, had his auxiliary egos in
his apostles and his psychodramatic director in God himself who
prompted him what to do.
Psicodrama p. 57
In his existentialistic credo Kierkegaard was by no means
original. He merely repeated the teachings of the Scriptures.
There is in religious literature hardly any other person known
who insisted upon existential validation more than Jesus Christ,
as against the inner decay of the church of his time.
Las Bases de la psicoterapia p. 334
JEWS
JEWS/ATTRACTION BETWEEN JEWS AND GERMANS
In the second place there is the factor of sexual attraction
between Jews and Germans which may also gain in significance
far beyond the numerical proportions of the German and Jewish
populations involved. ... Only from the sociogram could we
learn how many more German women have been attracted to
Jewish men and how many more Jewish women have been
attracted to German men, ... ...Similarly, only the sociogram will
disclose how many German women reject Jewish men, etc.
Evidently, the amount of sexual attraction and rejection which
the members of a minority group, here the Jews, exert upon
members of the opposite sex in the majority group, the Germans,
and vice versa,...
Fundamentos de la sociometria p. 380
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JEWS/EMOTIONAL EXPANSIVENESS
... Jews may have developed, for sociodynamic reasons, a larger
emotional expansiveness than Germans. We should not conclude
that this condition is characteristic for Jews per se because
certain levels of aspiration are forbidden to them, economically,
professionally, socially, culturally. Another sociometric finding
has been that the emotional expansiveness of individuals grows
with their acquaintance volume and that the effect of differences
in individual emotional expansiveness will be multiplied
proportionate to the growth of interaction between members of
the two groups. The greater the restrictions on making
acquaintance with members of the majority group, the greater
will become the load of frustration upon the emotional
expansiveness of the minority members and the tensions
between the two groups will increase in intensity.
Fundamentos de la sociometria pp. 379-380
JEWS/EXCESS OF EFFORT/PRIVILEGED POSITIONS
In the third place, the cultural, political, social, professional
and economic positions or situations aspired to or controlled by
the members of the minority group, should be considered. If, as
it is claimed, that the Jews in Germany held more positions in
the professions, arts and industries than would have been
proportionate to their numbers, this may have been due to an
excess of effort beyond that of perhaps equally talented
Germans.
JEWS/GERMAN’S ENVY
... As the majority of the dependent groups are German, we can
imagine feelings of resentment arising among the German leader
groups, together with the conviction that they have a more
“natural right” than the Jewish leaders to direct the German
masses of workers and farmers.
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JEWS/JEWISH ANTI-SEMITISM
... Similarly, the amount of rejection which the Jew has for
himself and for his fellow Jews in various degrees of intensity
and clothed in all kinds of motivation is well known as Jewish
antisemitism.
JEWS/LEADER PRODUCTION
... Applied to the German-Jewish conflict, the Jewish population
in Germany may have produced more leader individuals than
their numeric proportion, either because the Jews suffer from a
surplus of leader individuals or because the Germans suffer from
an insufficiency in leader production. The surplus of leader
individuals among the Jews may only be a false effect, due to the
crowding of the Jewish intelligentsia into certain professions and
industries which give their members considerable prestige.
JEWS/TELE EFFECT
... On the inter-racial level, the attention which a man of the
Jewish minority receives from a German woman who happens to
be the center of admiration of numerous German men may
produce within the psychological networks a “tele” effect, that
is, a sociodynamic effect with consequences far beyond the two
persons and the immediate group or persons involved in the
matter.
Fundamentos de la sociometria pp. 381-382
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K
KIERKEGAARD
... In principle Kierkegaard was a religious-philosophical author
of high rank and left behind him in his books a documentation
describing his plight and prescriptions for real existence.
... Kierkegaard was, in essence, what we might call today, a
“frustrated psychodramatist” who was unable to bring the
essential situations of his life to a victorious ending. Kierkegaard
never became in life itself the active, dynamic prophet of this
fantasy, but he left for the next generation a testament to follow.
... If we remove the religious clothing and the emphasis upon the
Scriptures, Kierkegaard should be called a psychodramatist
rather than an existentialist.
Finally, it is amusing to think that Kierkegaard is attaining a
belated rehabilitation, not by the modern existentialists who have
given him a gentle phenomenological burial, but via the
psychodramatic stagedoor.
KURT LEWIN
... It was Kurt Lewin, then an exponent of Gestalt theory. The
first time he was accompanied by several of his students. The
meeting was mutually stimulating and so we met several times in
succession. He had read WHO SHALL SURVIVE? and the
topics of the discussions were sociometry and the dynamics of
group structure, spontaneity training, and a role-playing film
199
which had been made in Hudson and was then being shown in
several places.
Who Shall Survive? p. lxiii–lxiv Preludes
L
LANGUAGE
LANGUAGE/BASIC LANGUAGE
Basic language is a spontaneous formation of words, it is
void of the mutually significant language symbols. Feelings are
linked to phonetic sounds and to gestures. The language has no
logical grammatical structure. It seems meaningless to an
outsider who is not involved but the gestures and the feelings
which accompany the sounds provide them with a dramatic and
vivid character. ... It was found helpful in giving stutterers,
aphasics, certain deteriorated schizophrenics and senile patients
the experience of sound communication.
Who Shall Survive? p. 33-34
It is the matrix out of which and upon which our
grammatical and organized languages grew. The spontaneous
use of the basic language is not only helpful to infants before
they learn to speak their mother tongue, but to all humans in the
course of certain neuropsychiatric disturbances during which
they have either lost the function of speech, like an aphasia, or
are fearful of it, like in certain mental disorders.
... There are several methods by which one can learn to mobilize
easy transfer, for instance, the improvisation of senseless,
manufactured words and phrases in the treatment of stutterers. ...
It is a method in “deconserving” the learner’s mind, gradual
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removal of clichés and training his spontaneity. One area of
application is stuttering. ... This chaotic, spontaneous, freely
emerging language I have called “basic language” as it has
some similarity to the baby languages of the infant.
LANGUAGE/DEVELOPMENT
11. In the semantic development of the infant there are three
crucial moments: the first cry, the first sound and the first word.
The sound matrix is prior to the language matrix. Taking the
“sound” of the other precedes taking the role of the other. The
infant is dependent, in the acquisition of language and social
roles, upon the other, but he is not quite so dependent in the
acquisition of his psychosomatic roles as, for instance, the role
of the eater and the sleeper, there he is autonomous, he takes his
own role. In the role of the soundmaker he is on both sides of the
fence, he takes some of the sounds from the voice configurations
around him, from the voices of other humans, from birds and
animals, tinkling objects and the elementary sounds of nature,
but he adds something to them from his own, spontaneous
autonomy. The body of the infant is a soundproducing
instruments; like from a musical instrument, a player can evoke
sounds from it. As time goes on the infant may learn to play on it
different and more sophisticated tunes; but he has something to
start with, the physical spontaneity of soundmaking is an
inherent skill of his body.
LAW/THE LAW OF SOCIAL GRAVITATION
People 1(P1) and People 2 (P2} move towards each other in
direct proportion to the amount of attraction given (a1) or
given (r1) or received (r2) and in inverse proportion to the
physical distance (d) between locality X and locality Y, the
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residences of P1 and P2 respectively, the facilities of
communication between X and Y being constant.
Moreno, J. L. “The Three Branches of Sociometry”
Sociometry Monographs nº 21, Beacon House 1947, p. 9
Psicoterapia de Grupo y Psicodrama (espanhol) p. 53
Psicoterapia de Grupo e Psicodrama (portuguese) p. 49
5. The distribution of energy in social space takes place in
accord with the law of social gravitation. The sociometric
formula of social gravitation is “People 1 (P1) and People 2 (P2)
move towards each other – between a locality X and a locality Y
– in direct proportion to the amount of attraction given (a1) or
given (r1) of received (r2), the physical distance (d) between the
two localities being constant, the facilities of communication
between X and Y being equal.
LAW/THE SOCIODYNAMIC LAW
(D) The “sociodynamic law”. The sociodynamic law is divided
into a first and a second part. The first part states that the income
of emotional choices per capita is unevenly divided among
members of the group regardless of its size or kind;…
The second part states that if the opportunities of being chosen
are increased by increasing the size of the group and the number
of choices per capita, the volume of choices continues to go to
those of the top end of the range (“the stars”) in proportion to the
size of the group and to the number of choices permitted per
capita, maintaining or increasing the gap between the small star
group, the average group and the neglected group.
Sociometry Monographs nº 21, Beacon House 1947, pp. 7-8
Psicoterapia de Grupo y Psicodrama (espanhol) p. 53
(similar)
Psicoterapia de Grupo e Psicodrama (portuguese) p. 48
(similar)
Rosa Cukier
202
The sociodynamic law affects all human relations; it
operates (a) on the interpersonal level and (b) on the intergroup
level. It is found in some degree in all social aggregates
whatever their kind; whether the criterion is search for mates,
search for employment, or in socio-cultural relations. Is effect
may change in degree but it is universally present, appearing like
a halo effect, inherent in every social structure. A particularly
significant effect takes place on the level of economic relations.
The “surplus” choice becomes analogous to the surplus value
observed by Marx in the process of accumulation and production
of capital. The distorted profit picture in economic relations is a
reflection of the distorted tele picture on the interpersonal and
intergroup level. The social revolution on the class level is
therefore a displacement from the microscopic choice and
rejection picture to the macroscopic level. Social Revolution on
the macrosociological level is only part of the struggle. Marx
was operating on the gross, macrosociological level of events.
He often used intuitively near sociometric ideas, a “macro”
sociometrist.
Similar in Moreno, J. L. “Three Branches of Sociometry”, in
Sociometry Monographs nº21, Beacon House 1947, pp. 8-9.
Psicoterapia de Grupo y Psicodrama p. 53 (similar)
Psicoterapia de Grupo e Psicodrama p. 48 (similar)
9. The present human society is a preferential system produced,
to a considerable extent, by the sociodynamic effect, also called
the sociodynamic law. It is divided into a first and second part.
The first part states that the income of emotional choices per
capita is unevenly divided among the members of the group
regardless of its size or kind; a comparatively few get a lion’s
share of the total output of emotional choices, out of proportion
with their needs and their ability to consummate them; the
largest number form an average income of choice group within
their means to consummate them and a considerable number
remain unchosen or neglected.
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... The second part states that if the opportunities of being chosen
are increased by increasing the size of the group and the number
of choices per capita, the greater volume of choices continues to
go to those at the top end of the range (the “stars”) in direct
proportion to the size of the group and to the number of choices
permitted per capita, furthering the gap between the small star
group, the average group and the neglected group.
Sociodynamic law holds that the distribution of sociometric
scores is positively skewed. The tendency in any particular
group for more choices to go to few members is the
sociodynamic effect. “This tendency is related to the
development of the value system of the group. Values develop
by becoming more precisely embodied in the persons of fewer
members of the group.” (See H. J. Hallworth, Bibliography).
LAW/THE SOCIOGENETIC LAW
Our survey of the development of spontaneous group
organizations from year to year of age among children and
adolescents appears to indicate the presence of a fundamental
“sociogenetic” law which may well be said to supplement the
biogenetic law. Just as the higher animals have evolved from the
simplest forms of life, so, it seems, the highest forms of group
organization have evolved from the simple ones. If children were
given the freedom to use their spontaneous groups as permanent
associations, as children-societies, then similarities in structure
and conduct with primitive human societies become apparent.
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6. The group theory of evolution postulates that a gradual
evolution from simpler to more complex social patterns takes
place in accord with a sociogenetic law. By simple social
patterns we mean sociometrically simple and patterns resulting
from a minimum of criteria, as among infants and pretechnological
societies. By complex we mean patterns which are
sociometrically complex and resulting from a large number of
criteria. The larger the number of criteria operating in a society
the more is formation of groups stimulated and the greater
becomes their complexity.
(E) The “Sociogenetic Law”- The sociogenetic law states that
the highest forms of group organization have evolved from
simple ones: between the simplest patterns of groups formed by
infants and the most complex formed by adults there are
numerous intermediary stages. … The course of differentiation
may differ from one culture to another, from a pre-literate to a
modern society, but common basic core of evolutionary patterns
and a parallel trend should be found in all of them
Moreno, J. L. “Three Branches of Sociometry”, in
Sociometry Monographs nº21, Beacon House 1947, p. 9
LEADERSHIP
22. Hypothesis of leadership. Leadership is a function of group
structure. The form it takes depends upon the constellation of the
particular group. The power index of a leader depends upon the
power indices of the individuals who are attracted to and
influenced by him. Their indices are again expressed by the
number of individuals who are attracted to and dominated by
them. The power index of the leader is, however, also dependent
upon the psychosocial communication networks to which his
referrents belong and the position which the networks
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themselves have within the entire collective within which his
leadership is in operation.
LEARNING
LEARNING/AUTONOMY
Learning is an all inclusive process of which educational
learning is only one phase. It must include learning in life itself
from infancy up to old age, for sub-human as well as human
organisms. ... Once we have formulated such a broad view of the
learning process we can go a step further and evaluate all these
various learning instruments as to what they accomplish for the
autonomy, the spontaneity and the creativity of the learners
themselves.
One can measure the educational or therapeutic value of an
instrument by the degree to which it stimulates the autonomy of
individuals or groups. The degree of autonomy, for instance,
which psychoanalysis permits a subject to attain is limited to the
verbal dimension. Non-directive counseling may be given a still
lower rating than psychoanalysis because by itself it does not
increase the spontaneity of the therapeutic learner; on the other
hand it is so designed that it decreases the spontaneity of the
counselor. The degrees to which the subject warms up to an
experience and expression of himself and others is a measure of
the autonomy of the self. ...Such instruments enabling high
degrees of autonomy are psychodrama and sociodrama.
Quem Sobreviverá? v.`3 p. 111
Rosa Cukier
206
LEARNING/OVERLEARNER/UNDERLEARNER
The goose step learner is often instructed to overlearn, to
know his piece better than necessary, as a safety device against
slipping or stage fright. “Under learning” may be an equally
important device for the spontaneous learner. The overlearner
wants a cultural
Who shall survive pp. 543
LEARNING/SPONTANEITY
... There are several theories which have tried to explain this
process, the one is the theory of conditioning, the other the
theory of repression. But there is one hypothesis which has been
neglected, that is that among other factors, learning is affected
by the rising and falling of the spontaneous states in the learner.
The field theorists have discovered one dimension of
learning, the visual or perceptual restructuring of the problem,
but they have neglected to study the dynamic factors which
cause these restructuring tendencies to emerge. The association
theorists have discovered another dimension of learning, the
laws of associative strength, as the frequencies of response and
the latency of reaction time of response. Both contributions can
be integrated into the spontaneity theory of learning, the one
having focussed on the structure, the other on the functions of
the mind. The spontaneity theorist places both phenomena into a
larger matrix, the action matrix dealing with a higher grade
organism, the actor in situ.
... The objective of learning may, for instance, not be the
precision in a specific number of tasks, but the spontaneity of the
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total organism of the soldier and the spontaneous coordination
of interaction between all the members of a platoon.
LEARNING/WARMING UP
... According to spontaneity hypothesis it is assumed that
learning connected with highly warmed up states establishes
special associations.
LIVING NEWSPAPER
... One method is the dramatized of living newspaper technique
which I started twenty years ago in the Viennese Stegreiftheater.
It was a novel project, a synthesis between the newspaper and
the drama. Among the forms of writing, the newspaper comes
nearest to being a spontaneous expression and to fulfilling – in a
trivial and limited way – what we mean by the concept of the
moment. It is tied up with the present.
Psicodrama p. 415
At first I used the term, living newspaper (Lebendige
Zeitung), which was changed later to the more appropriate term
“Dramatized Newspaper” (Die Dramatizierte Zeitung). ... (It is a
synthesis between drama and newspaper, therefore it differs in
essence from the medieval and Russian custom of a spoken
newspaper. The dramatized newspaper is not a recital of news,
life itself is enacted. The events are dramatized.
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208
... It has therefore a natural affinity to the form of the
spontaneous drama, which requires for its unrehearsed,
immediate form an equally spontaneous and immediate content,
for instance the ever new and ever changing social and cultural
events which are flashed from moment to moment to the
editorial office of a newspaper.
Psicodrama p. 416
... Three factors had to be considered in the dramatized
newspaper production. First, the localities where the events took
place and the personages involved in them. Second, a cast of
impromptu reporters who had to get into contact with them
whenever possible, and bring, or transfer the news to us. Third, a
set of impromptu actors who were able to portray on the spot the
roles and situations which had just occurred.
Psicodrama p. 416
The dramatized or “living” newspaper is a presentation of
the news of the day as it occurs. It is the synthesis between the
spontaneity theatre and a newspaper. The intention is to make
the expression on the stage spontaneous in form (impromptu) as
well as in comment (the news of the day). The dramatized
newspaper has another asset from the point of view of an art of
the moment: the absolute evidence of true spontaneity it has for
the onlookers – and not simply for the actors, as in some forms
of the spontaneity theatre – because of the daily news character
of the material projected.
... In this sense, the dramatized newspaper launched in Vienna
was a genuine anticipation of the “Movietone News”, the
“March of Time”, the “Living Newspaper” of the WPA, and the
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modern radio news broadcast. However, the conserve character
of these mechanical forms is in utter contradiction to the
spontaneity principle and, in this sense, the “Movietone News”
and the “March of Time” are not as revolutionary as they seem;
the deceptive impression arises from the technical apparatus,
whether film, radio or whatever. They must therefore be
regarded as replicas of conventional expression.
Theatre of Spontaneity p. 38 (footnote)
El Teatro de la Espontaneidad l p. 72 (notas)
Teatro da Espontaneidade p. 52 (nota de rodapé)
LIVING NEWSPAPER/DISUSE
... But the living newspaper technique, after a few years of
nation-wide popularity, in the form of the March of Time and as
a W.P.A. project, came to a dead end in 1940. It would be
interesting to point out the causes which brought a valuable
sociodramatic invention to disuse.
Psicodrama p. 416
LIVING NEWSPAPER/HISTORY
... My discouragement at continuing a purely spontaneous
theatre reached its highest crisis when I recognized that my best
spontaneity actors – Peter Lorre, Hans Rodenberg, Robert
Müller and others – slowly turned away from the theatre of
spontaneity and joined the “normal” theatre and the cinema.
Confronted with this dilemma, I attempted first “The Living
Newspaper”; this is a synthesis between theatre and newspaper,
therefore genuinely different from the medieval and Russian
custom of an oral and spoken newspaper. The “dramatized
newspaper” is not a recitation, life itself is enacted. The events
are dramatized.
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210
LIVING NEWSPAPER/PRESS REACTION
The press reaction was reserved and sarcastic as is usual
with a novelty. However, one factor was appreciated in the
reports, - the spontaneity of the players. There was no playwright
and no script. It is in this point that the March of Time as well as
the W.P.A. living newspaper project have deviated from my
original concept. They trivialized and distorted it. Admittedly,
spontaneity playing is a difficult task. ... As soon as the living
newspaper is used as a frame for writing a nice and polished play
all the conventional trappings of the theatre automatically come
back into operation. ... A living newspaper, once produced and
repeated before many audiences like any other play, conflicts
with the fact that there are hundreds of other versions of the
same events and problems which are not brought to the
experience of the spectators. The spectators, instead of being
educated to become more spontaneously receptive are – by a
detour to the conserve – indoctrinated by the old time rigidity
and inflexibility which the living newspaper wanted to
overcome.
Our first experiments with the Living Newspaper in America
in the Guild Theatre occasioned the following reactions in the
press:
New York Evening World Telegram, March 28, 1931
(Douglas Gilbert): “To obviate the suspicion of previous
rehearsals Dr. Moreno’s troupe will dramatize news events of
the day.”
New York Times, April 6, 1931: “The first endeavor was to
be a newspaper drama and the master explained the situation and
assigned the parts swiftly.”
New York Telegraph, April 7, 1931 (Stanley Chapman):
“The impromptu players will present a spontaneous
dramatization of a newspaper. Presently all the members of the
impromptu came on the stage and the doctor told them off for
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parts. He designed one as the owner of a newspaper, another as
the city editor and another as the advertising manager.”
New York Evening Post, April 6, 1931 (John Mason Brown):
“You are now in the main office of a newspaper. Yes, in the
main office of The Daily Robot, waiting for news.”
THE MODERN AMERICAN THEATRE (THE LIVING
THEATRE, 1950-1960, THE OPEN THEATRE, 1963,
GUERILLA THEATRE, THEATRE OF THE STREETS,
THEATRE GAMES, LIQUID THEATRE, ETC. 1963-1972)
Theatre of Spontaneity p. c
LOCOGRAM
Let us visualize first the layout of the house and its metric
picture. (See Locograma I).
Locogram is a position diagram in which the locus of the
participants and the movements from one locus to another is the
dominant feature.
LOCUS
LOCUS/LOCUS NASCENDI
... It is not necessary, indeed it is undesirable to give every
moment in the development of a person the credit of spontaneity.
From time to time moments spring up which become locii
nascendi which push that person into a new track of experience
or as I often say, into a new “role”.
Psicodrama p. 154
Rosa Cukier
212
... The primary place of experience, the place or birth, is the
locus nascendi of the theatre.
LÓCUS/LÓCUS/MATRIX/STATUS NASCENDI
“In a philosophy of the Moment three factors to be
emphasized: the locus, the status nascendi, and the matrix. These
represent three views of the same process. There is no ‘thing’
without its locus, no locus without its status nascendi, and no
status nascendi without its matrix. The locus of a flower, for
instance, is in the bed where it is growing. Its status nascendi is
that of a growing thing as it springs from the seed. Its matrix is
the fertile seed, itself. Every human act or performance has a
primary action-pattern – a status nascendi. An example is the
performance of eating which begins to develop the role of the
eater in every infant soon after birth. The pattern of gestures and
movements leading up to the state of satiation is, in this instance,
the warming-up process”. See Moreno, J. L., “Foundations of
Sociometry”, Sociometry, vol. 4, no 1, 1941. These principles
can be applied to the origin of the human organism. The locus
nascendi is the placenta in the mother’s womb; the status
nascendi is the time of conception. The matrix nascendi is the
fertilized egg from which the embryo develops. The initial phase
of a living process has been greatly neglected as compared with
more advanced phases and the terminal phase. It has been a chief
contribution of spontaneity and creativity research that the
conception process of, for instance, the Ninth Symphony of
Beethoven is of, at least equal, if not greater, importance than the
“birth” of the work. When dealing with a living organism, we
are turning our attention from the level at birth back to the level
of conception itself. Methods for the direct study of the embryo
in its intra-uterine environment are coming nearer to the orbit of
technical fulfillment. Motion pictures of embryonic life
throughout the nine months of pregnancy are necessary in order
that we may get a view of his responses from stage to stage. It
may be that some technical apparatus will be forthcoming in the
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form of a type of moving X-ray pictures combining the
techniques of the moving picture with those of X-ray
photography.
Psicodrama Espanhol p. 95 (nota)
Psicodrama pp. 105-106 (nota de rodapé)
LOGOID
... In a universe closed to novelty the category of the moment is
meaningless, it is only a word, a “logoid”.
“Logoid” is a term coined by Adolf Stöhr, the late professor
of Philosophy, University of Vienna, and probably the father of
Semantics, see his “Psychology” (chapter – Sprach logik”)
Deutiche, Leipzig 1912.
Psicodrama Espanhol p. 152 (notas)
LONGEVITY
LONGEVITY/PREVENTING LONGEVITY
… Instead of countering overpopulation by prevention of
conception and birth control we could just as well contravene by
“preventing longevity”.
Man has learned to defer and hinder birth but the question is
whether mass prevention is not dangerous manipulation with the
two greatest factors operating in human evolution – the factor of
chance and the factor of spontaneity – creativity.
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214
M
MAGIC
divided philosophy of life.
18. The technique of transformation, subordination and
realization have been used in many magic rites of ancestral
cultures in order to encounter the various threats of nature or to
explain its activities. Our children too, before they grow up and
are able to understand the methods of an adult world, have a
natural need to use the methods described above.
MAGIC/PSYCHODRAMA AS MAGIC
... The auxiliary ego technique itself is a form of primitive
“psycho”-animism. The techniques of the animistic philosopher
rejected by analytic anthropologists as infantile magic is
returning on the therapeutic level and has been made productive
in psychodrama.
MAGIC/SCIENCE VERSUS MAGIC
divided philosophy of life. But the cycle will repeat itself
although we cannot return to the magic world of our ancestry.
We will produce a new magic on a new level.
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MAN/MANKIND
Neither the laws of chance nor the laws of heredity can
account for the birth of human society. Nor can economics
account for it. New factors have been discovered, tele,
MAN/MANKIND/HOW TO STUDY
... We need to study human nature not only in the aspect of its
past, not only from the aspect of its consciousness or
unconsciousness, bur from the aspect of the actual presence of
the powerful, psychological currents in whose production each
man participates, as however infinitely small an agent.
man is a roleplayer, that every individual is characterized by a
MAN/MANKIND/HUMAN PERSON
... The human person is the result of hereditary forces (g),
spontaneous forces (s), social forces (t), and environmental
forces (e), according to this formula, social forces are
differentiated from environmental forces. Sociometric
investigations and the development of the tele factor have shown
this distinction to be of advantage from the point of systematics.
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216
Psychodrama v. 1 p. 83 Supplementary Note
Psicodrama p. 134 – (nota suplementar)
MARTIN BUBER
Martin Buber was acquainted with my early work; he was a
contributor to Daimon, a monthly magazine of which I was the
editor, 1918-1920.
Who Shall Survive? p. xxxi Preludes, (footnote)
Quem Sobreviverá? v. 3 p. 37 Prelúdios, (nota de rodapé)
MATRIX OF IDENTITY
SEE ALSO LOCUS/LOCUS/MATRIX/STATUS NASCENDI
This co-being, co-action, and co-experience, which, in the
primary phase, exemplify the infant’s relationship to the persons
and things around him, are characteristics of the matrix of
identity. This matrix of identity lays the foundation for the first
emotional learning process of the infant.
Psicodrama p. 112
... We have, then, two phases of the matrix of identity: first, the
phase of identity or unity as in the eating act, and, second, the
phase of using that experience in the reversing of identity.
The matrix of identity is the infant’s social placenta, the
locus in which he roots. It gives the human infant safety,
orientation and guidance. ... The matrix of identity breaks up
gradually as the infant becomes more autonomous – that is,
some degree of self-starting develops in one function after the
other, such as in feeding, eliminating, reaching, and locomotion;
his dependency upon auxiliary egos begins to decrease. The first
universe ends when the infantile experience of a world in which
217
everything is real begins to break up into fantasy and reality.
Image-building develops rapidly, and the differentiation between
real and imagined things begins to take form.
... In the earliest phase of the matrix of identity, nearness and
distance are not yet differentiated by the infant. But gradually
the sense for nearness and distance develops and the infant
begins to be drawn towards persons and objects or to withdraw
from them. This is the first social reflex – indicating the
emergence of the tele-factor, and is the nucleus of the latter
attraction-repulsion patterns and specialized emotions – in other
words, of the social forces surrounding the latter individual.
Psicodrama p. 119
MATRIX OF IDENTITY/TIMING/AMNESIA
... This undivided absorption of the infant in the act to which it is
warming up is the basic reason why the two dimensions of time,
the dimension of the past and the dimension of the future, are
undeveloped, or at best, rudimentary. It is the past in which we
store our memories, and it is the future which may profit from
their registration. ... The infant develops intermittently, so to
speak, a retroactive amnesia even for the slight amount of
registration of acts and events which he has been able to retain.
... We must conclude that the recurrent retroactive amnesias of
the infant sum up to the total amnesia effect which the older
child and the adult have for the first three years of their lives.
Psicodrama p. 117
MATRIX OF IDENTITY/DELUSIONS
It is probable that the material tapped by sociometric and
Rosa Cukier
218
MEETING
“Meeting” means more than a vague inter-personal relation
(zwischen-menschliche Beziehung). It means that two or more
persons meet, but not only to face one another, but to live and
experience each other, as actors each in his own right, not like
“professional” meeting (a case-worker or a physician or a
participant observer and their subjects), but a meeting of two
people.
ÍDEM EM
Quem sobreviverá v. 1 p.169
Fundamentos de la sociometria p. não há
A meeting of two: eye to eye, face to face.
And when you are near I will tear your eyes out
and place them instead of mine,
and you will tear my eyes out
and will place them instead of yours,
then I will look at you with your eyes
and you will look at me with mine.
Psychodrama v. 1 first page
Psicodrama p. 9
MEGALOMANIA
Every child has a wonderdrug at his disposal, prescribed to
him by nature itself,
219
Megalomania “Normalis” Dosim Repetatur.
The centrality of man’s outlook, his self-reference, that is,
reference to his “matrix of identity”(1) never ceases to operate.
He remains a child as long as he lives. “Residual” megalomania
is a normal function.
MEGALOMANIA/NORMAL FUNCTION
The centrality of man’s outlook, his self-reference, that is,
reference to his “matrix of identity”(1) never ceases to operate.
He remains a child as long as he lives. “Residual” megalomania
is a normal function.
MEMORY
18. The infant is so immersed in the act that he has no memory
of it after has been consummated. As the intensity of the act
hunger syndrome decreases, the memory range of the child
increases.
A child between two or three may not be able to understand
when a parent says to him: “You shouldn’t do that. Don’t hit the
dog. Don’t run after the cat. You frighten her.” Such words are
often meaningless and remain without impression. We have to
remember that the child has his memory in the act and not in his
memory (1). ... If an indication for psychodrama arises the
mother may go behind the dog and say: “It hurts me when you
kick me” or back of a running cat: “Meow, you frighten me
when you run after me” or she will use it as a preventive method.
... All this is good action teaching. The question may be raised as
to the potential risk of “auxiliary animation”. One may argue
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220
that it indoctrinates and fixes the child on a level of animistic
thinking, encouraging regressive and infantile behavior. The
answer here is that we should not let adult interpretations
interfere with what is the actual, spontaneous level of the child’s
feeling, thinking, perception during a given period of his growth.
He may be unable yet to accept the world around him as it is,
within the reality context of the adult.
MEMORY/SPONTANEITY
... But as a matter of fact many significant spiritual, poetic and
dramatic ideas and products go astray if their originators are
disinclined to produce works dedicated to cultural conservation,
like books; if they have, so to speak, a preference for illegitimate
children. In the place of the organizing memory of the poet
enters the moment of the adventurer.
16. The shorter the memory span, the greater the frequency of
starts and every start requires some spontaneous fuel in order to
emerge. This explains the apparently uninterrupted spontaneity
of children. In lieu of memory they have spontaneity.
MENTAL HEALTH
When the organization of a group is uncovered through the
sociometric test it also reveals the contribution which each of its
members makes towards the mental or social disorder by which
a particular individual is especially caught. This recognition of
the community structure and of the position of each individual
within it can be used for therapeutic ends through a form of
221
individual treatment, through group psychotherapy or through
regrouping.
... Regardless of whether they have transgressed the law or not,
these girls have in common with many others who remain
unapprehended, that they develop a comparatively larger
emotional expansiveness in reference to sex than to other
criteria, without, at the same time, being able to direct their
emotions. As the difficulties arise in relation to the other sex, the
problem is one of emotional learning; how to behave towards the
other sex. But for this particular problem in adjustment no
therapeutic approach exists either in our institutions or other
schools.
MENTALLY RETARDED GROUP
19. Mentally retarded children show “retarded” group structures
more frequently than average children. By retarded group
structures we mean such structures which show a sociometric
organization resembling those which are found among children
one or more years younger, for instance, showing a “persistent”
rarity of pair formation and of many unreciprocated choices,
with a large number of isolates.
METAPHYSICS
... Metaphysics is the point of view of the thing which is created,
the point of view of the creature. The Meta of the Physicist
should be held apart from the Meta of the Non-Physicist. Bios,
Psyche and Socius (Meta biology, Meta psychology, Meta
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222
sociology), may require a differently constructed “Ding an sich”
than physical matter.
El Teatro de la Espontaneidad Espanhol p. 67
Metaphysics is the prescription for experience. It is a court
procedure in which the sciences take the place of the
advocates—metaphysics the place of the judge
... millions of imagined worlds are equally possible and real, of
equal value as the world in which we live and for which
metaphysics is constructed. It consists of generalizations which
refer to all the special manifestations of non-existence.
El Teatro de la Espontaneidad Espanhol pp. 67-68
METAPRAXIS
Metapraxie however, is not a key to experience, it is the
creator of it, it is only without and outside of fixed experience, it
is the locus of the world potential.
... It is not like metaphysics, the core of actual science and being.
The polarity and contrast between thing in itself and phenomena
on one hand, or between phenomena and creativity on the other,
is dissolved.
... But the contents of metapraxie are only the creative processes
themselves. They are not subject to development, to cause and
effect, to the rules of induction and deduction. Metapraxie is
neither a dogmatic nor a critical philosophy, it is a philosophy of
pure creation.
Metapraxie as a system of imminent mystery cannot be
expressed. It is neither logical nor anti-logical, neither
psychological nor anti-psychological, neither physical nor antipsysical,
neither empirical nor anti-empirical, it is unperceivable,
undifferentiated, unreasonable. It is not possible in this world,
but only after its elimination.
Our world is to the meta practitioner like a drawing on a
blackboard,...
223
... The fact that the world-drawing disappears when we dream it
away is perfectly satisfactory from the point of view of
Metapraxie.
The polarity between reality and illusion is indispensable to
metapraxie, the illusion of a real world is just as important as the
reality of an illusionary world. It is the highest triumph of
imagination and creativity to change the surface of the world in
such a fashion that it appears beautiful, however much being and
pain of being may continue to exist underneath.
In order to gain a system of metapraxie we must remove all
phenomenology, all beings, all things, all objects, including the
illusions, dreams, visions and arts, because they, being tainted
with experience, are mixed products and therefore moralistic,
psychological, esthetic and not metapractical. After all
phenomena and its trappings have been removed, what remains
is metapraxie. In the sense for instance, of a metapractical idea
of language (this would be a sort of metapractical logic) all the
phenomena of natural languages be banished. A being who
directs his attention to the highest plane of language could not
express himself in the languages which nature has developed. He
would be fully expressive by signs and gestures or he would
rather resign from any mode of communication.
Theatre of Spontaneity pp. 34-35-36
Metapraxie is the life of imagination and creation, the production
of infinite personal entities.
... Metapraxie is the place in which our eternal question of the
freedom of the will is adequately answered.
Spontaneous role-playing gives the “meta-practical proof” of
a realm of freedom, illusion is strictly separated from reality. But
there is a theatre in which reality or being is proven through
illusion, one which restores the original unity between the two
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meta-zones – through a process of humorous self reflection; in
the therapeutic theatre reality and illusion are one.
Psicodrama p. 76
METATHEATER
... In the theatre for spontaneity the whole community is present.
It is the theatre of the community. It is a new kind of institution,
the institution which celebrates creativity. It is the place where
life is tested, the strong and the weak, - by play. It is the place of
truth without might.
... It is the theatre of all, the twilight of being and reality...
... it is not the theatre of one man; it is the theatre of all and for
all. In the theatre all men are stirred up and they move from the
state of consciousness to a state of spontaneity, from the world
of actual deed, actual thoughts and feelings, into a world of
fantasy which includes the reality potential.
METHOD
METHOD/FUTURE PROJECTION
The patient portrays in action how he thinks his future
will shape itself. He picks the point in time ⎯or is assisted by
the director to do so ⎯the place and the people, if any, whom
he expects to be involved with at that time.
The patient is studying to be an English major and has his
bachelor’s degree; he has been working on his M.A. for almost
eight years, is unable to complete it. The future projection shows
him tree years hence teaching his first course in English at the
university. The entire audience is his class he is asked to face
them with the beauty of the English language.
Moreno, J. L. “Psychodramatic Rules, Techniques and
Adjunctive methods” in Group Psychotherapy, v. xviii, nº1-
2, March-June, 1965, pp. 81-82.
Psicoterapia de Grupo y Psicodrama pp. 139-140 (similar)
225
METHOD/DEEP ACTION METHODS
... Even if full information could be attained by observation and
analysis, it has become certain that observation and analysis are
inadequate tools for exploring the more sophisticated aspects or
inter-cultural relations, and that deep action methods are
indispensable. Moreover the latter have proven to be of
indisputable value and unreplaceable because they can, in the
form of the sociodrama, explore as well as treat in one stroke,
the conflicts which have arisen between two separate cultural
orders, and at the same time, by the same action, undertaking to
change the attitude of the members of one culture versus the
members of the other.
Psicodrama p. 415
METHOD/PSYCHODRAMATIC METHOD
The psychodramatic method rests upon the hypothesis that,
in order to provide patients, singly or in groups, with a new
opportunity for a psychodynamic and sociocultural reintegration,
“therapeutic cultures in miniature” are required, in lieu or in
extension of unsatisfactory natural habitants. Vehicles for
carrying out this project are (1) existential psychodrama within
the framework of community life itself, in situ, and (2) the
neutral, objective, and flexible therapeutic theater.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. xxii
Psicodrama p. 48
METHOD/SPONTANEOUS IMPROVISATION
Spontaneous Improvisation is a technique in which the
patient does not enact events from his own life, but acts in
fictitious, imagined roles. Here an auxiliary ego has a double
function. On the one hand as a starter to get the patient working
in a particular role, on the other as a participant actor in a role
which the situation demands.
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226
Psicoterapia de Grupo y e Psicodrama p. 300
In spontaneous improvisation, the task is in one respect the
reverse of that in self-presentation. Here the subject tries to
prevent his private character from interfering and from mixing
with the fictitious character. The struggle, competition, and
eventual collaboration of the two, the private and the fictitious
character, is visible in every portrayal.
Psicoterapia de Grupo y e Psicodrama p. 301
MIRROR TECHNIQUE/DEVELOPMENT STAGES
Let us know go to the second technique, which is also so
important for the therapist. This is the mirror technique. You’ve
often seen the great experience of children looking into the
mirror, infants, you know, and then you hear that surprised
laughter, that astounded look! And this is a great experience to
them. When the child realized that the picture in the mirror is a
mirror of him, that is the turning point in his growth — an
important turning point in his concept of self.
Moreno, J. L. – “Psychodramatic Production Techniques”,
p. 245 in Group Psychotherapy, viv, nº 4, March, 1952.
Psicoterapia de Grupo y Psicodrama (Spanish) pp. 122-123
Psicoterapia de Grupo e Psicodrama (Portuguese) p. 108
MITTENDIRFMITTENDIRF/
THE FIRST SOCIOMETRIC PLAN
The first sociometric plan of a population was constructed
by me between 1915 and 1918.
Who Shall Survive? p. xxxii Preludes
... The government was concerned with three problems and
reflected them into the planning: safety from the enemy,
227
sanitation, and subsistence. However, social and psychological
planning was not considered, not even conceived of. A staff of
which I was a member was appointed by the government to
supervise the problem of sanitation in the new community. In
this position and later as superintendent of the children’s hospital
established within it, I had the opportunity to study this
community from its earliest beginning to its final dissolution
three years later when at the end of the war the colonists returned
to their homes in Tyrol. During this period a whole community
life developed. Step by step, hospitals, schools, church, theater,
department stores, shops, industry, social clubs, newspaper,
came into function. Yet, in the face of an attempt of the
government to meet the emergency and notwithstanding the
establishment of practically all the outward signs of a
community life, there was great unhappiness and friction among
the population. Whole villages of wine growers were
transplanted into a suburban industrial district, mountaineers
from Tyrol into a flat spot of country near Vienna. They were
thrown together unselected, unaccustomed to the environment,
unadjusted within themselves. I studied the psychological
currents they developed around varying criteria – the criterion of
nationality, of politics, of sex, of staff versus colonists, and so on
– and considered them as the chief contributory sources of the
flagrant maladjustments and disturbances. It was through this
experience that the idea of a sociometrically planned community
began to occupy me.
Who Shall Survive? p. xxxii–xxxiii Preludes
MOMENT
The theatre for Spontaneity has no relation to the co-called
Stanilavski method. … He limited the factor of spontaneity to
the re-activation of memories loaded with affect. This approach
tied improvisation to a past experience instead of to the moment.
But as we know it was the category of the moment which gave
spontaneity work and the psychodrama its fundamental revision
and direction.
Rosa Cukier
228
Psicodrama p. 88
... In a universe closed to novelty the category of the moment is
meaningless, it is only a word, a “logoid”. The category of the
moment has meaning only in an open universe, that is, in one in
which change and novelty can take place. In a closed universe,
to the contrary, there is no moment and with its absentia there is
no grown, no spontaneity and no creativity.
In order that the moment is experienced as a moment sui
generis, the following circumstances are required: (a) A change
must take place in the situation; (b) the change must be sufficient
for the experience of novelty to be perceived by a subject; (c)
this perception involves activity from the side of the subject, an
act of warming up to a spontaneous state. In other words, it is
due to the operation of an s factor that a change can take place
in the situation and that a novelty is perceived by a subject. A
theory of the moment is indissoluble from a theory of
spontaneity. In a theory of human behavior and motivation the
central place must be given to spontaneity.
Psicodrama p. 155
One of the most important concepts in all human thought,
the category of the moment – the moment of being, living and
creating – has been the step-child of all universally known
philosophical systems. The reasons for this are that the moment
is difficult to define; that it has appeared to most philosophers as
but a fleeting transition between past and future, without real
substance; that it is intangible and unstable and therefore an
unsatisfactory basis for a system of theoretical and practical
philosophy.
229
MOMENT/HENRY BERGSON
MORENO
MORENO/DENYING ANY KIND OF FATHERS
My premise before starting to build the theoretical
framework of sociometry was to doubt the value of and discard
all existing social concepts, not to accept any sociological
hypothesis as certain, to start from scratch, to start as if nothing
would be known about human and social relations. It was a
radical pushing out, from my consciousness at least, all
knowledge gained from books and even from my own
observations. I insisted upon this departure not because I did not
assume that other scholars before me had excellent ideas, but
because their observations were in most cases authoritative
instead of experimental. The naivete, therefore, with which I
went after my objectives was not that of a man who as ignorant
Rosa Cukier
230
of what other scholars have done before him, but that of one tries
to be ignorant in order to free himself from clichés and biases, in
hope that by warming up to the role of the naive he might be
inspired to ask a novel question.
MORENO/MORENO’S INVENTIONS/VEHICLES ABD
GRAPHIC INVENTIONS
Spontaneous interaction diagram (1923); sociogram (1932);
psychodrama stage (1923); space and movement diagram
(1923); sociomatrix (Sociometry, Vol. I, 1937, p. 108), further
developed by Stuart C. Dodd (Sociometry, Vol. III, 1940).
MORENO/U.S.A.
… 1) they were open, that is, problems which the audience
members raised were presented on the stage before them,
personal and social conflicts which heretofore were hidden in a
consultation office were brought out into the open; and 2)
spontaneous participation of the audience.
Who Shall Survive? p. xlii Preludes
The sociometric movement had, during its pioneering period
in the USA, six helpers: William H. Bridge, E. Stagg Whitin,
Helen H. Jennings, William Alanson White, Fanny French
Morse and Gardner Murphy. Bridge, a professor of speech at
Hunter College, was the first to teach psychodrama in his classes
and other places. Whitin established the support of the
Departments of Correction and Social Welfare; without him the
Hudson and Brooklyn experiments would not have come into
existence. Jennings assisted me in the completion of the
research; without her it might have been delayed indefinitely.
231
Her personality as well as her talents have exercised a decisive
influence upon the development of sociometry. Without White
psychiatrists would not have given my ideas a respectful hearing.
Without Mrs. Morse the ongoing experiment in Hudson might
have been nipped in the bud by her Board of Visitors. Without
Murphy the acceptance of sociometry by social scientists in the
colleges and universities might have been delayed by a decade.
Who Shall Survive? p. xliii Preludes
MOMENT/THEATER/IMPROVISATION
... Impromptu alone is by nature so rapid that it can project news
on the stage. When a playwright writes a play about news, that
news has already lost the thrill of immediacy and actuality. But
in Impromptu both poles meet – the Moment in life and the
Moment within the creator.
Psicodrama p. 92
MORENO’S INVENTIONS/VEHICLES ABD GRAPHIC
INVENTIONS
Spontaneous interaction diagram (1923); sociogram (1932);
psychodrama stage (1923); space and movement diagram
(1923); sociomatrix (Sociometry, Vol. I, 1937, p. 108), further
developed by Stuart C. Dodd (Sociometry, Vol. III, 1940).
MOTHER
MOTHER/AS AN AUXILIARY EGO
Differing from the organs (hands, tongue, etc.) which are
fixed to his body, and which are at his immediate disposal in an
emergence, the mother with all her auxiliary ego tools is fully
detached and independent from him. She moves away from him,
abandoning him, but returns to him when his anxiety is manifest.
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232
It is a peculiar shock in the experience of the growing infant to
discover the difference between attached and detached tools.
Psicodrama p. 111
MOTHER/RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MOTHER AND
CHILD
... The mother, also, has two functions; the one is that of acting
in the role of a mother adequately; the other one is that of
developing a clear picture of the needs and rhythm of the infant
in order that she can warm up to his requirements to help him
function adequately.
... This single hypothesis is based on the fact that the motherchild
relationship is a two-way relation involving cooperative
action rather than individual behavior patterns separated from
each other.
Psicodrama p. 110
MOTHER/ROLE OF MOTHER
... Since “the mother” is not a single role but a cluster of roles*,
certain of its older manifestations may be deeply disturbing to a
child and so puzzling that she is not able to enact them; for other
parts she may have a true amnesia (not merely “forgetting”
because of repression in the psychoanalytic sense).
* The mother role might include a clustering of such roles as
wife to the father, companion to him, homemaker, nurse to the
child, etc.
233
MOTION PICTURE
MOTION PICTURE/THERAPEUTIC PICTURE/AUDIENCE
Although the adequate production of a therapeutic film is
important it has to be realized that the main object of a
therapeutic motion picture is not the production process but the
treatment of audiences.
Psicodrama p. 451
... The audience is really the patient for whom the film is made,
and the benefit it derives from it is the final test of the film’s
usefulness.
Psicodrama p. 451
In the moment of presentation of a motion picture the
production aspect of it sealed forever. There is only one aspect
which is human, changeable and in need of control, that is the
audience. The audience is the patient. The study of audience
reactions and audience constellations should therefore precede
the production of pictures itself, as it is upon their requirements
that the content of productions depend.
Psicodrama p. 450
... The audience must be built at times homogeneously around
certain mental syndromes, father-son conflicts, suicide conflicts,
and so forth.
Rosa Cukier
234
Psicodrama p. 451
MOTION PICTURE/THERAPEUTIC PICTURE/AUDIOEGOS
... The therapeutic value which it has the patients helping in the
production by having helped themselves, is small compared to
the help which it should prove to millions of audio-egos.
Psicodrama p. 451
MOTION PICTURE/THERAPEUTIC PICTURE/CAST
The cast, following the psychodramatic pattern, can consist
of: a) actual patients for whom the production of the film is a
part of their treatment, assisted by a number of auxiliary egos, a
type of specialized, therapeutic actors (entirely unrelated to the
conventional theatre or film) who portray the complimentary
roles which the patient or patients need in the course of the film
story; b) a cast of auxiliary egos, assisted by so-called
informants, actual patients who are suffering from mental
syndromes to be enacted at the time of the film production, (or
who are just coming out of this morbid experience and are
warmed up to a high degree of communicability) and for whom
the process of film production is a part of their treatment.
MOTION PICTURE/THERAPEUTIC PICTURE/CATHARSIS
... Action catharsis can never be replaced by spectator catharsis.
It is in all cases only a preparatory step for the former. ... One
thing is clear enough, that action catharsis remains the focal
point of therapy.
The producer of a therapeutic picture must therefore bear in
mind that as he cannot provide action catharsis directly, he must
do the most with the spectator catharsis.
235
Psicodrama p. 457
... But for a large number of subjects action catharsis must be
provide by actual psychodramatic sessions which will have to
follow therapeutic motion picture projections.
Psicodrama p. 457
The producer of a therapeutic picture must therefore bear in
mind that as he cannot provide action catharsis directly, he must
do the most with the spectator catharsis. Audiences are his main
frame of reference, not just audiences in a generalized sense, but
audiences of patients or, more broadly speaking, of subjects,
special audiences because of some cultural or mental syndrome.
Psicomúsica y Sociodrama p. 211-212, Horme
Psicodrama p. 457
MOTION PICTURE/THERAPEUTIC PICTURE/CRITICISM
The psychodramatic approach to motion pictures has been in
the networks for several years, but experiments like “Lady in the
Dark” or “Now Voyager” are not adequate try-outs. To the
contrary, they are abhorrent examples of a form of the drama
neither fish nor flesh, neither entertainment nor therapy, because
they try to provide both.
Psicomúsica y Sociodrama p. 204, Horme (notas)
Psicodrama p. 453. (nota de rodapé)
MOTION PICTURE/THERAPEUTIC PICTURE/DEFINITION
In the last few years a number of motion pictures have been
produced, as Lady in the Dark, Now Voyager, Conflict, Love
Letters, Spellbound, which represent a dabbling of the motion
picture industry with therapeutic (often with straight psychiatric)
projects. ...
Rosa Cukier
236
Therapeutic film is defined as a type of motion picture
whose main object is the treatment of audiences.
MOTION PICTURE/THERAPEUTIC PICTURE/DIRECTOR
... It may be desirable from time to time to project the
psychodramatic director, as he himself enters upon the stage and
gives his comments in the interludes, if not in persona, at least as
a voice, into the film picture itself. The voice of the
psychodramatic director may therefore be interwoven into the
total picture, the same way that he appears in a psychodramatic
session, not only just commenting analyzing and clarifying, but
arousing to action, interrupting and ending, often using methods
of aggression, commanding, taking upon himself several roles
which form the background of the scenes themselves.
Psicodrama p. 451
... He should rather take the form of a therapeutic prompter, a
counterpart of the playwright and producer of the conventional
stage. ... The director should function as a sort of director of the
audience, complementing the function of the director within the
film, stopping the film whenever necessary, making explanatory
remarks, relating it the specific audience facing him and
repeating parts as required.
Psicodrama p. 452
... Every psychiatrist and psychoanalyst acts in a role natural to
his personality. If we could photograph them in their behavior
towards the patient we will see many versions of role-playing
psychiatrists. We should not deny a therapeutic motion picture
audience the beneficial influence or the role-playing psychiatric
director himself.
237
Psicodrama p. 455
MOTION PICTURE/THERAPEUTIC PICTURE/HISTORY
A psychodramatic film was produced by the author in
collaboration with Mr. S. Bates of Hudson, N.Y. The film was
presented at the meeting of the American Psychiatric
Association, in Washington, D.C., May 1935.
MOTION PICTURE/THERAPEUTIC PICTURE/MAIN
OBJECT
Although the adequate production of a therapeutic film is
important it has to be realized that the main object of a
therapeutic motion picture is not the production process but the
treatment of audiences.
Psicodrama p. 451
MOTION PICTURE/THERAPEUTIC PICTURE
/METHODOLOGY
Therapeutic motion pictures, film or television, the selection
of conflicts, the construction of plots, the choice and training of
cast, must be made in accord with psychodramatic principles. ...
The therapeutic motion picture is a repeatable event and of
cathartic benefit to an audience only. It is however able to appear
simultaneously and successively before innumerable audiences.
Psychodrama v.1 p. 386 (footnote)
Summing up, two general methods of production can be
differentiated: the patient-actor method, in which a patient is the
chief actor as well as chief informant, and the ego-actor method,
Rosa Cukier
238
in which an auxiliary is the chief actor and the patient merely the
chief informant.
Psicodrama p. 458
... The producer – in his form-finding search – should be
conscious of the factors which make a psychodramatic session
therapeutic so that he should try to translate these factors into the
film. There are three factors at work in every session: a) the
action on the stage between patients and auxiliary egos; they
influence in turn every member of the audience; b) the action in
the audience; one audio-ego can be a therapeutic agent to every
other audio-ego; as they are influence by the action on the stage,
they in turn, counter-influence the actor-patient and auxiliary
egos during the stage process, in the pauses between scenes,
immediately after each scene and at the end of the session, by
their reactions; c) the director, he exerts his influence upon the
actor-patients on the stage and the audio-egos in the audience,
and last but not least, by his analysis and comments.
Psicodrama p. 454
MOTION PICTURE/THERAPEUTIC PICTURE/PRE-TEST
... Their reactions to what they experience when seeing a film
may guide a producer in the delicate job of cutting and editing.
... Such a test audience may consist of only a few persons whose
sensitivity can be trained to a high degree of reliability.
Psicodrama p. 458
/PRODUCTION
... Inadequate picture-taking may easily turn the most
spontaneous acting into a distorted and artificial portrayal. The
psycho-technical problem is therefore how to produce a film so
239
that it approximates as far as possible the atmosphere of
spontaneous acting, and how to construct the film so that it gives
the audience the illusion of direct communication with itself.
MOTION PICTURE/THERAPEUTIC PICTURE/PSEUDO
THERAPEUTIC
... Due the fact that the instigators, producers and actors have no
psychiatric and psychological training, these films can well be
classified as ‘pseudo’ therapeutic. ... Upon closer analysis of
these films as to their content, the influence of psychoanalytic
theory is one of the outstanding features.
Psicodrama p. 461
... “Such rapid popularization of an idea would be flattering,
were it not for the increasing number of seemingly
psychiatric motion pictures turned loose upon the public by
unskilled men, producing undesirable effects. An important
medium by which masses of people can be treated
simultaneously has come into the hands of laymen who are
unwittingly promoting a form of quackery which may
become the greatest barrier to the psychodramatic film of the
future.”
Psicodrama p. 462
/THERAPEUTIC FACTOR
... It is clear therefore, that the true ground of therapeutic motion
pictures is actual, lived and living experience and not fiction,
however significant the latter may be otherwise.
Rosa Cukier
240
Psicodrama p. 456
... It may very well be that the most therapeutically effective
motion pictures will be such films which do not shown the end
productions, but the process in development itself, the status
nascendi and the intermediary stages. Much of that which is cut
and edited because it lacks smoothness and directness may be
worthwhile therapeutically and much which is smooth and direct
may only aid in the glamorous escape from the real issue.
Psicodrama p. 458
MOTION PICTURE/THERAPEUTIC PICTURE/HOW TO
USE IT
... Every therapeutic film, when released to the public, should be
accompanied by a list of instructions for the medical director
who is to present the film to an audience anywhere in the
country. At present our aim should be to use therapeutic motion
pictures as supplements to or starters of actual therapeutic
sessions. ... Such films can be used as opening up a
psychodramatic session and warming up a given audience
gradually, proceeding immediately afterwards with an actual
session, or at least, with a discussion of the audience’s own
reactions.
Psicodrama p. 452
... But a psychodramatic on the consulting board of film
production agencies might render good service, especially to
agencies which are engaged in the production of films for
children and adolescents.
Psicodrama p. 446
241
MUSIC
... The gradual abstraction and differentiation of sounds laid the
ground for musical notations.
Psicodrama p. 352
MYSTICS AND MONKS
... On a higher plane a similar problem has to be solved by
mystics and monks, viz: the elimination and gradual
extinguishing of the total private person in the process of
becoming a saint. In this case the solution, however, is not
merely for a short duration, but for eternity.
El Teatro de la Esponataneidad p. 90
N
NARCISSISM
… Dr. English nodded assurance and I walked on, my chest
swelling with a narcissistic glow.
Who Shall Survive? p. xliv Preludes
... Those persons respond spontaneously to a new situation,
much as an actor or actress on the stage of life, and cultivate a
personality such as is deemed by them to be most suitable for the
circumstances and which best will meet the purpose they are
endeavoring to serve.
Rosa Cukier
242
NETWORK
NETWORK/FEAR OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL
NETWORKS
... The individual dreads the powerful currents of emotions
which “society” may turn against him – it is fear of the
psychological networks. It is dread of these powerful structures
of communication whose influence is unlimited and
uncontrollable. It is fear that they may destroy him if he does not
keep still.
NETWORK MANIPULATION OF THE NETWORKS
... Groups in power, however, may even attempt to “produce”
psychological currents at will, synthetically. As they have to be
artificially sustained they are of short duration. Such
manipulation of the networks and currents in a population is a
most dangerous game which may produce greater disturbances
in the depths than the momentary effects upon the surface may
indicate at first.
NETWORK/PSYCHOGEOGRAPHICAL
The network is related to the currents which run through it
as a glass is related to the water, which fills it except that the
network is molded by the currents and the glass is not shaped by
the liquid it holds. The psychogeographical network is analogous
to the nervous system, whose network is also molded by the
currents that run through it.
243
NETWORK/SOCIOMETRIC
Whereas certain parts of these social atoms seem to remain
buried between the individuals participating, certain parts link
themselves with parts of other social atoms and these with parts
of other social atoms again, forming complex chains of
interrelations which are called, in terms of descriptive
sociometry, sociometric networks. The older and wider the
network spreads the less significant seems to be the individual
contribution toward it. From the point of view of dynamic
sociometry these networks have the function of shaping social
tradition and public opinion.
NEUROSIS
NEUROSIS/HISTRIONIC NEUROSIS
... (5). This conflict is particularly evident in the professional
actor who is continuously compelled to restrain and repress “the
spontaneous” within him, his private, real person, to a
maximum, in order to portray the theatrical roles adequately
(“histrionic neurosis”).
... I noticed that when, for instance, the role of Hamlet was
played in a professional theatre, there were a great many
irregularities in the performance. “Behind the mask of Hamlet
lurks the private personality of the actor” and a conflict between
the role and the private person ensued which produced these
irregularities (“the role-person conflict”) (5). This conflict is
particularly evident in the professional actor who is continuously
compelled to restrain and repress “the spontaneous” within him,
his private, real person, to a maximum, in order to portray the
theatrical roles adequately (“histrionic neurosis”).
Rosa Cukier
244
NEUROSIS/INTERPERSONAL NEUROSIS
... I have frequently been confronted with emotional difficulties
arising between individuals living in close proximity. “I was
then not treating one person or the other, but an interpersonal
relationship or what one may call an interpersonal neurosis.”
Las bases de la psicoterapia pp. 91-92
NEUTRALITY
10. Neutrality towards individuals is often due to a cultural
imperative, an acquired response of ascetic unselfishness, an air
of objectivity, an attitude of self reliance and independence.
NORMÓTIC
Are you Normótic?
The customary triad of mental classifications are: normal,
neurotic, and psychotic. It should be further differentiated into:
normal, “normótic”, neurotic, psychotic. “Normal” man is a
rarity. A multitude of people fall between normal and neurotic, a
category which Moreno calls “normótic”. It composes all
individuals who just manage their lives without psychotherapy.
Moreno, J. L. Zerca T.Jonathan “The First Psychodramatic
Family”, Beacon House, 1964, reprint of Psychodrama and
Group Psychotherapy, monograph nº40, p. 143
Spanish, no translation
Portuguese, no translation
245
O
ORGANIZATIONS
ORGANIZATIONS/INTROVERTED FAMILIES
We could divide the members of a cottage in Hudson into
two groups: those who want to stay (the stayers) and those who
want to move away (the movers). The proportion between these
two groups decided whether or not a cottage group had an
introverted or an extroverted organization. We saw then that
groups with an introverted organization disclosed a stronger
craving for difference and distinction. This feeling of difference
and distinction could easily turn into a current of aggression
against intruders from other cottages. This phenomenon appears
to have universal application. ... In every community there are
stayers and movers. Communities with an introverted
organization also tend to produce restrictive and protective
currents against intruders. Although the motivations for these
phenomena are complex, these restrictive and protective currents
appeared to further social differentiation and integration within
communities. An intimate study of the population structure in a
local geographical area will probably demonstrate that the
consanguine groups, the family trees, are the strongest centers of
introverted organization and that the craving for difference and
distinction is most strongly focussed in them.
The location of the choices, whether inside or outside the
group has a definite effect upon the organization of the group.
Their distribution changes from the 1st to the 5th choice. The
following three samples illustrate the most characteristic patterns
of organization resulting from this factor:...
...The same trend is repeated through all the phases from 1st to
5th choice: the majority of choices go inside, the minority of
choices go outside the group. It is a sample of an introverted
organization.
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... Cottage 10 gives a sample of an extroverted organization. The
majority of choices go persistently in each phase outside, the
minority in each phase inside.
... Cottage 7 is a sample in which the majority of choices swings
between inside and outside the group without any decided trend;
... ... This can be called a balanced organization.
/CHANGE OF ORGANIZATIONS
We have learned that groups of individuals have a tendency
to develop definite organization which can be accurately
ascertained and that the patterns of this organization change. (a)
According to the age level of its members. (See pp.150-152). (b)
According to the interest of the members for one another. (See p.
249). If the group is a home group and if the majority of its
members prefers to remain within it, this organization tends to
be introverted (see p. 270); but if the majority of its members
wants to live with outsiders, this organization tends to be
extroverted (see p. 265). An introverted group organization tends
to be warm, overfilled with emotion. An extroverted group
organization tends to be cold, as little emotion is spent within it.
When the members are not interested in with whom they live,
either with each other or with outsiders, the organization is one
of solitaires (see p. 139, Fig. 1). If the introverted and
extroverted tendencies reach an equilibrium, the organization is
balanced.
“Extroverted” and “introverted” are psychological concepts
introduced by Carl Jung which are widely used to connote
specific individual reaction patterns. But extroverted and
introverted group organization are sociometric concepts and
have no relation to introverted and extroverted as used in the
psychological sense.
247
The colored population is housed in cottages separate from
the white. But in educational and social activities white and
colored mix freely. These and similar aspects can be termed the
“social organization of the community”. And whatever the
“social structure” of a particular cottage may be it is necessary to
ascertain the psychological function of each of its members and
the “psychological organization” of the cottage group. The social
function of a girl, for instance, may be that of supervising the
dormitory, but her psychological function may be that of a
housemother pet who is rejected by the members of her group
and isolated in it. These emotional reactions and responses
among the girls of the group must result in a dynamic situation,
its “psychological organization”.
6. Extreme centrifugal (or extroverted) and extreme centripetal
(or introverted) organization of groups renders such groups low
in stability and cohesion.
ORIGINALITY
... The third form of spontaneity is that of originality. It is that
free flow of expression which upon analysis does not reveal any
contribution significant to call it creativity, but which at the
same time, in its form of production, is a unique expansion or
variation from the cultural conserve as a model.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. 91-92
Psicodrama p. 142
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248
P
PARANOIA
PARANOIA/REALIZATION PARANOIA.
... A producer selects a locality or an architect to build a theatre
for the presentation of his work. But Mary is anxious to be the
architect herself and to transform the entire universe into a
theatre. She is determined to stage her John-production wherever
she is. She suffers from a realization paranoia.
PARANOIA/SOCIOMETRIC PARANOIA
... The more such an interioralized process operates as an
independent system the more the normal “sociometric paranoia”
becomes a real one.
48. Sociometric paranoia is a “normal” condition of the socius.
The more attention an individual arouses the more involuntarily
or voluntarily he draws the normal paranoic trends, positive and
negative, towards him (crucifixion).
PARTICIPANT OBSERVER
We then approached the task from a different angle. Instead of
observing the formation of groups from without we entered into
the group became a part of it, and registered its intimate
developments. We ourselves experienced the polarity of
relations among members, the development of gangs within the
group, the pressure upon one individual or another.
The participant observer of the social laboratory, counterpart
of the scientific observer in the physical or biological laboratory,
249
undergoes a profound change. ... The essence of their situations
will be missed if he acts in the role of a scientific spy. The
procedure has to be open and apparent.
The participant observer, in the course of his exploration,
enters into contact with various individuals and situations, but
he, himself – with his biases and prejudices, his personality
equation and his own position in the group – remains
unexamined and therefore, himself, an unmeasured quantity.
... The participant observer – in one particular form of this work
– does not remain “objective” or at a distance from the persons
to be studied: he becomes their friend. He identifies himself with
their own situations; he becomes an extension of their own egos.
In other words, the “objective” participant becomes a
“subjective” one.
... The paradox is that the investigator, although he has become
objectified by this process – a “controlled participant observer”,
so to speak – still continues to be what he originally started out
to be: a subjective participant.
PATHOLOGY/PSYCHO- AND SOCIO-PATHOLOGY
... A great deal of Man’s psycho- and socio-pathology can be
ascribed to the insufficient development of spontaneity.
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PERSONA
The sociogram indicates, furthermore, numerous
relationships which the patient has in theses new roles towards
half actual and half imagined being – the “personae”.
A persona, illustrated in sociogram III, is emerging when the
hands of a certain nurse are the hands of this nurse m but the
head is the head of the patient’s father. Another persona is a
physician, to whom she gives the symbol of the devil,…
Another persona is the physician whom she sees twice his
actual size and who impresses her as dark and sinister.
Moreno, J. L. “Psychodramatic Shock Therapy” in “Group
Psychotherapy and Psychodrama”, Beacon House, v.xxvii, nº
1-4,1974, p. 15
Another persona is a physician whom she sees twice his
actual size and who impresses her as dark and sinister.
Moreno, J. L. “Psychodramatic Shock Therapy”, A
Sociometric Approach to the Problem of Mental Disorders
in “Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama”, v. xxvii, nº 1-
4, 1974, p. 16
Psicoterapia de Grupo e Psicodrama. p. 342
PERSONA/PSYCHOSIS
A “persona” is composed of parts which belonged originally
to different individuals and topics. For instance, the hands of one
individual are connected with the head of another individual.
The outcome of the psychotic attack is like debris after an
earthquake. Isolated elements whose original place is hard to
detect and new combinations appears. The patient social atom is
smashed.
251
Psychotherapy and Psychodrama”, Beacon House, v.xxvii, nº
1-4, 1974, p. 11.
PERSONALITY
... (personality) can be defined as a function of g (genes), s
(spontaneity), t (tele), and e (environment).
... Those persons respond spontaneously to a new situation,
much as an actor or actress on the stage of life, and cultivate a
personality such as is deemed by them to be most suitable for the
circumstances and which best will meet the purpose they are
endeavoring to serve.
Who Shall Survive? p. xlv
... But psychoanalysis claims that it has added the novel element
of being able penetrate the intimate dynamics of a dead hero by
using the phenomena of his recorded life as clues. It is obvious
that even in a strictly psychoanalytic sense the analysis of a dead
person is symbolic rather than actual. According to
psychoanalytic tenets an actual analysis is not possible without
display of “transference” and “resistance” of the subject. Neither
transference nor resistance can be expected from a dead person.
Who Shall Survive? p. xlvi
PERSONALITY/ANALYZING OTHERS PERSONALITY
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252
him by laymen.
Who Shall Survive? p. xlv
... Similarly, it would have been more interesting to find out why
Freud picked on Moses and to analyze Freud as to his own
involvements in Moses rather than to follow Freud in his
analysis of Moses. It is from the analysis of the psychoanalyst in
situ, when he is involved in the process of analyzing someone
else who is dead that one of the most important contributions of
Psychodramatic theory developed – the subjectification of the
apparently objective investigator.
Who Shall Survive? p. xlvi
PHYSICAL ATTRACTION
5. The effect of sheer physical propinquity upon interaction is
often due to an “amor fati loci”. We have heard subjects declare:
“Here I am now (sitting, standing, walking, sleeping, etc.), I
have to put up with it.” Locus as destiny”.
6. The effect of physical propinquity upon interaction is at times
due to the principle of least effort; inertia, apathy and low
spontaneity is then stronger than the tele; we have seen
individuals who prefer to make as little effort as possible, to stay
put wherever they are instead of moving nearer the one they like.
7. The effect of physical propinquity upon interaction is due to
attraction to a locus, sitting at the table in the corner, near a
window (light and sun), sleeping at a distance, as near the wall
as possible – the choice of physical isolation.
8. The effect of physical propinquity upon interaction is due to
attraction to an object, for instance, a special desk, a special
room, etc.
9. The effect of physical propinquity upon interaction is rarely
entirely physical and mechanical; there is an axionormative
253
order operating: “Accept everyone whom you find in your
proximity and try to get along with everyone.”
Fundamentos de la Sociometria não há
PHYSICAL CONTACT/LIMITATION
... But suddenly Hitler swatted Goering. Goering responded in
kind and a regular fistfight took place on the spot, during which
Hitler took a bad beating. Later they enjoyed a glass of beer
together. From then on the ice gradually began to melt.
Physical contact and physical attack – from caressing and
embracing, to pushing and hitting – is permissible in
psychodramatic therapy if it is of benefit to the patient. It is
obvious that here the utmost caution has to be practiced to
prevent excesses, or to prevent he auxiliary ego from taking
advantage of the patient in order to satisfy his own needs. A
great responsibility rests upon the ego. It is natural that the
auxiliary ego who portrays the part of brutal father may really
have to hit his son, not only “as if”, in order to provoke in the
son the responses in action, the perceptions and feelings he has
for his father. It is customary in psychodramatic logic that a sick
soldier who comes back home from war should embrace and
caress his auxiliary mother or wife on the stage, if that is what he
would do in real life. It is also psychodramatic logic that if some
auxiliary ego takes the part of an older brother who is suddenly
attacked by the patient a real physical encounter may ensue upon
the stage, or in the living quarters of the patient if it is there
where the session takes place.
PLAY
Historically the psychodrama grew out of the principle of
play. Play has always been there; it is older than Man, it has
accompanied the life of organisms as one of its excesses,
anticipating growth and development. In our culture it was
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254
particularly Rousseau and Froebel who directed our attention
towards the educational value of play. But a new vision of the
principle of play was borne when in the years before the
outbreak of the first World War I began to play with the children
in the gardens and streets of Vienna: play as a principle of cure,
as a form of spontaneity, as a form of therapy and as a form of
catharsis; play, not only as an epiphenomenon accompanying
and supporting biological aims but as a phenomenon sui generis,
a positive factor linked with spontaneity and creativity. Play has
gradually been separated from its metaphysical, metabiological
and methapsychological connections and shaped into a
methodical and systematic principle. All this has brought the
idea of play to a new universality, unknown heretofore; it has
pushed and inspired the development of play techniques, play
psychotherapy, theatre of spontaneity, therapeutic theatre,
culminating in the role playing, psychodrama, Sociodrama of our
time.
Moreno, J. L. “Hypnodrama and Psychodrama” in Group
Psychotherapy, Beacon House, v. 3, April 1950, nº1, pp. 1-2
PREGNANCY
... Our conclusions therefore, are that any prolongation of the
human pregnancy would be a calamity for the infant, that is
length seems rather well planned than otherwise, and that the
infant is born at a strategic moment for the development of his
spontaneous potentialities.
Psicodrama p. 115
PRESENTIFICATION
(technique used in Brazil that consists in turning to the
present tense what the client used to describe in past tense)
Moreno: Do you sleep alone (drops Martin’s hand, takes a step
away from him)
Martin: Well, in this case I slept alone
255
Moreno: You slept alone. Well, suppose you fix your bed up the
way it was. Is your wife sleeping in another room?
Dream”, in Group Psychotherapy, March 1951, nº4, v.iii, pp.
345-346.
PRINCIPLE OF SOCIOMETRIC TRANSPLANTATION
In numerous cases individual treatment, analytic and
activistic group psychotherapy as well as roleplaying are only
partially successful. Then the individual must be transplanted.
From his old soil to another social soil better suited to his needs.
But how are we going to recognize or to produce a better soil for
the development of an individual? It can be accomplished
through a comparative analysis of every home group with every
other home group. Just as a gardener, knowing the composition
of the soil which thwarted the growth of a plant, transfers it to a
soil from which such factors are eliminated, so we, when
planting individuals, carefully see to it that the same conditions
which brought failure in the first place are not repeated. This
principle of sociometric transplantation can also be applied to
entire communities.
PROJECTION
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PROLETARIAT
SOCIOMETRIC PROLETARIAT
The oldest and most numerous proletariat of human society
is the sociometric proletariat. It consists of all the people who
suffer from one form of misery or another, psychological misery,
social misery, economic misery, racial misery, religious misery.
... The world is full of isolated, rejected, rejecting,
unreciprocated and neglected individuals and groups. The
sociometric proletariat cannot be “saved” by economic
revolutions.
Quem sobreviverá? v. 1 pp. 215-216
PROMETHEUS/THE MYTH OF PROMETHEUS AND
PSYCHODRAMA
The theatre for spontaneity was the unchaining of illusion.
But this illusion acted out by the people who have lived through
257
it in reality, is the unchaining of life ⎯“das Ding ausser sich”.
The theatre of the last things is not the eternal recurrence of the
same, out of eternal necessity (Nietzsche), but the opposite of it.
It is the self-produced and self-created recurrence of itself.
Prometheus has grasped himself by the chains neither to
conquer nor to destroy himself. He, like a creator, brings himself
forth once more and proves by means of psychodrama that his
existence in chains has been the deed of his own free will.
Psicodrama Spanish p. 59
Psicodrama Portuguese p. 78
PROSTITUTES
PROSTITUTES/AIM OF THE WORK WITH
... I had in mind that what La Salle and Marx had done for the
working class, leaving aside the revolutionary aspect of the labor
movement, was to make the workers respectable, to give the
working man dignity; to organize them into labor unions in order
to raise the status of the entire class. Aside from the anticipated
economic achievements it was accompanied by ethical
achievements.
... But we were optimistic and started to meet groups of eight to
tem girls, two of three times a week in their houses. It was
during the afternoon when the Viennese had what is called
“Jauze”; it is the counterpart of the English five o’clock tea. ...
The conferences at first simply dealt with everyday incidents
which the girls encountered, being caught by a policeman
because of wearing too provocative a dress, being put into jail
because of false accusations of a client, having a venereal
disease but being unable to find a hospital to admit her,
becoming pregnant and giving birth to a baby but having to hide
the child before the world under a different name and hiding her
own identity as the mother towards the child. ... They first
noticed superficial results, for example, we were able to get a
lawyer for them to represent them in a court, a doctor to treat
them and a hospital to admit them. ... The girls volunteered to
pay a few dimes a week towards the expenses of these meetings
as well as towards some savings for emergencies like sickness
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258
and unemployment or old age. ... But we began to see then that
“one individual could become a therapeutic agent of the other”
and the potentialities of a group psychotherapy on the reality
level crystallized in our mind.
Who Shall Survive? p. xxix–xxx Preludes
PROTAGONIST
... It is significant that the Greek word for the chief actor in the
drama is protagonist, i.e., the man in a frenzy or madman.
Psicodrama p. 141
The second instrument is the subject or patient. He is asked
to be himself on the stage, to portray his own private world. He
is told to be himself, not an actor, as the actor is compelled to
sacrifice his own private self to the role imposed upon him by a
playwright. Once he is warmed up to the task it is comparatively
easy for the patient to give an account of his daily life in action,
as no one is as much of an authority on himself as himself. He
has to act freely, as things rise up in his mind; that is why he has
to be given freedom of expression, spontaneity. Nest in
importance to spontaneity comes the process of enactment. The
verbal level is transcended and included in the level of action.
Psychodrama v.1 p. b Introduction to 4th edition
Psicodrama p. 18 Introdução à 4a edição
... The protagonist, in order to get into the production, must be
motivated consciously or unconsciously. The motive may be,
among other things; self realization, relief from mental anguish,
ability to function in a social group. He is frustrated, let us say,
in the role of the father or any other role in life itself, and he
enjoys the feeling of mastery and realization by means of
psychodrama which givens him symbolic satisfaction.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. viii Introduction to 3rd edition
259
PROTOCOLS
PROTOCOL/ADOLESCENT CASE
PROTOCOLS/BÁRBARA CASE
PROTOCOL/HITLER CASE
PROTOCOLS/MARIE CASE
PROTOCOLS/PSYCHODRAMA OF A DREAM
Dream”, in Group Psychotherapy, March 1951, nº4, v.iii, p.
365.
PROTOCOLS/PSYCHODRAMA OF A MARRIAGE
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PROTOCOLS/ROBERT CASE
PSYCHE
... We may be credited to have put the psyche itself on the stage.
The psyche which originally came from the group – after a
process of reconversion on the stage – personified by an actor –
returns to the group – in the form of the psychodrama. That
which was most starling, new and spectacular to see and to feel
on the stage appears to the participants after thorough exposure
as a process which is familiar to them and intimately known – as
their own selves. The psychodrama confirms their own identity
as in a mirror.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. e Introduction to the 4th edition
Psicodrama p. 21
PSYCHODRAMA
PSYCHODRAMA/BEGINNINGS
7:00 and 10:00 p.m.
The Locus nascendi for the first official psychodramatic
back – like the throne of a king.
Psicodrama p. 49
When I was four and a half years old my parents lived in a
house near the river Danube. They had left the house on a
Sunday to pay a visit, leaving me alone in the basement of the
house with neighbors’ children. ... The children said: “Let’s
play”. One child asked me: “What?” “I know”, I said, “let’s play
261
God and his angels”. ... The first inspiration may well have come
from this personal experience.
The step toward complete spontaneity of the actor brought
about the next step, the intermittent de-conserving of the actor
from clichés which might have accumulated in the course of his
production or of his living, and then finally the third step,
conscious and systematic spontaneity training. It was this
methodology of training which prepared the way for the
psychodrama. Once we had permitted the actor a full spontaneity
of his own, his full private world, his personal problem, his own
conflicts, his own defeats and dreams came to the fore. I
recognize gradually the therapeutic value which this kind of
presentation had for the actor himself and when properly
manipulated, the therapeutic value it had for the audience.
... Looking backwards to my first book, it is now clear that from
the idea of the meeting, the encounter between the author and
reader, preacher and follower, husband and wife, each in his
“role”, it was only a short step from putting them on a stage on
which they can battle their relationship out, unhindered by the
threats and anxieties of their real life situation. This is how the
idea of the psychodrama was born.
The genesis of psychodrama was closely related to the
genesis of the Godhead. I tried to draw in my mind picture of
what God looked like on the first day of creation. He may have
been knowing and wise, a being who can penetrate with his eyes
the abysses of the universe, very much in the manner of a
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Buddhist or a psychoanalyst. Then I began growingly to realize
that the mind of God could not operate like the mind of a
Buddhist or a psychoanalyst. Hovering over the chaos on the
first day, he was there to create, not to take apart and to analyze.
He may have become more of an analyst as the days of creation
went on, or after it was all over – in moments of reverie or in
moments of disillusionment with the result. ... Therefore, I
conclude that God was first a creator, an actor, a
psychodramatist.
Who Shall Survive? p. xvi – xvii Preludes
... In the midst of this cold psychological war, which has divided
and deflated the creative forces of our time, psychodramatic
philosophy stepped in around 1920, reversing the psychoanalytic
values and giving the undirected, anarchic creative forces a
positive anchorage, 1) by declaring the pathological normal and
providing for all forms of pathological behavior a world sui
generis, simply by giving the venerable theatre a psychiatric
twist, in the form of the therapeutic drama; 2) by giving all
forms of subjective existence, including the prophetic and the
deviate, a place where it can fulfill and perhaps transform itself,
unencumbered by the restrictions of the prevailing culture; 3) by
preparing the way for a therapeutic community in which the
prophet and the deviate would find better treatment and deeper
understanding and so be able to contribute to its total
productivity.
PSYCHODRAMA/CLASSIFICATION/“A DEUX”
... To this class belongs the hypnotic seance, suggestion therapy,
psychoanalysis and any type of treatment in which the physician
of healer is faced by one person only.
263
Psicodrama p. 381
... The elimination of an audience, however, is often necessary to
certain subjects and problems. Many subjects begin to work with
the psychodramatic director alone, in the course of development
one or two egos are added.
Psicodrama p. 318
... Originally there was only one situation which was acceptable
to Freud. That was the psychoanalytic situation in his office. But
gradually the limitations of this situation became apparent. It
was applicable only to a small minority of individuals, to young
and middle aged adults. There was no transference relationship
and hence no analysis possible with children and psychotics. ...
He was stuck with one situation, the holy one. This is probably
the reason why his pupils took so slowly to my ideas of
spontaneous play therapy and audience or group therapy.
Psicodrama p. 55
The psychodrama à deux, a parallel to the psychoanalytic
situation on the couch, has been tried from time to time, but it is
interesting to point out that the psychodramatist in private
practice frequently prefers to employ his nurse as an auxiliary
ego to maintain his own identity as director unimpaired.
We have discussed in our first lecture the therapeutic dyad,
that is a group which consists of one patient and one therapist
only.
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PSYCHODRAMA/CLASSIFICATION/“A
DEUX”/TECHNIQUE OF SELF PRESENTATION
Technique of self presentation. The subject acts in his own
roles and portrays the figures which fill his own private world.
Psychodrama is here a form of individual psychotherapy. He is
his own auxiliary ego, the physician may be the other. One of the
first uses of the psychodramatic technique was in this individual
form. It was and is an improvement upon psychoanalysis as a
patient-physician relationship. Erroneously, psychodrama is
thought of only in its group form.
Who Shall Survive? p. 723 Glossary
Quem Sobreviverá? v. 3 p. 217 Glossário
PSYCHODRAMA/CLASSIFICATION/CONFESSIONAL
D) Psychodrama: Confessional Type
The group approach in the psychodrama has reported
various techniques to date. They can be summarized as of the
direct or the Confessional type. The object of these
psychodramatic procedures was to treat a group of spectators or
a particular individual. The people present were encouraged to
act out their own problems truthfully on the stage, or to discuss
the proceedings as they pertained to their own problems. The
usefulness of these techniques has been described by me on
different occasions.
Psicodrama p. 382
PSYCHODRAMA/CLASSIFICATION/INDIVIDUAL
... 1) A session can be designed to treat a single individual. The
director and his staff of auxiliary egos plan the session on the
basis of the history and the patient’s present situation.
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PSYCHODRAMA/CLASSIFICATION/NONCONFESSIONAL
E) Psychodrama: Non-confessional Type
Another group of procedures deserves utmost consideration.
Here the actions on the stage are produced, instead of by actual
subjects, by a staff of auxiliary egos. The members of the
audience are permitted to discuss the proceedings as if they
would have no bearing on their own. This form of psychodrama
is the indirect or the Non-confessional type. Non-confessional
psychodrama is characterized by the following three steps: the
interview of every subject who is to participate in a session – the
careful analysis of these materials – and the classification of
every subject according to his dominant mental syndrome or
problem. On the basis of these classifications the group for every
session is organized so that they may attain the greatest possible
benefit from the treatment. For instance, certain types of
alcoholics may be put into one group, certain types of
matrimonial problems into another group, etc.
The non-confessional group approach in the psychodrama
appears to be of particular value in minor maladjustments,
incipient neuroses and simple interpersonal conflicts. In such
cases the mirroring of typical situations on the stage similar to
the spectators’ own stimulate attempts a autonomous
objectification of their actual problem when left to their own
resources. In more serious cases, however, this approach is but a
prelude to the direct quasi-confessional form of treatment which
culminates in the direct presentation of problems on the stage.
PSYCHODRAMA/CLASSIFICATION/PEDAGOGIC (SEE
ALSO LEARNING/SPONTANEITY)
... that is learning through doing. Or as it is also termed, the
learning through “activities”. In this set-up we see the children
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developing projects of all sorts in the garden, in the workshop,
on the playground and so on. This is a remarkable advance. But
the difficulty with the activities method is that in learning
through doing, if it proceeds blindly, the pupils shape and firmly
establish their faults as well as their abilities.
Psicodrama p. 185
PSYCHODRAMA/CONCEPT/DEFINITION
Historically, psychodrama represents the chief turning point
away from the treatment of the individual in isolation, to the
treatment of the individual in groups, from the treatment of the
individual by verbal methods to the treatment by action methods.
... it is an effective combination of individual with group
catharsis, of participation with action catharsis.
Psicodrama p. 59
... The psychodramatic process is a reversal of the normally
dramatic.
Psicodrama p. 455
... The original unity between fantasy and reality in the child’s
mind is broken from now on and begins to develop in two
separate dimensions of experience. It can be said that
psychodrama is an attempt to breach the dualism between
fantasy and reality, and to restore the original unity.
Psicodrama p. 410
... Psychodrama has been defined as a deep action method
dealing with inter-personal relations and private ideologies, and
267
sociodrama as a deep action method dealing with inter-group
relations and collective ideologies.
Psicodrama p. 411
... Psychodramatic production consists of structured scenes, each
scene of structured roles, and each role of structured interactions.
The various abreactions are obviously interwoven into a
symphony of gestures, emotions, strivings, and interactions.
Several individuals – the protagonist, the auxiliary egos, the
director, and the group – take part in their development. A great
deal of emotion, thinking, scientific and artistic skill goes into
their making.
1913, Definition of Psychodrama
The most amusing of the early definitions of psychodrama
was given to me by a Viennese poet, a chronic alcoholic, as he
was walking with me one night up and down the Kärtner Strasse.
“Moreno”, he exclaimed, “I agree with you, if I have to die I
would rather die of diarrhea than of constipation. As I see it, this
is the difference between you and Freud.”
Who Shall Survive? p. xxviii
Psychodrama explores the truth by means of dramatic
methods. It is the depth therapy of the group. It starts where
group psychotherapy ends, and extends it in order to make it
more effective.
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... He comes forth not in the form of a smoothly written and
sophisticated theory of spontaneity or of existence but in the full
actuality of living, of throwing himself bluntly into the face of an
uprooted scientific age. This vehicle into which he enters must
be like a suit which is made to order with plenty to spare for the
millions of varieties of private and social worlds – the
psychodrama.
PSYCHODRAMA/DREAM WORK
The objective of psychodramatic techniques is to stir up the
dreamer to produce the dream instead of analyzing it for him.
Even if one could be sure that the analysis is objective and
reliable it is preferable if analysis is turned into production by
the dreamer.
The first stage of the production which Martin actually had
on the reality level, on a specific date; then Martin was
unconsciously his own producer. The stages of production was
in the mind of the sleeper, the dreamer hallucinates all his
auxiliary egos and auxiliary objects. Thee was no one to share
the dream with him, he was the sole agent of his warming up
process and the end which the dream had, pleasant or unpleasant,
had only him as a witness and observer.
The second stage of production takes place in the Theatre of
Psychodrama; it is here that therapy begins. As the dreamer
begins to reenact his own dream with the aid of a director and
auxiliary egos, the manifest as well as the latest configurations
of the dream come forth naturally. Whatever a verbal analysis
could reveal to the dreamer is brought out in direct, actional
terms. The dreamer does not have to “agree” with the analyst,
his own actions tell him and the audience what processes take
place in his mind. One might say that instead of being analyzed
through analysis he is analyzed through production. Analysis
becomes submerged into the production. It is of advantage that
learning does not have the form of analysis but the form of living
out in action, a form of self realization through the dream.
269
Beyond this the dreamer brings forth experiences which are in
analysis as well as in all verbal communication frequently guess
work and as such often unreliable or at least limited.
The third phase of the dream production is stirring the
patient up to extend the dream beyond the end which nature has
set for the sleeper or at least the end which he remembers. He is
encouraged to re-dream the dream, to continue the dream on the
stage and to end it in a fashion which appears more adequate to
him or which brings him to a better control of the latent
dynamics upsetting him. Such a procedure becomes a veritable
“dream catharsis”. This kind of “dream learning” leads up to the
next stage.
The fourth stage finds the patient again back in his own bed,
sleeping as he was in the first phase in situ, in reality. He is again
his own director, hallucinating his own dream characters and
objects. But what he has learned in the course of active dream
production he is apt to apply now, to the same dream if it is a
recurrent one, or to a similar dream emerging In him. One could
speak here of a “post-psychodramatic suggestion” as one talks
about post- hypnotic suggestion. In both cases an operation
reaches into the patient’s unconscious activities long after he has
been exposed to it and it reaches him on a deep action level, for
instance here during sleep; he becomes his own dream therapist.
… Only action methods are causal and central, at least
theoretically; only they are so constructed as to attack the action
matrix of a person directly and if possible, to change it.
… Psychoanalysis differentiates between two categories,
manifest and latent dream. A Third category is here added, the
“action-matrix” of a dream.
Dream”, in Group Psychotherapy, March 1951, nº4, v.iii, pp.
363-365
... Well, it is in the area of dreams in which psychodrama has
been able to advance the science beyond the “Interpretation of
Dreams”. It is by acting out and role playing techniques. The
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270
verbal telling of a dream is a poor duplication of the experience
which the dreamer actually goes through in situ, that is, when he
sleeps. Psychodrama is the essence of the dream. ... By letting
the dreams be acted out via psychodramatic techniques, those
deeper parts of the unconscious can be brought to view for the
analyst and observer even if they cannot be made conscious to
the actor.
Las Bases de la Psicoterapia. p. 167
PSYCHODRAMA/HISTORY
For a true precedent we must look into civilizations of the
prehistoric period. In primitive dramatic rites the aboriginal
performer was not an actor, but a priest. He was like a
psychiatrist engaged in saving the tribe, persuading the sun to
shine or the rain to fall.
Psicodrama p. 62
PSYCHODRAMA/INTERPRETATION
... In the psychodrama the behavior and the acting of the patient
interprets for the therapist in the Here and Now, the therapist’s
interpretation is reduced to a minimum.
PSYCHODRAMA/KING’S PSYCHODRAMA
7:00 and 10:00 p.m.
The Locus nascendi for the first official psychodramatic
back – like the throne of a king. ... The natural theme of the plot
was the search of a new order of things, to test everyone in the
271
audience who aspired to leadership, and perhaps to find a
saviour. ... The audience was the jury. ... When the show came to
an end none was found worthy of being a king and the world
remained leaderless
Psicodrama p. 49
PSYCHODRAMA/MAGIC
... The auxiliary ego technique itself is a form of primitive
“psycho”-animism. The techniques of the animistic philosopher
rejected by analytic anthropologists as infantile magic is
returning on the therapeutic level and has been made productive
in psychodrama.
PSYCHODRAMA/MEANING OF THE NAME
Drama is a transliteration of the Greek Spöua which means
action, or a thing done. Psychodrama can be defined, therefore,
as the science which explores the “truth” by dramatic methods. It
deals with inter-personal relations and private worlds.
PSYCHODRAMA/PSYCHOANALYSIS
... Psychodrama can be viewed as the logical consequence of
psychoanalysis, a step beyond it, but including all verbal
concomitants of free association.
Psychoanalysis was constructed to permit words and their
associations, then to analyze and estimate indirectly the behavior
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which may underlie them. Psychodrama was constructed to
permit action and production so as to study behavior in its
concrete form. In a broad sense, it is total production versus total
analysis.
PSYCHODRAMA/PSYCHOANALYSIS/COMPLIMENTS TO
FREUD
... Freud was a greater scientist than most of those who criticize
him, his hypotheses were based at least on partial evidence and
perhaps at times on as little as ten percent probably, but he knew
it. He was always willing to change his hypotheses with new
evidence and he changed them several times during his life. My
critique goes against the psychoanalytic system in its entirety
and the unconscious underlying it.
Who Shall Survive? p. liii
PSYCHODRAMA/PSYCHODRAMATIC METHOD
The methodological superiority of psychodramatic
procedures as compared to the self-therapies and the healerpatient
therapies can be easily demonstrated. A well-conducted
psychodramatic session uses, among others, the following
elements: a) the psychiatric interview with every member in the
group participating, b) a lecture on topics carefully chosen to
meet the interests and requirements of as many among them as
possible, c) discussion, d) psychodramatic actions on the stage
with the assistance of a staff of auxiliary egos, e) analysis of the
acted out events to which each member of the group may make a
spontaneous contribution, f) participant observers in the
audience who register the reactions of each spectator, g)
verbatim recordings of the total session, h) therapeutic films.
These are the basis for a total analysis and for preparatory steps
leading up to the next session.
273
Psicomusica y Sociodrama pp. 91-92, Horme
Psicodrama p. 381
PSYCHODRAMA/PSYCHODRAMATIC
METHOD/COUNTER-INDICATION
... It is often dangerous to take patients of her type prematurely
into the theatre and without adequate motivation.
Psicoterapia de grupo y Psicodrama p. 373
PSYCHODRAMA/PSYCHOSIS (SEE IN
PSYCHOSIS/PSYCHODRAMA)
PSYCHODRAMA/RESEARCH
... Therefore the potentialities of drama-research and role
research for giving clues to methods by which public opinion
and attitudes can be influenced or changed are still unrecognized
and unresolved
Psicomusica y Sociodrama p. 144, Horme
Psicodrama p. 415
PSYCHODRAMA/SESSION/END OF A SESSION
... It is good psychodrama not to end a session with a “letdown”
for the patient, but with a high point.
Rosa Cukier
274
PSYCHODRAMA/SETTING
Psychodrama does not require a theatrical setting, a frequent
misunderstanding; it is done in situ — that is, wherever the
patient is found.
J. L. Moreno, “Hypnodrama and Psychodrama”, in Group
Psychotherapy, Beacon House, nº1, April 1950, viii, p. 5
PSYCHODRAMA/SOCIO-PSYCHODRAMA
The group approach in psychodrama deals with “private”
problems however large the number of individuals may be of
which the audience consists. But as soon as the individuals are
treated as collective representatives of community roles and role
relations and not as to their private roles and role relations, the
psychodrama turns into a “socio-psychodrama” or short,
sociodrama. The latter has opened new ways of analyzing and
treating social problems.
PSYCHODRAMA/SUBJECT
... It can well be said that the psychodrama provides the subject
with a new and more extensive experience of reality, a “surplus
reality”, a gain which at least in part justifies the sacrifice he
made by working through a psychodramatic production.
PSYCHODRAMATIC EFFECT
This process can be called the psychodramatic effect. It
affects subjects and egos. This sort of experience was made the
basis for treating the auxiliary as if she were a subject. Her own
marital conflict was treated separately, from phase to phase, with
the aid of two other auxiliary egos on the staff. Her experience
275
on the stage is called the psychodramatic catharsis of an
auxiliary ego.
... A better way of treating an auxiliary ego takes place in the
course of the psychodrama itself. When the auxiliary ego shows
any odd conduct, the inquiry about it is made in front of the
subject – in fact, in front of the whole group. ... The subject is
present when the auxiliary is caught in a trap, and as the problem
is revealed and eventually enacted, the subject can get some sort
of a picture of how he himself looks from a distance. He now
gets the catharsis of a spectator as well as that of an actor.
... As a net result, just as the psychodramatic subjects emerge
from the treatment as people able to perform more adequately in
the situations treated, so do the auxiliary egos grow wiser and
more versatile in their own spheres of living.
Psicomusica y Sociodrama p. 114-115, Horme
PSYCHODRAMATIC SHOCK TREATMENT
A procedure witch throws the patient barely escaped from a
psychosis, into a second psychosis is a psychodramatic chock
treatment. As a violent shock the acute phase of a psychosis is
treated by another violent shock with material resemblance to it.
Since a cathartic effect is expected from it, this recalls an old
dogma in medicine: “simila similibus curantur”.
J. L. Moreno, “Psychodramatic Shock Therapy”, A
“Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama”, v. xxvii, nº 1-4,
1974, p. 5
... Here we notice that “straight” role playing can be insufficient,
and we see why psychodramatic techniques need to be
introduced. It is (1) to get the protagonist into deeper action by
involving him more in his experience, and (2) to make his
hallucinations become more tangible either through his own
enactment of them or by an auxiliary ego’s enactment. Our
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276
hypothesis is that if such experiments are made at the time when
hallucinations are active, controls are interpolated in the
patient’s mind, conditioning barriers, which become particularly
important as a reservoir of preventive measure in case of later
relapses.
Psychodrama v.1 p. xv-xvi
Psicodrama Espanhol não há
Psicodrama p. 41
... It appears that to such individuals who have reached the stage
of a well organized mental disorder the enactment of the inner
world within a dramatic context is indispensable. The need for
the drama can be temporarily choked, for instance, by sleep or
shock therapies. But the fundamental need for the realization of
certain fantastic imageries cannot be “shocked away”.
Psicodrama p. 68
/DIFFICULTIES
It was difficult for us to suggest a definite situation, which
she might construct because wide discrepancy was evident
between what she remembered clinically and between what she
produced psychodramatically. Whenever we told her what she
had said and done she replied: “I did not say that. I do not
remember.” Thus we could not guide her into the shock. She had
to guide herself. Instead of suggesting therefore a specific
situation we tried to pin her memory upon a locality, the “middle
room” in which she had been about twelve hours.
1974, pp. 9-10
277
PSYCHODRAMATIC SHOCK TREATMENT/METHOD
The patient acting on the stage shocks himself, his auto-tele,
and his social–atom until it gives way to the pathological
constellation of his psychotic state.
1974, p. 7.
If the attack has come to an end the patient herself gives a
signal that the bedlam is over. She feels “like new” … It is the
normal response of an individual from whom a heavy burden has
been removed. This moment is the crucial time to apply the
psychodramatic shock. The more days and weeks go by the more
the psychological navel-string, which binds her present situation
to the psychotic world from which she comes, fades en finally
breaks. But if the shock treatment has begun at the crucial time
before it is too late, the psychosis is kept alive in the patient. She
develops a double relationship towards two different worlds. For
many months the treatment can go on. Shocks are timed daily or
as often as the treatment required.
1974, p. 13
/PSYCHOSIS
There is no moment during the procedure in which the
psychiatrist and the patient cannot say “stop”. Immediately or a
few seconds after the order is given the patient may break up the
procedure act as if nothing had happened. These stop orders
produce in the patient a significant co-experience. Acting on a
psychotic level at a time when he is extremely sensitive, he
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278
learns to check himself. It is training in mastery of psychotic
invasions, not through intellectual means, but through a sort of
spontaneity training.
Psychotherapy and Psychodrama”, Beacon House, v.xxvii,
nº1-4, 1974, pp. 5-6
PSYCHODRAMATIC SHOCK TREATMENT/TIMING
In the course of every psychotic attack there are many
moments of relative lucidity. During any of these lucid moments
an application of the psychodramatic chock may be considered
.the ideal time for it’s application, however, seems to be after the
attack has burned itself out immediately after its natural course
has terminated. The outbreak and course of a psychotic attack
are so far removed from any rapport that no other approach is
able to give us direct information about the actual structure of
these psychotic words.
1974, p. 7
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE
... Psychodramatic forms of role playing as role reversal, role
identification, double and mirror playing, contribute to the
mental growth of the individual.
Psychodrama v.1 p. v Introduction to 3rd edition
Psicodrama p. 28
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/ANALYSIS AFTER
EVERY SCENE
There are certain types of patients whose production on the
stage can be analyzed after every scene, in their presence. The
279
analysis offers two gains, one for the patient’s better
understanding of his own problem, the other giving clues to the
next logical psychodramatic situation to be worked out on the
stage.
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/AUXILIARY WORLD
We come now to consider the type of patient with whom
communication of any sort is reduced to a minimum. The more
sketchy and incomplete the ego, the more articulate and
thorough has to be the aid supplied from outside by an auxiliary
ego. The more disturbed the mental organization of the patient
seems to be, the larger are the number of aids the auxiliary ego
has to contribute and the greater is the need for his initiative.
Numerous auxiliary egos may become necessary and, in the case
of the severe and established psychosis, the task confronting the
auxiliary ego is beyond possibility of effective treatment. The
milder patient, however many aids he may need for bringing
himself to a more satisfactory realization, still lives within the
same world with us. In the case of the more severe patient, the
reality, as it is usually experienced, is replaced by delusional and
hallucinated elements. The patient needs more than an auxiliary
ego, he needs an auxiliary world.
We molded an auxiliary psychodrama around the patient. It
replaced and shaped every phase of the natural environment. The
only person who had his natural role and who lived his own life
in the drama was the patient. We people around him assumed
roles which fitted him.
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280
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/DOUBLE TECHNIQUE
/DEFINITION
The technique of the double. The shortest definition is that
two persons, A and B are one and the same person. This is
another illustration of the psychodramatic logic. B acts as the
double of A and is accepted by A as such. The degree of
nonacceptance and the conflict derived from it between the
individual and his double is an important phase in double
catharsis.
(9) The technique of the double duplicates the unconscious
processes; it is a consciously executed “folie a double”. (It is
different from what is called “folie a deux” because the double
ego is a therapist and supposedly a normal individual). The
double provides A with an auxiliary unconscious. Just like A
also B has a double. The double of B provides B also with an
auxiliary unconscious (Fig. 3). The result is that the normal, twoway
communication between A and B is extended and becomes
an eight-way communication, between A and B, B and A, A and
B1, B1 and A, A1 and B, B and A1, A1 and B1, B1 and A1. In
the double technique the protagonist is an active participant.
20. Double technique is the most important therapy for lonely
people, therefore important for isolated, rejected children. A
lonely child, like a schizophrenic patient, may never be able to
do a role reversal but he will accept a double.
Double
281
The patient portrays himself, an auxiliary ego is asked also
to represent the patient, to “establish identity with the patient”, to
move, act, behave like the patient. ... The auxiliary ego becomes
the link through which the patient may try to reach out into the
real world.
/HISTORY
Now, this idea of double is as old as civilization. It is found
in the great religions. It has always been my idea that God
created us twice. One time for us to live on in this world and
other time for himself. So what you see on the stage in such a
production … you see two people who are really the same
person. … The double is a trained person, trained to reproduce
the same patterns of activity, the same patterns of feelings, the
some patterns of thought, the some patterns of verbal
communication with the patient produces.
Moreno, J. L. “Psychodramatic Production Techniques”, p.
244 in Group Psychotherapy, v. iv, nº 4, March, 1952.
The double technique. A new development is one in which
Jonathan now directs his mother to take his part: “You be
Jonathan and I’ll be Jonathan, two Jonathans”, or as a half-way
role reversal and also a complete double: “You are Mummy and
I’m Mummy too, two Mummies.” This is evidence of the close
tie existing between the double and role reversal techniques.
Rosa Cukier
282
/MIRROR TECHNIQUE
... 2) A session can be so designed that the individual treated
does not act himself, but is a spectator sitting in the audience; his
own problem is portrayed on the stage by a double, a
professional auxiliary ego. The therapeutic value here comes
from spectator catharsis. The planning of the stage action can be
as highly organized as the subject requires it. It can be entirely
spontaneous, or it can be rehearsed like a theatrical production.
As the subject is not taking part, it is his spontaneity as a
spectator upon which the therapeutic effect is based.
/MOTHER–CHILD RELATIONSHIP
What theoretical concepts are involved in constructing the
double as an instrument of therapy? First in the metaphoric sense
we envision that after conception the embryo and the mother are
enjoined in the sharing of food and of locus until the child is
born.
244 in Group Psychotherapy, v. iv, nº 4, March, 1952.
It is the state of the infant, in which mother and infant and
all objects are a single whole. However, it is then and there that
for all movements, perceptions, actions and interactions the
phenomenon of the double is activated for the first time. You
may say that it is there that an experiment of nature is in
progress which I have called the double.
244 in Group Psychotherapy, v.iv, nº 4, March, 1952.
283
/MULTIPLE DOUBLE
The protagonist is on the stage with several doubles of
himself, each portraying another part of the patient, one as he is
now, another as he was five years ago, a third as he was when at
three years of age he first heard that his mother had died, another
how he may be twenty years hence. The multiple representations
of the patient are simultaneously present and act in sequence,
one continuing where the other left out.
/PSYCHOSIS
What do you see on a psychodramatic stage? You may, for
example, see a certain person who is a mental patient. This
person is mentally in such a condition that communication is
extremely difficult. A nurse cannot talk to her, a doctor cannot
relate to her. And then you use psychodrama in the following
way: You will take a certain person, Mary and you May say to
Mary:” Now, you may have lost any kind of contact with your
father, with your mother, with your sister, with your brother.
You may have lost contact with your husband, on your fellow
human beings, but if you could only talk to yourself. If you
could only talk to that person who is closest to you, with whom
you are best acquainted. If we could produce for you the double
of yourself, then you would have somebody with whom you
could speak, with whom you could act together, because you
belong together.
243 in Group Psychotherapy, viv, nº 4, March, 1952.
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284
/SOLILOQUY-DOUBLE TECHNIQUE
... He may send an auxiliary ego to play the “double” of the
protagonist. The double usually places himself back of the
patient and begins to soliloquize. He gets the protagonist to
participate in the soliloquy and perhaps to admit the hidden
reasons he has for refusal. This technique is a “soliloquy-double
technique.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. viii Introduction to 3rd edition
Psicodrama p. 32 Introdução à 3a ediçào
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/END OF A SESSION
Espanhol p. 378
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/LEADER TENSIONS
Another method is to utilize “leader tensions” or “ethnic
hostilities”, for instance, for refugees versus Americans, Puerto
Ricans versus the Negroes in the group.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. ix Introduction to 3rd edition
Psicodrama p. não há
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/LYING TO THE
CLIENT/JUSTIFICATION
... The polarity between reality and illusion is indispensable to
metapraxie, the illusion of a real world is just as important as the
reality of an illusionary world. It is the highest triumph of
imagination and creativity to change the surface of the world in
such a fashion that it appears beautiful, however much being and
pain of being may continue to exist underneath.
285
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/MAGIC SHOP
TECHNIQUE.
... An illustration of therapeutic, controlled acting out is the
following Magic Shop Technique. The director sets up on the
stage a “Magic Shop”. Either he himself, or a member of the
group selected by him, takes the part of the Shopkeeper. The
shop is filled with imaginary items, values of a non-physical
nature. These are not for sale, but they can be obtained in barter,
in exchange for other values to be surrendered by the members
of the group, either individually or as a group. One after another,
the members of the group volunteer to come upon the stage,
entering the shop in quest of an idea, a dream, a hope, an
ambition. They are expected to come only if they feel a strong
desire to obtain a value which they cherish highly or without
which their life seems worthless.
Psychodrama v. 1 pp. x-xi Introduction to 3rd edition
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/MIRROR
When the patient is unable to represent himself, in word or
action, an auxiliary ego is placed on the action portion of the
psychodramatic space. The patient or patients remain seated in
the group portion. The auxiliary ego re-enacts the patient,
copying his behavior and trying to express his feelings in word
and movement, showing the patient or patients “as if in a mirror”
how other people experience him.
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/MIRROR/AIMS
... The technique of the mirror “portrays” the body image and
the unconscious of A at a distance from him so that he can see
himself. The portrayal is done by an auxiliary ego, who has
made a close study of A. The same process of mirroring is also
applied to B, the other partner of the pair. A and B can see each
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286
other in the mirror of the two auxiliary egos portraying them. In
the mirror technique the protagonist is a spectator, an onlooker,
he looks at the psychological mirror and sees himself.
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/MIRROR/CLIENT AS A
SPECTATOR
... 2) A session can be so designed that the individual treated
does not act himself, but is a spectator sitting in the audience; his
own problem is portrayed on the stage by a double, a
professional auxiliary ego. The therapeutic value here comes
from spectator catharsis. The planning of the stage action can be
as highly organized as the subject requires it. It can be entirely
spontaneous, or it can be rehearsed like a theatrical production.
As the subject is not taking part, it is his spontaneity as a
spectator upon which the therapeutic effect is based.
PSYCHODRAMATIC
TECHNIQUE/MIRROR/DEVELOPMENT STAGES
Let us know go to the second technique, which is also so
important for the therapist. This is the mirror technique, you’ve
often seen the great experience of children looking into the
mirror, infants, you know, and then you hear that surprised
laughter, that astounded look. And then they stretch out their
tongues and turn up their noses. Al l this is a great experience to
them. When the child realized that the picture in the mirror is a
mirror of him that is the turning point in the growth –m and
important turning point in his concept of self
J. L. Moreno, “Psychodramatic Production Techniques” in
Group Psychotherapy, Beacon House, v. iv - March 1952, p.
245
287
TECHNIQUE/DOUBLETECHNIQUE
The technique. A new development is one in which Jonathan
now directs his mother to take his part: “You be Jonathan and
I’ll be Jonathan, two Jonathans”, or as a half-way role reversal
and also a complete double: “You are Mummy and I’m Mummy
too, two Mummies”. This is evidence of the close tie existing
between the double and role reversal techniques.
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/PLAY TECHNIQUES
/CHILDREN
The theatre for Spontaneity became a gathering place of
malcontents and psychological rebels, the cradle of creative
revolution between 1922 and 1925. It is chiefly from there and
from my book on the Theatre for Spontaneity that the inspiration
for the use of play techniques, spontaneous play therapy, group
psychotherapy and role training derived, methods which many
psychoanalysts and educators have gradually assimilated into
their work.
Psicodrama p. 55
The natural evolution of science has no patient with
individual priorities but it is to these private idiosyncrasies that
science owes its grandiose march. It is I who showed the way for
the treatment of the non-transference groups, children and
psychotics, by systematically developing the play as a
therapeutic principle.
Espanhol p. 28 (rodapé)
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288
... I visualized the healer as a spontaneous-creative protagonist in
the midst of the group. My concept of the physician as a healer,
and that of theirs were very far apart. To my mind, persons like
Jesus, Buddha, Socrates and Gandhi were doctors and healers;
for Freud they were probably patients. ... It was the conflict
between “analytic” and “operational” methods of therapy. I
don’t know whether Freud ever got to the study of my work, or
whether he took it seriously, as we were worlds apart. I
remember that ten years later, in the winter of 1923, when the
opening of the Stegreiftheater produced quite a sensation in
Vienna, Dr. Theodor Reik, at one time secretary of Dr. Freud,
told me he would show Dr. Freud my book on this topic. I do not
know whether he ever did, nor what Freud’s reaction was. One
thing is certain: Freud’s resistance to “acting out” was a block to
the progress of psychotherapy. He did not only fear the acting
out of the patient, but if possible, even more the consequences of
his own acting out. An analysis of Freud might have disclosed
that his parting ways with Breuer was not only due to Breuer’s
dislike of sex, as Freud reports, but even more to Freud’s dislike
of acting out in the role of the hypnotist * in the hypnotic trance.
It is the same complex which made him hesitant and critical of
spontaneity and the play of children; to observe and analyze
them, yes; to enter into their play and act with them, no. ... It
should be remembered that they were the greatest barrier to the
application of the play principle to therapy in the crucial decade
from 1914 to 1924. Remember also, in connection with this, that
Anna Freud and Melanie Klein published their work on play
techniques many years later, after I had established a receptive
climate for them.
Who Shall Survive? p. xxvii–xxviii Preludes
289
TECHNIQUE
TECHNIQUE/AIMS
(8) The technique of role reversal aims to link A to the
unconscious of B and B to the unconscious of A. The therapist
can induce A to free associate into the unconscious of B and he
can induce B to free associate into the unconscious of A by using
the subject’s frame of reference in reverse: A free associating as
B towards A and B free associating as A towards B; thus they
get as close as possible into the depth of each other’s inside.
Imagine that A and B are father and son or husband and wife;
they would have to overcome, besides their “internal”
resistances which each of them have toward their own
unconscious, the interpersonal resistance they have for each
other. If they are, for instance, father and son, each may be
represented in the repressed part of the other’s unconscious.
Therefore by means of role reversal they may be able to bring
out a great deal of what they have stored up in the course of
years. Fig. 2.
The psychoanalytic theory of the unconscious requires, in
order to meet with the situation, besides the distinction between
PCS and UCS, a distinction between them and a “counconscious”.
This is no mere play of words, I have observed in
a large number of sessions that there are between mother and
infant, father and son, one lover and another, moments of
“joined” inter-association. Seeing such people at work is like
digging directly into their co-unconscious.
The technique of role reversal supplements in a significant
way the direct techniques of interaction applied to pair
situations.
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TECHNIQUE/AUXILIARY EGOS
... It is of importance that the auxiliary egos do not over-do a
situation, either in terms of overacting or in terms of overstressing
and carrying on too long.
TECHNIQUE/CONCEPT
... Role reversal is a technique of socialization and self
integration.
... Reversing of roles which all the individuals and objects of
one’s social universe seems to be, at least theoretically, an
indispensable requirement for the establishment of a
psychodramatic community.
Technique of Role Reversal. Its shortest definition is that the
person A becomes the person B and that the person B becomes
the person A. On the psychodramatic stage this reversal is meant
as an actuality because for certain mental patients it is an
actuality. It is not fiction or “as if”. It illustrates the
revolutionary aspect of psychodramatic logic. An abbreviate
form of this technique as if A takes one of the “roles” of B and B
takes one of the “roles” of A.
291
TECHNIQUE/DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES
... He takes his father, mother, sweethearts, delusions and
hallucinations into himself and the energies which he has
invested in them, they return by actually living through the role
of his father or his employer, his friends or his enemies; by
reversing the roles with them he is already learning many things
about them which life does not provide him. When he can be the
persons he hallucinates, not only do they lose their power and
magic spell over him but he gains their power for himself. His
own self has an opportunity to find and reorganize itself, to put
the elements together which may have been kept apart by
insidious forces, to integrate them and to attain a sense of power
and of relief, a “catharsis of integration” (in difference from a
catharsis of abreaction).
It is not necessary for the little child to turn metaphysical in
order to believe in transformation. For him the entire universe is
alive. Using the technique of role reversal the “phenomena” turn
easily into “noumena”.
1. Role reversal increases the strength and stability of the child’s
ego; ego is here defined as identity with himself.
2. Role reversal tends to diminish the dependency of the child
upon the parent; but it tends also to increase his ability to
dominate her or him because of having gained a profound
knowledge of her or him – through inside information.
3. Frequent role reversal of the child with individuals superior to
him in age and experience increases his sensitivity for an inner
life more complex than himself. In order to keep up with them
on their internal role level, which is far above the overt level of
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the role, he has to be resourceful. He becomes prematurely
skilled in the management of interpersonal relations.
4. The excess desire to reverse roles which mother is due to an
early appreciation and perception of her roles. Frequency of role
reversal with father increases as the perception of father’s role
becomes clearer to the child.
5. The technique of role reversal is the more effective the nearer
in psychological, social and ethnic proximity the two individuals
are: mother-child, father-son, husband-wife.
19. Role reversing parents and adults replace the absence of
siblings and the peer group to only children.
Role reversal research has brought to our attention three
critical stages in the social growth of the child: 1) The
relationship to inferior, subhuman beings like animals, birds,
fishes, reptiles, or insects. 2) The relation to objects: a)
inanimate things like stones, water, color, light, etc; b) mancreated
things like machines and robots. 3) Relationship to
superior and powerful beings: a) his parents, adults, strangers,
etc.; b) ideal beings like Santa Claus, demons, angels and God.
1. Role reversal increases the strength and stability of the child’s
ego; ego is here defined as identity with himself.
2. Role reversal tends to diminish the dependency of the child
upon the parent; but it tends also to increase his ability to
dominate her or him because of having gained a profound
knowledge of her or him – through inside information.
293
3. Frequent role reversal of the child with individuals superior to
him in age and experience increases his sensitivity for an inner
life more complex than himself. In order to keep up with them
on their internal role level, which is far above the overt level of
the role, he has to be resourceful. He becomes prematurely
skilled in the management of interpersonal relations.
4. The excess desire to reverse roles which mother is due to an
early appreciation and perception of her roles. Frequency of role
reversal with father increases as the perception of father’s role
becomes clearer to the child.
5. The technique of role reversal is the more effective the nearer
in psychological, social and ethnic proximity the two individuals
are: mother-child, father-son, husband-wife.
6. Role reversal is an effective technique for the purpose of
socializing one ethnic group to the other. The greater the “ethnic
distance” between two social groups is, the more difficult is the
application of role reversal to them.
7. The empathy of individuals or representatives of groups for
the internal experiences of other individuals or representatives of
groups – what they feel, think, perceive and do – increases with
the reciprocal perception of the roles in which they operate.
Therefore, the training of auxiliary egos and doubles as well as
of psychotherapists in general is in the direction of increasing
their sensitivity.
8. The empathy of therapists increases with their training in role
perception and role reversal.
9. Role reversal is without risk the more solidly structured the
two persons are who reverse roles.
10. Role reversal is a greater risk, at times contraindicated, if the
ego of one person is minimally structured and the ego of the
other maximally structured. An illustration of this is the
treatment of psychotic patients. Psychotic patients like to play
the part of authorities, nurses, doctors, policemen, or of ideal
persons, for instance they like to play God, but when faced with
an actual person who embodies authority they resent interaction
and role reversal.
11. Role perception is a function of role reversal.
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12. Role reversal is indispensable for the exploration of
interpersonal relations and small group research.
13. Every parent is a natural but untrained auxiliary ego. To be
an effective auxiliary ego to one’s own child every parent needs
professional training. Auxiliary ego technique should be applied
when there is a clear indication for it. For instance, a parent
complains that his child has the tendency to throw stones at dogs
and cats, or to hit them. The therapist must realize that the day
may come when he will throw stones at another child or a grown
up.
14. If auxiliary ego animation is done to excess it may excite the
child unnecessarily. It may not always be indicated to animate
every object or animal surrounding a child.
15. The memory of the child is in his act, not in his memory. The
act hunger of the child causes his memory to be short-lived. The
acts follow one another so swiftly that the memory spans
between them are short.
16. The shorter the memory span, the greater the frequency of
starts and every start requires some spontaneous fuel in order to
emerge. This explains the apparently uninterrupted spontaneity
of children. In lieu of memory they have spontaneity.
TECHNIQUE/EMPATY
7. Empathy of individuals or representatives of groups for the
internal experiences of other individuals or representatives of
groups – what they feel, think, perceive and do – increases with
the reciprocal perception of the roles in which they operate.
Therefore, the training of auxiliary egos and doubles as well as
of psychotherapists in general is in the direction of increasing
their sensitivity.
8. The empathy of therapists increases with their training in role
perception and role reversal.
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TECHNIQUE/ETHNIC ISSUES
6. Role reversal is an effective technique for the purpose of
socializing one ethnic group to the other. The greater the “ethnic
distance” between two social groups is, the more difficult is the
application of role reversal to them.
Las Bases dela Psicoterapia p. 255
TECHNIQUE/INDICATIONS AND CONTRAINDICATIONS
The technique of role reversal has been applied to a number
of situations... ... Herewith follow a few illustrations of a number
of episodes:
1. Role reversal as a corrective for “unsocial” behavior.
2. Role reversal as a correction of general rebelliousness.
3. Role reversal as a teaching technique, to find out and become
informed about things.
4. A three-way role reversal between father, mother and child,
the treatment of a three-way temper tantrum.
5. The three way locus and the three-way role reversal in the bed
situation.
6. Role reversal to assume the role of authority.
7. Role reversal as a training in resignation and restraint.
... “Falling out of the role reversal” or “falling out of the role
return” is a frequent occurrence. Existential role reversal is not
possible. The nearest thing to it is psychodramatic role reversal
which is for children and certain types of psychotics as good as
real.
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9. Role reversal is without risk the more solidly structured the
two persons are who reverse roles.
10. Role reversal is a greater risk, at times contraindicated, if the
ego of one person is minimally structured and the ego of the
other maximally structured. An illustration of this is the
treatment of psychotic patients. Psychotic patients like to play
the part of authorities, nurses, doctors, policemen, or of ideal
persons, for instance they like to play God, but when faced with
an actual person who embodies authority they resent interaction
and role reversal.
25. Contra-indications: a) The child uses role reversal to
manipulate, dominate or punish his parents or adults, determined
to “get his way”. b) The partner in the role reversal, mother,
father, etc., show lack of sympathy or skill in playing their part.
The child is then faced with an absence of genuine both-ways
role reversal. c) Reversing roles with unrealities, imaginary
companions, ideas and dream characters, where the child is
compelled to act out both parts himself. d) In order to
consolidate role reversal gains non-role playing periods are
indicated.
Las Bases de la Psic p. 258
... In proper role reversal two individuals A and B are bodily
present; A takes the part of B and B takes the part of A. A is the
real A and B is the real B; for instance, in role reversal of
husband and wife, father and son. But after the act of reversal is
completed A moves back into “A” and B back into “B”, that is,
the “role return” to the primary self. “Falling out of the role
reversal” or “falling out of the role reversal” is a frequent
occurrence. Existential role reversal is not possible. The nearest
297
thing to it is psychodramatic role reversal which is for children
and certain types of psychotics as good as real. Role reversal is a
technique of socialization and self integration.
TECHNIQUE/SOCIAL STATUS
... In role reversals with two other individuals (as in the bedsituation)
or with more than two, as for instance in the diningroom
situation, the child expects to attain the advantages of the
“sociometric status” of the person with whom he reverses roles.
TECHNIQUE/SOCRATES
I had two teachers, Jesus and Socrates; Jesus, the
improvising saint, and Socrates, in a curious sort of way the
closest to being a pioneer of the psychodramatic format. ...
Socrates was involved with actual people, acting as their
midwife and clarifier, very much like a modern psychodramatist
would. ...but here is where my quarrel with Socrates began; the
frame of reference of his dialogues was limited to the dialecticlogical;
he did not, like Jesus, enter into the totality and essence
of the situation itself. ... Socrates, in order to prove a point, chose
the form of the dialogue instead of lecturing to the crowd. He
picked as his counter-protagonist a representative character, a
sophist. Unconsciously using the technique of “role reversal” he
elevated the sophist and turned him into the teacher, whereas he
himself assumed the role of the ignorant pupil who asked
questions. He calculated intuitively what I had to discover after
long practice, that by means of role reversal he could more easily
find the weak spots in the armor of the sophist than if he would
tell him directly what the faults in his logic were. As he carried
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298
the sophist through various dilemmas his audience became
involved and the dialogue ended with a “dialectic catharsis”.
Who Shall Survive? p. xxii–xxiii Preludes
Quem Sobreviverá? v. 1 p. 29–30 Prelúdios
TECHNIQUE/TECHNIQUES
- Role reversal as a corrective for “unsocial” behavior.
- Role reversal as a correction of general rebelliousness.
- Role reversal as a teaching and learning technique, to find out
and become informed about things.
- A three-way role reversal between father, mother and child, the
treatment of a three-way temper tantrum.
- The three-way locus and the three-way role reversal in the bed
situation.
- Jonathan as a Philosopher of Universal Transformation.
- Jonathan as an Ethnic Anthropologist.
- Jonathan Turns into a Little Baby.
- Jonathan uses role reversal to bolster his ego.
- Role reversal to assume the role of authority.
- Role reversal as a training in resignation and restraint.
- Refusal of role reversal.
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/SELF PRESENTATION
TECHNIQUE
Technique of self presentation. The subject acts in his own
roles and portrays the figures which fill his own private world.
Psychodrama is here a form of individual psychotherapy. He is
his own auxiliary ego, the physician may be the other. One of the
first uses of the psychodramatic technique was in this individual
form. It was and is an improvement upon psychoanalysis as a
patient-physician relationship. Erroneously, psychodrama is
thought of only in its group form.
299
Funbdamentos de la Sociometria p. não há
Self Presentation
The protagonist presents himself, his own mother, his own
father, his brother, his favorite professor, etc.
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/SELF REALIZATION
TECHNIQUE
For many weeks we had sessions with Hitler at regular
intervals. We provided him with all the characters he needed to
put his plans of conquering the world into operation (technique
of self-realization).
Las Bases la Psicoterapia p. 196
... We provided him with all the characters he needed to put his
plans of conquering the world into operation (technique of selfrealization).
He seemed to know everything in advance; many
things he presented on the stage came very close to what actually
took place years later.
Las Bases la Psicoterapia p. 316
Self Realization
Protagonist enacts, with the aid of a few auxiliary egos, the
plan of his life.
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PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/SOLILOQUY
Soliloquy
A monologue of the protagonist in situ, for example, the
patient is preparing to go to bed, combing her hair, speaks to
herself: “Why don’t I cut my hair short again? It is such a
nuisance, this long hair. On the other hand, it really suits me
better this way and I don’t look like everybody else.”
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/SOLILOQUY
/DIFFICULTIES
A spontaneous subject who is entirely absorbed in the role is
unable to soliloquize either in regard to himself or in regard to
the role. It is with that part of his ego which is not swept into it,
hypnotized by the role, that he can soliloquize (6). The weaker
the role absorption by the ego, the more often can the ego
soliloquize.
PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE/SYMBOLIC
TECHNIQUE
A further method of breaking resistance is the “symbolic
technique”, starting on a symbolic production so that fear of
private involvement is eliminated as a cause of resistance.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. ix
Psychodrama Espanhol p. não há
Psicodrama p. 32
PSYCHOGEOGRAPHIC MAPPING
The psychogeographic mapping of the community shows,
first, the relationship of local geography to psychological
processes; second, the community as a psychological whole and
the inter-relations of its parts, families, industrial units, etc.;
301
third, the existence of psychological currents which break group
lines, as racial, economic, social, sexual and cultural currents.
PSYCHOGEOGRAPHICAL PROJECTION
... This process of courtship is a psychogeographical projection
of the white girls in the population growing out of their need and
longing for the former environment. As soon as the colored girls
are moved into the same quarters with the white, the
psychogeographical fiction fades.
PSYCHOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY.
The mapping of the entire community, the depicting of the
interrelationships of its inhabitants and of its collectives in
respect to (a) locality and to (b) the psychological currents
between them is psychological geography.
... If the sociograms of each individual group of a community
were combined into a graph, the sociogram of each family,
factory, church, etc., depicting also the psychological currents
which flow from individuals in one group to the individuals in
the other groups, then a picture of a community results which is
geographic and psychological at the same time, its psychological
geography.
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PSYCHOLOGICAL NETWORK
More or less permanent structures which bind individuals
into canalized formations, so-called “psychosocial networks”
have been discovered” .The forming of public opinion, the
transmission of rumors, the “grapevines” cannot be understood
by the investigation of individual attitudes only, even if the
number of attitudes explored go to millions.
Sociometry Monographs nº 21, Beacon House 1947, p. 7
PSYCHOMUSIC
There are two forms of psychomusic, both still in an
experimental stage: a) the organic form – instruments are
eliminated, the organism becomes, singly or in groups, the sole
musicodramatic agent; b) the instrumental form – instruments
are reintroduced, but as functions and extensions of the musical
spontaneity the human organism is able to produce, not as its
master and conserver.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. 278 Similar, missing only the third form
Psicodrama p. 115
Psychodrama stimulated me to a parallel effort in behalf of
music which I have called psychomusic.
Psicodrama p. 333
... But just as drama in the form of psychodrama, also music in
the form of psychomusic can become an active function for
every man in his daily life. According to my psychomusical
theory, the first step consists of the analytic elimination of the
pretentious scaffolds of the age-old system of musical
production and a return to more primitive ways which probably
have been in operation at the cradle of musical experience.
303
Psicodrama p. 334
There are two forms of psychomusic, both still in an
experimental stage: a) the organic form – instruments are
eliminated, the organism becomes, singly or in groups, the sole
musicodramatic agent; b) the instrumental form – instruments
are reintroduced, but as functions and extensions of the musical
spontaneity the human organism is able to produce, not as its
master and conserver.
Psicodrama p. 334
... In a psychomusical session the warming up of the audience
can be produced by many methods. One of the most effective
methods is the organic form. ... The psychomusical director
produces before the group short musical signs, lasting no longer
than a few seconds, each accompanied by dramatic, esthetic
gestures, arms, hands, head and legs, rhythmic movements on
the stage which supplement and substantiate the singing
expression. It is a combination of psychomusic with mute
psychodrama. These musical warming up gags are unprepared
by the director, they emerge spontaneously from him, thus he is
rarely aware of the intellectual or symbolic significance of these
actions. They are meant to infect the audience with a
spontaneous singing enthusiasm. The actual session begins with
a subject getting upon the stage and portraying real or imagined
situations – as in psychodramatic routine, after a short
conference with the director. The dialogue is replaced by singing
exclamations accompanied by gestures and movements. The
semantic content of these exclamations may be a nonsensical
combination of vowels and consonants. ... Every exclamation
uttered by the subject on the stage is echoed by the entire
audience like a chorus. Often they imitate his pantomimic
gestures.
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304
... The aim of psychomusical work is psychomusical catharsis.
The catharsis accomplished depends upon the degree of
participation and the degree to which spontaneity is individually
and collectively aroused.
Psicodrama p. 337
PSYCHOMUSIC/BUSINESS OF THE MUSICIANS
... The business of the musicians now is not at all to illustrate or
interpret this story, not to produce a musical duplicate of it, but
to inspire and to help psychic movements which lead to the
release of musical associations. These acts of transference work
like catalizers to chemical reaction and can be compared to
blood transfusions.
Psicodrama p. 340
PSYCHOMUSIC/HISTORY
In New York, during 1930 and 1931, I renewed my efforts
of the Viennese Stegreiftheater period to develop an impromptu
orchestra and found an ensemble of musicians in Jack Rosenberg
and his associates, Louis Ackerman, Joseph Gingold, Samuel
Jospe, Eli Lifschei and Isaac Sear, members of the New York
Philharmonic Orchestra. ... The impromptu orchestra had its first
public hearing at the Guild Theatre, New York, April 5, 1931. It
was in the pre-swing days and stimulated the development of
swing music.
Psicodrama p. 337
305
PSYCHOMUSIC/IMPROVISATION IN MUSIC
Improvisation in music has always been exercised by the
masters. But it was rather an indication of the over-bubbling soul
than clear consciousness of its significance. Only the finished
product had “real value”. ... Improvisation was never a focus in
itself.
Psicodrama p. 337
In music I found that, as in the impromptu drama,
improvisation by one individual was comparatively simple, but
that improvisation by a group produced new difficulties.
... The members of our small ensemble started the group
experiment blindly, first relying only upon the ear, without a
preconceived idea of how to cooperate. ... The gypsy’s musical
improvisation is very effective but he improvises only on a crude
and primitive level. ... We had, therefore, to study the conditions
of effective cooperation ourselves, and to discover some
practical rules.
Psicodrama p. 338
One element seems to be of great importance for the
development of an orchestral Impromptu. It is to find a method
by which to influence the imagination, to increase inspiration.
Psicodrama p. 339
PSYCHOSIS
We come now to consider the type of patient with whom
communication of any sort is reduced to a minimum. The more
sketchy and incomplete the ego, the more articulate and through
has to be the aid supplied from outside by an auxiliary ego. The
more disturbed the mental organization of the patient seems to
be, the larger are the number of aids the auxiliary ego has to
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306
contribute and the greater is the need for his initiative. ... The
reality, as it is usually experienced, is replaced by delusional and
hallucinated elements. The patient needs more than an auxiliary
ego, he needs an auxiliary world.
Psicodrama p. 220
... For the psychotic patient his psychosis is existentially valid.
Every psychodramatic session is an existential experience and
can provide fundamental information for a sound theory of
existence.
VI. Origins of Anxiety and the “Transformation Hunger”
In Schizophrenia
Anxiety is cosmic; fear is situational. Anxiety is provoked by
a cosmic hunger to maintain identity with the entire universe
I often heard schizophrenic patients in a psychodramatic
situation say: “I want to be a chair, a tree, a dog, or, I want to be
God”. They declare that the chair talks to them and that it is
307
alive. The explanation for the transformation hunger may be that
they want to change into the things which talk to them or
communicate with them in other ways. If a chair talks to him he
wants to become a chair; if a dog talks to him he wants to
become a dog. In extreme cases he will try to play the part of a
dog in all earnestness. Identity would provide him with
assurance of safety.
PSYCHOSIS/AUXILIARY-EGO
... The function of the auxiliary ego is to transform himself into a
state of mind which enables him to produce at will a role, if
necessary similarly confused in appearance to that which the
patient experiences by compulsion.
PSYCHOSIS/AUXILIARY WORLD
We molded an auxiliary psychodrama around the patient. It
replaced and shaped every phase of the natural environment. The
only person who had his natural role and lived his own life in the
drama was the patient. We people around him assumed roles
which fitted him.
PSYCHOSIS/INTERVIEW
Preliminary to the psychodramatic treatment itself, in the
interview preparing the patient for the treatment, tracing with
him the syndrome, which may provide the material for the firs
shock situation. A form of catharsis takes place in the patient
which operates largely on the intellectual level.
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308
Psychotherapy and Psychodrama”, Beacon House, v. xxvii,
nº1-4, 1974, p. 6.
PSYCHOSIS/PSYCHODRAMA
Psychodramatic procedure tries to recreate the panorama of
the psychosis. The break-up of the patient’s social atom, his new
experiences of his own self, the break–up of the auto-tele and its
replacements, the replacement of the individuals and objects, in
the social atom by new constellations, come back into the bodily
and mental experience of the patient.
Moreno, J. L. “Psychodramatic Shock Therapy”, A
1974, p. 5
... It appears that to such individuals who have reached the stage
of a well organized mental disorder the enactment of the inner
world within a dramatic context is indispensable. The need for
the drama can be temporarily choked, for instance, by sleep or
shock therapies. But the fundamental need for the realization of
certain fantastic imageries cannot be “shocked away”. Unless the
subject is reduced to a brain invalid by surgery or prolonged
shock treatments, the temporarily scared patient is bound to
relapse and reproduce the same type of aspiration he had before
treatment began.
Psicodrama p. 68
... So the crux of the matter is that acting out be tolerated and
allowed to take place within a setting which is safe for execution
and under the guidance of therapist who are able to utilize the
experience.
309
PSYCHOSIS/SOCIAL ATOM
As we have indicated, in the normal social atom an
individual has, besides the tele relationships to other persons, a
tele relationship towards himself. Since, in the psychotic
sociogram, the individual is replaced by numerous roles, the
relationship of the individual to himself is replaced by a
relationship of every role to itself. The original “auto”-tele is
thus broken up into several units. Consequently, the relationship
between the individual and his social atom is replaced by a
relationship between his roles and the personae.
Moreno, J. L. “Psychodramatic shock Therapy” in “Group
Psychotherapy and Psychodrama”, Beacon House, v. xxvii, n
º 1-4, 1974, p. 16
On the basis of the ratios of interest for their own and for
outside groups, of the distribution of attraction and repulsion
within a group and toward outside groups, of the ratio of
attraction, a group has for other groups, and other statistical
calculations, a social quotient of a group can be developed.
Q
QUOTIENT
QUOTIENT/CULTURAL QUOTIENT
... Just as the intelligence test measures the mental age of an
individual, the role test can measure his cultural age. The ratio
between the chronological age and the cultural age of an
individual may then be called his cultural quotient.
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Espanhol p. 223
Psicodrama p. 215
QUOTIENT/SPONTANEITY QUOTIENT
... There is something like a talent for spontaneity work. There
are individuals whose spontaneity is generally superior to that of
others, just as there are individuals who appear to be more
talented only in respect to some specific performance. This
spontaneity which an individual can summon when placed in
roles and situations which are totally strange to him – in
proportion to the amount of spontaneity exhibited by a large
number of other individuals when faced with situations which
are equally strange to them – determines his spontaneity
quotient. The spontaneity quotient of an individual does not
necessarily rise and fall with his intelligence quotient. There are
many individuals of high intelligence who have a low degree of
general spontaneity (although they may be highly spontaneous
along a special line).
... This may perhaps be so because, in the civilization of
conserves which we have developed, spontaneity is far less used
and trained than, for instance, intelligence and memory. The
sense for spontaneity, as a cerebral function, shows a more
rudimentary development than any other important, fundamental
function of the central nervous system. This may explain the
astonishing inferiority of men when confronted with surprise
tactics.
The study of surprise tactics in the laboratory shows the
flexibility or the rigidity of individuals when faced with
unexpected incidents. Taken by surprise, people act frightened or
stunned. They produce false responses or none at all. It seems
that there is nothing for which human beings are more illprepared
and the human brain more ill-equipped than for
surprise.
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... We may not change the intelligence level of an idiotic child,
but we may give him through Spontaneity Training a fuller life
at the level of his capacity, and orient him to it.
Psicodrama p. 184
QUOTIENT/SPONTANEITY QUOTIENT/MOTION
PICTURE
The production of a motion-picture consists of two stages:
the presentation of the film before the public – and it is with the
film at the moment of presentation that we are dealing here – and
the actual creation of the film at some previous time and place.
This, the actual creation of the film, corresponds to the
production and preparation of a drama. The presentational phase
of the film- what we used to consider as the essence of the
theatre – is eliminated.
... What has remained is a canvas filled with moving, up-to-date
hieroglyphs. Like the book, when it is in its merchandise
situation – which is to say, being read by someone – makes the
presence of the living personality of the author unnecessary, the
film, too, suppresses the actual process which brought about its
existence.
QUOTIENT/SPONTANEITY QUOTIENT/THEATRE
Just as spontaneity scale and spontaneity quotients for
individuals can be constructed, I have found it useful to arrange
all forms and combinations of the theatre on a scale which shows
their respective quotients of spontaneity. This scale runs from
one extreme, whose prototype is the motion-picture film, to the
other, whose prototype is the spontaneity theatre.
... On a spontaneity scale, the puppet theatre would come a few
points away from the mechanical principle typified by the film;
in the puppet theatre there is a spontaneity quotient involved –
however minimal. This spontaneity quotient looms larger in
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other forms of the theatre, in the legitimate drama, for instance.
However, mechanical careful rehearsal may tend to make the
play, the amount of spontaneity which trickles through is
nevertheless greater than in a puppet theatre.
El Teatro dela Espontaneidad pp. 98-99
R
RACIAL QUOTIENT
... From the social interaction of the members and their
emotional expansiveness a group expression results, its point of
saturation for a certain racial element, its racial quotient.
RACIAL SATURATION POINT
… We must determine the saturation point of the majority group
for the minority group and organize the population within the
critical geographical area accordingly. By the saturation point
we mean here the size of the minority group which the majority
group can absorb without producing social tensions and wars
between the two.
The racial saturation point is therefore a highly complex
phenomenon; it emerges first in the small social systems and can
be noticed in the attraction-repulsion patterns emerging between
the native and the foreign population. It is there where it must be
checked. It is not a function of the numerical size of the two
groups but depends upon the structure of each group and the
structure of their interaction.
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The saturation point: is the point of maximum absorption of
a population in power for a minority group, the point which a
population cannot exceed if it is to prevent a break-out of
frictions and various disturbances. A given population may be
saturated with a certain minority group at a given time. If an
excess of members of the minority group move into the
community from the outside in numbers exceeding this point, the
delicate balance begins to break. In the case of a chemical
solution its point of saturation for a certain substance may
change, for instance, with the rise or fall of temperature. In the
case of social groups, the point of saturation may change with
the organization of the inter-related groups. Who Shall
Survive? pp. 721-722
RACISM
11. Children have no “spontaneous” aversion for others races
and nationalities.
REALITY
... The reality function operates by interpolations of resistance
which are not introduced by the infant, but which are imposed
upon him by other persons, their relationships, by things and
distances in space, and by acts and distances in time.
Psicodrama p. 123
REGRESSION
... Regression is a form of compulsive playing, a form of role
playing, playing to the tune of rule conserves; the acting out of
regressive patterns offers certain advantages to the individual
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314
acting, they relax the patient because they reduce his
involvement with the complicated present situation to a
minimum; he can replace the expected response to the current
situation by a simple one and so live with a low amount of
spontaneity. Resistance is a function of spontaneity, it is due to a
decrease of loss of it. Projection is a function of imagination.
Sublimation becomes a function of creativity.
RELIGION
... Men like Josiah, Mohamed and Francis of Assisi had a sense
of the drama knew of a form of mental catharsis incomparably
deeper than that of the Greeks,...
Psicodrama p. 57
The advent of sociometry cannot be understood without
appraising my presociometric background and the historicideological
setting in the Western world, during and after the
First World War. Marxism and psychoanalysis, the two
opposites, each had spent their theoretic bolt, the one with
Nikolai Lenin’s “State and Revolution” (1917), the other with
Sigmund Freud’s “Civilization and Its Discontents” (1929). The
two opposites had one thing in common: they both rejected
religion, they both disavowed the idea of a community which is
based on spontaneous love, unselfishness and sainthood, on
positive goodness and naive cooperativeness. I took a position
contradictory to both, the side of positive religion. The fact that
Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism and other religions of the past
have had limited success did not prove that the concept of
religion itself had failed. My contention was that religion should
be tried again, a religion of a new sort, its inspirations modified
and its techniques improved by the insights which science has
given up – and by no means excluding some of the insights
which Marxism and psychoanalysis have brought forth. My
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position was threefold: first, the hypothesis of spontaneitycreativity
as a propelling force in human progress, beyond and
independent from libido and socio-economic motives - which
does not deny the fact that they are frequently interwoven, but
which does deny the contention that they are merely a function
and a derivative; second, the hypothesis of having faith in our
fellowmen’s intentions – outside of obedience resulting from
physical and legalistic coercion – the hypothesis of love and
mutual sharing as a powerful, indispensable working principle in
group life; and third, the hypothesis of a superdynamic
community based upon these principles which can be brought to
realization through newer techniques.
Who Shall Survive? p. xiv–xv Preludes
RESISTANCE
The term resistance is used here in an operational sense. It
means merely that the protagonist does not want to participate in
the production. How to overcome his initial resistance is a
challenge for the therapist’s skill.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. viii
Psicodrama p. 32
... Hypothesis VII: The forces of resistance of the patient against
cure are weakened or pacified by making acting out techniques
official and legitimate parts of the therapeutic procedure.
RESISTANCE/AUXILIARY EGO
... It may very well be that the auxiliary ego comes to the
realization that one or two such episodes may have a cathartic
value for the patient, but that the repetition may become harmful.
He might then step in and suggest that the situation be reversed –
that the auxiliary ego be Napoleon and the patient be the little
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man. If the patient does not accept, the auxiliary ego may further
explain that he has had enough suffering and refuses to act. This
kind of resistance may be classified as “resistance for therapeutic
reasons”. Then there may be a kind of resistance which is private
in nature. The auxiliary ego may feel that, by playing the role of
an intimate friend in that particular episode, he is getting
personally involved and hurt.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. xvi
RESISTANCE/SOCIOMETRIC TEST
... Sociometric procedures should be greeted favorably as they
aid in bringing to recognition and into realization the basic
structure of a group. But such is not always the case. They are
met with resistance by and even with hostility by others. ... This
psychological status of individuals may be called their degree of
sociometric consciousness. The resistance against sociometric
procedures is often due to psychological and educational
limitations.
The first difficulty which one ordinarily meets is ignorance
of what sociometric procedure is. A full and lucid presentation,
first perhaps to small and intimate groups, and then in a town
meeting if necessary, is extremely helpful. ... Another reaction is
one of fear and resistance, not so much against the procedure as
against its consequences for them.
... The resistance seems at first sight paradoxical as it crops up in
face of an actual opportunity to have a fundamental need
satisfied. An explanation of this resistance of the individual
versus the group is possible. It is, on the one hand, the
individual’s fear of knowing what position he has in the group.
To become and to be made fully conscious of one’s position may
be painful and unpleasant. Another source of this resistance is
the fear that it may become manifest to others whom one likes
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and whom one dislikes, and what position in the group one
actually wants and needs. The resistance is produced by the
extra-personal situation of an individual, by the position he has
in the group. He feels that the position he has in the group is not
the result of his individual make-up only but chiefly the result of
how the individuals with whom he is associated feel towards
him. He may even feel dimly that there are beyond his social
atom invisible tele-structures which influence his position. The
fear against expressing the preferential feelings which one
person has for others is actually a fear of the feelings which the
others have for him.
Other individuals also showed fear of the revelations the
sociometric procedure might bring. The fear is stronger with
some people, and weaker with others. One may be most anxious
to arrange one’s relationships in accord with actual desires;
another may be afraid of the consequences. ... These and other
remarks reveal a fundamental phenomenon, a form of interpersonal
resistance, a resistance against expressing the
preferential feelings which one has for others. This resistance
seems at first sight paradoxical as it crops up in face of an actual
opportunity to have a fundamental need satisfied. An
explanation of this resistance of the individual versus the group
is possible. It is, on the one hand, the individual’s fear of
knowing what position he has in the group. To become and to be
made fully conscious of one’s position may be painful and
unpleasant. Another source of this resistance is the fear that it
may become manifest to others whom one likes and whom one
dislikes, and what position in the group one actually wants and
needs.
Quem Sobreviverá? v. 3 pp. 153–154
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318
30. If a sociometric test is given in a community, the resistance
against participation and giving a truthful response to the
sociometric questions will be the greater, the larger the part of
the population which is not included in the test; in Hudson, f. i.,
the staff was in some instances left out from the tests; they were
to be chosen or rejected by the girls, but the staff members
themselves were not asked to choose and reject in return.
Interviews revealed that this produced uneasiness on both sides.
The girls feared that it might leak out that they had rejected some
of their own housemothers and other persons in authority and the
housemothers resented that they had not been given a chance to
express their own feelings towards the girls and the reasons for
them and so they expressed them the more intensively, in the
grapevines. In order to break the resistance to participation it is
therefore indicated that “all” members of a given population be
made subjects and objects of the test.
31. Resistance against participation in the sociometric test is
often due to fear of revealing hostility felt towards certain
members of the group; the reasons may be a) religious of ethical,
for instance, “it is unchristian to reject another person, and still
worse, to say so”; or b) pragmatic, “it may become known that I
rejected certain persons and they may retaliate in kind”. If these
objections are shared by a large number of individuals of the
community, it is preferable to limit the sociometric test to the
choice level. The level of sociometric consciousness of a given
population determines the safety mark, the extent of the
sociometric test (choice, rejection, neutrality).
32. In order to break resistance against participation in
psychodrama situations several techniques can be applied: a) ask
the members to present a problem which they have in common,
for instance, a group of individuals living in a given housing
project, all facing dispossession. If the members of an audience
are directly in an actual problem, persecuted because of their
ethic characteristics or threatened with dispossession of their
homes, etc., their resistance to participation is low, regardless
whether they are actors of spectators.
33. If the problem is not real but “as if” the resistance to
participation decreases with the increase of the number of
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participants from the audience. “Participation in action” of all
members of the audience is then the desideratum.
RESISTANCE/SPONTANEOUS ACTOR
In the course of testing a large number of individuals we
arrived at the following conclusions: the spontaneous actor is
confronted with four forms of resistance which he must
overcome in order to reach spontaneity states, (a) resistances
which come from his own bodily actions in the presentation of
roles, (b) resistances which come from his private personality in
the production of ideas, (c) resistances which come from the
bodily actions, the ideas and emotions of the other actors
working with him, and (d) resistances which come from the
audience. The latter two are inter-personal resistances. It is
behind and underneath these barriers and resistances that the
true, great theatre of poetic inspiration and production lies.
RESISTANCE/TO DRAMATIZE
... The two partners are on the stage, for instance, but refuse to
enact any of the crucial situations which they have disclosed
during the interviews. The director tries to get them started by
shifting their attention rapidly from one plot to another. This
may put their minds at comparative ease and make them willing
to work. If this brings no result, he will suggest that they can
pick any subject at random, or anything which they would like to
tell one another at the moment. If this also is without effect, the
director may suggest that they project upon the stage any of the
more pleasant situations in which they may have found
themselves in the past (when they were first in love), or any
situation which would express how they would have wished
their marriage to develop (perhaps having a baby or a large
family), or a situation in the future which would express any
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change they might like to have in their life-situation. If these do
not bring any results, there still remains the choice of symbolic
situations and symbolic roles for which they may have affinity or
which might be constructed for them. If all this does not have the
effect of an actual start, the director does not plead or insist too
strongly, but sends the subjects back to their seats.
A further method of breaking resistance is the “symbolic
technique”, starting on a symbolic production so that fear of
private involvement is eliminated as a cause of resistance.
Psicodrama p. 32
Another “resistance remover” is the use of significant
relations existing between members of the group. The director,
for instance, knows that there is a rivalry between two
individuals, A and B. he may invite them to fight it our on the
stage: “Let the group evaluate who is fair and who is unfair”.
... An effective technique to break resistance is to use comical
themes or caricatures in order to arouse the sense of humor of
the members.
Last but not least, particular attention should be given to
resistance which is directed against the “private” personalities of
the chief therapist or of the auxiliary egos. In such cases, the
therapist or auxiliary egos may have to be replaced, and it may
even be necessary to restructure the group itself so as to meet the
needs of the patient.
It is up to the resourcefulness of the director to find clues to
get the production started and, once it is started, to see that it
grows further along constructive lines. The causes for patient’s
resistance may thus be summarized as being private, social or
symbolic.
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Psicodrama p. 33
RETROJECTION
RETROPATHY
... This tendency towards “balance”, the tendency of the
emotions “going out from” – empathy – and “returning to” the
center individual – retropathy – of a social atom to offset and to
“equalize” each other, was so frequently encountered in out
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studies that we have come to regard it as a particular
phenomenon of the social atom.
REVOLUTION
REVOLUTION/CREATIVE REVOLUTION
The greatest, longest, most difficult, most unique of all wars
man has ever waged during his career, sounds its call to you. …
It is not a war against nature, it is not a war against other
animals, it is not a war of one human race, nation or state against
any other. It is not a war of one social class against another
social class. It is a war of man against ghosts, ghosts that have
been called, and not without reason, the greatest makers of
comfort and civilization. They are the machine, the cultural
conserve, the robot.
Psicodrama p. 94
REVOLUTION/TREE REVOLUTIONS PSYCHIATRIC
The most important Revolution of the great political
revolutions in Europe was the French Revolution of 1789 which
set in motion a new vision for the world, Liberté, Egalité,
Fraternité and became a model for similar revolutions
elsewhere…
It is in the atmosphere of the great revolution that the
emancipation of the insane from chains, symbolized by Philippe
Pinel, took place (1793)…
The next important step, era of the Second Psychiatric
Revolution in the course of the nineteenth century was the
development of psychotherapy.
The era of the third Psychiatric Revolution, with an élan
therapeutique of it own, is now in progress and is still
developing in our time… This revolution has many facets…
However the final and most important facet is the development
of group and action methods, because they facilitate and
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integrate the benefits of all revolutionary methods enumerated
above…
Moreno, J. L. The first Psychiatric Revolution and The
Scope of Psychodrama. Group Psychotherapy, Beacon
House, June-September, 1964, nº 2-3, pp. 149-171
ROBOTS
Robot derives from a Polish word robota, to work. My idea of
the “zootechnical animal” (1918) was popularized a few years
later by Karl Czapek in a play “Rossom’s Universal Robots”,
1921; he coined the term robot. The term is not adequate as in
the zootechnical animal not only work but also destruction is
implied. Thus in my definition the working robot can become
ferocious and vice versa. A better term than robot might have
been genie. According to the Arabic use there were good and
bad spirits among them who assumed the form of animals, giants
and so forth. The robot is really a “zoomaton”, zoo, from Greek
zoon, animal (zoo, live), automaton, a Greek word, neut. of
automatos, autos, self, mao, strive after.
Who Shall Survive? p. 599 (footnote)
Quem Sobreviverá? v. 3 p. 168 (nota de rodapé)
... These odds enemies are technical animals which can be
divided into two classes, cultural conserves and machines. The
more popular word for them is robots.
A human infant results from the conjugation of a man and a
woman. A robot results from the conjugation of man with nature
itself.
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ROBOT/MAN
The greatest, longest, most difficult, most unique of all wars
man has ever waged during his career, sounds its call to you. ...
It is not a war against nature, it is not a war against other
animals, it is not a war of one human race, nation or state against
any other. It is not a war of one social class against another
social class. It is a war of man against ghosts, ghosts that have
been called, and not without reason, the greatest makers of
comfort and civilization. They are the machine, the cultural
conserve, the robot.
Psicodrama p. 94
Two forms of robots have emerged, one a helper of man and
builder of his civilization – the other a menace to its survival and
a destroyer of man.
Psicodrama p. 94
ROBOTS/FUTURE
somiometry, sociatry, bioatry and similar disciplines.
... It seems to me that zoomatics, which emphasizes the
semblance between mechanism and organism, is a happier term
for this science than cybernetics, which means steersman.
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ROBOTS/HOW TO LIVE WITH THEM
... The countermeasure lies in a cold appraisal of the situation, a
systematic study of the causations underlying the invention of
mechanical devices, the origin of the robot in human nature and
beyond it, a careful calculation of the “socio-atomic organization
of mankind”. In other words, we should bring the problem into
full scientific consciousness and develop parallel with
sociometry a zootechnique, a science of the technical animals.
ROBOTS/HUMAN REASONS FOR ITS INVENTION
The invention of robots is a skill of homo sapiens. ... Why
should man want robots? It is perhaps the same reason, in
reverse, as the one which at an earlier period made us want a
God to whom we were robots. ... Our relationship to God may be
simply this – he needs a lot of helpers in order to put his creation
over. Man too, has a program of living, of creation on a minor
scale, he needs helpers and weapons to defend himself against
enemies.
... There must be a deeper and additional reason why we wanted
and created the technological kind. An analysis of spontaneouscreative
processes broadened my understanding of the problem.
Infants, immediately after birth demonstrate that the less
spontaneity being has the more it requires some one who has it,
in order to survive. The infant lives on borrowed spontaneity.
The humans who are at the beck and call of a helpless, crying
infant, who come and carry, feed and comfort it, I call auxiliary
egos. ... The infant wants its auxiliary egos perfect, that is, to
have all their ready spontaneity available for him, the infant, and
none for the egos, themselves. This offers a clue for
understanding the relationship between the idea of the auxiliary
ego and the idea of the robot.
Quem Sobreviverá? v. 3 p. 170–171
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326
ROBOTS/IMMORTALITY
... The book is a robot par excellence. Once off the press, the
parent, the producer, the author is immaterial; the book goes to
all places and to all people, it does not care where it is read and
by whom. Many robots have further in common the attribute of
comparative immortality. A book, a film, an atomic bomb, they
do not perish in the human sense, the same capacity is always
there, they can be reproduced ad infinitum.
ROBOTS/PATHOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES
... The pathological consequences are enormous. Man turns more
and more into a function of cultural and technological conserves,
puts a premium on power and efficiency and loss credence in
The fate of man threatens to become that of the dinosaur in
reverse. The dinosaur may have perished because he extended
the power of his organism in excess of its usefulness. Man may
perish because of reducing the power of his organism by
fabricating robots in excess of his control.
ROBOTS/TOYS/DOLLS
... These observations were confirmed by the attitude which
children show towards dolls. The doll does not have the often
unpleasant counter-spontaneity which real human beings have,
but it has still some physical and tangible reality which pure
fantasy companions do not have. ... Here he gets the first taste of
the robot which he can destroy at will and which may one day go
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out and act as decreed by him. Dolls seem to make the child free
– independent from other children and from adults.
... The robot, like the auxiliary ego, makes man free from man
and gives him an artificial sense of wellbeing and power.
... But robots cannot produce an ounce of spontaneity.
ROLE
ROLE/BEGINNING OF THE CONCEPT
Role, originally an old French word which penetrated into
medieval French and English, is derived from the Latin “rotula”.
In Greece and also in ancient Rome, the parts in the theater were
written on “rolls” and read by the prompters to the actors who
tried to memorize their part by heart; this fixation of the word
role appears to have been lost in the more illiterate periods of the
early and middle centuries of the Dark Ages.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. iv Introduction to 3rd edition
Role is thus by origin a sociological or psychiatric concept;
it came into the scientific vocabulary via the drama.
Psychodrama v.1 p. iv Introduction to 3rd edition
The term role itself comes from the language of the stage.
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328
ROLE/CATEGORIES OF ROLES
In the course of this triangle study it was observed that a role
required by one person may be absent in his or her partner in a
close relationship and that the absence of a role can have serious
consequences for a relationship. As a general rule, a role can be
(1) rudimentarily developed, normally developed, or overdeveloped
(positive tele); a role can be (2) almost or totally
absent in a person (indifference); and a role can be (3) perverted
into a hostile function (negative tele). A role in any of the above
categories can also be classified from the point of view of its
development in time: (a) it was never present; (b) it is present
towards one person but not present towards another; (c) it was
once present towards a person bur is now extinguished.
Psicomúsica y Sociodrama, pp. 108, Horme
Psicodrama p. 392
... The roles do not need to be defined – they define themselves
as they emerge from status nascendi to full mature shape. Some
roles are postulated by a legal situation (the lawyer, the
criminal), some are postulated by a technological situation (such
as a radio announcer), or some are postulated by a physiological
situation (the eater), but it is only during psychodramatic work
that we can study how they take form spontaneously.
Psicodrama p. 399
ROLE/COMPLEMENTARY ROLE
... The therapist, in turn, can be caught in experiencing the
patient in complementary roles. Careful observation of therapists
in situ added fuel to this point of view. They “look” and “act” a
certain part already marked by their gestures and facial
expression. I concluded then that “Every individual, just as he is
the focus of numerous attractions and repulsions appears, also,
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as the focus of numerous roles which are related to the roles of
other individuals. Every individual, just as he has at all times a
set of friends and a set of enemies, also has a range of roles and
faces a range of counter-roles. They are in various of
development. The tangible aspects of what is known as ‘ego’ are
the roles in which he operates.”
Las Bases de la psicoterapia p. 24
ROLE/CLUSTERS EFFECT
3.Roles are not isolated; they tend to form clusters. There
is a transfer of s from unenacted roles to the presently enacted
ones. This influence is called cluster effect.
Psicodrama p. 230
ROLE/CONCEPT
Role is the functioning form the individual assumes in the
specific moment he reacts to a specific situation in which other
persons or objects are involved.
The role can be defined as a unit of synthetic experience into
which private, social and cultural elements have emerged.
Psicodrama p. 238
“Every role is a fusion of private and collective elements …
A role is composed of two parts – its collective denominator and
its individual differential.
Psychodrama v.1 p. 62 (notes)
Psicodrama p. 113 (notade rodapé)
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330
THE SAME IN
Who shall survive p. 75
Quem sobreviverá v. 1 p. 178
A spectator is capable of experience the role process on the
stage because every role in him has two sides, a collective side
and a private differential.
Psicomúsica y Sociodrama, p.198, Horme
Psicodrama p. 449
man is roleplayer, that every individual is characterized by a
ROLE/DEVELOPMENT OF
psychosomatic roles. An illustration is the role of the eater. But
from the division of the universe into real and fictitious
phenomena gradually a social world and a fantasy world emerge
separated from the psychosomatic world in the matrix of
identity. Forms of role playing are now emerging which
correlate the infant to persons, things, and goals in an actual
setting outside of himself, and to persons, objects and goals
which he imagines are outside of him. They are called
respectively social roles [the parent] and psychodramatic roles
[the god].
331
The growth of the reversal strategy of the child is an
indicator of the freedom from the auxiliary ego, the mother or
the mother-substitute.
Psicodrama p. 114
... The infant lives before and immediately after birth in an
undifferentiated universe which I have called “matrix of
identity”. This matrix is existential but not experienced. It may
be considered as the locus from which in gradual stages the self
and its branches, the roles, emerge.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. iii Introduction to 3rd edition
ROLE/G.H.MEAD/CRITICISM
It is a “myth” that the American sociologist, G. H. Mead,
has had a major influence upon the psychiatric “role concept”
and its psychopathology.
... G.H. Mead’s posthumous book, Mind, Self and Society,
appeared in December 1934, about a year later than my Who
Shall Survive? which was released in January 1934. At no time
does Mead use the term role player, role playing, or role playing
techniques, or deal with the psychopathological implications of
the role concept.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. ii Introduction to 3rd edition
ROLE/HISTORY
It is often overlooked that modern role theory had its logical
origin and its perspectives in the drama. It has a long history and
tradition in the European theater from which I gradually
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332
developed the therapeutic and social direction of our time. I
brought it to U.S.A. in the middle twenties.
Psicodrama p. 27
ROLE/MATRIX OF IDENTITY
... The infant lives before and immediately after birth in an
undifferentiated universe which I have called “matrix of
identity”. This matrix is existential but not experienced. It may
be considered as the locus from which in gradual stages the self
and its branches, the roles, emerge.
ROLE/MULTIPLE ROLES
... But the individual craves to embody far more roles than those
he is allowed to act out in life, and even within the same role one
or more varieties of it. Every individual is filled with different
roles in which he wants to become active and that are present in
him in different stages of development. It is from the active
pressure which these multiple individual units exert upon the
manifest official role that a feeling of anxiety is often produced.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. v Introduction to 3rd edition
... Everybody is expected to live up to his official role in life – a
teacher is to act as a teacher, a pupil as a pupil, and so forth.
But the individual craves to embody far more roles than those he
is allowed to act out in life and even one or more varieties within
the same role. Every individual is filled with different roles
which he wants to become active in and that are present in him
in different stages of development. It is from the active pressure
which these multiple individual units exert upon the manifest
official role that a feeling of anxiety is often produced.
333
ROLE/PSYCHODRAMATIC ROLE
... The psychodramatic roles and their transactions to help the
infant to experience what we call the “psyche”.
Psychodrama v.1 p. iii Introduction to 3rd edition
... The roles of the mother, son, daughter, teacher, etc. are called
social roles and are set aside from the personification of
imagined things, both real and unreal. The latter are called
psychodramatic roles.
Psicodrama p. 129
... The roles of a mother, a teacher, a Negro, a Christian, etc., are
psychodramatic roles.
ROLES/PSYCHOSOMATIC ROLES
... The first roles to emerge are the physiological or
psychosomatic roles. We know that “operational links” develop
between the sexual role, the role of the sleeper, the role of the
dreamer, and the role of the eater, which tie them together and
integrate them into a unit. At a certain point we might consider it
as a sort of physiological self, a “partial” self, a clustering of the
physiological roles.
Psicodrama pp. 25-26 Introdução à 3a edição
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334
... It may be useful to think of the psychosomatic roles in the
course of their transactions helping the infant to experience what
we call the “body”;...
psychosomatic roles.
Psicodrama p. 124
.
... Long before language-linked roles emerge in the child’s
world, “psychosomatic roles” operate effectively (for instance,
the role of the eater, the sleeper and the walker). There is
considerable psychic resistance against the intrusion of language
in infants and even some resistance against gestural infiltration.
There is no reason to assume that the language-free areas are
non-human.
ROLE/ROLE-PLAYING
... Sociodrama is introducing a new approach to anthropological
and cultural problems, methods of deep action and of
experimental verification. The concept underlying this approach
is the recognition that man is a role-player, that every individual
is characterized by a certain range of roles which dominate his
behavior, and that every culture is characterized by a certain set
of roles which it imposes with a varying degree o success upon
its membership.
Psicomúsica y Sociodrama, pp. 141-142, Horme
335
Role-player is a literal translation of the German word
“Rollenspieler” which I have used. See “Das Stegreiftheater” Pp.
31, 36, 63. It may be useful differentiate between role-taking –
which is the taking of a finished, fully established role which
does not permit the individual any variation, any degree of
freedom – role-playing – which permits the individual some
degree of freedom – and role-creating – which permits the
individual a high degree of freedom, as for instance, the
spontaneity player. A role, as defined in this paper, is composed
of two parts – its collective denominator and its individual
differential.
Psychodrama v. 1 pp. 354-355 (footnote)
... When the Spontaneity Instructor recognizes the pupil to be
lacking in certain states, e.g., courage, joy, etc., he plays him in a
specific situation, in which such a state is unsuitable or
expedient. The pupil “plays” that situation, he dramatizes the
state, impromptu. ... In other words, if lacking in courage, he
“plays” courage until he learns to be courageous.
Psicodrama p. 193
... Playing the role of the “other” does not appear suddenly and
full-grown to the infant, but goes through several stages of
development which overlap and often work hand in hand.
The first stage is that of the other person being a part of the
infant in all earnestness – that is, complete spontaneous allidentity.
The second stage is that of the infant centering attention
upon the other stranger part of him.
The third stage is that of the infant lifting the other part from
the continuity of experience and leaving all other parts out,
including himself.
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336
The fourth stage is that of the infant placing himself actively
in the other part and acting its role.
The fifth stage is that of the infant acting in the role of the
other towards someone else, who in turn acts in his role. With
this stage, the act of reversal of identity is complete.
Psicodrama p. 112
20. The skill in the playing of roles is essential for adequate
communication and development of the social self.
21. The ability to play collective roles is important for
personality formation and adaptation.
... Children use this method intuitively. When it is consciously
and systematically used for the purpose of training, it is called
“role” playing (2). Playing a role is the personification of other
forms of existence through the medium of play. It is a specialized
form of play, although the word playing is often accompanied by
misleading connotations, reduced to the adult’s interpretation of
it.
Role playing was the fundamental technique in the Viennese
Spontaneity Theater. Because of the dominant role which
spontaneity and creativity have in role playing it was called
spontaneous-creative role playing.
... “Role” playing can be used as a technique of exploration and
expansion of the self into an unknown universe. It is probably for
the child the method par excellence to encounter and, if possible,
to solve a situation which puzzles him.
Las Bases dela Psicoterapia pp. 231-232
... A methodology which enables us to compare each of them
under conditions of control are roleplaying techniques.
337
ROLE/ROLE PLAYING/HISTORY
... The earliest experience with role-playing techniques has been
made in the testing of auxiliary therapists placed within the
framework of standard situations** in an experimental
psychodrama.
** “A Frame of Reference for Testing the Social
Investigator”, Sociometry, Vol. III, pp. 317-327, 1940.
ROLE/ROLE PLAYING/ROLE REVERSAL
... After the period of playing the roles of the parents and other
adults in the house was over and he had attained considerable
skill, we introduced another particularly rewarding method, the
technique of role reversal (3). The idea underlying role reversal
is still little understood. First let us try to separate roleplaying
from role reversal. If an individual takes the part of a doctor, a
policeman or a salesman, the part of his father or of his mother
in order to “learn” how to function in these roles, that is
roleplaying. But if he and his father or his mother “change”
parts, the father becoming the son and the son the father, this is
role reversal.
ROLE/ROLE-PLAYING/ROLE THERAPY
In an earlier chapter we have described roleplaying as a
diagnostic method but it can also be used as “role therapy” to
improve the relations between the members of a group. ...
Roleplaying frequently influences the results of the next
sociometric test and changes the position of an otherwise
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338
maladjusted or isolated individual. In this manner roleplaying
becomes roletraining and role therapy.
ROLE/ROLE PLAYING\SPONTANEITY TEST
... The spontaneity test places an individual in a standard life
situation which calls for definite fundamental emotional
reactions, called spontaneity states, as fear, anger, etc. If
permitted to expand they turn into role playing.
... The second test meeting this demand is the spontaneity and
roleplaying test. Here is a standard life situation which the
subject improvises to his own satisfaction.
... When the Spontaneity Instructor recognizes the pupil to be
lacking in certain states, e.g., courage, joy, etc., he plays him in a
specific situation, in which such a state is unsuitable or
expedient. The pupil “plays” that situation, he dramatizes the
state, impromptu. ... In other words, if lacking in courage, he
“plays” courage until he learns to be courageous.
Psicodrama p. 193
ROLE/ROLE PLAYING\THERAPEUTIC SITUATIONS
... Roleplaying of therapeutic situations may concentrate first on
the study of the four factors which have been shown by the
investigations reported above as being of crucial importance in
all patient-therapist relationships, the “feeling for one another”,
the “perception of one another”, the motoric events – the
339
“interacting” between them, and the “role relations” emerging to
and for in an ongoing therapeutic situation.
ROLE/ROLE TAKING
... It may be useful to differentiate between role-taking – which
is the taking of a finished, fully established role which does not
permit the individual any variation, any degree of freedom –
role-playing – which permits the individual some degree of
freedom – and role-creating – which permits the individual a
high degree of freedom, as for instance, the spontaneity player.”
Psicodrama p. 113, (nota de rodapé)
SAME IN
... Next in importance to spontaneity comes the process of
enactment.
... There are several forms of enactment, pretending to be in a
role, re-enactment or acting out a past scene, living out a
problem presently pressing, creating life on the stage or testing
oneself for the future.
Role taking is “being” in a role in life itself, within its
relatively coercive and imperative contexts, for instance, being a
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340
mother, a father, a policeman, etc. The roles are social
conserves, they have, or at least pretend to have, a finished form.
Role playing is “playing” a role, by choice, in a chosen
setting, for the purpose of exploring, experimenting, developing,
training of changing a role. Playing a role can take the form of a
test or is an episode in the course of a psychodrama or
sociodrama.
There is a consensus in all studies made that role taking and
role playing have a common origin. The genesis of role
development shows clearly how one grows out of the other, that
role playing and role taking are two phases of the same process.
It has been found in hundreds of tryouts that the process of role
taking is not only cognitive and that, on the other hand, the
process of role playing is not only behavior or mere acting, but
that cognition, perception, behavior and action are finely
interwoven and cannot be neatly separated. There are enactable
and unenactable roles; recognized and unrecognized roles;
enactment of roles before the level of their recognition;
recognition of roles before the level of their enactment;
adequate, distorted, partial and loss of role perception; adequate,
distorted, partial and inability of role enactment.
ROLE/SELF/EGO
Role emergence is prior to the emergence of the self. Roles
do not emerge from the self, but the self may emerge from roles.
... Working with the “role” as a point of reference appears to be a
methodological advantage as compared with “personality” or
341
“ego”. These are less concrete and wrapped up in
metapsychological mystery.
... The tangible aspects of what is known as “ego” are the roles
in which it operates.
“Role playing is prior to the emergence of the self. Roles do not
emerge from the self, but the self emerges from roles.”
Psychodrama v. 1 p. ii Introduction to 3rd edition
Psicodrama p. 25 Introdução à 3a edição, p. 210
Role is the unit of culture; ego and role are in continuous
interaction.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. vi Introduction to 3rd edition
... The roles are the embryos, forerunners of the self; the roles
strive towards clustering and unification. I have distinguished
physiological or psychosomatic roles, like the role of the eater,
the sleeper, and the sexual role; psychological or psychodramatic
roles, as ghosts, fairies and hallucinated roles; and then, social
roles, as parent, policeman, doctor, etc.
Working with the “role” as a point of reference appears to be
a methodical advantage as compared with “personality” or
“ego”. These are less concrete and wrapped up in
metapsychological mysteriousness.
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342
Psicodrama p. 229
THE SAME IN
Role can be defined as imaginary person created by a
dramatist, for instance, a Hamlet,... ... Role can be defined also
as a part or a character taken by an actor,... ... Role can be
defined also as an assumed character or function within social
reality, for instance, a policeman, a judge,... ... Role can be
defined as the actual and tangible forms which the self takes.
Self, ego, personality, character, etc., are cluster effects, heuristic
hypotheses, metapsychological postulates, “logoids”.
Psicodrama p. 206
ROLE/SOCIAL ROLE
... and the social roles to produce what we call “society”.
Psicodrama p. 26
... The social roles develop at a later stage and lean upon
psychosomatic and psychodramatic roles as earlier forms of
experience.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. v Introduction to 3rd edition
Psicodrama p. 28
The roles of the mother, the son, the daughter, the teacher,
the negro, the Christian, etc., are social roles;...
343
ROLE/TESTING ROLES
... For the testing of people for roles in marriage: “Show how
you would act if your husband (wife) suddenly revealed to you
that he (she) was in love with another woman (man) and wanted
a divorce.” An Analysis of each performance was made in order
to disclose which lines of conduct were followed by a majority
of those tested, and the amount of deviations one from the other.
Psicomúsica y Sociodrama, p. 121, Horme
Psicodrama p. 400
individual, the role test can measure his cultural age.
Psicodrama p. 215
A simple method of measuring roles is to use as a norm
permanently established processes which do not permit any
change,... ... If a number of performers are given the instruction
to use the Hamlet text either literally as it is given by
Shakespeare, or to change it freely in the course of the
performance, some will prefer the original text, others may ad lib
into the text smaller of major changes. These deviations
represent the degrees of freedom of the particular performer
which can be ascribed to the operation of an s factor.
Another method of measurement uses as norms social roles
which are rigidly prescribed by social and legalistic customs and
forms. Illustrations for this are social roles as the policeman, the
judge, the physician and so forth. ... Placing a number of
policemen, therefore, into a number of standard life situations
which require their interference would result in a scale. On one
end of the scale will be the most adequate policeman
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344
performance in a particular situation, on the other end the most
inadequate performance in the same kind of situation.
The role test measures the role behavior of an individual; it
reveals thereby the degree of differentiation which a specific
culture has attained within an individual, and his interpretation
of this culture.
Another method of measurement is to let a subject develop a
role in statu nascendi, placing him into a situation which is little
structured, up to situations which are highly organized. The
productions of different subjects will differ greatly and will
provide us with a yardstick for role measurement.
Another method of measurement is to place a number of
subjects unacquainted with each other into a situation which they
have to meet in common.
Another method is to place a number of subjects in a
specific role independently and at different times, opposite the
same auxiliary ego, whose performance has been carefully
prepared and highly objectified.
345
Yet another method is the study of the same role, for
instance the role of the stranger, in a number of different
situations.
of this culture.
RORSCHACH X PSICODRAMA
51. All tests, diagnostic and therapeutic methods used at present
in clinical psychology and psychiatry can be arranged in the
form of a scale, using the degree of involvement of the
protagonist and investigator and the degree of structuring of the
material to which they are exposed as points of reference.
(Moreno scale of involvement). On one extreme end of scale can
be placed the inkblots of the Rorschach Test and Rorschach
analyst – minimum structuring of the material and minimum
involvement of the investigator – on the other extreme end of the
scale can be placed psycho- and sociodrama with a maximum
structuring of material and maximum involvement of the
protagonist and investigators. Nearest to the Rorschach end of
the scale will come picture tests like TAT, Rosenzweig, etc.,
around the middle of the scale the psycho-analyzant and the
psychoanalyst, nearest to the psychodrama end of the scale will
come roleplaying and behavior in life itself. Such a scale may
help the student to construct new techniques and discover their
precise place in the scale.
Quem Sobreviverá? v. 3 p. 206-207
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346
RULE
RULE/RULE OF DYNAMIC DIFFERENCE IN GROUP
STRUCTURE, PERIPHERAL VERSUS CENTRAL
... Living in the group he will soon discover that there is a deep
discrepancy between the official and secret needs, official and
secret value systems. (Rule of dynamic difference in group
structure, peripheral versus central). He will also soon discover
that the individuals are driven at times by private, at other times
by collective aspirations, which break up the group into another
line of cleavage. (Group cleavage produced by psycho- and
sociostructuring). Before any experimental design or any social
program is proposed he has to take into account the actual
constitution of the group.
RULE/PERFORMANCE
... The more often a memorized poem, a speech or a role is
repeated the stronger becomes the performance.
Psichodrama Espanhol p. 206
Psicodrama p. 203
RULE/RULE OF COACTION OF THE RESEARCHER WITH
GROUP
In the warming up process of the group it is best to view all
the coactors in situ and to view them in the direction of their
productivity. In order to view them you have to move with them,
but how can you move with them unless you, the experimenter,
are a part of the movement, a coactor? The safest way to be in
the warming up process yourself is to become a member of the
group. (Rule of “coaction” of the researcher with group).
Fundamentos de la Sociomewtria p. 67
347
RULE/RULE OF GRADUAL INCLUSION OF ALL
EXTRANEOUS CRITERIA
... As his learning expands knowing how to bore with research
ideas from within he may get the idea of being a member of two
of more groups, one serving as a control of the other. This should
not be an experiment of nature without the conscious
participation of the actors, but one consciously and
systematically created and projected by the total group. All this,
of course, could only happen if the warming up process of all
human characters and all participating groups coalesce naturally
into an experiment. (Rule of “gradual” inclusion of all
extraneous criteria).
RULE/RULE OF THE WARMING UP PROCESS OR
ACTIVE PRODUCTIVITY
... In order to be adequate in a particular act he should begin to
warm up as near to the act as possible and the experimenter
ought to know when he begins to warm up. (Rule of the
warming up process or active productivity).
RULE/RULE OF UNIVERSAL PARTICIPATION IN ACTION
... The safest way to be in the warming up process yourself is to
become a member of the group. ... But by becoming a member
of the group you are robbed of your role of the investigator who
is to be outside of it, projecting, creating, and manipulating the
experiment. You cannot be a genuine member and
simultaneously a “secret agent” of the experimental method. The
way out is to give every member of the group “research status”,
to make them all experimenters and as each is carrying on his
“own experiment” there are a hundred experiments and a
coordination of each single experiment with every other is
required. Sociometry is the sociology of the people, by the
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348
people, and for the people; here this axiom is applied to social
research itself. (Rule of universal participation in action).
S
SCIENCE
SCIENCE/CRITICISM AGAINST
As a dialectic movement toward a genuine
socioexperimental method of the future he is making slow but
real progress. Instead of hurrying to test a hypothesis by quickly
constructing a control group versus an experimental group, a
pseudo-experiment with pseudo-results, he takes his time for
thinking his new situation through. ... It is better to wait until it
can be truly validated instead of invalidated by validating it
prematurely.
... The social sciences need – at least in their crucial dimension –
different methods of approach. The crux of the ontology of
science is the status of the “research objects”. Their status is not
uniform in all sciences. ...how are social sciences possible? It
has found that the social sciences like psychology, sociology and
anthropology require that its objects be given “research status”
and a certain degree of scientific authority in order to raise their
level from a pseudo objective discipline to a science which
operates on the highest level of its material dynamics. It
accomplishes this aim by considering the research objects not
only as objects but also as research actors, not only as objects of
observation and manipulation but as co-scientists and
coproducers in the experimental design they are going to set up.
349
... The disappointment came when I discovered that the classical
experimental method as developed by Mill did not meet with the
requirements of a human society in locus nascendi.
SCIENCE/GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC PRACTICE
VALIDATION
... Validation in individual and group psychotherapeutic practice
is not imperative, as long as no pretense is made that
generalizations can be drawn from whatever the events recorded,
or that the future behavior of the participants can be predicted
from the events. What matters is that the therapeutic experiences
are valid for the participants themselves, at the time they take
place. Indeed, a scientific validation would be meaningless for
the participants, for the value of their experience is self-evident.
But scientific and existential validation do not exclude one
another, they can be constructed as a continuum.
SCIENCE/HUMAN NARCISSISM
It has been pointed out by many writers that Man’s pride as
to his own status in the cosmos has been repeatedly shocked in
the last few hundred years. Copernicus showed that the earth is
not the center of the universe, but moves around the sun; it is just
a speck in infinite space, ruled by specific physical laws like the
rest of the world; with Copernicus’ theory the supreme position
of Man in the cosmos was gone. Darwin showed that Man as a
species is a part of a biological evolution, the descendant of a
human-like ape; with this the idea of Man as a special creation
was gone. Marx showed that human history itself is determined
by mass movements, economic classes of men; the single man,
isolated from the mass is powerless. Mendel showed that the
conception of the individual soma is determined by genes. Freud
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350
showed that the individual psyche of Man does not follow his
will but is a product of unconscious drives. And finally
sociometry showed by the discovery of microscopic laws
governing human relations that Man is even unfree in his own
house and in the society produced by him.
SCIENCE/MAGIC BELIEFS
divided philosophy of life. ... Science fiction is but one
illustration, Walt Disney’s fabulous world of animated
characters is another; it is the use of auxiliary egos on the level
of motion pictures. The auxiliary ego technique itself is a form
of primitive “psycho”-animism. The techniques of the animistic
philosopher rejected by analytic anthropologists as infantile
magic is returning on the therapeutic level and has been made
productive in psychodrama. It is the return of magic methods of
the early cultures in a scientific age in behalf of new objectives.
SCIENCE/MORENO - SCIENTIST
... Spontaneity could be tested and measured in an atmosphere
free from the abuses of mediocrity and religion had found a new
proving ground for its tenets. Being brought up in a scientific
environment I began to develop hypotheses, procedures by
which to test them and tests by which to measure spontaneity.
All this, not as a science for its own sake, but as a preliminary
and supplementary step for a theatre of spontaneity which
opened its gates to the worshipper of immediate and creative
genius.
351
The need for an instrument able to measure the duration of
spontaneity states became imminent – for exploratory as well as
for practical aims – a spontaneity clock. As a spontaneity clock
we used a chronometer; other instruments measuring duration as
metronomes may be equally useful.
SCIENCE/PSYCHODRAMATIC METHOD AND
OBJECTIVITY
Reactions witnesses by psychologist and revelations given
by any individual during a course of interview, spontaneity and
situation tests, casual or planned are, at least from the point of
view of cooperative, controllable research, of little value since
they are after the event merely memory impressions of the
observer. The multiform interpretations offered by the
subjectivists in psychology are without proper demonstration
and reconsideration as long as they do not conserve the moment.
I suggest therefore that a “talking machine should photograph
the process” and that we should make systematic use of
machinery of personality recording
Moreno, J. L. “Psychorecording: Group Psychotherapy
Theory and Practice”, in Group Psychotherapy nº 2-3, v. iii,
pp. 150, 1950.
Psicoterapia de Grupo y Psicodrama 281 note (similar)
Psicoterapia de Grupo e Psicodrama p. 267 note (similar)
If we consider the investigator who gives out questionnaires
as being in a situation of maximum formal objectivity then the
investigator who identifies himself successively with every
individual participating in the situation approaches a maximum
of subjectivity. A professional worker acting in this fashion
produces excellent therapeutic effects, but the method does not
improve upon the intended objectification of the investigator,
himself.
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352
A step beyond this is the psychodramatic method, a situation
which provides an experimental and a therapeutic setting
simultaneously. Here, the director of the theatre is present, but
outside the exploratory situation, itself.
SEINISM
.. But it is also the cradle of one of the most heroic forms of
existentialism, the cradle of “Seinism” (Sein equals being), the
science of being. It went beyond a mere philosophy and
phenomenology of being; the idea of being Being was actually
lived out and embodied by a few historical persons. Being has no
boundaries; it is not limited by birth and death, it includes them.
... The first principle of this group was the “all-inclusiveness” of
being, and the constant effort to maintain from moment to
moment the natural, spontaneous flow of existence
uninterruptedly. No moment could be by-passed every moment
was in the being. No part could be left out because every part
was a part of the being and there was no other being. Their
second principle was goodness, the natural blessedness of all
existing things. There were the idea of the “moment”, (Augen =
blick), neither as a function of the past nor of the future, but as a
category in itself; the idea of the “situation” (Lage) and the
challenges emerging from it; the ideas of spontaneity and
creativity as universal processes of conduct, countering the
clichés of the ethical and cultural conserves; and above all the
idea of urgency, the urgency of their immediate experience.
SEINISM/JOHN KELLMER
One of the outstanding exponents of that group which tried
to practice this identity with being was John Kellmer, who, in
order to taste life of a different order, gave up his university
career and turned from being a philosopher and writer into a
353
simple farmhand, living with plain hardworking peasants. He
broke off contact with all his earlier friends and his books, never
wrote another line. This, up to the end of his life. There was no
pretense in his way of life; it was just his profound desire to live
a different life from the one which had been marked off for him.
SELF
“Role playing is prior to the emergence of the self. Roles do
not emerge from the self, but the self emerges from roles.”
Psychodrama v. 1 p. II Introduction to 3rd Edition
... Body, psyche and society are then the intermediary parts of
the entire self.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. iii-iv Introduction to 3rd Edition
SELF
SELF/ACTOR/OBSERVER
... The self appears in the warming up to a spontaneous state
divided into the spontaneous actor and an inner counteracting
(participant) observer. This division is of great significance in
therapeutic work, but it is also the dynamic foundation for the
tragic and comic phenomenon in the drama.
... He is forced to drill himself so that he becomes two
individuals – his own private, hidden self and the other self, the
role he is to assume. It is as if he were forever jumping out of his
own skin into that of the role and back into his own again.
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354
SELF/CREATIVE
My vision of the theatre was modeled after the idea of the
spontaneously creative self. But the idea of a spontaneous and
creative self was deeply discredited and thrown into oblivion at
the time when the idee fixe urged me to fight its adversaries and
bring the self back to the consciousness of mankind, using every
ounce of persuasion and drama which I could evoke.
... All three forms of materialism, however contrary to each
other, had tacitly one common denominator, a deep fear and
disrespect, almost a hatred against the spontaneous, creative self
(which should not be mixed up with individual genius, one of its
many representations).
SELF/DEFINITION
The self has often been defined. It is easy to agree that the
individual organism and the self are not the same thing, although
they cannot be neatly separated. The self is the melting pot of
experiences coming from many directions. One of the dimension
of the self is the social, another dimension is the sexual, another
is the biological, another dimension is the comic, but it is more
than anyone of them.
... The self is like a river, its springs from spontaneity but it has
many subsidiaries which carry supply to it.
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... By self I mean anything which is left of you and me after the
most radical reduction of “us” is made by past and future
retroductionists.
... There are three possible relations between an actor and his
role. In the first, he works himself into the role, step by step, as if
it were a different individuality. The more he extinguishes his
private self, the more he becomes able to “live” the role.
... It is harder to agree as to the locus of the self. We have just
specified some of the dimensions from which it gets its supply,
but the place in which it roots is another matter. My thesis is, the
locus of the self is spontaneity. Spontaneity itself is (1) deviation
from the “laws” of nature and (2) the matrix of creativity. When
spontaneity is at a zero the self is at a zero. As spontaneity
declines the self shrinks. When spontaneity grows the self
expands. If the spontaneity potential is unlimited, the self
potential is unlimited. One is a function of the other.
The Theater of Spontaneity p. 8
SELF/PARTIAL SELF/MANY SELVES
... We know that “operational links” develop between the sexual
role, the role of the sleeper, the role of the dreamer, and the role
of the eater, which tie them together and integrate them into a
unit. At a certain point we might consider it as a sort of
physiological self, a “partial” self, a clustering of the
physiological roles. Similarly, in the course of development, the
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psychodramatic roles begin to cluster and produce a sort of
psychodramatic self and finally, the social roles begin to cluster
and form a sort of social self. The physiological, psychodramatic
and social selves are only “part” selves; the really integrated,
entire self, of later years is still far from being born.
Psychodrama v.1 p. iii Introduction to 3rd Edition
Psicodrama pp. 25-26 Introdução à 3ª Edição
SELF/MEASURING
... If the spontaneity is “what is measured by spontaneity tests,”
the self is measured by the degree of spontaneity it has, its
spontaneity quotient.
SELF/STRUCTURE OFF THE SELF
have described it as a cluster of roles (private plus collective
can expand in creativity and in power, and the whole history of
between the idea of the human self and the idea of the universal
self of God. The modern apostles of Godlessness, when they cut
off the strings which tied Man to a divine system, a
supramundane God, they cut in their enthusiastic haste a little
too much, they also cut off Man’s very self. By the same act by
which they emancipated Man from God they emancipated also
Man from himself. They said God is dead, but it was Man who
had died. My thesis is therefore, that the center of the problem is
neither God nor the denial of his existence, but the origin, reality
and expansion of the self.
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SELFISHNESS
... In a spontaneous drama however, this simple matter can
become a great obstacle. A sort of “spontaneous unselfishness”
of every player is required, to let the other speak to an end, not to
interrupt him until he has warmed up to his own climax.
SEXUALITY
1. Group attraction of the sexes develops with age; intersexual
attraction begins at 2, is at a high point between 3 to 6 years;
declines after the 7th year and reaches a low point between 10
and 11; from 11 to 14 it increases slowly. There is a first
heterosexual cycle between the ages from 3 to 8 years; a first
homosexual cycle between the ages of 8 to 13 years; a second
heterosexual cycle between the ages of 13 and 18 years; a
second homosexual cycle between 14 and 19 years. ... In each of
these three cases an entire public school was studied, from the
nursery up to the eighth grade. Retests were made and the time
variable was considered.
9. There is a cleavage in formation between the two sexes from
about seven to fourteen years, a sexual cleavage; it reaches the
high point of mutual withdrawing when the members of the
group are about tem years old. From then on the sexual cleavage
begins to wane but some form of it persists throughout the
lifetime of groups. In groups of adolescents and adults in which
both sexes participate sexual “sub”cleavages are usually found.
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SITUATION MATRIX
According to plan, we moved with our research further into
the fifth and sixth dimension of group structure; the situation test
explores the “situation matrix”; it consists of space and time
relations, locus and movements, acts and pauses, volume of
words and gestures, initiation, transfer and termination of scenes.
SITUATION TEST
When my idea crystalized in the early twenties, the period of
my Stregreiftheater experiment, to “play out” situations and not
only to observe and analyze them, the “situation test” was born.
SLANG
Our experiments have shown that the production of a task in
slang has less resistance to overcome than in the more highly
organized official language.
... slang is a hidden and repressed language world, full of
forbidden signs and images. As a child everyone spoke it and as
a child grows up he learns to censor the language of his
imagination. It is a censorship of the primitive languages – slang
and children’s language – by the language of the ruling classes –
the grown-ups.
SOCIAL ATOM (SEE ATOM/SOCIAL)
SOCIAL ATOM/PSYCHOSIS
359
relationship of every role to itself. The original “auto”-tele is
Moreno, J. L. “Psychodramatic shock Therapy” in “Group
º 1-4, 1974, p. 16
On the basis of the ratios of interest for their own and for
SOCIAL CHANGE
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.
... In order to change the social world social experiments have to
be so designed that they can produce change;...
... The revolutions of the socialistic-marxistic type are
outmoded; they failed to meet with the sociodynamics of the
world situation. The next social revolution will be the
“sociometric” type.
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... In other words, the avant guarde of academic social science
did not have social instruments of attack and counterattack
available in a period of emergency. At last we sociometrists
stepped into the breach and developed several instruments of
social change in order to harness the spontaneous-creative forces
of the community, the population test, the socio-drama, social
and psychodramatic shock methods which may well become
scientific instruments of social action, preventives of antidotes
against the mass hypnotism and persuasion of purely political
systems.
SOCIAL DISTANCE
32. Social distance and sociometric distance are not identical.
Social distance expresses the relation of symbolic groups,
sociometric distance of concrete groups of individuals.
Therefore, the social distance and the sociometric distance of a
group may vary greatly.
SOCIAL ENTROPY
27. Hypothesis of sociodynamic decline, social entropy. The
cooling off of the emotional expansiveness of the members of a
given community or the sociodynamic decline of interest in
others has reached its climax when the influx of any new
members into the community does not arouse its inhabitants to
new choices: the collective spontaneity has reached its zero, its
social entropy. Social entropy reaches its maximum when
choices and rejections are entirely extinct. Indifference alone
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prevails. The group spontaneity has “withered away” and is
replaced by an aggregation of individuals entirely left to change.
SOCIAL FUNCTION VERSUS PSYCHOLOGICAL
FUNCTION
The colored population is housed in cottages separate from
the white. But in educational and social activities white and
colored mix freely. These and similar aspects can be termed the
“social organization of the community”. And whatever the
“social structure” of a particular cottage may be it is necessary to
ascertain the psychological function of each of its members and
the “psychological organization” of the cottage group. The social
function of a girl, for instance, may be that of supervising the
dormitory, but her psychological function may be that of a
housemother pet who is rejected by the members of her group
and isolated in it. These emotional reactions and responses
among the girls of the group must result in a dynamic situation,
its “psychological organization”.
SOCIAL QUOTIENT
On the basis of the rations of interest for their own and for
SOCIAL REALITY
... By social reality I mean the dynamic synthesis and
interpenetration of the two. It is obvious that neither the matrix
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nor the external are real or can exist by themselves, one is a
function of the other to produce the actual process of social
living.
SOCIAL TRICOTOMY
29. 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.
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.
A position which has become axiomatic for sociometrists
until proven otherwise is that the official (external) society and
the sociometric (internal) matrix are not identical.
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SOCIATRY
Sociatry is applied sociometry. The group psychotherapies
are subfields of sociatry, as the latter comprises also the
application of sociometric knowledge to groups “at a distance”,
to inter-group relations and to mankind as a total unit.
... “Sociatry” is logically the healing of normal society of the
socius. The term derives from a Latin and a Greek root, the one
is socius, the “other fellow”, the other iatreia, healing
The initiation of the science of sociatry coincides with the
critical historical situation of mankind in the middle of our
century. The aim of the new science is prophylaxis, diagnosis
and treatment of mankind, of group and intergroup relations and
particularly to explore how groups can be formed which propel
themselves into realization via techniques of freedom without the
aid of sociatry of psychiatry. The secret aim of sociatry, and of
all science, is to help mankind in the realization of its aims and
ultimately to become unnecessary and perish.
SOCIATRY/HYPOTHESES
... It is based upon two hypotheses: 1) “The whole of human
society develops in accord with definitive laws”; 2) “A truly
therapeutic procedure cannot have less as objective than the
whole of mankind”.
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... Sociatry must be defined as to its position within a system of
both, social and medical sciences. Psychiatry is the branch in
medicine that relates to mental disease and its treatment; it treats
the individual psyche and soma. Sociatry treats the pathological
syndromes of normal society, of inter-related individuals and of
inter-related groups.
SOCIATRY/SOCIOMETRY
Sociatry is remedial sociometry. It is just as much a pure
science as is sociometry. They differ in method and emphasis
rather than in purity. A research science is not purer than a
therapeutic science. The adjective “remedial” should not connote
a lower degree of accuracy. Sociometry may just as often be
applied sociatry as sociatry applied sociometry.
SOCIODRAMA
Sociodrama has been defined as a deep action method dealing
with inter-group relations and collective ideologies.
SOCIODRAMA/GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY
... There is a limit therefore, as to how far the psychodramatic
method can go in fact-finding and solving inter-personal
conflicts. The collective causes cannot be dealt with except in
their subjectified form. ... They too, were super-individual, like
the storm which broke the fence, but a social storm, which may
have to be understood and controlled by different means. A
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special form of psychodrama was necessary which would focus
its dramatic eye upon the collective factors. This is the way
sociodrama was born.
SOCIODRAMA/GROUP
PSYCHOTHERAPY/INDIVIDUAL
PSYCHOTHERAPY/COLLECTIVE GROUP
PSYCHOTHERAPY
The difference between psychodrama and sociodrama
should be extended to every type of group psychotherapy. A
difference should be made between the individual type of group
psychotherapy and the collective type of group psychotherapy.
The individual type of group psychotherapy is individualcentered.
It focuses its attention upon the single individuals in
the situation, of which the group consists, and not upon the
group in general. The collective type of group psychotherapy is
group centered. It focuses its attention upon the collective
denominators and is not interested in the individual differentials
or the private problems which they produce.
SOCIODRAMA/PERCEPTUAL
... The subjects were asked in the course of sociometric testing to
guess and rate the feelings others have for them, depending
entirely upon their intuition, in reference to specific, ongoing
activities. By comparing the perceptional data with the real data
it was found that individuals have sociometric perceptions of
each other of various degrees of accuracy. ... Several types of
perceptual behavior patterns were discovered. Category 1, there
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are patients who underestimate their own status and overestimate
the status of the therapist, and of others members of the group.
Category 2, there are patients who overestimate their own status
and underestimate the status of the therapist, and of other
members of the group. Category 3, there are patients who
consider themselves as most attractive and acceptable to the
therapist or to other members of the group. Category 4, there are
patients who consider themselves as rejected by the therapist or
by other members of the group. Category 5, there are patients
who consider themselves as accepting the therapist of other
members of the group. Category 6, there are patients who
consider themselves as rejecting the therapist or other members
of the group.
SOCIODRAMA/ROOTS
Sociodrama has two roots, - socius, which means the
associate, the other fellow, and drama, which means action.
Sociodrama would mean action in behalf of the other fellow.
SOCIODRAMA/SUBJECT
Psicodrama p. 413
SOCIODRAMA/TEACHING TECHNIQUE
My reference to Socrates serves not only to emphasize the
influence which Socrates had upon my formative years, but also
the great importance of the sociodrama as a teaching technique.
367
It should not cloud the fact that the origins of sociodrama go
back into the prehistoric period of mankind, before any recorded
literature in the modern sense could exist. On the other hand,
there are elements in sociodrama, f. i., the theory of spontaneity
and creativity, which could not have been brought out to full
maturity before the civilization of the machine and the robot
made it an indispensable antidote.
Who Shall Survive? p. xxiv Preludes
SOCIODRAMATIST
Sociodramatic workers have the task to organize preventive,
didactic and reconstruction meetings in the community in which
they live and work;... ... The action agent moves into the group
accompanied by a staff of auxiliary egos, if necessary with the
same determination; boldness or ferocity as a fuehrer or union
leader. The meeting may move into an action as shocking and
enthusiastic as those of a political nature, with the difference that
the politicians try to submit the masses to their political schemes,
whereas the sociodramatist is trying to bring the masses to a
maximum of group realization, group expression, and group
analysis.
SOCIODYNAMIC EFFECT
5. The hypothesis of the sociodynamic effect claims that a) a
number of persons of a group will be persistently left out of
productive contact and communication; b) the persistent neglect
of some individuals is far beneath their aspirations and
persistently favors others, out of proportion to their
requirements; c) conflicts and tensions in the group rise in
proportion with the increase of the sociodynamic effect, that is,
with the increased polarity between the favored ones and the
neglected ones. Conflicts and tensions in the group fall with the
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decrease of the sociodynamic effect, that is, with the reduction of
the polarity between the favored ones and the neglected ones.
SOCIOGENICS/EUGENICS
Sir Francis Galton proposed eugenics “to endow or improve
the inborn qualities of future generations”. I propose
sociogenics, “to study and prepare conditions in the universe that
everyone can live and that no one is prevented from being born”.
The principle of a sociometric and sociogenic democracy –
is a commonwealth in which the equality of opportunity is
extended to the unborn; it includes and gives equality of rights to
three classes of people, the unborn, the living and the dead. ...
Sociometry has discovered many new types of proletariat but the
greatest and oldest proletariat of all is the proletariat of the
unborn.
SOCIOGRAM
... By means of longitudinal studies the deviations from
sociometric norms can be read in the sociograms; anti-social
behavior and mental disorders can be foreseen.
28. When the members find full realization of their choices
within their group the results do not require further validation.
The sociogram is then an expression of the “now and here”, an
“existential” sociogram.
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Sociogram depicts by means of a set of symbols the twoway
or interpersonal relations which exist between members of a
group. If A chooses B this is only half of a two-way relation. In
order that the relationship should become sociometrically
meaningful the other half must be added. It may be that B
chooses A or that he rejects A of that he is indifferent towards A.
As the sociogram can be read by everyone who knows the
symbols it can be considered as a sociological alphabet.
SOCIOGRAM/OBSERVER
Such a “sociometrically oriented observational method” is of
considerable value whenever the real test cannot be carried out;
with the aid of an “observer” sociogram it may give a rough
picture of the situation.
Fundamentos de la Sociometria p. 178 (nota de rodapé)
SOCIOID
... The sociometric matrix consists of various constellations, tele,
the atom, the superatom of molecule (several atoms linked
together), the “socioid” which may be defined as a cluster of
atoms linked together with other clusters of atoms via interpersonal
chains of 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 of 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
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be traced within a sociometric matrix are psycho-social
networks. There are in addition large sociodynamic 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 “classoids”.
SOCIOMATRIX
Such sociometric classification is the embryo of the later
“sociomatrix” as it is used by sociometrists in recent years. It is
the sociomatrix of a single individual. As soon as several
individuals are placed into the matrix with all their present
relationships the sociomatrix of a group results.
SOCIOMETRIC AND SOCIOGENIC DEMOCRACY
The principle of a sociometric and sociogenic democracy – is
a commonwealth in which the equality of opportunity is extended
to the unborn; it includes and gives equality of rights to three
classes of people, the unborn, the living and the dead.
SOCIOMETRIC CLASSIFICATION
... The crucial point of our classification is to define an
individual in relation to others, and in the case of groups, always
a group in relation to other groups. This is sociometric
classification.
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SOCIOMETRIC CLASSIFICATION/COMMON TERMS
Positive or Negative: Positive, the subject chooses others;
Negative, the subject does not choose others.
Isolated: The subject is not chosen and does not choose.
Extroverted Position: The subject sends the majority of her
choices to individuals outside her own group.
Introverted Position: The subject sends the majority of her
choices to individuals insider her own group.
Attracted: The subject uses more than one half of the choices
permitted.
Attractive: The subject receives more than one half of the
choices permitted. (In or Out is added to indicate if the choices
are inside the subject’s group or outside respectively. When this
is not added the choices are understood to relate to both inside
and outside the group.)
Rejecting: The subject uses more than one half of the rejections
permitted.
Rejected: The subject receives more than one half of the
rejections permitted.
Indifference: The subject is indifferent to the individuals who are
attracted to her or who reject her.
SOCIOMETRIC CONSCIOUSNESS
… This psychological status of individuals may be called their
degree of sociometric consciousness.
... As long as a population has a low sociometric consciousness
distinctions between psychological and social properties of
populations have no value. Indeed, from the point of view of
action methods over-emphasis upon logical purity of definitions
may be outright harmful and over-developed logical systems
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may produce a false sense of security and of a scientific wellbeing
which discourages and delays action practice.
SOCIOMETRIC GEOGRAPHY
Viewing the social structure of a certain community as a
whole, related to a certain locality, with a certain physical
geography, a township filled with homes, schools, workshops,
the interrelations between their inhabitants in these situations,
we arrive at the concept of the sociometric geography of a
community.
As the sociogram enables us to present a structural analysis
of a group, sociometric geography enables us to make a
structural analysis of the whole community.
See the sociometric geography of a community in the rear of
the book, which shows the actual positions the individuals have
in the houses as well as the positions they want, or more
specifically, the individuals in other houses to whom they are
attracted. The sociometric test makes explicit the conflict
between an existing order and the potential structure of an order
to which the group members aspire.
Who Shall Survive? p. lxxi (footnote)
SOCIOMETRIC INVESTIGATOR
36. Place the sociometric investigator into the midst of several
populations, not to give a test but a) to arouse his warm up
373
towards a given population and the warm up of that population
towards him; and b) to test his sensitivity for the criteria most
significant for it.
The investigator who establishes a rapport, enters into a
maximum of involvement with a population and will choose the
right criterion in the course of his warm up will provoke a wider
and deeper participation of the population than the investigator
who gives the test by means of a mailed questionnaire, for
instance, or similar methods which try to reduce his involvement
to a minimum.
SOCIOMETRIC LEADER
Sociometric leader: 1) popular leader, 2) powerful leader and 3)
isolated leader. The popular leader receives more than the
number of expected choices on all criteria in which he and the
choosers are mutually involve; the choosers have themselves a
low sociometric status. The powerful leader receives more than
the number of expected choices on all criteria in which he and
the choosers are mutually involved; the choosers have
themselves a high sociometric status. Through the chain
relations which they provide he can exercise a far-reaching
influence. The isolated leader receives less than the number of
expected choices or, in an extreme case, not more than a single
mutual first choice. This choice comes from a powerful leader
who is himself the recipient of a large number of choices coming
from a number of individuals who enjoy high sociometric status.
The isolated leader individual may operate like an invisible ruler,
the power behind the throne, exercising indirectly a wide
influence throughout sociometric networks.
These are by definition sociometric leader types and should not
be confused with what is called “a leader” in folk usage, magic
or charismatic. Many other factors enter into their development,
especially the phenomenon of the role, but however complex a
leadership process may appear in situ its sociometric base is an
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indispensable clue for its deeper understanding; it should not be
bypassed.
SOCIOMETRIC LEVELS
35. A community has many “sociometric levels” which can be
explored by various sociometric instruments. The first level may
be reached through a sociometric test – the attraction-rejectionindifference
pattern of the community is exposed. The
sociogram may show that the community is broken up in three
opposing groups; the conflict between these groups represents a
new sociometric problem which can be explored through a series
of sociodramatic tests. A diagram of the community may show
that the three opposing groups are due to role antagonisms and
role clusters arising from the conflict between an older and a
new culture.
SOCIOMETRIC MATRIX
… By the sociometric matrix I mean all sociometric structures
invisible to the macroscopic eye but which become visible
through the sociometric process of analysis.
A position which has become axiomatic for sociometrists
until proven otherwise is that the official (external) society and
the sociometric (internal) matrix are not identical.
375
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 interpersonal
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 “classoids”.
SOCIOMETRIC MOVEMENT/HELPERS
and other places. Within established the support of the
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The soil for sociometry was prepared by the thinking of J.
Baldwin, C. H. Cooley, G. H. Mead, W. I. Thomas and
particularly John Dewey. Sociologists and educators were the
first to accept it. Psychiatrists were the slowest.
SOCIOMETRIC QUESTIONNAIRE
Sociometric questionnaire requires an individual to choose
his associates for any group of which he is of might become a
member.
Who Shall Survive? p. 719 Glossary
Quem Sobreviverá? v. 3 p. 213 Glassário
SOCIOMETRIC SCORE
34. A sociometric score is the number of times an individual has
been chosen, rejected or ignored by other individuals for a
specific course of action.
35. The sociometric core of a group is the tele structure among
the individuals.
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SOCIOMETRIC STATUS
21. Positive correlation should be found between sociometric
status of the co-living individuals and the volume of role reversal
applied to them; the sociometric status of an individual increases
in proportion as role reversal is applied to all the participant
individuals of the group. (The sociometric status of an individual
is defined by the quantitative index of choices, rejections and
indifferences received in the particular group studied).
23. As sociometric status increases with the volume of role
reversal applied to a given group of individuals, the accidentproneness
of the small children belonging to it decreases.
SOCIOMETRIC STATUS/ACCIDENT PRONENESS
22. Accident proneness is a function of the sociometric status of
an individual. As the sociometric status of an individual
increases in relative cohesiveness, his accident proneness
decreases, and vice versa.
SOCIOMETRIC STRUCTURES
... It is important to know, however, that the sociometric
structures found in closed communities do not differ in their
basic features from the ones found in open communities.
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An illustration of this is a shortcut which I tried out recently
… a form which might be called sociometric self-rating. It is
based on the fact that every individual “intuitively has some
intimation of the position he holds in the group. He comes to
know approximately whether the flow of affection and sympathy
or antipathy for him is rising or falling…
… Self–rating is obviously like a sociometric test carried out in
the mind of the tester himself in which the other individuals are
like dolls. … Self-rating has the advantage of being
anonymous.…
Moreno, J. L. “Sociometry in action” in Sociometry a
Journal of Interpersonal Relations, Beacon House, August,
1942, pp. 299-300.
... In the beginning they hardly differentiated between the plan,
myself and the team of my co-workers. In this dilemma I
invented a sociometric technique devised to x-ray my own
situation, a technique which I latter called “sociometric selfrating”
and projection. It was based on the assumption that every
individual intuitively has some intimation of the position he
holds in the group. By empathy he comes to know
approximately whether the flow of affection of antipathy for him
is rising or falling. I begin to map out in my own mind, often
two or three times a day, the sociogram of the key groups upon
whom the success or failure of the project depended. I began to
sketch all the situations in which my co-workers and I were
involved at the time and in which role. Then I tried to clarify
how we felt towards each of these people. It was comparatively
easy to state my own preferences, choices or rejections, towards
the key individuals in the community. It was more difficult to
“guess” what everyone of these people felt towards me and my
plan and what reasons they might have. ... By a sort of highly
trained empathy I succeeded in picturing my own sociograms;
they were a great aid in preventing and countering attacks before
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they became detrimental. This technique was particularly
important, as it trained my social intuition.
/SOCIOMETRIC PERCEPTION TEST
I described a version of the sociometric test* which was
called “sociometric selfrating”, but which may better be called a
“sociometric perception test”. The individual goes through
several steps.
First step: the individual “sketches out all the situations in
which he is involved at the time and fills in all the individuals
who take a part in them and in which role.”
Second step: “he tries to clarify for himself how he feels
towards each of these people. He pretends that he is taking part
in a sociometric test and chooses or rejects them according to
preference and rank, giving his reasons.”
Third step: “he makes a guess what every one of these
people feels towards him and what reasons they might have.”
Fourth step: “he guesses how these individuals may be
related to each other.”
Fifth step: “after he has finished his own selfrating he may
ask another person familiar with his situation to rate him
independently.”
Sixth step: “the validity and reliability of data from
sociometric selfrating can be determined by giving to a group of
individuals an open sociometric test immediately after they have
rated themselves. Thus, the individual’s intuition of his
sociometric status can be compared with the objective facts of
others’ expression towards him, e.g., his actual sociometric
status.”
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When I introduced the selfrating test I calculated that if the
perceptual intuition of such individuals could be awakened and
trained, their choice would be more adequate and their
sociometric status would improve.
A pitfall of the sociometric perception test, as in real
sociometric tests, is the neglect of giving the subject appropriate
material instructions, by not warming him up adequately to the
situations he is to evaluate and perceive.
ASSIGNMENT
In numerous cases individual treatment, analytic and
activistic group psychotherapy as well as roleplaying are only
partially successful. Then the individual must be transplanted
from his old soil to another social soil better suited to his needs.
... Just as a gardener, knowing the composition of the soil which
thwarted the growth of a plant, transfers it to a soil from which
such factors are eliminated, so we, when planting individuals,
carefully see to it that the same conditions which brought failure
in the first place are not repeated. This principle of sociometric
transplantation can also be applied to entire communities.
ASSIGNMENT/ASSIGNMENT VALUE
The value of assignment can be estimated in its
accumulative effect upon the community as a whole and upon
the groups within it. The continuous assignment of new
individuals to the different cottage groups produces changes in
381
the social structure which can be traced later through the
sociometric test.
SOCIOMETRIC TWINS
21. The hypothesis of sociometric “twins”. Identical sociometric
status although the “individual” motivations leading up to them
may differ widely, have in the majority of cases the same or
similar sociodynamic consequences within their social setting.
But at times there are fundamental differences. The study of
sociometric twins may give us a specific answer to the old
question why two brothers who come from the same social soil
produce different life patterns, one may turn into a criminal, the
other may become a highly conforming bourgeois.
SOCIOMETRY
SOCIOMETRY/ADVANTAGES
This method can be used to advantage as an improvement
upon the participant-observer technique of investigation. As a
result of careful gauging of the personalities of the investigators
who are to be employed as sociometrists or observers in the
community at large, a frame of reference is established at the
research center to which the investigators return with their data
and findings. The use of this frame of reference provides a more
objective basis than has heretofore existed for evaluating the
reflection of the investigators’ own behavior-characteristics upon
their findings in the community. The social investigation of any
community, when based upon sociometric principles, is equipped
with two complementary frames of reference. The one is the
objectified investigator so prepared and evaluated that his own
personality is no longer an unknown factor in the findings. The
other frame of reference consists of the members of the
community who are brought to a high degree of spontaneous
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participation in the investigation by means of sociometric
methods, and therefore contribute genuine and reliable data.
SOCIOMETRY/ATTRACTION AND REPULSION
... But whatever the social forces compelling these individuals
and groups to migrate, when their behavior matures to the
making of choices and decisions they take the form of attractions
and repulsions; those patterns are revealed by sociometric
methods.
SOCIOMETRY/CONCEPT
Sociometry is a study of the actual psychological structure
of human society. The structure is rarely visible on the surface of
social processes; it consists of complex inter-personal patterns
studied by quantitative and qualitative procedures. One of the
procedures used is the sociometric test which determines the
affinities of individuals for one another in the various groups to
which they belong. A psychological structure of inter-personal
relations is disclosed by the test which often differs considerably
from the relations which they officially have in the groups. On
the basis of these findings a technique has been worked out
which moves the individual from his maladjusted position to a
position in the same group or to another group which promises
to benefit him. The leads for this change are given by the
individuals towards whom the individual is spontaneously
attracted, or who are attracted to him. If the change of position is
made on the basis of a thorough-going quantitative and structural
analysis of the groups in a given community the procedure is
called sociometric assignment.
383
... Sociometry is the sociology of the people, by the people, and
for the people; here this axiom is applied to social research itself.
(Rule of universal participation in action).
SOCIOMETRY/CURRENT SOCIOMETRIC TERMS COINED
BY J. L. MORENO
Sociometry, psychodrama, sociodrama, group therapy,
group psychotherapy, warm up or warming up, roleplayer,
roleplaying, audience participation and catharsis, situation test,
group catharsis, action techniques, acting out techniques, action
research, action methods, actor in situ, sociometric test,
spontaneity test, isolate, star, racial cleavage, racial saturation
point, emotional expansiveness, social expansiveness,
sociostasis, surplus reality, sociatrist, sociotic, sociosis, bioatry,
tele, social atom, cultural conserve, cultural atom, role test,
axiodrama, physiodrama, hypnodrama, spontaneity quotient,
social quotient, interpersonal therapy, interpersonal situation,
interpersonal catharsis, interpersonal dynamics, psychological
geography, sociometric networks, psychological home, auxiliary
ego, role reversal, mirror technique, double technique, social
microscopy.
SOCIOMETRY/CURRENT SOCIOMETRIC TERMS
INTRODUCED BY OTHER AUTHORS
Interpersonal relations (W. C. Perry, 1927); participant
observer (E. C. Lindeman, 1925); sociatry (Alfred McClung Lee,
1941); roletaking (George H. Mead, 1934); microsociology
(Georges Gurvitch, 1936).
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SOCIOMETRY/ETHICS
The pivotal point of dialectic sociometry is that sociometry
returns the social sciences to the “aboriginal” science from
which it came – “ethics” – without, however, giving an inch of
the objective goals of scientific method. Sociometry is the social
ethics par excellence.
SOCIOMETRY/HISTORY
The closet approximation to an official start of the
sociometric movement occurred on April 3-5, 1933, when the
Medical Society of the State of New York exhibited a few dozen
sociometric charts during its convention at the Waldorf Astoria
Hotel.
Who Shall Survive? p. xiii Preludes
The year 1933 may have been the official, but the year 1923
was the conceptual origin of sociometry; it was the publication
date of my book Das Stegreiftheater which contained the seeds
of many of the ideas which later brought sociometry to fame.
... The sociometric movement can be divided into two major
periods; the first could be called the axionormative period,... ...
The second could be called the sociometric period, which has
had three distinct phases; the first phase began in 1923, with the
appearance of Das Stegreiftheater and ended in 1934, with the
appearance of WHO SHALL SURVIVE?; the second phase
began with the launching of Sociometry, A Journal of
Interpersonal Relations and ended with the opening of the
Sociometric Institute and the New York Theatre of Psychodrama
in 1942; the third phase, 1942 to 1952 saw the spreading of
group psychotherapy, psychodrama and sociometry throughout
the United States, Europe and other parts of the world.
Who Shall Survive? p. xiv Preludes
385
I brought with me the three vehicles I had invented, which
have done more than anything else to inaugurate and spread
sociometry, a characteristically American sociology, in the
United States: the psychodrama stage, the interactional
sociogram and a magnetic sound recording device. Each led to a
revolution of concept – the psychodrama stage by surpassing the
psychoanalytic couch led to the acting out techniques, the theory
of action and the audience participation of group psychotherapy;
the sociogram to systematic small group research; the sound
recording device to a method of recording case material and
playback, to a new objectivity, accuracy and completeness of
data.
Who Shall Survive? p. xli-xlii
SOCIOMETRY/HYPOTHESES
One of his first blueprints might have been a universal
axionormative order of the cosmos and I formulated accordingly
two hypotheses.
1) The spatial-proximity hypothesis postulates that the nearer
two individuals are to each other in space, the more do they owe
to each other their immediate attention and acceptance, their first
love. Do not pay any attention to the individuals farther away
from you unless you have already absolved your responsibility
to the nearer ones and they to you. By the nearest is meant the
one whom you live next to, whom you meet first on the street,
whom you find working next to you, who sits next to you or who
is introduced to you first. The sequence of “proximity” in space
establishes a precise order of social bonds and acceptance, the
sequence of giving love and attention is thus strictly preordained
and prearranged, according to a “spatial imperative”.
2) The temporal-proximity hypothesis postulates that the
sequence of proximity in time establishes a precise order of
social attention and veneration according to a “temporal
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386
imperative”. The here and now demands help first, the next in
time to the here and now backward and forward requires help
next.
Here I had some of the ingredients of “the sociometric
system” on hand, the idea of proximity and the metric, the love
of the neighbor and the idea of the meeting, in addition to
spontaneity (s) and creativity (c). I tried the sociometric system
first on the cosmos. God was a super sociometrist. The genesis
of sociometry was the metric universe of God’s creation, the
science of “theometry”. What I know of sociometry I learned
first from my speculations and experiments on a religious and
axiological plane. To fit the sociometric system into God’s world
I made God assign to every particle of the universe some of his s
and c, thus creating for himself innumerable oppositions, the
counter spontaneities of innumerable beings. This made him
dependent upon every being and because of the enormous extent
of distribution through the endless spaces, almost helpless,... ...
This distribution of s and c made him a partner, an equal; he was
to serve, not to rule, he was to co-exist, co-create and coproduce,
nothing for himself, all for others. ... hate and stupidity
are just as close to his heart as love and wisdom.
Who Shall Survive? p. xx–xxi Preludes
Quem Sobreviverá? v. 1 pp. 27–28 Prelúdios
SOCIOMETRY/HELPERS OF THE SOCIOMETRIC
MOVEMENT
and other places. Whitin established the support of the
387
The soil for sociometry was prepared by the thinking of J.
Baldwin, C. H. Cooley, G. H. Mead, W. I. Thomas and
particularly John Dewey. Sociologists and educators were the
first to accept it. Psychiatrists were the slowest.
SOCIOMETRY/QUANTITATIVE EXACTNESS
The quantitative exactness of sociometry can be equal, if not
superior, to the quantitative exactness of the natural sciences.
Who Shall Survive? p. xl Preludes
SOCIOMETRY/RELIGION
... But it is from religious systems that sociometry has drawn its
chief inspiration. ... It was in my philosophical Dialogues of the
Here and Now and later in my Words of the Father that I added a
new dimension to the Godhead, a dimension which
unconsciously was always there but which has never been
properly spelled out, theoretically the dimension of the “I” or
God in the “first” person (in contrast to the “Thou” God of the
Christian, and to the “He” God of the Mosaic tradition), the
dimension of subjectivity, the dimension of the actor and creator,
of spontaneity and creativity.
Who Shall Survive? pp. xl–xli Preludes
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SOCIOMETRY/SUBJECT
Sociometry deals with the mathematical study of
psychological properties of populations, the experimental
technique of and the results obtained by application of
quantitative methods.
SOCIOMETRY/THREE DEPARTMENTS OF RESEARCH
... It has developed three departments of research: a) dynamic, or
revolutionary sociometry, engaged in problems of social change;
b) diagnostic sociometry, engaged in social classification; and c)
mathematical sociometry.
SOCIOMETRY/TRAINING THE SOCIOMETRIC
INVESTIGATOR
36. Place the sociometric investigator into the midst of several
populations, not give a test, but a) to arouse his warm up towards
a given population and the warm up of that population towards
him; and b) to test his sensitivity for the criteria most significant
for it.
The investigator who establishes a rapport, enters into a
maximum of involvement with a population and will choose the
right criterion in the course of his warm up will provoke a wider
and deeper participation of the population than the investigator
who gives the test coldly by means of a mailed questionnaire, for
instance, or similar methods which try to reduce his involvement
to a minimum.
389
SOCIOMETRY/URBANISM
... The administration of the sociometric test to populations in
problem areas, thus revealing the spontaneous trends and
potential movements, may lay the ground for a procedure of
guided migration. Such a procedure could not only unburden
urban centers of a surplus of industrial population but also
relieve areas from the cumulative effect of socio emotional
tensions.
SOCIONOMIC HIERARQUY
... Whether these differences in attractiveness are intrinsic or not,
they have been the greatest deterrents or stimulants of the will to
power. It is natural that less attractive individuals and less
attractive groups will try to attain, through the arbiter of force of
deceit what spontaneous attraction and ability fail to provide for
them.
SOCIO-PSYCHODRAMA
The group approach in psychodrama deals with “private”
problems however large the number of individuals may be of
which the audience consists. But as soon as the individuals are
treated as collective representatives of community roles and role
relations and not as to their private roles and role relations, the
psychodrama turns into a “socio-psychodrama” or short,
sociodrama. The latter has opened new ways of analyzing and
treating social problems.
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The psychodrama of Adolf Hitler turned into the
psychosociodrama of our entire culture- a mirror of the
Twentieth Century.
Psychodrama: foundations of Psychotherapy v. 2 p. 200
SOCIOSIS/SOCIOTIC
Psychiatric concepts as neurosis and psychosis are not
applicable to socioatomic processes. A group of individuals may
become “sociotic” and the syndrome producing this condition
can be called a “sociosis”.
SOCRATES
SOCRATES/ROLE REVERSAL
I had two teachers, Jesus and Socrates; Jesus, the
improvising saint, and Socrates, in a curious sort of way the
closest to being a pioneer of the psychodramatic format. ...
Socrates was involved with actual people, acting as their
midwife and clarifier, very much like a modern psychodramatist
would. ... but here is where my quarrel with Socrates began; the
frame of reference of his dialogues was limited to the dialecticlogical;
he did not, like Jesus, enter into the totality and essence
of the situation itself. ... Socrates, in order to prove a point, chose
the form of the dialogue instead of lecturing to the crowd. He
picked as his counter-protagonist a representative character, a
sophist. Unconsciously using the technique of “role reversal” he
elevated the sophist and turned him into the teacher, whereas he
himself assumed the role of the ignorant pupil who asked
questions. He calculated intuitively what I had to discover after
long practice, that by means of role reversal he could more easily
find the weak spots in the armor of the sophist than if he would
tell him directly what the faults in his logic were. As he carried
the sophist through various dilemmas his audience became
involved and the dialogue ended with a “dialectic catharsis”.
391
Who Shall Survive? p. xxii–xxiii Preludes
SOLILOQUY
The technique of soliloquy “amplifies” the unconscious
processes of A in situ, that is, it operates in a situation in which
A presently finds himself, apart from B or in relation to B. It
differs from the Freudian technique of free association which is
associational but not situational. It has a formal similarity with
the asides in dramatic plays. However, the asides are
meaningless to the actor who produces them, they are fictitious
and rehearsed, whereas the soliloquy in therapeutic situations is
meaningful to the individual who produces them, they are
extemporaneous and direct.
SOLILOQUY/THERAPIST SOLILOQUY
The chief therapist himself may use another technique – the
“soliloquy technique of the therapist”. He may sit on the side of
the stage and begin to soliloquize about as follows: “I know that
Jack (he patient) doesn’t like me. I don’t see what other reason
he would have for r not cooperating.” The patient might fall in
with this and say, “It isn’t you I don’t like. It is this woman in
the front row. She reminds me of my aunt.
SPACE FOR PSYCHODRAMA
... A psychodrama can be produced anywhere, wherever patients
find themselves, in a private home, a hospital, a schoolroom, or a
military barracks. It sets up its “laboratory” everywhere. Most
advantageous is a specially adapted therapeutic space containing
a stage.
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Psicodrama p. 31
In the establishment of a point of reference for theometric
spaces, three factors must be emphasized: the status nascendi,
the locus, and the matrix. These represent different phases of the
same process. There is no “thing” without its locus, no locus
without its status nascendi, and no status nascendi without its
matrix. The locus of a flower, for instance, is in the bed where it
grows into a flower, and not its place in a woman’s hair. Its
status nascendi is that of a growing thing as it springs from the
seed. Its matrix is the fertile seed, itself. The locus of a painting
is its specific, original surroundings. If the painting is removed
in space from its original surroundings, it becomes just another
“thing” – a secondary, exchangeable value.
Psicodrama p. 74
SPEECH DISORDERS
... We are able to relate speech disorders to three sources: a)
physical deficiency; b) intra language deficiency; the speech
defect emerges “within” the structured, grammatic language and
the roles in which the individual operates; c) pre-language
deficiency; the speech disorder appears already “before” the
infant speaks his mother tongue, his performance neurosis
appears within the framework of his autistic baby language,
either because of a refusal to accept the language of adults or
because of deficiency in the relationship to the adult auxiliary
egos around him.
393
SPONTANEITY
SPONTANEITY/CATHARSIS
... I discovered the common principle producing catharsis to be:
spontaneity.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. d Introduction to 4th Edition
SPONTANEITY/CONCEPT
... One can say that through the process of living we inhale the
psyche and exhale it through the process of spontaneity. If in the
process of inhaling poisons develop, stresses and conflicts, they
are removed by spontaneity.
El teatro de la Espontaneidad pp. 146-147
... Spontaneity is a readiness of the subject to respond as
required. It is a condition – a conditioning – of the subject; a
preparation of the subject for free action.
Psicodrama p. 162
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.
Spontaneity is the variable degree of adequate response to a
situation of a variable degree of novelty. Novelty of behavior by
itself is not the measure of spontaneity. Novelty has to be
qualified against its adequacy in situ. Adequacy of behavior by
itself is also not the measure of spontaneity. Adequacy has to be
qualified against its novelty. The novelty, for instance, of
extreme psychotic behavior may be to such a degree incoherent
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that the actor is unable to solve any concrete problem, to plan an
act of suicide to cut a piece of bread or to solve a thought
problem. (We speak here of pathological spontaneity). The
adequacy of behavior may be unnovel to a degree which results
in strict rigid or automatic conformity to a cultural conserve.
Such adherence may gradually obliterate the ability of the
organism and the talent of the actor to change.
Spontaneity can be conceived as the arch catalyser,
metaphorically speaking it has a procreative function. Creativity
can be conceived as the archsubstance, metaphorically speaking
it has a maternal function.
Fundamentos dela Sociometria p. não há
... Spontaneity can be present in a person when he is thinking
just as well as when he is feeling, when he is at rest just as well
as when he is in action.
Psicodrama p. 163
... We have called this response of an individual to a new
situation – and the new response to an old situation –
spontaneity.
Psicodrama p. 101
SPONTANEITY/CONCEPT/BEGUININGS
... I discovered the spontaneous man for the first time at the age
of four when I tried to play God, fell and broke my right arm. I
discovered him again when at the age of seventeen I stood
before a group of people. I had prepared a speech; it was a good
and sensible speech but when I stood before them I realized that
I could not say any of the fine and good things I had prepared
myself to say.
395
SPONTANEITY/COUNTER SPONTANEITY
... But the reader is absent from the primary situation, the author
can make him a helpless target. The same is in principle true
about millions of radio listeners listening to a speaker. As in the
case of readers, their, “counter-spontaneity” is reduced to a
minimum, their opportunity to counter with their own
spontaneities is made difficult or impossible.
13. In the course of interaction between two actors the more
warmed up one is the more warmed up the other tends to
become. Spontaneity begets counter-spontaneity.
... Particularly significant was the situation in which I placed him
after my comments. He was taken by surprise and so he was like
a subject in a psychodramatic test. He had to counter
spontaneously, he had to improvise his comments without
preparation.
Who Shall Survive? p. xlviii Preludes
SPONTANEITY/CULTURAL CONSERVES
Spontaneity and cultural conserves do not exist in pure form,
one is a function, a parasite of the other.
Psicodrama p. 156
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396
SPONTANEITY/CURE
... The dynamic role which spontaneity plays in psychodrama as
well as in every form of psychotherapy should not imply
however, that the development and presence of spontaneity in
itself is the “cure”. There are forms of pathological spontaneity,
which distort perceptions, dissociate the enactment of roles, and
interfere with their integration on the various levels of living.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. xii Introduction to 3rd edition
Psicodrama p. 37
SPONTANEITY/DISCIPLINE
... But without some measure and discipline the inter-play of
even the most creative players may fail. Spontaneity work is so
challenging to man’s mental organization that it is wise not to
invite failure to start with by methods of laissez faire. It is as if
reason, before the jump into the spontaneous drama takes place,
goes cautiously ahead of it with its lamp of intuitive anticipation,
draws a sketch of the possible terrain to be encountered with its
barriers and traps, so that it can indicate the direction which the
jump should take.
SPONTANEITY/FEAR OF SPONTANEITY
... If spontaneity is such an important factor for man’s world why
is it so little developed? The answer is: man fears spontaneity,
just like his ancestor in the jungle feared fire; he feared fire until
he learned how to make it. Man will fear spontaneity until he
will learn how to train it.
SPONTANEITY/FORMS OF SPONTANEITY
We see spontaneity on two levels: the crude, ready
spontaneity during the course of any life process; and then, the
397
spontaneity on a higher level, occurring in situations which do
not fit the patterns of a person, which are surprising and
unexpected. It is useful to distinguish between instinctive and
creative spontaneity.
Psicodrama p. 169
On the basis of experimental study, we have been able to
regard four characteristic expressions of spontaneity as relatively
independent forms of a general s factor. We have analyzed these
forms of spontaneity in the following manner: a) the spontaneity
which goes into the activation of cultural conserves and social
stereotypes; b) the spontaneity which goes into creating new
organisms, new forms of art, and new patterns of environment;
c) the spontaneity which goes into the formation of free
expressions of personality; and d) the spontaneity which goes
into the formation of adequate responses to novel situations.
Psicodrama p. 140
SPONTANEITY/FUTURE
… When the twentieth century will close its doors that which I
believe will come out as the greatest achievement is the idea of
spontaneity and creativity, and the significant, indelible link
between them. It may be said that the efforts of the two centuries
complement one another. If the nineteenth century looked for the
“lowest” common denominator of mankind, the unconscious, the
twentieth century discovered, or rediscovered its “highest”
common denominator – spontaneity and creativity.
SPONTANEITY/IMPERFECTION
... In all spontaneity production, it is not the finished work of the
artist but these imperfect, unfinished stages which have the
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greatest significance, and it requires the readiness of the
individual actor or dramatist to put them into action, to transpose
them into movement, gestures, dialogue and interaction.
There are psychodramas “conceived in ecstasy” and there
are psychodramas which should never have been born. Nothing
is so deadening as rehearsed spontaneity.
Do not pay the price of spontaneity for smoothness, regularity,
orderliness, continuity and elegance. Do not sell the principle for
a mess of pottage.
Remember that the greatest liability of therapeutic
psychoanalysis was its formlessness. The greatest asset of
psychodrama and the psychodramatic arts (spontaneous dance,
music and painting) is the rise of form and beauty from the ashes
of spontaneous production.
Who Shall Survive? p. lxxvi Preludes
... A type of universe which is open, that is, a universe in which
some degree of novelty is continuously possible – and this is
apparently the type of universe in which human awareness has
arisen – is a favorable condition for the s factor to emerge and to
develop. ...
A certain degree of unpredictability of coming events is a
premise upon which the idea of the s factor must rest. ...
High probability of events as to time, place, and form is not
a condition favorable for the development of the s factor. The
greater the probability of recurrence of certain events, the
smaller is the probability of s emergence. ...
Another important aspect of human growth is that the range
of new experiences reaching the infant is quantitatively greater
than for the adult, and that is of importance not only for the
mentally superior infant, but for every infant. ...
399
Our assumption here is that the larger the number of new
situations, the greater is the probability that a comparatively
large number of new responses will be made by that individual
even if we think that it would be impossible for him to be aware
of all situations emerging around him and to respond to all new
situations in an adequate fashion.
SPONTANEITY/OPERATIONAL DEFINITION
My operational definition of spontaneity is often quoted as
follows: The protagonist is challenged to respond with some
degree of adequacy to a new situation or with degree of novelty
to an old situation.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. xii Introduction to 3rd edition
SPONTANEITY/PATHOLOGY OF
... Disorderly conduct and emotionalisms resulting from
impulsive action are far from being desiderata of spontaneity
work. Instead, they belong more in the realm of the pathology of
spontaneity.
Psicodrama p. 163
... Thus I began to “warm up” to prophetic moods and heroic
feelings, putting them into my thoughts, my emotions, gestures
and actions, it was a sort or spontaneity research on the reality
level.
Now it was not as simple and objective as that. I wanted, of
course, to become an extraordinary character, a great prophet or
Don Juan. But if I would have become it and rested in
contentment I would not have added anything novel to the
extension of our knowledge of what spontaneity-creativity is and
what it can accomplish. Some phase of the spontaneous-creative
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has been at the bottom of every genuine religion but by just
becoming religiously excited the result would have been at best
nothing but a new sect. At times of course, when the warming
um process carried me to the height of ecstasy I played God and
infected others to play with me. At other times I looked critically
at my production, my own alter ego, as in a mirror. One of my
first discoveries was that spontaneity can get stale if one does
not watch its development, that one can get stale from the very
fact of being spontaneous. The cliché of a spontaneous act, if it
is not controlled from within the actor may return and interfere
with the spontaneity of a new act. The second discovery was that
spontaneity can be trained, however small the flame was in the
beginning.
El teatro de la Espontaneidad p. 30
... Disorderly conduct and emotionalisms resulting from
impulsive action are far from being desiderata of spontaneity
work. They belong in the realm of the pathology of spontaneity.
Psicodrama p. 175
SPONTANEITY/PHYLOGENY
Spontaneity appears to be the oldest phylogenetic factor
which enters human behavior, certainly older than memory,
intelligence or sexuality. It is in an embryonic stage of
development but it has unlimited potentialities for training.
Because it can be tapped directly by Man himself its release can
be well compared with the release of nuclear energy on the
physical plane.
... Although the most universal and evolutionary the oldest, it is
the least developed among the factors operating in Man’s world;
401
it is most frequently discouraged and restrained by cultural
devices. A great deal of Man’s psycho- and socio-pathology can
be ascribed to the insufficient development of spontaneity.
Spontaneity “training” is therefore the most auspicious skill to
be taught to therapists in all our institutions of learning and it is
his task to teach his clients how to be more spontaneous without
becoming excessive.
SPONTANEITY/RESIDUA OF SPONTANEITY
Spontaneous operation refers to the actions taken by the
learner in the moment of learning. If the moment is not
completely encountered and lived some residua of the
spontaneity in action may result and block the learner’s progress.
These residua may be caused by numerous stimuli, for instance
some stresses in the course of doing, and remain undigested in
the learner. It is from the residua of spontaneous action that what
is often called frustration of the learner results. The learner can
deal with his residua in three ways: first, he can let the residua
passively mount up until they make his immediate living
unsteady and unbearable, i. e., he becomes mentally ill; second,
he can use them as cliché materials for the building of mental
stereotypes and cultural conserves. These two ways have been
practiced almost to the exclusion of any other way; lastly he can
stick to spontaneity, try to resolve the residua by de-conserving
and go on actively and systematically by training it.
Who Shall Survive? pp. 540- 541
SPONTANEITY/ROOTS OF THE WORD
The term “factor” is used with some reservation. The term
agent or unit could have been used as well. But faculty, skill or
function would connote too specific a meaning.
Rosa Cukier
402
Psicodrama p. 125
... The root of the word “spontaneous” and its derivatives is the
Latin sponte, meaning of free will.
Psicomúsica y Sociodrama, p. 220, Horme.
Psicodrama p. 73
... Concepts as adaptation, flexibility, adjustment and readjustment
are continuously dealing with the s factor and will
gain in clarity by its measurement.
Psicodrama p. 126
SPONTANEITY/SOCIAL SPONTANEITY
... A fairy-tale is composed of symbols which have a finished
expression in every grown-up individual who has lived in the
culture of which the specific fairy-tale is a product. Cinderella or
Snow White, for instance, sensitize ready-made symbols in the
spontaneous actors who are portraying them, and thus a rapid
and easily-warmed up production is possible. This, however, has
little to do with individual talent but refers to the “collective” or
social spontaneity. It is found to be true of the class of
individuals who have been indoctrinated in their childhood with
these fairy-tale symbols which they now portray in the
spontaneity theatre.
... Yet, in want of a manifold of natural environments we can
resort to the creating of experimental environments, and in want
of a manifold of living roles we can resort to fictitious roles
which are brought as close as possible to the living ones. To
accomplish this aim we have developed techniques for “training
social spontaneity”.
403
SPONTANEITY/S FACTOR/ENERGY/CATALYST
The physical law of the conservation of energy was accepted
during the second half of the nineteenth century in many quarters
as a universal axiom. ... Freud likewise speculated with the
assumption that libido energy is to remain constant.
Espanhol p. 132
Psicodrama p. 136
An adequate theory of spontaneity must do away with other
dogmatic assumptions, for instance, the consideration of
spontaneity as a sort of psychological energy – a quantity
distributing itself within a field – which, if it cannot find
actualization in one direction, flows in some other direction in
order to maintain “equilibrium”.
Psicodrama p. 160
... The idea of the conservation of energy has been the
“unconscious” model of many social and psychological
theories, as the psychoanalytic theory of the libido. In
accordance with this theory Freud thought that, if the sexual
impulse does not find satisfaction in its direct aim, it must
displace its unapplied energy elsewhere. It must, he thought,
attach itself to a pathological locus or find a way out in
sublimation.
Rosa Cukier
404
It is a truism to say that the universe cannot exist without
physical and mental energy which can be preserved. But it is
more important to realize that without the other kind of energy,
the unconservable one – or spontaneity – the creativity of the
universe could not start and could not run, it would come to a
standstill.
... The warming up process is the operational expression of
spontaneity.
... The individual is not endowed with a reservoir of spontaneity,
in the sense of a given, stable volume or quantity. Spontaneity is
(or is not) available in varying degrees of readiness, from zero to
maximum, operating like a psychological catalyzer. ...
Spontaneity functions only in the moment of its emergence just
as, metaphorically speaking, light is turned on in a room, and all
parts of it become distinct. When the light was turned off in a
room, the basic structure remained the same, but a fundamental
quality had disappeared.
Psicodrama p. 136
The same in
Who shall survive p. 43
Quem sobreviverá v. 1 pp. 150-151
The universe is infinite creativity. But what is spontaneity?
Is it a kind of energy? If it is unconservable, if the meaning of
spontaneity should be kept consistent. We must, therefore,
differentiate between two varieties of energy, conservable and
405
unconservable energy. There is an energy which is conservable
in the form of “cultural” conserves, which can be saved up,
which can be spent at will in selected parts and used at different
points in time; it is like a robot at the disposal of its owner.
There is another form of energy which emerges and which is
spent in a moment, which must emerge to be spent and which
must be spent to make place for emergence, like the life of some
animals which are born and die in the love-act.
SPONTANEITY/S FACTOR/INTELLIGENCE/CREATIVITY
... The s factor cuts into and delimits the meaning of
intelligence... Intelligence tests do not measure spontaneity and
spontaneity tests do not measure intelligence – in its narrower
sense.
Psicodrama p. 125
... When the stage actor finds himself without a role conserve,
the religious actor without a ritual conserve, they have to “ad
lib”, to turn to experiences which are not performed and
readymade, but are still buried within them in an unformed
stage. In order to mobilize and shape them, they need a
transformer and catalyst, a kind of intelligence which operates
here and now, hic et nunc, “spontaneity”. ... It was an important
advance to link spontaneity to creativity, the highest form of
intelligence we know or, and to recognize them as the primary
forces in human behavior.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. xii Introduction to 4th edition
Psicodrama pp. 36-37 Introdução à 4ª Edição
... We may not change the intelligence level of an idiotic child,
but we may give him through Spontaneity Training a fuller life
at the level of his capacity, and orient him to it.
Rosa Cukier
406
Psicodrama p. 184
... In this paper and in similar researches which we have
other animal drive.
Psicodrama p. 99
becoming excessive.
Spontaneity and creativity are not identical or similar
processes. They are different categories, although strategically
linked. In the case of Man his s may be diametrically opposite to
his c; an individual may have a high degree of spontaneity but be
entirely uncreative, a spontaneous idiot. Another individual may
have a high degree of creativity but be entirely without
spontaneity, a creator “without arms.
... Spontaneity and creativity are thus categories of a different
order; creativity belongs to the categories of substance – it is the
407
arch substance – spontaneity to the categories of catalyzer – it is
the arch catalyzer.
... Without creativity the spontaneity of a universe would run
empty and end abortive; without spontaneity the creativity of a
universe would become perfectionism and lifeless.
SPONTANEITY/S FACTOR/MEMORY
... The s factor cuts into and delimits also the meaning of
memory. ... An individual with a low capacity for the retention
of facts by memory may be more spontaneous than individuals
with a highly developed and reliable memory function.
Psicodrama p. 125
becoming excessive.
Rosa Cukier
408
SPONTANEITY/S FACTOR/PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
/MENTAL DEVELOPMENT
... But there comes a point in the development of the infant when
intelligence and memory take the lead and the s factor is forced
more and more to be subservient to them. With the breach
between fantasy and reality, a new flare-up of the s factor takes
place. For a while it seems as if it would be able to make
intelligence, memory and the social forces subservient to itself.
But finally it submits to the mighty social and cultural
stereotypes which dominate the human environment. The s
factor becomes from then on, as the child grows older, the
forgotten function.
Psychodrama v.1 pp. 79-80
Psicodrama p. 131
... There must be a factor with which Nature has graciously
provided the newcomer... ... To this factor, we apply the term
spontaneity (s factor).
Psicodrama p. 101
... But we favor the hypothesis that the s factor is neither strictly
a hereditary factor nor strictly an environmental factor. It seems
to be more stimulating to the present state of biogenetic and
social research to assume that there is within the range of
individual expression an independent area between heredity and
environment, influenced but not determined by hereditary
(genes) and social forces (tele). The s factor would have in this
area its topographical location.
Psicodrama p. 101
... The fact that this s factor can be demonstrated and isolated in
action and in behavior tests of children, indicates that a somatic
counterpart exists. ... The high sensitivity of the brain tissue for s
409
factor or – symbolically speaking – the original spontaneity of
the brain tissue may be the reason why the latter and gradual
specialization of the brain into centers and functions is never
rigid and absolute.
Psicodrama p. 102
... It may be of value to review the brain development from the
point of view of spontaneity theory, and to estimate the
comparative degree of spontaneity which every part of the brain
retains.
... If there is a neurological localization of the spontaneitycreativity
process it is the least developed function of man’s
nervous system.
SPONTANEITY/SOCIOMETRIC NETWORK
Every individual gravitates towards a situation which offers
him as a personality the highest degree of spontaneous
expression and fulfillment and he continuously seeks for
companions who are willing to share with him.
... The spontaneity of one is a function of the spontaneity of the
other. A decrease or loss in the spontaneity of one may produce
a decrease or loss of spontaneity of the other of the three chief
agents of production, protagonist, director and audience.
Who Shall Survive? p. lxxiv Preludes
Rosa Cukier
410
SPONTANEITY/SPONTANEITY STATE
... It is not given like words or colors. It is not conserved, or
registered. The Impromptu artist must warm up, he must make it
climbing up the hill. Once he runs up the road to the “state”, it
develops in full power.
The spontaneity state is a distinct psychological entity.
... For “state” motivates often not only an internal process, but
also a social, external relationship, that is, a correlation with the
“state” of another creating person.
Psicodrama p. 86
... Spontaneous states are of short duration, extremely eventful,
sometimes crowded with inspirations. I defined them then as bits
of time, the smallest units of time. It is the form of time which is
actually lived by an individual, not only perceived or
constructed.
Psicodrama p. 283
... We decided to let the subject act as if he had no past, and were
not determined by an organic structure; to describe what occurs
with the subject in these moments in terms of action; to stick to
the evidence as it emerges before our eyes, and to derive out
working hypotheses from it exclusively. The starting point was
the state into which the subject threw himself for the purpose of
expression. He threw himself into it at will. There was no past
image guiding him, at least not consciously. There was no
striving in him to repeat a past performance or to surpass it. He
warmed up to a state of feeling often jerkily and inadequately.
He showed a sense of relationship to people and things around
him. After a few moments of tension came relaxation and pause,
the anti-climax. We called this state the Spontaneity State…
Psychodrama v. 1 pp. 83-84 (notes)
411
Psicodrama p. 134 (nota suplementar)
Yet how is it possible to arrive at a systematic viewpoint for
the training of an organism in spontaneity? The “learning to be
spontaneous” presupposes an organism which is able to sustain a
flexible state more of less permanently, and this is apparently in
discord with many psychological theories. However, we resorted
to the point of view suggested by pure naiveté. ... We decided to
let the subject act as if he had no past, and were not determined
by an organic structure; to describe what occurs with the subject
in these moments in terms of action; to rely upon the evidence as
it emerges before our eyes, and to derive our working
hypotheses from it exclusively.
The starting point was the state into which the subject threw
himself for the purpose of expression. He threw himself into it at
will. There was no past image guiding him, at least not
consciously.
... We called this process the Spontaneity State.
Psicodrama p. 182
Our first objective in this training is the achievement of the
Spontaneity State. This state is a distinctive psychophysiological
condition; it may described for instance as your
condition when as a poet you feel an impulse to write or in the
case of a business man you feel when the great Idea takes hold
of you; it is the moment of Love, of Invention, of Imagination, of
Worship, of Creation.
That which, for the legitimate actor, is the point of departure
– the spoken word – is for the spontaneity player the end stage.
The spontaneity player begins with the spontaneity state.
Rosa Cukier
412
SPONTANEITY/TEST
In its preparatory phase, the spontaneity theatre becomes a
psycho-technical laboratory. The director prepares the ground
for the productions; this phase of the work is strictly exploratory.
He sets up the various experimental or test situations. The
patterns which the actors set out to produce are either situations
and roles which they themselves wish to produce and which they
may have within themselves at some degree of development, or
situations and roles for which they have little or no experience. If
such tests of spontaneous actors are made in a large number of
situations and roles, then a graduated scale can be constructed
which will show their comparative degrees of spontaneity and
readiness for different situations and roles. The material gained
from such spontaneity tests can be used for diagnostic
interpretation and as an opening for the development of the
spontaneity of individuals in the functions, roles and situations
which have been found to be in a rudimentary state – a sort of
training in spontaneity.
Many hundreds of spontaneity tests were made in this
laboratory and many hundreds of productions were presented
before and in collaboration with audiences. Day by day the
results of these tests were interpreted and analyzed. This led to a
mass of systematic knowledge in preparation for a theory of
spontaneity and creativity which could be based upon actual
experiments. It led further to the invention of methods and
techniques which could increase the resourcefulness and skill of
the individual, a process which is called spontaneity training.
413
The spontaneity test places an individual in a standard life
situation which calls for definite fundamental emotional
reactions, called spontaneity states, as fear, anger, etc. If
permitted to expand they turn into role playing.
... The second test meeting this demand is the spontaneity and
roleplaying test. Here is a standard life situation which the
subject improvises to his own satisfaction.
The Spontaneity Test is able to uncover feelings in their
nascent, initial state. Through it the tester can get a better
knowledge of the genuine responses an individual may develop
in the course of conduct and perceive acts in the moment of their
performance. ... It is methodically important to treat “acts as
parts of an actor” in conjunction with the products of his acting.
The purpose of the spontaneity test, in this application is to
explore the range and intensity of the spontaneity of individuals
in their exchange of emotions.
... The subject is instructed as follows: “throw yourself into a
state of emotion towards X. The precipitating emotion may be
either anger, fear, sympathy or dominance. Develop any
situation you like to produce with her, expressing this particular
emotion, adding to it anything which is sincerely felt by you at
this time.
Rosa Cukier
414
SPONTANEITY/TEST/AUDIENCE
The audiences consists of a jury of three, two recorders, and
auxiliary egos. The situation consists of events which require a
series of emerging responses as follows:...
Psicodrama p. 145
SPONTANEITY/TEST/PROCEDURE
Test procedure. The following test contains a series of
emergencies in which appropriateness, a form of spontaneity, is
bound to operate....
Put a subject into a life situation and see how he acts. ... In
other words, there are two types of events taking place on the
stage – actual events (he sees, touches, and moves a desk, a
telephone, or a broom; he encounters auxiliary egos in specific
roles) and ordered events (fire has not broken out but he has to
act as if it would be true).
Psicodrama p. 144
SPONTANEITY/TEST/SAMPLE
... From more than three hundred individuals tested, a few
individuals are selected here for illustration. They have nearly
the same sociometric status, as measured by sociometric tests.
Their intelligence quotients range from 75 to 130.
Psicodrama p. 144
SPONTANEITY/THEORIES ABOUT
415
place for the moment. … But without the moment as locus
Soon after, almost on his heels but obviously independent of
Bergson, Charles Saunders Peirce, founder of pragmatism, made
astonishing references to spontaneity… “…what is spontaneity?
It is the character of not resulting by law from something
antecedent. … I don’t know what you can make out of the
meaning of spontaneity, but newness, freshness and diversity.”
… Like Bergson, Peirce was a spectator-philosopher, not an
actor-philosopher.
PsicodramaEspanhol p. 31
Psicodrama p. 58
SPONTANEITY/TRAINING
... Spontaneity training leads to a form of learning which aims at
a greater unity and energy of personality than heretofore
accomplished by other educational methods. The primary
objective is the training in spontaneous states and not the
learning of contents. Emphasis upon contents results in the split
of the individual into an act personality and a content
personality. We have found it a valuable hypothesis to assume
that two different memory “centers” develop, an act center and a
content center, which continue, in general, as separate structures
without connection.
Rosa Cukier
416
Psicodrama p. 191
... Conditions of high cultural and technological organization
coincide alarmingly with increased immobility of thought and
action.
This also explains why actors of the legitimate theatre and
their dramatists are rarely able to do any spontaneity work. For
the presentation of spontaneous states and spontaneity ideas,
individuals are required who have undergone a specific training.
This training will produce people who have learned rapidly to
embody their own inspirations and to react rapidly to those of
others.
We introduced precisely such situations as might arise in
relations of this sort in order that conduct in these situations
might be improved through incorporating functions relating to
them into plays.
Therefore, the objective of a spontaneity theory of learning
is to develop and sustain a spontaneous and flexible personality
make-up. A technique of Spontaneity Training as described has
to come to the rescue to offset the resignation and inertia of the
individual.
A series of life situations calling for the embodiment of
specific states and roles is constructed. This series is not
arbitrary but organized upon the basis of the findings of the
sociometric and Spontaneity Tests in relation to the specific
individual under training. Each of the situation-patterns is
417
constructed through several phases ranging from the simplest
possible form of a given situation-pattern through the more
complex forms to the most highly differentiated, all carefully
graduated according to the requirements of the subject.
... The system of spontaneity training has an aim which differs
from legitimate, dramatic rehearsing. The memory of the player
should be so trained that he has a reservoir of “freedom”, as a
large a number of variable motions as possible ready, so that he
has many alternative responses at his disposal, enabling him to
choose among them the most fitting response to the situation
facing him.
Spontaneity research has disclosed that spontaneity is not a
mystic and irrational factor, but a capacity with which all men
are endowed and which can be tested and trained. The problem
of learning becomes one of not inducing and conserving habits
but to train spontaneity, to train and develop man to the habit of
spontaneity.
... The actor must therefore learn to unchain himself from old
clichés. By means of exercises in spontaneity he must learn how
to make himself free gradually from habit formations. He must
store in his body as large a number of motions possible to be
called forth easily by means or an emerging idea.
Rosa Cukier
418
Yet how is it possible to arrive at a systematic viewpoint for
the training of an organism in spontaneity? The “learning to be
spontaneous” presupposes an organism which is able to sustain a
flexible state more of less permanently, and this is apparently in
discord with many psychological theories. However, we resorted
to the point of view suggested by pure naiveté. … We decided to
let the subject act as if he had no past, and were not determined
by an organic structure; to describe what occurs with the subject
in these moments in terms of action; to rely upon the evidence as
it emerges before our eyes, and to derive our working
hypotheses from it exclusively.
The starting point was the state into which the subject threw
himself for the purpose of expression. He threw himself into it at
will. There was no past image guiding him, at least not
consciously.
... We called this process the Spontaneity State.
Psicodrama p. 182
SPONTANEITY/WARMING UP PROCESS
... There are many more Michaelangelos born than the one who
painted the great paintings, many more Beethovens born than the
one who wrote the great symphonies, and many more Christ
born than the one who became the Jesus of Nazareth. What they
have in common are the creative ideas, motivation, intelligence,
skill and education. What separates them in the spontaneity
which, in the successful cases, enables the carrier to take full
command of the resources whereas the failures are at a loss with
all their treasures; they suffer from deficiencies in their
warming-up process.
Psicodrama p. 142
419
STAGE
STAGE/DIVÃ
SEE IN
Psicodrama (Spanish) pp. 349-360
When I entered a theatre I knew that it had moved far astray
from its primordial form. Therefore, after I had constructed a
stage for the new theatre which was to give mankind a sort of
dramatic religion, many asked by whom I had been influenced to
build a stage of such dimensions, one which is placed in the
center instead of the periphery; one which permits movement
unlimited instead of limited; one which is open to all sides
instead of in front; one which has the whole community around
it, instead of only a part; one which has the form of a circle
instead of a square; one which moves up in vertical dimension,
instead of maintaining a single level. The stimulus was not the
stage of Shakespeare or the stage of the Greeks, I had taken the
model from nature itself.
The strict separation between the stage and audience is the
marked characteristic of the legitimate theatre.
... With the dissolution of the contrast between players and
spectators, however, the total space becomes a field of
production. Every part of it must reflect the principle of
spontaneity; no part of it can remain excluded. In the center of
the space is built the stage of the spontaneous actors. It is not
built at the back of one end of the space, hidden like the peepshow
stage, but it is built so that all its parts can be seen from all
Rosa Cukier
420
seats. It is not built in the depth and left there down on the
ground, but it is erected in the vertical dimension. It is raised. Its
back is not protected by backdrops, it does not look for help and
defenses in the rear, it has nothing to fall back on. From the
central stage steps lead up and down in an amphi-theatrical form.
They lead to the special stages which are built within the
auditorium itself, on every level of the amphitheatre, ready to be
used by spectator-actors who may enter into dramatic action. In
the theatre for spontaneity the whole community is present.
... The first rule which I postulated for new theatrical
construction was that all events on the stage should be clearly
visible from every part of the audience. Therefore the
construction of the “round” stage (or circular stage), the
elimination of the “Guck Kasten Buehne” (peepshow stage).
Another consequence was the “open” stage, open on all sides,
the actor had no escape to turn to, no curtain in front and no
backstage, he was thrown into space and had to act there. The
emphasis was therefore on spontaneity, on the warming up, and
the movement on the stage. Everything which occurred
previously backstage now occurred before the eyes of the public.
... The first instrument is the stage. Why a stage? It provides the
actor with a living space which is multi-dimensional and flexible
to the maximum. The living space of reality is often narrow and
restraining, he may easily lose his equilibrium. On the stage he
may find it again due to its methodology of freedom – freedom
from unbearable stress and freedom for experience and
expression. The stage space is an extension of life beyond the
reality test of life itself. Reality and fantasy are not in conflict,
but both are functions within a wider sphere – the
psychodramatic world of objects, persons and events. In its logic
421
the ghost of Hamlet’s father is just as real and permitted to exist
as Hamlet himself. Delusions and hallucinations are given flesh
– embodiment on the stage – and an equality of status with
normal sensory perceptions. The architectural design of the stage
is made in accord with operational requirements. Its circular
forms and levels of the stage, levels of aspiration, pointing out
the vertical dimension, stimulate relief from tensions and permit
mobility and flexibility of action. The locus of a psychodrama, if
necessary, may be designated everywhere, wherever the subjects
are, the field of battle, the classroom or the private home. The
ultimate resolution of deep mental conflicts requires an objective
setting, the psychodramatic theatre.
STAGE
Please research on
Psychodrama, v. 1, pp.162-276
Psicodrama Spanish, pp. 349-360
Psicodrama Portuguese, pp. 319-332
... Putting a platform or a stage in the room, or designating a
special area for production, gave “official” license to a tacitly
accepted practice. It was then understood by the group that when
its deep emotions were striving for dramatic expression, this
place could be used for production. The stage is not outside but
inside of the group.
... The living space of reality is often narrow and restraining; he
may easily lose his equilibrium. On the stage he may find it
again, due to its methodology of freedom – freedom from
unbearable stress and freedom for experience and expression.
The stage space is an extension of life beyond the reality test of
life itself. Reality and fantasy are not in conflict, but both are
Rosa Cukier
422
functions within a wider sphere – the psychodramatic world of
objects, persons and events. ... The stage’s circular forms and
levels – levels of aspiration – point up to the vertical dimension,
stimulate relief from tensions and permit mobility and flexibility
of action. High above the stage is the balcony level from where
the megalomaniac, the Messiah, the hero, communicates with
the group. The space surrounding the stage is designed to
contain the group.
STAGE/HISTORY
There was a relationship traceable from the open, circular
stage of the Stegreiftheater, to the Russian experiments of
Wachtangow, Tairow, and Mayerhold. The difference between
my own stage construction and those of the Russians was that
their stages, however revolutionary in form, were still dedicated
to the rehearsed production, being therefore revolutionary in
external expression and in content of the drama, whereas the
revolution which I advocated was complete, including the
audience, the actors, the playwright and producers, in other
words, the people themselves, and not only forms of
presentation. In consequence the forms of the Russian stage
architecture were somewhere between the two extremes, the old
Guck Kasten Buehne on one side and the open vertical and
central stage of the Stegreiftheater on the other.
El Teatro de la Esponatneidad pp. 166-167
The influences upon my own ideas did not come primarily
from the theatre; my Leitmotiv were the free open spaces in
which I moved and played with children, and an attempt to
duplicate these free open spaces by means of architecture.
Hence, the freedom of movement permitted by the stage, its
openness, its central position and its vertical dimension. I found
423
later historical parallels in certain forms of the Greek stage rather
than in the Shakespearean.
The first model of the stage was built under my direction by
Paul Honigsfeld and Peter Gorian, exhibited at the Internationale
Ausstellung Neuer Theatertechnik in Vienna in 1924. *
El Teatro de la Esponatneidad p. 167
STANISLAVSKI
STANISLAVSKI/CONSERVE
... Stanislavski was an ardent protagonist of the drama conserve,
the drama of Shakespeare, Racine, Moliere and Checkov. It was
his highest ambition to reproduce the work of the playwright as
dynamically and perfectly as possible.
Psicodrama p. 88
SAME IN
... Just as Stanislavski was a conscious adherent of the drama
conserve we became conscious protagonists of the spontaneous
drama.
SAME IN
Psicodrama p. 89
STANISLAVSKI/FREUD
... The emphasis upon memories loaded with affect brings
Stanislavski in curious relation to Freud. Freud, too, tried to
make his patient more spontaneous just as Stanislavski tried to
Rosa Cukier
424
make his actors more spontaneous in the acting of conserved
roles. Like Stanislavski, Freud tried to evoke the actual
experience of the subject but also he preferred intensive
experiences of the past to the moment – for a different
application however – for the treatment of mental disturbances.
Psicodrama p. 88
STANISLAVSKI/IMPROVISATION/AS A PRIMARY
PRINCIPLE
The theatre for Spontaneity has no relation to the so-called
Stanislavski method. Improvisation in this method is
supplementary to the aim of playing a great Romeo or a great
King Lear. The element of spontaneity is here to serve the
cultural conserve, to revitalize it. The method of improvisation,
as a primary principle, to be developed systematically in spite of
the conserve and the serving it consciously was outside of
Stanislavski’s domain.
... He limited the factor of spontaneity to the re-activation of
memories loaded with affect. This approach tied improvisation
to a past experience instead of the moment. But as we know it
was the category of the moment which gave the spontaneity
work and the psychodrama its fundamental revision and
direction.
SAME IN
Psicodrama p. 88
There is a superficial relationship between psychodrama and
Stanislavski`s method. However, whereas Stanislavski used
improvisation partially in order to perfect the performance, I
permitted, even encouraged imperfection in order to attain total
spontaneity.
425
The Theater of Spontaneity, p. c
El Teatro de la Espontaneidad, p. 16
O teatro da Espontaneidad, p. 11
STARTER
... Bodily movements were found to follow one another in a
certain order of succession according to which starter initiates
the warming up. If the succession is interrupted the temporal
order is spoiled and the state of feeling released is confused.
STARTER/BODILY STARTERS
... Our experimental study of the warming up process as it
develops into an act led us first to the observation of warming up
indicators. These are not social and mental signs only but also
physiological signs, altered breathing rate, gasping, crying,
smiling, clenching the teeth, etc. The bodily starters of any
behavior as acting or speaking on the spur of the moment are
characterized by physiological signs.
STARTER/ECONOMIC STARTER
... The economic starter, however, arouses different responses in
different people. As there are fast groups, - fast workers, fast
eaters, there are also slow groups, - slow workers, and slow
eaters. In the realm of creativity, there are fast and slow creators.
... An important work may remain unfinished because its creator
is inclined to drag his warming-up process on and on so that he
misses the psychological moment for ending the work. It is here
that the economic starters play a catalytic role. The great effect
of contract and piece work in manual labor for accelerating
production is taken as a matter of course. ... The enormous
production of the great masters of the renaissance is not so much
related to a greater productivity than many modern artists
Rosa Cukier
426
possess, as to the fact that certain nobles of that period assigned
them to a certain task to be finished in a given time – a contract
work.
STARTER/MENTAL STARTER
Secondly, we experimented with the intentional production
of specific results, for instance, certain perceptions, certain acts
or roles, or certain emotional states. In this experiment a mental
starter replaces the bodily starters. The subject is conscious of a
goal and told to produce a certain state, for instance, “throw
yourself into the state of anger”. Now he knows his goal ahead.
The more successful the subject is in throwing himself into the
desired state the better coordinated to the state will be the verbal
and the mimic associations produced (adequate state).
STARTER/RELATIONSHIP STARTER
... But even he11 placed into a spontaneous play, falls victim to
the technique of warming up the more genuine his performance.
The reason for this can be explained. The motive in actual life
when we warm up to an emotional state is usually another
person’s behavior. But in an extemporaneous play this motive is
missing, the fictitious partner being too weak a substitute. To
start the warming up of an emotion a special effort is needed
which is the greater the simpler the emotions,...
11 Author’s note: Moreno means the actor in scene
427
STARTER/THERAPEUTIC IMAGES
The aim or our retraining is to arouse and increase the
spontaneity of the reproducing musician. Therapeutic images are
simply one method which can be used to advantage. ... The
method of activating images is only a crutch to aid the musician
or the pupil in the process of learning to be spontaneous.
STATUS
STATUS/LEADERS
... If it comes to estimating, therefore, which individual wields
more power in the community, the number of attractions and
rejections an individual has does not alone figure, but who are
the choosing and rejecting ones and what expansion range their
networks have. In other words, we arrive here to the problem of
classifying leadership.
STATUS/NASCENDI
... The primary moment of creation is the status nascendi.
... The status nascendi is seldom also a perfect state. The earlier
attempts spring from the same inspiration as the final stage. The
design is not a fragment; the whole work is contained in it. ...
But he goes on “correcting” until it is finished. It is his code to
bring his work as closely as possible to some ideal of perfection
that he sets up. The author, like the wicked father in the fairy
tale, has no mercy on his own children. He kills the first born for
the benefit of the last born.
The early forms of a given work are normally not known to
the world.
Rosa Cukier
428
Psicodrama p. 87
STATUS NASCENDI/LOCUS/MATRIX
“In a philosophy of the Moment three factors to be
emphasized: the locus, the status nascendi, and the matrix. These
represent three views of the same process. There is no ‘thing’
without its locus, no locus without its status nascendi, and no
status nascendi without its matrix. The locus of a flower, for
instance, is in the bed where it is growing. Its status nascendi is
that of a growing thing as it springs from the seed. Its matrix is
the fertile seed, itself. Every human act or performance has a
primary action-pattern – a status nascendi. An example is the
performance of eating which begins to develop the role of the
eater in every infant soon after birth. The pattern of gestures and
movements leading up to the state of satiation is, in this instance,
the warming-up process”. See Moreno, J. L., “Foundations of
Sociometry”, Sociometry, vol. 4, no 1, 1941. These principles
can be applied to the origin of the human organism. The locus
nascendi is the placenta in the mother’s womb; the status
nascendi is the time of conception. The matrix nascendi is the
fertilized egg from which the embryo develops. The initial phase
of a living process has been greatly neglected as compared with
more advanced phases and the terminal phase. It has been a chief
contribution of spontaneity and creativity research that the
conception process of, for instance, the Ninth Symphony of
Beethoven is of, at least equal, if not greater, importance than the
“birth” of the work. When dealing with a living organism, we
are turning our attention from the level at birth back to the level
of conception itself. Methods for the direct study of the embryo
in its intra-uterine environment are coming nearer to the orbit of
technical fulfillment. Motion pictures of embryonic life
throughout the nine months of pregnancy are necessary in order
that we may get a view of his responses from stage to stage. It
429
photography.
STATUS/SOCIOMETRIC STATUS/EXPOSITION TO
INJURY
27. The lower the sociometric status of individuals the more are
they exposed to injury from the powerful members and cliques
of the group.
STATUS/SOCIOMETRIC STATUS/OPERATIONAL
DEFINITION
Sociometric status, operational definition: the number of times
an individual has been chosen by other individuals as a preferred
associate for all activities in which they are engaged at the time
of the test. It is obtained by adding the number of choices each
individual receives on each criterion.
STATUS/SOCIOMETRIC STATUS/PARTIALITY
33. Sociometric status is related to a concrete and specific group
only, it does not suggest universal status or universal acceptance.
STATUS/SOCIOMETRIC STATUS/STABILIZATION
23. Stabilization of sociometric status is gradual, there is an early
period during which individuals alter their choices frequently; ...
... It develops from early mobility to final stabilization, a) in
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430
proportion to the number of contacts made, and b) if the
membership and size of the group remains constant.
STATUS/SOCIOMETRIC STATUS/VERBAL EXCHANGE
10. Interaction Hypotheses.
The verbal “exchange” of an individual in interaction with others
is an index of his sociometric status in the reference group.
11. The ratio of the volume of words given and received by
individuals with whom he is involved in significant situations of
their reference group increases or decreases in proportion with
his sociometric status. If an individual is an isolate or neglected
individual in the reference group the volume of words he will
speak will be low in comparison with that of his sociometric
partners who reject of isolate him. The higher the sociometric
status of an individual, the larger will be the volume of words
which is expected and accepted from him by other members of
the group. The lower the sociometric status of individuals, the
lower is the volume of words expected and accepted from them
by other members in the group.
12. The higher the sociometric status of an individual, the more
frequently he will be permitted to assume initiative in situations;
the lower his sociometric status, the less frequently will initiative
from him be expected and accepted. The higher the sociometric
status of an individual, the more frequently will be terminate and
conclude a situation; the lower his sociometric status the less
frequently will he terminate and conclude a situation.
431
15. Indifference and apathy in the verbal communication of an
individual towards aggressive verbal behavior of others in a
given situation is a clue to a persistently poor sociometric status.
STATUS/SOCIOMETRIC STATUS/VOLUME OF
INTERACTIONS
30. Sociometric status and volume of interaction within a group
are related. The higher the sociometric status of an individual the
more frequently will he interact with members of the group.
1. The sociometric status of an individual is defined by the
quantitative index of choices, rejections and indifferences
received in the particular group studied.
1. The sociometric status of an individual rises when the
individual with whom he is connected by positive tele relations
have a higher sociometric status.
9. With every change in the sociometric status of an individual a
change in his behavior within the life setting is indicated.
10. Interaction Hypotheses.
Rosa Cukier
432
The verbal “exchange” of an individual in interaction with
others is an index of his sociometric status in the reference
group.
STUTTERING
The trembling is a form of musical stuttering. It can be
diagnosed as a performance neurosis or a neurosis of creativity.
It is not stage fright. ... The constellation of his mental syndrome
is the product of many factors. Some of these are the
organization of the cultural milieu in which he lives, a
maladjustment to the violin, a maladjustment to musical
conserves, and a maladjustment to his audiences.
Psicodrama p. 355
... There are several methods by which one can learn to mobilize
easy transfer, for instance, the improvisation of senseless
manufactured words and phrases in the treatment of stutterers.
... It is a method in “deconserving” the learner’s mind, gradual
removal of clichés and training his spontaneity. One area of
application is stuttering. It moves the stutterer from the semantic
to the presemantic level of speech. ... This chaotic, spontaneous,
freely emerging language I have called “basic language” as it
has some similarity to the baby languages of the infant.
433
SUBJECTIVISM/OBJECTIVISM
We sociometrists have emphasized since our early days that
the human being in his total subjectivism has to be made part
and parcel of scientific analysis in order to provide the
investigator with a complete phenomenological account of what
takes place in the human situation. We have demonstrated that if
subjectivism is taken seriously, it assumes a “quasi-objectivistic”
character which lends the phenomena to “measurement”. ... One
is the utterly subjectivistic and existentialistic situations of the
subject; the order is the objective requirements of the scientific
method. The question is how to reconcile the two extreme
positions. Sociometry and psychodrama have defined this
methodological problem and have tried to solve it. “Existential
validation” pays homage to the fact that any experience may be
reciprocally satisfactory at the time of the consummation, here
and now.
SUICIDE/TO COMMIT SUICIDE
... But if he makes nonacting out a rule, the patient may kill
himself the next day, and so he may not return to the next
psychoanalytic hour, except in the form of an obituary note from
the relatives. If acting out does take place during the session and
if the episode is not properly carried out by the therapist, this, of
course, also can be harmful to the patient. So the crux of the
matter is that acting out be tolerated and allowed to take place
within a setting which is safe for execution and under the
guidance of therapists who are able to utilize the experience.
May be that some technical apparatus will be forthcoming in the
photography.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. x Introduction to 3rd edition
Psicodrama Espanhol p. 95 não há
Rosa Cukier
434
SULLIVAN
... I formulated my theory of interpersonal relations several years
before Sullivan began to write on the subject. ... Sullivan’s
inventiveness was handicapped. He produced a theoretic
skeleton but he could not implement it with clinical operations of
his own.
SURPLUS REALITY
It can well be said that the psychodrama provides the patient
with a new and more extensive of reality, a “surplus reality “, a
gain which at least in part justifies the sacrifice he made by
working through a psychodramatic production.
Psychotherapy, Beacon House, nº1, v. iii, April 1950, p.4.
... It can well be said that the psychodrama provides the subject
with a new and more extensive experience of reality, a
“surplus” reality, a gain which at least in part justifies the
sacrifice he made by working through a psychodramatic
production.
SURPRISE
... This may perhaps be so because, in the civilization of
conserves which we have developed, spontaneity is far less used
and trained than, for instance, intelligence and memory. The
sense for spontaneity, as a cerebral function, shows a more
rudimentary development than any other important, fundamental
function of the central nervous system. This may explain the
astonishing inferiority of men when confronted with surprise
tactics.
435
The study of surprise tactics in the laboratory shows the
flexibility or the rigidity of individuals when faced with
unexpected incidents. Taken by surprise, people act frightened or
surprise.
“The sense for spontaneity, as a cerebral function, shows a
more rudimentary development than any other important,
fundamental function of the central nervous system. This may
explain the astonishing inferiority of men confronted with
surprise tactics. ... Taken by surprise, people act frightened or
surprise.
photography.
Psicodrama p. 97
... Particularly significant was the situation in which I placed him
after my comments. He was taken by surprise and so he was like
a subject in a psychodramatic test. He had to counter
spontaneously, he had to improvise his comments without
preparation.
Who Shall Survive? p. xlviii Preludes
Rosa Cukier
436
T
TECHNIQUE (SEE PSYCHODRAMATIC TECHNIQUE)
TECHNOLOGY
In a technological era like ours, the fate and future of the
spontaneity principle as a major pattern of culture and living
may depend on good fortune in tying it up with technological
devices.
Psicodrama p. 464
TECHNOLOGY/TECHNOLOGICAL DEVICES
Among the technological devices capable of expression, one
can differentiate between two types: the one which is designed
specially to transmit cultural conserves and includes such items
as the book, the gramophone and the motion picture; and the
other type which includes the “neutral” devices of radio and
television, which do not enforce the production of conserves, as
do those of the first type. By “neutral” we mean that they are
sufficiently flexible to transmit both conserves and spontaneous
forms of expression. They are not at least to start with,
mechanical barriers to the presentation of spontaneity.
TELE
TELE/ARISTOTELE
Aristotle is defined as a feeling process in which numerous
persons take part but which is profoundly affected by an
individual who is apparently in no position of special influence
of popularity. He is the true focus of influence.
Espanhol p. 327 (notas)
437
... We know from previous work with sociometry about the
existence of strictly aristo-telic structures* in which a creative
individual influences, through the media of several powerful
leaders, the total community.
... The form which the one tele going from the individual A to
the individual B takes can be said to be aristocratic, an aristotele.
Such an aristo-tele has often turned the cultural and political
history of a people, as in the instance of Socrates and Plato, or
Nietzsche and Wagner, or Marx and La Salle.
TELE/AUTOTELE
relationship of every role to itself. The original “auto-tele” is
Psychotherapy and Psychodrama”, Beacon House, v. xxvii,
nº 1-4, 1974, p. 16
A more thorough consideration of the position of the
individual within his social atom suggests considering him also
in relationship to himself. … The gap between him as he is and
acts and between the picture he has of himself is growing.
Finally it appears as if he had, besides his real ego, an old side
Rosa Cukier
438
ego which he gradually extrojects. Between the ego and his
extrojections a peculiar feeling relationship develops with may
be called “auto” – tele.
The shape of the extrojections can be amorphous or clear-cut
and sharp. It may have a close material resemblance to the real
ego, or ie may be a variation of it in some degree. It may be
contrasting or even contrary.
Moreno, J. L. “Psychodramtic shock Therapy” in “Group
º 1-4, 1974, p. 4.
... Then I looked through the bibliographies and references of all
the people who quoted them. The following know sociometric
symbols were used as references: quoting himself equals self
attraction or autotele; being quoted equals attraction or chosen
by; quoting equals attracted to or choosing; unquoted equals
unchosen; unfavorable, critical reference or footnote equals
rejection; discontinued quotation and reference equals
emphasized indifference; mutual quotation equals a dyadic
relation or a pair; a quoting clique is a number of individuals
quoting each other or persistent in no quoting certain other
individuals.
F) The patient, as a part of his sickness, feels himself into
delusionary and hallucinated events and persons. This
phenomenon has been called “autotele”. The alter ego has to
follow the patient in this difficult task.
439
TELE/BEGINNINGS
a) Another problem arose in the case of several players sharing
in a situation: when should one player begin to speak his
part, to move, to take the role, how long should he continue
with it, and when should he stop; and, in turn, the
corresponding responses of the other players. It is obvious
that this kind of reasoning is largely theoretical. In the
practice of spontaneity the beginning of action of one or
another player is determined by a certain presence of mind* -
this is more than what is usually called intuition.
... There are players who are connected with one another by an
invisible correspondence of feelings, who have a sort of
heightened sensitivity for their mutual inner processes. One
gesture is sufficient and often they do not have to look at one
another, they are telepathic for one another. They communicate
through a new sense, as if by a “medial” understanding.
... Our chief hypothesis was, therefore, the existence of and the
degree to which a hypothetical factor, tele operates in the
formation of groupings, from dyads and triangles to groups of
any size.
TELE/COGNITIVE VERSUS CONATIVE TELE
I frequently encountered in the sociograms individuals who
receive a large number of choices but whose own choices remain
unreciprocated; as a consequence, they feel isolated and lonely.
In the analysis of such cases one finds that they operate in their
choice-making with a high feeling of affection for the
Rosa Cukier
440
individuals they are choosing, but with little awareness as to
their feelings towards him; they have also little awareness for the
individuals who chose them but whom they do not choose. It
appears that at the time of making important choices their
conative tele is high, their cognitive tele is low. I submitted such
individuals to role testing in sociodramatic sessions and
discovered that their perception of the social roles in which the
individuals chosen by them performed, was weak, out of
proportion with the feeling of admiration and awe they had for
these statuses and roles and for the individuals embodying them.
In other words, they disclosed a disturbance on the role level, a
high level of role enactment versus a low level of role
perception; parallel to the conflict shown on the interpersonal
level, a high conative tele versus a low cognitive tele.
We have know for some time that tele has, besides a
conative also a cognitive aspect and that both enter into the
choices and rejections made.
TELE/DEFINITIONS
Tele is defined as a feeling process projected into space and
time in which one, two, or more persons may participate. It is an
experience of some real factor in the other person and not a
subjective fiction. It is rather an inter-personal experience and
not the affect of a single person. It is the feeling basis of intuition
and insight. It grows out of person-to-person and person-toobject
contacts from the birth level on and gradually develops
the sense for inter-personal relationships. The tele process is
considered, therefore, the chief factor in determining the position
of an individual in the group.
Psychodrama v. 1 pp. 238-239 (footnote)
Psicodrama Espanhol pp. 322-323 (notas)
441
... The interpersonal response is called tele.
Psicodrama p. 132
...“The socio-gravitational factor which operates between
individuals, drawing them to form more positive or negative
pair-relations, triangles, quadrangles, polygons, etc., than on
chance, I have called ‘tele’ – derived from the Greek, the
meaning is ‘far’ or ‘distant’.
Psicodrama p. 135
... Tele is two-way empathy, like a telephone it has two ends.*
We are used to the notion that feelings emerge within the
individual organism and that they become attached more
strongly or more weakly to persons or things in the immediate
environment.
... The hypothesis that feelings, emotions or ideas can “leave” or
“enter” the organism appeared inconsistent with this concept. ...
If these feelings, emotions and ideas “leave” the organism,
where then can they reside?
... The tele phenomenon operates in all dimensions of
communication and it is therefore an error to reduce it to a mere
reflection and correspondent of the communication process via
language.
Rosa Cukier
442
TELE/DEVELOPMENT
... In the earliest phase of the matrix of identity, nearness and
distance are not yet differentiated by the infant. But gradually
the sense for nearness and distance develops and the infant
begins to be drawn towards persons and objects or to withdraw
from them. This is the first social reflex – indicating the
emergence of the tele-factor, and is the nucleus of the later
attraction-repulsion patterns and specialized emotions – in other
words, of the social forces surrounding the latter individual.
443
Psicodrama p. 119
TELE/GROUP TELE
In other words, there is tele already operating between
the members of a group from the first meeting. This weak,
“primary” cohesiveness can be utilized by the therapist toward
the development and sharing of common therapeutic aims.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. xx
Psicodrama p. 46
... The trend towards constancy of choice and consistency of
group pattern was also ascribed to tele.
TELE/INFRATELE
... In accord with this, therefore, I subdivided the area between
the tele level and the pure chance level into the infratele (farthest
from chance), empathy and transference levels.*
... She never failed to smile or to agree and he always felt
comfortable whenever she showed her approval of him. What we
may call tele-love is enduring and mutual acceptance of such
fundamental experiences. Many tele cues are not conscious at
the time of a first encounter, but an infra-tele may grow and
become a full tele.
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444
TELE/MUSICAL TELE
The musical position of one instrument corresponds to a
number of other definite musical positions which are interdependent;
their totality makes a symphony. The
interrelationship between two or more musical positions can be
called the musical tele.
Psicodrama p. 344
TELE/PSYCHOTHERAPY
The telic relationships between, therapist, auxiliary egos,
and the significant dramatis personae of the world which they
portray are crucial for the therapeutic progress.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. xi Introduction to 3rd edition
A minimum of tele structure and resulting cohesiveness of
interaction among the therapists and the patients is an
indispensable prerequisite for the ongoing therapeutic
psychodrama to succeed.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. xviii Introduction to 3rd edition
... I observed that when a patient is attracted to a therapist,
besides transference behavior, another type of behavior is taking
place in the patient. Let me repeat the words in which I
formulated my original observations in the paper on the
subject*: “The one process is the development of fantasies
(unconscious) which he projects upon the psychiatrist,
surrounding him with a certain glamour. At the same time,
another process takes place in him – that part of his ego which is
not carried away by auto-suggestion feels itself into the
physician. It sizes up the man across the desk and estimates
intuitively what kind of man he is. These feelings into the
445
actualities of this man, physical, mental or otherwise are “tele”
relations.
... In other words, a process which had operated from the start,
parallel to the charm produced by transference, is now coming
more strongly to the fore. He sees the patient now as she is. This
other process acting between two individuals has characteristics
missing in transference. It is called “tele”, feeling into one
another. It is “Zweifühlung” in difference from “Einfühlung”.
Like a telephone it has two ends and facilitates two-way
communication. It is know that many therapeutic relations
between physician and patient, after a phase of high enthusiasm
from both sides, fade out and terminate, often for some
emotional reason. The reason is frequently a mutual
disillusionment when the transference charm is gone and the tele
attraction is not sufficiently strong to promise permanent
therapeutic benefits. It can be said that the stability of a
therapeutic relationship depends upon the strength of the tele
cohesion operating between the two participants.
TELE/RACIAL TELE
26. ... As age increases the differentiation of racial tele rises
rapidly from the level of no preference to the level of complete
self preference.
TELE/ROOTS OF THE NAME
The innumerable varieties of attractions, repulsions and
indifferences between individuals need a common denominator.
A feeling is directed from one individual towards another. It has
Rosa Cukier
446
to be carried into distance. Just as we use the words
teleperceptor, telencephalon, telephone, television, etc., to
express action at a distance, so to express the simplest unit of
feeling transmitted from one individual towards another we use
the term tele, tele em letras gregas, como colocar? “distant”.
Espanhol p. 211
... Tele (from the Greek: far, influence into distance) is feeling of
individuals into one another, the cement which holds groups
together. It is Zweifuhlung, in contrast to Einfuhlung. Like a
telephone, it has two ends and facilitates two-way
communication.
Psicodrama (Espanhol) p. não há
TELE/SEXUAL TELE
26. Tele develops with the age of individuals and of groups; it is
weak and undifferentiated in young children. Differentiation
takes many forms. As ages increases the differentiation of sexual
tele rises rapidly. As ages increases the differentiation of racial
tele rises rapidly from the level of no preference to the level of
complete self preference.
TELE/SIXTY SENSE/HEIGHTENED SENSITIVITY
On the legitimate stage our five senses seem to suffice, in
spontaneous interplay a sixth sense is developed more and more
for the partner’s feelings.
Gradually a trained ensemble can refrain from using all the
techniques of communication which I have described and rely on
the medial factor which guides his mind to anticipate his
partner’s ideas and actions. There are players who are connected
with one another by an invisible correspondence of feelings, who
447
have a sort of heightened sensitivity for their mutual inner
processes.
... In the Stegreif (spontaneity) experiment we could observer
that some individuals have a certain sensitivity for each other, as
if they were chained together by a common soul. When they
warm up to a state, they “click”. It often was not the language
symbol which stimulated them. When the analysis of each
individual apart from the other failed to give adequate clues for
this “affinity” we could not avoid considering the possibility of a
“social” physiology – internal tensional maladjustments which
corresponding organs in different individuals bring into
adjustment. At a certain point man emancipated from the animal
not only as a species but also as a society. And it is within this
society that the most important “social” organs of man develop.
The degree of attraction and repulsion of one person towards
others suggests a point of view by means of which an
interpretation of the evolution of the social organs can be given.
... The attractions and repulsions, or the derivatives of these,
between individuals, can thus be comprehended as surviving
reflections, as a distant, a “tele” effect of a socio-physiological
mechanism. ... It seems to us a valuable working hypothesis to
assume that back of all social and psychological interactions
between individuals there must once have been and still are two
or more reciprocating physiological organs which interact with
each other. ... The attractions, repulsions and indifferences
which we find, therefore, oscillating from one individual to the
other, however varying the underlying factors, as fear, anger,
sympathy or complex collective representations, it may be
assumed, have a socio-physiological anchorage.
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448
It is more difficult to unravel the function of empathy in role
playing and psychodramatic situations. I have pointed out the
need for a wider concept when I first began to systematize the
experimental approach to group formation in statu nascendi. ...
“There are role players who are linked together by a secret bond.
They have a sort of sensitivity for each other’s reciprocal inner
processes, a gesture suffices and frequently they do not have to
look at one another. They are clairvoyant for one another. They
have a special sense for communication, a medial
understanding.”
TELE/SOCIAL ATOM
Even if one day the feeling complex, tele, should yield to
physical measurement, from a sociometric point of view this
feeling complex is separated only artificially from a larger
whole: it is a part of the smallest living unit of social matter we
can comprehend, the social atom.
... “Tele does not operate equally throughout the totality of an
individual’s social atom, but consists of an horizon in which
awareness is great, level of choice expenditure high, and
perception of inter-relationships accurate; and an unstructured
region, marked by tentative and token choices to which
reciprocation is hit-or-miss.
TELE/SOCIOMETRIC SELF-RATING
... In the beginning they hardly differentiated between the plan,
myself and the team of may co-workers. In this dilemma I
invented a sociometric technique devised to x-ray my own
449
situation, a technique which I later called “sociometric selfrating”
and projection. It was based on the assumption that every
individual intuitively has some intimation of the position he
holds in the group. By empathy he comes to know
approximately whether the flow of affection or antipathy for him
is rising or falling. I began to map out in my own mind, often
two or three times a day, the sociograms of the key groups upon
whom the success or failure of the project depended. I began to
sketch all the situations in which my co-workers and I were
involved at the time and in which role. Then I tried to clarify
how we felt towards each of these people. It was comparatively
easy to state my own preferences, choices or rejections, towards
the key individuals in the community. It was more difficult to
“guess” what everyone of these people felt towards me and my
plan and what reasons they might have. More difficult, but of the
greatest importance, was to guess how these people felt towards
each other. By a sort of highly trained empathy I succeeded in
picturing my own sociograms; they were a great aid in
preventing and countering attacks before they became
detrimental. This technique was particularly important, as it
trained my social intuition.
TELE/SPONTANEITY VERSUS CREATIVITY
... I am, therefore, inclined to conclude that tele needs a
catalyzer like spontaneity to be mobilized. The relation of
spontaneity to creativity has here a parallel, tele is “creatogenic”.
Espanhol p. 220
The tele factor is what is measured by sociometric tests. The
s factor is what is measured by spontaneity tests. The s factor
encourages new combinations beyond what genes actually
determine.
Rosa Cukier
450
... The tele factor is found to operate in every social structure,
but it is influenced by the s factor...
It is not expected from the hereditary units (genes) to
determine the relations between organisms is controlled by the
tele factor.
Psicodrama (Espanhol) pp. 90-91 –(notas)
TELE/TELE EFFECT
... On the inter-racial level, the attention which a man of the
Jewish minority receives from a German woman who happens to
be the center of admiration of numerous German men may
produce within the psychological networks a “tele” effect, that
is, a sociodynamic effect with consequences far beyond the two
persons and the immediate group of persons involved in the
matter.
TELE/TELE FACTOR
... The tele factor must, in its earliest form, be undifferentiated, a
matrix or identity tele; gradually, a tele for objects separates
itself from a tele for persons. A positive tele separates itself from
a negative tele, and a tele for real objects from a tele of imagined
objects.
Psicodrama p. 119
TELE/TELE MATRIX/ACTION MATRIX
It is probable that the material tapped by sociometric and
451
TELE/TELE VERSUS GENE
... Analogous to the biogenetic unit, the gene, the tele can be
conceived as the sociogenetic unit, facilitating the transmission
of our social heritage.
TELE/TRANSFERENCE/EMPATHY
Transference is the development of fantasies (unconscious)
which the patient projects upon the therapist, surrounding him
with a certain glamour. But there is another process which takes
place in the patient, in the part of his ego which is not carried
away by autosuggestion. It sizes up the therapist and estimates
intuitively what kind of a man he is. These feelings into the
immediate behavior of the therapist – physical, mental, or
otherwise – are tele relations.
... Tele is a primary, transference a secondary structure. ... It is
assumed that in the generic development of the infant tele
emerges prior to transference.
... Neither transference nor empathy could explain in a
satisfactory way the emergent cohesion of a social configuration
or the “double” experience in a psychodramatic situation. I
hypothecated therefore, that empathy and transference are parts
of a more elementary and more inclusive process, tele. ... I
defined it as “An objective social process functioning with
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452
transference as a psychopathological outgrowth and empathy as
esthetic outgrowth”... ... I defined tele as the factor responsible
for the increased rate of interaction between members of a
group, “for the increased mutuality of choices surpassing chance
possibility”.
Transference is defined as the psychopathological branch of
tele, empathy (Einfuehlung) as its emotional branch. Tele is a
social concept, it operates on the social plane; transference and
empathy are psychological concepts, they operate on the
individual plane.
The form of transference arising in the psychoanalytic
physician-patient situation is a by-product of tele dynamics, its
psycho-pathological outgrowth. Whereas tele structure
guarantees the stability and cohesion of the group, transference
threatens it with dissociation.
... We have seen from empathy tests that “Einfuehlung” and
choice coming from one side only may increase the
understanding and the love of the one for the other but it does
not necessarily lead to therapeutic results; but if empathy runs
both ways, from A to B as well as from B to A, then a condition
emerges which is superior to and inclusive of transference as
well as to empathy, it is the “tele” phenomenon.
453
... 3. Tele is the constant frame of reference for “all” forms and
methods of psychotherapy, including not only professional
methods of psychotherapy like psychoanalysis, psychodrama or
group psychotherapy, but also non-professional methods like
faith healing, or methods which have apparently no relation to
psychotherapy, like Chinese thought reform.
... I. Transference, like tele, has a cognitive as well as a conative
aspect. It takes tele to choose the right therapist and group
partner, it takes transference to misjudge the therapist and to
choose group partners who produce unstable relationships in a
given activity.
Hypothesis I: “The tele relation can be considered the
general interpersonal process of which transference is a special
psychopathological outgrowth”.
TELEVISION (SEE ALSO MASS-MEDIA)
Television is a medium in which interpersonal action of the
moment is the final desideratum.
A new opportunity for testing interpersonal productivity is
given in television broadcasting, since it can combine in a
unique fashion spontaneity of human interaction with the
flexibility of a technical instrument well attuned to such an
intent.
Psicomúsica y Sociodrama p. 222, Horme.
Rosa Cukier
454
Psicodrama p. 464
It is advisable to organize psychodramatic sessions to be
broadcast from a television station to the world. ... The director
of the audience or one of his audio egos should appear as the
mouthpiece of plaintiff. As in a psychodramatic session, after
each scene enacted on the stage a discussion with the audience is
interlude. From time to time an audio ego steps upon the stage,
representing one or another part of the audience in his interview
with the director.
Psicomúsica y Sociodrama pp. 245-246, Horme.
Psicodrama p. 481
TELEVISION/ADVANTAGES
The perfectionism in motion picture production pays
because a motion picture film is repeatable and can be shown in
many places at the same time or at different times. But television
production is not repeatable. It is instantaneous and
extemporaneous – transitory – and that is its full meaning. As
soon as one tries to make it repeatable it becomes like a film and
loses its central characteristic.
Psicomusica y Sociodrama, p. 224, Horme
Psicodrama p. 466
... indeed that the medium can thus become more vivid and rich
in content than it otherwise would be. In view of this aim, a
series of studies have been set up by us showing the applicability
of spontaneity methods to the technological medium of
television.
Psicodrama p. 466
TELEVISION/DIRECTOR
The primary concern of the program director is the direction
of the cameraman in the moving and changing of their cameras
455
so that the eye of the spectator is met by a pleasing and varied
continuum of camera angles.
Psicodrama p. 467
TELEVISION/FUTURE
The aim of television research should be to assist in a
gradual evolution from the present vague and inarticulated
broadcast conditions to conditions which bring the medium of
television to its most suitable spontaneous expression.
Psychodrama v.1 pp. 416-417
Psicodrama p. 478
TELEVISION/GRATITUDE
The authors are extremely grateful to Mr. Adrian Murphy,
Executive Director of Television of the Columbia Broadcasting
System, Inc., for the permission and the opportunity to be
present at a number of television broadcasts in the studios of the
Columbia Broadcasting System.
Psicomusica y Sociodrama p. 226, Horme (notas)
TELEVISION/LIMITATIONS
Thus, it cannot be assumed that the interpersonal situation
produced in a psychodramatic laboratory can automatically be
introduced into a television laboratory. Several extenuating
phenomena are introduced by the technological devices of
television: the interaction requirements of the personnel, the
integration of the technological personnel with the production
personnel, and, finally, the problem presented by the television
audience. The latter’s sense of appreciation is conditioned by the
highly perfected film and radio conserves, or to the smooth
production of a stage play. What they see in their receiving sets
will differ greatly in form, regularity and smoothness from what
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456
they have been used to seeing heretofore. Their sense of
appreciation will have to be trained along the lines of
spontaneous experience and production.
Psicomusica y Sociodrama pp. 240-241, Horme
TELEVISION/RESEARCH
The range of television research must consider the
following factors: (a) the director and his associates, (b) the
production, - technical and creative – and (c) the audience.
Psicodrama p. 478
TELEVISION/TECHNOLOGY/PSYCHODRAMA
The researches carried out in psychodramatic laboratories
have prepared the ground for similar studies which are modified
by the admixture of technological devices.
Psicodrama p. 474
TEST
TEST/ACQUAINTANCE TEST
The acquaintance test measures the volume of “social”
expansion of an individual, the range of his social contacts. ...
Acquaintances in the larger sense of the word are all the people
whom he knows face to face or people whom he knows
indirectly, for instance, via another individual or through
correspondence. As already pointed out, theoretically at least,
the place for an acquaintance test is at the very beginning of an
investigation, even ahead of the sociometric test.
457
A wider comprehension of the sociodynamic organization of
an atom came through the acquaintance test. The acquaintance
volume of a person is the first, crude indicator of the
expansiveness of an individual in making and retaining contacts
in a given community.
The acquaintance test measures the volume of “social”
expansion of an individual, the range of his social contacts. ...
Acquaintances in the larger sense of the word are all the people
whom he knows face to face or people whom he knows
indirectly, for instance, via another individual or through
correspondence. As already pointed out, theoretically at least,
the place for an acquaintance test is at the very beginning of an
investigation, even ahead of the sociometric test.
TEST/ACQUAINTANCE TEST/USES
Through the acquaintance test we learned if a social atom
has a rhythmic growth, reaches a high point, and then sinks to a
more or less average level; if it is in a phase of expansion or of
shrinkage; if it spreads according to the geographical location of
the individual’s cottage, from his cottage to the next, within his
work groups on to other collectives, or if it grows inconsistently
with these and erratically over the entire community; if it
becomes stationary after few weeks; if it becomes regressive
after a considerable rise; and finally, with which groups of the
community the individual becomes acquainted and whom he can
recall when the test is given.
Rosa Cukier
458
TEST/ACTION PERCEPTION TEST
I have constructed, similar to the sociometric perception test,
a psychodramatic perception test; it may also be called an
“action perception” test. In the first phase the subject is asked to
outline a series of crucial situations which he expects to
experience in the course of a given time (the next twenty-four
hours, a week, etc.), a meeting with his wife, his employer, his
child, etc. He is to describe how he expects to act in these
situations and how he expects these individuals to act towards
him. In the second phase he may be asked to act out the
situations without auxiliary egos, that is, acting all the parts
himself, presenting the conflicts which may ensue and the
solutions which are offered by himself or by his coprotagonists.
Whereas the sociometric perception test focusses on the
perception of feelings the psychodramatic perception test
focusses on the perception of action and interaction.
Fundamentos de la Sociometria p. 219 (notas)
TEST/QUOTATION TEST
... One sociometric procedure would be to investigate who is
quoting whom, to look up their written records, research papers,
books, and so forth. ... The scientists may not know one another
face to face, they may know each other only by their recorded
works. ... This test, although apparently cold and impersonal,
fulfills the basic requirements. It considers two-way relations,
quoting and being quoted, how often and by whom. ... The
quoters and the quotees may be charted by means of sociograms
of the scientific societies to which they belong.
Who Shall Survive? pp. 99–100 Preludes
Quem Sobreviverá? v. 1 p. 199–200 Prelúdios
TEST/ROLE/CONCEPT
individual, the role test can measure his cultural age.
459
Psicodrama p. 215
1. The role test is based upon the premise that roles are the most
important single factors which determine the cultural character
of individuals.
Psicodrama p. 229
of this culture.
TEST/ROLE/METHOD (SEE IN ROLE/TETSING)
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC PERCEPTION TEST (SEE IN
/SOCIOMETRIC PERCEPTION TEST)
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/SOCIOMETRIC SELFRATING/
SOCIOMETRIC PERCEPTION TEST (see in
sociometric test/sociometric self-rating/sociometric perception
test)
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/SUPPLEMENTARY
TECHNIQUES
... When sociometry began to arouse public attention twenty
years ago, the number of procedures which were ready for
application was few as compared with the number of social
problems which were to be faced in any community study. ... I
recommended, therefore, that supplementary techniques should
be used around the true sociometric core, even if they did not
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460
fulfill the requirements of genuine sociometric procedures. To
the category of supplementary techniques belong, among others,
public opinion studies, studies of attitudes and socio-economic
measurements.
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/ADVANTAGES
The social investigation of any community, when based upon
sociometric principles, is equipped with two complementary
frames of reference. The one is the objectified investigator so
prepared and evaluated that his own personality is no longer an
unknown factor in the findings. The other frame of reference
consists of the members of the community who are brought to a
high degree of spontaneous participation in the investigation by
means of sociometric methods, and therefore contribute genuine
and reliable data.
The result of these small scale experiments has been
twofold. On the one hand, they led to important discoveries in
the realm of human relations which were confirmed by every
new study, and, on the other hand, they made it possible to put
together, like a jigsaw puzzle, the pieces of sociometric structure
which had been found in various communities and get, with the
assistance of these miniature patterns, a bird’s eye view of the
sociometric foundation of society at large.
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/ATTRACTION AND
REPULSION
... The sociometric test is an instrument which examines social
structures through the measurement of the attractions and
461
repulsions which take place between the individuals within a
group. In the area of interpersonal relations we often use more
narrow designations, as “choice” and “rejection”. The more
comprehensive terms, as attraction and repulsion go beyond the
human group and indicate that are analogous social
configurations in nonhuman groups.
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/CONCEPT
An instrument to measure the amount of organization shown
by social groups is called sociometric test. The sociometric test
requires an individual to choose his associates for any group of
which he is or might become a member.
... It consists in an individual choosing his associates for any
group of which he is or might become a member.
A sociometric test is an examination of the structure of a
specific group, at times for the purpose of its reconstruction. It is
not by itself an experiment.
... A sociometric study becomes an experiment a) if all its
situations, its home, work, educational, recreational, cultural and
administrative groupings are created by the total community of
citizens-investigators, each citizen being an investigator and
each investigator being a member of the community.
... The closest to a complete, sociometric experiment was the
Hudson community.
Rosa Cukier
462
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/LIMITS
... The later procedure 12* is also far removed, however, from the
sociometric approach which would disclose to the investigator
the key individuals in the group, the psycho-social networks
through which opinion moves, and whether the opinions which
are collected represent the opinions of the key individuals only
or the opinions of the groups under their influence.
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/MAIN SUBJECT
... It can be said that the sociometric test in its first phase
(spontaneous choice) attempted to detect these atoms. In its
second phase, the motivational phase, it will begin to penetrate
beneath their surface, as it were, to crush the social atom.
Sociometric test (of a group) measures the conflict between
the actual structure of a group which the members maintain at
the time when the test is given against the structure of the group
as revealed by their choices.
Sociometric test (of an individual) measures the conflict
between the actual position an individual maintains within a
group against the position revealed by his choices.
We were able to determine through the sociometric test with
which individuals a person wants to be in proximity and how
12 Author’s note: Moreno is referring to the use of questionnaires.
463
many individuals want to be in proximity with him in respect to
a given criterion and thus the outer delineation of a particular
social atom was ascertained.
The classic sociometric test was so constructed that it was
able to measure the conflict between the existing configuration
of a group and that configuration which is really wanted by the
members of the group.
Who Shall Survive? p. lxxi Preludes
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/NEAR-SOCIOMETRIC
SITUATIONS
... The inhabitants of the community have to become participants
in the project in some degree. The degree of participation is at its
possible maximum when the decisions of the members are
carried by them to full realization. The degree of participation is
at its possible minimum when the individuals composing the
group are willing only to answer questions about one another.
Any study which tries to disclose with less than maximum
possible participation of the individuals in the group the feelings
which they have in regard to one another is near sociometric. ...
In near-sociometric situations the participants are not quite
spontaneous. They do not warm up quickly.
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/PHASES OF THE TEST
The test has been carried out in three phases: 1, spontaneous
choice; 2, motivation of these choices; and 3, causation of these
choices. Spontaneous choice reveals how many members of his
own group, whatever the criterion of the group, are desired by an
individual as associates in the activity of this group. The
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464
motivations, as they are secured through interview of each
individual, reveal further the number of attractions and
repulsions to which an individual is exposed in a group activity.
The underlying causations for these attractions and repulsions
are studied through spontaneity and role playing tests adapted to
sociometric aims.
38. Students are warned not to think that being isolated or
investigation, they are not like the fixed position of a peck order.
Furthermore, do not assume that the total structure of a group is
“good” or “bad” because its cohesion is high of low. It often
depends upon the criterion around which the group is formed.
... The study of involuntary isolates or unchosen ones who make
choices but whose choices persistently remain unreciprocated
suggests that they suffer from states of anxiety and insecurity.
They frequently do not have the spontaneity to respond
adequately to a situation in which they find themselves
unwanted. Their anxiety rises and when they try again and again
unsuccessfully, their anxiety rises further; their tele perception is
often not sensitive to differentiate clearly the individuals who
choose them from those who do not.
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/REQUISITIONS
The theory of sociometric testing requires: a) that the
participants in the situation are drawn to one another by one or
465
more criteria, b) that a criterion is selected to which the
participants are bound to respond, at the moment of the test, with
a high degree of spontaneity, c) that the subjects are adequately
motivated so that their responses may be sincere, d) that the
criterion selected for testing is strong, enduring and definite, and
hot weak, transitory and indefinite.
... But it is necessary that the subjects themselves be taken into
partnership, that they become sufficiently interested in the test,
that they transfer to the tester their spontaneous attitudes,
thoughts, and motivations in respect to the individuals concerned
in the same criterion. ... If, therefore, the inhabitants of a
community are asked whom they like or dislike in their
community irrespective of any criterion this should be called
near-sociometric.
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/RESISTANCE
... Sociometric procedures should be greeted favorably as they
aid in bringing to recognition and into realization the basic
structure of a group. But such is not always the case. They are
met with resistance by and even with hostility by others. ... This
psychological status of individuals may be called their degree of
sociometric consciousness. The resistance against sociometric
procedures is often due to psychological and educational
limitations.
The first difficult which one ordinarily meets is ignorance of
what sociometric procedure is. A full and lucid presentation, first
perhaps to small and intimate groups, and then in a town meeting
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466
if necessary, is extremely helpful. ... Another reaction is one of
fear and resistance, not so much against the procedure as against
its consequences for them.
... The resistance seems at first sight paradoxical as it crops up in
face an actual opportunity to have a fundamental need satisfied.
An explanation of this resistance of the individual versus the
group is possible. It is, on the one hand, the individual’s fear of
knowing what position he has in the group. To become and to be
made fully conscious of one’s position may be painful and
unpleasant. Another source of this resistance is the fear that it
may become manifest to others whom one likes and whom one
dislikes, and what position in the group one actually wants and
needs. The resistance is produced by the extra-personal situation
of an individual, by the position he has in the group. He feels
that the position he has in the group is not the result of his
individual make-up only but chiefly the result of how the
individuals with whom he is associated feel towards him. He
may even feel dimly that there are beyond his social atom
invisible tele-structures which influence his position. The fear
against expressing the preferential feelings which one person has
for others is actually a fear of the feelings which the others have
for him.
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/SOCIOMETRIC
CONSCIOUSNESS
... This psychological status of individuals may be called their
degree of sociometric consciousness.
... As long as a population has a low sociometric consciousness
distinctions between psychological and social properties of
populations have no value. Indeed, from the point of view of
action methods over-emphasis upon logical purity of definitions
467
may be outright harmful and over-developed logical systems
may produce a false sense of security and of scientific wellbeing
which discourages and delays action practice.
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/SOCIOMETRIC SCORE
Sociometric score: the number of different person who have
chosen an individual on all criteria used.
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC SELFRATING/SOCIOMETRIC
PERCEPTION
I described a version of the sociometric test* which was
called “sociometric selfrating”, but which may better be called a
“sociometric perception test”. The individual goes through
several steps.
First step: the individual “sketches out all the situations in
which he is involved at the time and fills in all the individuals
who take a part in them and in which role”.
Second step: “he tries to clarify for himself how he feels
towards each of these people. He pretends that he is taking part
in a sociometric test and chooses or rejects them according to
preference and rank, giving his reasons.”
Third step: “he makes a guess what every one of these
people feels towards him and what reasons they might have”.
Fourth step: “he guesses how these individuals may be
related to each other”.
Fifth step: “after he has finished his own selfrating he may
ask another person familiar with his situation to rate him
independently”.
Sixth step: “the validity and reliability of data from
sociometric selfrating can be determined by giving to a group of
individuals an open sociometric test immediately after they have
rated themselves. Thus, the individual’s intuition of his
Rosa Cukier
468
sociometric status can be compared with the objective facts of
others’ expression towards him, e. g., his actual sociometric
status”.
When I introduced the selfrating test I calculated that if the
perceptual intuition of such individuals could be awakened and
trained, their choices would be more adequate and their
sociometric status would improve.
TEST/SOCIOMETRIC TEST/SUB-GROUPS
Sociometric cleavage: two groups of individuals in which
self preference – that is preference for members of own group –
rules out other-preference, that is, preference for members of
out-groups. It is the dynamic reason for the tendency of a group
to break up into subgroups.
TEST/SPONTANEITY (see in spontaneity/test)
TEST/SPONTANEITY/AUDIENCE (see in spontaneity
/test/audience)
TEST/SPONTANEITY/PROCEDURE (see in spontaneity
/test/procedure)
TEST/TEST OF EMOTIONAL EXPANSIVENESS (see in
emotional expansiveness/testing)
469
THEATRE OF SPONTANEITY
THEATRE OF SPONTANEITY/AIMS
... The theatre for spontaneity, being freed from the clichés of
form and content, can organize its repertory in agreement with
the audience which it faces. The theatre will again be able to stir
men up to heroic deeds.
The Stegreiftheater itself had one objective: to let the
collective of spontaneous-creative actors emerge in the midst of
the group, but, instead of in a religious climate, in the climate of
a scientific age.
My Stegreiftheater book had three aims: 1) To define
spontaneity, especially in its relation to creativity, 2) to explore
the possibilities of interpersonal measurement, and 3) to
experiment with the spontaneous interaction of small groups. As
I had no precedent in this I had to introduce many new terms
which made the book difficult reading. ... Sociometric
measurement started with things like this: how much “time”
does an actor A spend with another actor B? He may spend half
as much time with another actor C and three times as much time
with another actor D. ... in the course of the same situation and
what effect have nearness or distance upon behavior and acting?
Who Shall Survive? p. xxxiv–xxxv Preludes
THEATRE OF SPONTANEITY/ARTISTS,
PSYCHOLOGISTS AND ANALYSTS THAT BELONG TO
THE STEGREIFTHEATER
... Among the actors who were on the staff of the Stregreiftheater
were: Peter Lorre, Anna Hoellering, Robert Grunwald, to name
but a few. Many playwrights came to the Stregreiftheater and
tried to develop a drama in spontaneous fashion, a drama not yet
written by them. Among them were George Kaiser and Franz
Werfel. The Stregreiftheater idea came to the attention of many
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470
psychologists and analysts, among whom were Arthur
Schnitzler, Alfred Adler, Theodore Risk, Siegfried Bernfeld,
August Eichhorn.
THEATRE OF SPONTANEITY/AUDIENCE THEATRE
The audience theatre is a community theatre. It is the
community from which the dramas spring and the actors
producing them, and again it is not any community, a
community in abstract, but our village and neighborhood, the
house in which we live.
THEATRE OF SPONTANEITY/CONCEPT
The spontaneity theatre is a vehicle organized for the
presentation of drama of the moment. The dramatist is in the
key-role. He is not merely a writer – in fact he does not actually
write anything – but is an active agent, confronting the players
with an idea which may have been growing in his mind for some
time, and warming them up to immediate production. The role of
the dramatists is often taken by one of the actors, who then
becomes dramatist and leading actor at the same time.
... It can be said that compared to the legitimate theatre, as the
theatres of the nobility in the middle ages and the theatre of the
intellectual classes in our time, the theatre for spontaneity can be
considered the theatre of the people.
471
The legitimate theatre is a theatre as if – out of locus. The
true locus of the theatre is the theatre for spontaneity.
Psicodrama p. 75
THEATRE OF SPONTANEITY/FUNCTIONS OF
One function of the theatre for spontaneity is to take under
its wing those abortive art works. It is the sanctuary of the
unwanted child, but so to speak, only of those children who do
not want to live more than once. It offers no immortality; rather
does it offer love of death.
... I organized, therefore, a laboratory of spontaneity research. ...
I discovered soon after that the less fictitious these interactions
were for the actors, the more personally and privately they were
involved in these roles and interactions, the more meaningful
also became the counting of seconds, inches, words and choices.
... Interaction researches who do not start with an account of the
spontaneous-creative implications upon their experimental
designs are like architects who make one believe that a house
can be built without a foundation.
Who Shall Survive? p. xxxvi Preludes
... The outstanding characteristics of these sessions were: 1) they
were open, that is, problems which the audience members raised
were presented on the stage before them, personal and social
conflicts which heretofore were hidden in a consultation office
were brought out into the open; and 2) spontaneous participation
of the audience.
Who Shall Survive? p. xlii Preludes
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472
THEATRE OF SPONTANEITY/IMPROMPTU THEATRE
The matrix of the Impromptu Theatre is the soul of the author.
Let us surrender ourselves to the illusion that the figures of the
drama there in process of production have become visible,
audible and tangible. In this ideal performance all conditions are
met: the act of creation is contemporaneous with the production;
there is harmony of situation and word.
... One figure of the personae dramatis after the other arises in
the soul of the author and speaks. If we imagine the author as
apart from the types that came forth from him, the following
process may be observed. Each of these personae dramatis is his
own creator, and the poet is he who combines the into an unfield
whole. There you have the primary concept of the Impromptu
performance. The author must be looked upon as a strategist and
each of his personae dramatis as an Impromptu actor.
THEATRE OF SPONTANEITY/METATHEATER
... In the theatre for spontaneity the whole community is present.
It is the theatre of the community. It is a new kind of institution,
the institution which celebrates creativity. It is the place where
life is tested, the strong and the weak, - by play. It is the place or
truth without might.
... It is the theatre of all, the twilight of being and reality...
... it is not the theatre of one man; it is the theatre of all and for
all. In the theatre all men are stirred up and they move from the
state of consciousness to a state of spontaneity, from the world
of actual deed, actual thoughts and feelings, into a world of
fantasy which includes the reality potential.
473
THEATRE OF SPONTANEITY/PREMISES
... Its premise was that there should be exclusively productions
of a hundred percent spontaneity, that is, there should be no
rehearsal whatsoever, that the actors should not be prepared for
each other and that their spontaneous actions and productions
should be an end in themselves, by no means material for a
finished product, later to be memorized or conserved like a
written play. ... It was logical that I should look for some natural
principles which are intrinsic in the spontaneous interactions
between actors.
Who Shall Survive? p. xxxvi Preludes
THEATRE OF SPONTANEITY/PROBLEMS WITH THE
AUDIENCE
… of “one hundred percent” spontaneity however, faced
enormous difficulties first of all from the audiences. They had
been brought up in all departments of living, the sciences and the
arts, to use and rely upon cultural conserves and not to trust their
own spontaneity.
... Therefore, when true spontaneity was presented to them in the
Stegreiftheater either they suspected it to be well rehearsed and
an attempt to fool them, or, if a scene was poorly played they
considered that as sign that spontaneity does not work. I saw the
enormous task ahead of changing the attitude of the public. This
would require a total revolution of our culture, a creative
revolution. The climax of the difficulty I encountered however,
when I saw my best pupils flirting with the cliché even when
acting extemporaneously and finally turning away from the
theatre of spontaneity and going to the legitimate stage or
becoming movie actors. Faced with this dilemma I turned
“temporarily” to the therapeutic theatre, a strategic decision
which probably saved the psychodramatic movement from
oblivion.
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474
THEATRE OF SPONTANEITY/THE LEGITIMATE
THEATRE
The inner structure of the theatre is easily recognizable if
one considers the nascence of any specific dramatic production.
In the rigid, “dogmatic” theatre, the creative product is given: it
appears in its final, irrevocable form. The dramatist is no longer
present for his work is entirely divorced from him.
... In consequence, the actors have had to give up their initiative
and their spontaneity. In this sense, the drama is a thing of the
past, a vanquished reality.
... Reformers of the theatre, bewildered by the decline of its art
and the decay of its public appeal, have not been able to uncover
the seat of its disease because they have failed to see that the
pathology of our theatre is part of a larger process of
disintegration, the pathology of our culture as a whole of which
the most characteristic symptom is the “cultural conserve”.
El Teatro de La Espontaneidad pp. 47-48
The strict separation between the stage and audience is the
marked characteristic of the legitimate theatre. This is
exemplified by the dual form as well as by the relationship
between stage production and spectators.
El Teatro de La Espontaneidad p. 61
The legitimate theatre belongs to the world of appearances;
the “thing in itself,” (Ding an sich), the spontaneous creative
process in statu nascendi, is suppressed.
El Teatro de La Espontaneidad p. 70
475
THEATRE OF SPONTANEITY/THEATRE OF CONFLICT
The theatre of conflict is therefore a theatre consisting of
two theatres. It results from the clash between the theatre on the
stage and the audience theatre. It has two positively acting poles,
the theatre which attempts to establish a dramatic art based on
the principle of the past, and a theatre based on the principle of
the moment. The theatre on the stage is a theatre of the past; the
theatre of the audience is the theatre of spontaneity.
... Theatre one and theatre two brought to expression, produce a
new, a third theatre, the theatre of conflict. The drama emerges
from the clash between them, their reciprocal conflict.
THEOMETRY
By means of geometry of spaces the locus of geometric
configurations is determine. By means of a theometry of spaces
the locus nascendi of ideas and objects is determined.
Psicodrama p. 74
THEORY
THEORY/PSYCHODRAMA
... The theoretical principle of psychodrama is that the director
acts directly upon the level of the subject’s spontaneity –
obviously it makes little difference to the operation whether one
calls the subject’s spontaneity his “unconscious” – that the
subject enters actually the areas of objects and persons, however
confused and fragmented, to which his spontaneous energy is
related. ... According to psychodramatic theory a considerable
part of the psyche is not language-ridden, it is not infiltrated by
the ordinary, significant language symbols. Therefore, bodily
contact with subjects, if it can be established, touch caress,
embrace, hand shake, sharing in silent activities, eating, walking
or other activities, are an important preliminary to
psychodramatic work itself.
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476
THEORY/THEORY OF INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS
… It is then when I coined what is perhaps the simplest
definition of interpersonal relations: ... ... “A meeting of two: eye
to eye, face to face. And when you are near I will tear your eyes
out and place them instead of mine, and you will tear my eyes
out and will place them instead of yours, then I will look at you
with your eyes and you will look at me with mine.
... The theory of interpersonal relations is born of religion.
Who Shall Survive? p. xxxi Preludes
THEORY/THEORY OF SPONTANEOUS LEARNING
As the training of spontaneity states and not the learning of
contents is the objective, the attempt is made to loosen the fixed
associations between states and contents as they have become
established in the course of education by traditional method.
Emphasis upon contents results in the split of the individual into
an act personality and a content personality. We found it a
valuable hypothesis to assume that two different memory centers
develop, an act center which exist in general as separate
structures without connection. A content is received in a dull,
untoned state, an act in a highly heated state; our hypothesis is
that they trace different paths in the nervous system. They are
not received at the same moment. In consequence they do not
recur simultaneously, filling one moment, uniting the entire
personality with one action, but at different times, separated
from each other. The material learned does not reach the actcenter
of personality. ... An individual may begin any specific
activity with improvisation. But the more often improvisations
around that complex are produced, the more the tendency
develops in the individual to pick out from past efforts the best
actions, gestures, thoughts and phrases, in other words, to
improvise less and less and to develop more and more a safe and
477
organized anchorage. ... Spontaneous production was merely a
starting form of the process which in the end turned into a
finished product, a content which later became sacred through
repetition.
Quem Sobreviverá? v. 3 pp.102-103
THERAPEUTIC AGENT
... The therapeutic agent in group psychotherapy does not have
to be an individual who has professional status, a physician,
priest or a counselor. Indeed, the one who has professional status
may be, for that very reason, harmful to a particular individual
needing attention. If he is a wise therapist he will eliminate
himself from direct face to face rapport with the patient and
work through other individuals who are in a better position to
help than himself. According to group method the therapeutic
agent for a particular member of the group may be anyone or a
combination of several individuals.
THERAPEUTIC THEATER
THERAPEUTIC THEATER/CONCEPT
... The newspaper method was a formal step forward but it
lacked the deeper meaning of charisma. Later I discovered a
happier solution in the “therapeutic theatre”. One hundred
percent spontaneity was more easily achieved in a therapeutic
theatre it was difficult to forgive esthetic and psychological
imperfections in a normal actor. But it was easier to tolerate
imperfections and irregularities of an abnormal person, a patient.
... The theatre of spontaneity developed an intermediary form of
the theatre, the theatre of catharsis, the psychodrama. “It is
noteworthy that the psychodrama has nothing to do with
‘Happening’13 although it may; in its vulgarized form, be
13 Author’s note: : Happening means a special event and characterizes an
artistic and cultural movement.
Rosa Cukier
478
confused with it, as for instance, with a psychomusical spectacle
which was arranged by art students in Anthony’s University
Residence in 1959 and which later was considered a happening.
In opposition to its anarchic amorphous theatricality, which in
the happening is played up to a fashionable craze, the aim of
psychodrama is a genuine organization of form, a creative selfrealization
in the act, on a structuring of space, a realization of
human relationships within the scenic action. In the happening
individuals behave in a self-idolizing, self-sufficient manner; as
no form is brought about, also genuine participation of the group
of invited spectators is not possible; everyone is relegated to
himself, dependent only on his completely narcissistic behavior.
Yes, one may say that unrelatedness is the salient feature of
‘Happenings’, whereas the theme of psychodrama is precisely
the relationship of the individual to the group and to society.
... “The therapeutic theatre is the private home. The players of
the therapeutic theatre are the occupants of the house”.
... The climax of the difficulty I encountered however, when I
saw my best pupils flirting with the cliché even when acting
extemporaneously and finally turning away from the theatre of
spontaneity and going to the legitimate stage or becoming movie
actors. Faced with this dilemma I turned “temporarily” to the
therapeutic theatre, a strategic decision which probably saved
the psychodramatic movement from oblivion.
479
THERAPEUTIC THEATRE/THEATRE OF SPONTANEITY
The therapeutic theatre uses the vehicle of the spontaneity
theatre for therapeutic ends. The key person is the mental
patient. The fictitious character of the dramatist’s world is
replaced by the actual structure of the patient’s world, real or
imaginary.
THEATRE/THERAPY
Theatre and therapy are closely interwoven. But also there
are many steps. There will be a theatre which is purely
therapeutic, there will be a theatre which is free from therapeutic
objective and then there will be also many intermediary forms.
Theatre of Spontaneity p. f
THERAPIST/PSYCHODRAMA
The therapist in turn is not the quiet, passive listener in
psychoanalysis, he himself must put up a good battle in order to
get the patient to produce. The transference therefore begins at
times from his side and is overwhelming in character like that of
a man who is in love with a woman and takes the initiative.
Therapist and patient warm-up to each other, it is a battle of wits.
The therapist wants something from the patient right away, but
he refuses to give.
Moreno, J. L. “Hypnodrama and Psychodrama” in “Group
Psychotherapy”, Beacon House, number 1, April 1950, p. 3.
... In psychotherapy it is extremely difficult if not possible to
separate the skill from the personality of the therapist. Skill and
personality are, at least in the act of performance, inseparably
one: “the personality of the therapist is the skill”. But on the
other hand, we must guard ourselves against laissez faire and
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480
extreme subjectivism. Therapeutic technologies and formats
develop as structured expressions of experience and skill. They
represent the irrepressible craving of patient and therapist for
orderly procedure.
... These were the new postulates: a) the group comes first and
the therapist is subordinate to it; b) the therapist, before the
emerges as the therapeutic leader is just another member of the
group; c) “one man is the therapeutic agent of the other and one
group is the therapeutic agent of the other”. *
* J. L. Moreno, “Application of the Group Method to
Classification”, 1932, p. 104.
THERAPIST/PSYCHODRAMA/INVOLVEMENT
The problem of “uncontrolled” involvement of the chief
therapist is also one confronted frequently in psychodramatic
work. We have had directors who not satisfied with “passing the
buck” so to speak to auxiliary egos, are often displeased with the
intensity of the ongoing process and step into the situation
themselves, doubling, reversing, mirroring, soliloquizing, etc.
But it rarely happens that the chief therapist will push the
auxiliary ego out of the scene and assume the entire role for
himself. The general rule is that the chief therapist is the
conductor and does not assume the role of an auxiliary ego,
unless required by an emergency.
481
THERAPY
THERAPY/AT A DISTANCE
a. Treatment at a distance. The case of a young girl who suffered
from a violent acting out disorder was reported. It became
apparent that the psychotherapist should be eliminated as a
contact person, and a young girl was employed to live in the
patient’s home to help her. The hired girl becomes the substitute,
the double, who come to the psychotherapist at regular intervals
with the parents of the patient, so that the patient could be
treated “in absentia”.
Moreno, J. L. “The Actual Trends in Group
Psychotherapy”, in “Group Psychotherapy”, v. vi,
September 1963, nº3, p. 126. (n)
THERAPY/INTERPERSONAL
... When conflicts develop between the members of such
ensembles, forms of treatment are necessary which are able to
reach the interpersonal syndromes as deeply, if not more so, than
if it would a single person. “Interpersonal therapy” represents a
special category; it might well be classified apart from individual
and group psychotherapy.
THERAPY/INTERPERSONAL/MORENO
... In order to talk cogently about treatment of interpersonal
relations there must be two patients present, and a third, the
therapist who may be able then more genuinely to remain
uninvolved, a participant observer and an interpreter to both
parties (Fig. 1), or, as I have pointed out in my first lecture – the
therapist must himself become a participant actor, although not
formally, “psychologically” a patient. Then there are two
patients, not one, they can give therapy to each other, each in
accord with his ability and his needs.
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482
THERAPY/INTERPERSONAL/SULLIVAN
... When Sullivan talks about interpersonal relations one of the
two is the therapist, a participant observer. There is only one
patient, facing a professional therapeutic agent.
TOTALITY OF HUMAN SOCIETY
A social atom is thus composed of numerous tele structures;
social atoms are again parts of still a larger pattern, the
sociometric networks which bind or separate large groups of
individuals due to their tele relationships. Sociometric networks
are parts of a still larger unit, the sociometric geography of a
community. A community is again part of the largest
configuration, the sociometric totality of human society itself.
TOYS
TOYS/DOLLS
... Our homes and nursery schools should replace many of their
doll equipments by auxiliary egos, real individuals, who take the
‘part’ of dolls.
Psicodrama p. 123
The problem of a curriculum for play schools has to
reconsider three elements. First: The age old habit of
surrounding the child with finished playthings or with play
material for the making of toys encourages in the child the
conception of a mechanical universe of which he is the only
uninhibited ruler; the cruelty and the lack of sympathy that
483
children often display towards living beings is due to prolonged
occupation with inanimate objects. Second: The curriculum must
be partly enlarged by the addition of all subjects which are
offered to the public school and the high school student, only
these are to be presented and experienced on a correspondingly
lower level. Third: Techniques of teaching these subjects in
accordance with spontaneity principles have to be invented.
Psicodrama p. 199
... The doll, because of its intentional semblance to human
beings or humanized animals, represents in ‘our culture’ at least,
a significant function of its sociopathology. Beings who can be
loved and hated in excess, and who cannot love or fight back,
who can be destroyed without murmur, in other words dolls are
like individuals who have lost all their spontaneity. ... We do not
wish to warn against their discrete use. Their reckless application
cannot be but harmful. Children get used to ‘easy’ spontaneity.
Psicodrama p. 122
... Whereas the book is a representative of a cultural conserve,
the doll, because of its intentional semblance to human beings of
humanized animals, represents the mechanical being, the robot,
the “zoomaton”. They are beings who can be loved and hated in
excess and who cannot love or fight back, who can be destroyed
without a murmur, in other words dolls are like individuals who
have lost all their spontaneity. … The dolls cannot fight back if
and when the child exerts his physical strength by mishandling
or destroying the doll. This is contrary to the very principle of
democracy. Children get used to “easy” spontaneity.
... Our homes and nursery schools should replace many of their
doll equipments by auxiliary egos, real individuals, who take the
“part” of dolls.
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484
The idea of the meeting hides the seed of two concepts each
at the opposite ends of a scale, the concept of spontaneity and
the concept of the doll. An illustration is the relation between the
author of a “book” and his reader. ... ... As in the case of readers,
their “counter-spontaneity” is reduced to a minimum, their
opportunity to counter with their own spontaneities is made
difficult or impossible. This situation is best symbolized by a
doll which is exposed to the aggressiveness of a child. In the
world of the infant the doll is the symbol for all human beings
who are deprived of their spontaneity, or better, who are in a
position of being unable to counter with it. ... Toys such as dolls
are inanimate objects and the child can create the roles of master
and slave.
Who shall survive? pp. 67-68
TRANSFERENCE
... Transference does not take place towards a generalized person
or a vague Gestalt but towards a “role” which the therapist
represents to the patient, a fatherly role, a maternal role, the role
of a wise, all knowing man, the role of a lover, of a gentleman,
of a perfectly adjusted individual, the model of a man, etc.
TRANSFERENCE/COUNTER-TRANSFERENCE
... Actually, there is no “counter”. Counter-transference is a
misrepresentation, it is just transference “both ways”, a two-way
situation. Transference is an interpersonal phenomenon.
Las bases de la Psicoterapia p. 18
485
TRANSEFERENCE/TRANSFIGURATION
... But the difficult of Karl was that he could not transfer
anything which might produce an emotional anchorage between
him and the therapist. He expected from the therapist several
things: first, that he accepts that he is “Hitler”; second, that he
plays the part of a significant person in his psychodramatic
world, for instance, Goering; third, that he is permitted not only
to be Hitler, but “to live Hitler out” in as full a sense of the word
as possible. It is not “transference”, it is “transfiguration” from
Karl into “Hitler”, from Bill into Goering. The relationship on
the transfigured level is real, it is a tele relation.
TRANSFORMATION HUNGER
VI. ORIGINS OF ANXIETY AND THE
“TRANSFORMATION HUNGER” IN SHIZOPHRENIA
Psychodrama: Foundations of Psychotherapy v. 2 p. 154
TRAUMA
... The psychoanalytic investigator pushes backwards towards
the trauma. However, there is no trauma constructible preceding
Rosa Cukier
486
the moment of birth. The psychodramatist pushes forward
towards the act. But the direction of the push begins with the
infant at birth, thereby affording no possibility of a backward
push – only a push forward, which is the living process in
progression.
Psicodrama p. 134
TREMBLING
The trembling is a form of musical stuttering. It can be
diagnosed as a performance neurosis or as a neurosis of
creativity. It is not stage fright. Many times the patient is calm
and confident before the performance. The attack comes
suddenly while playing, out of the blue sky, as he describes it.
The constellation of his mental syndrome is the product of many
factors. ... These factors are linked to a peculiar development of
his creative ego, a surplus of motor images which find an easier
outlet in spontaneity work than in the playing of musical
conserves.
Psicodrama p. 355
TRIAD/THERAPEUTIC TRIAD
... A new therapeutic formation, a triad, is formed when a third
person, an additional patient, enters the treatment situation.
Las Bases dela Psicoterapia p. 83
U
UNCONSCIOUS
UNCONSCIOUS/BEGINNINGS OF THE CONCEPT
In the poet’s mind, forms, moods, visions of roles and plays
are continuously in the process of becoming. They are always in
various stages of development within him.
487
El Teatro de la Espontaneidad Espanhol pp. 139-140
UNCONSCIOUS/COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS
have described it as a cluster of roles (private plus collective
can expand in creativity and in power, and the whole history of
between the idea of the human self and the idea of the universal
self or God. The modern apostles of Godlessness, when they cut
off the strings which tied Man to a divine system, a
supramundane God, they cut in their enthusiastic haste a little
too much, they also cut off Man’s very self. By the same act by
which they emancipated Man from God they emancipated also
Man from himself. They said God is dead, but it was Man who
died. My thesis is therefore, that the center of the problem is
neither God nor the denial of his existence, but the origin, reality
and expansion of the self. By self I mean anything which is left
of you and me after the most radical reduction of “us” is made
by past and future retroductionists.
UNCONSCIOUS
... It is a fallacy to refer to the unconscious as if it would be the
substance from which all mental phenomena emerge. For an actpersonality,
like that of the infant, living predominantly in acts,
the concept of the unconscious does not exist.
Psicodrama p. 119
Rosa Cukier
488
... As long as it is probable that the dream is a comparative late
comer in the development of psychic processes, originating in
the period of all-reality, the theory or the unconscious itself loses
the main justification of its existence.
Psicodrama p. 121
... For a continuously balanced creator concepts like the will, the
unconscious, would not be required. For him will and
perceptions, unconscious and conscious phenomena are merged
into a single track of experience. … For the absolute creator the
dichotomy unconscious-conscious is meaningless. For him
unconscious and conscious have become identical values. He is
always on the level of creativity. The concept of the unconscious
is thus a by-product, a pathological projection of a subject
engaged in warming up to an act which he cannot quite master.
... but can the unconscious material of A ever link naturally and
directly with the unconscious material of B unless they have a
common unconscious?
... We must either modify the meaning of unconscious by
looking for a counterpoint, a sort of a musical key which is able
to relate every event in the unconscious of A to every event in
the unconscious of B, or we must look for concepts which are so
constructed that the objective indication for their existence does
not come from the resistances of a single psyche but from a still
deeper reality in which the unconsciouses of several individuals
are interlocked, a “co-unconscious”.6
6 A “dyadic or triadic unconscious”.
489
... But when two or more persons are interlocked and their living
together has become indispensable to their welfare and often to
their very existence, it is often indicated to treat them as an
ensemble. People who live in close symbiosis, like mother and
child or like the famous couple of Greek folklore Philemon and
Baucis, develop in the course of time a common content, or what
might be called a “co-unconscious”.
... 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 reenacted.
A co-conscious or a co-unconscious state cannot be the
property of one individual only.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. vii
... The “psychodramatic view of the unconscious” is more
complete and potentially superior to the psychoanalytic view of
the Ucs. The free associations are not lost, they are included, in a
sort of free floating of words and fragments of phrases, the
degree of dissociation depending upon the intensity of the bond
between word, symbol, behavior and action.
... But is the unconscious a substance, an entity, a noun, “the
Unconscious”? Or is it not better to consider, it as an attribute,
“unconscious”, a condition which accompanies psychological
and social events in varying quantity and intensity?
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490
UNCONSCIOUS/CRITICISM AGAINST JUNG
... Jung does not apply the collective unconscious to the concrete
collectivities in which people live. There is nothing gained in
turning from a personal to a collective unconscious if on the way
of doing this the anchorage to the concrete, whether individual
or group, is diminished.
(6) The system of the Ucs as proposed by Freud and extended by
Jung is weak in its foundations. It is logically inconsistent,
incomplete and, from a research point of view, unproductive.
The link between the Pcs (pre-conscious) and the Ucs
(unconscious) is not satisfactorily explained. The link between
the Pcs and Ucs of one individual and of another individual is
entirely missing and there is a gap left between the individuals,
the small groups and the collectivities to which they belong.
UNIVERSAL AXIOMA
It has helped us in the beginning of the investigation to think
of mankind as a social and organic unity. ... Whether in the end
this guide will be proved to be a universal axiom of a fiction, it
has aided us in the discovery and demonstration of the tele, the
social atom, the sociodynamic effect, and the sociometric
network of communication.
491
UNIVERSE/FIRST UNIVERSE
The matrix of identity is the infant’s social placenta, the
locus in which he roots. It gives the human infant safety,
orientation and guidance. The world around it is called the first
universe, as it has many characteristics by which it is set apart
from the final, the second world. The matrix of identity breaks
up gradually as the infant becomes more autonomous – that is,
some degree of self-starting develops in one function after the
other, such as in feeding, eliminating, reaching, and locomotion;
his dependency upon auxiliary egos begins to decrease. The first
universe ends when the infantile experience of a world in which
everything is real begins to break up into fantasy and reality.
Image-building develops rapidly, and the differentiation between
real and imagined things begins to take form.
Espanhol p. 105
Long period of infancy – a characteristic of the first
universe. The psychoanalytic theory that the intra-uterine
existence of the embryo is too short, implying that a longer
pregnancy might be more desirable, is a misapprehension. It the
pregnancy state of the human infant could be prolonged ... ... He
might arrive quite independent and self-sufficient, but he would
have sacrificed the opportunities for which the social placenta
prepares him to a prolonged incubation in a narrow rebounding
environment. ...last, but not least, he might have arrived, because
of his comparative self-sufficiency, much less in need of help
but also less sensitive for the acculturation of the social heritage
incorporated in the auxiliary egos of the new environment.
Psicodrama p. 115
UTOPIA/MORENIAN UTOPIA
UTOPIA/MORENIAN UTOPIA/SOCIOMETRIC TEST
... They become participants in and observers of the problems of
others as well as their own; they become key contributors to the
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492
sociometric research. They know that the more explicit and
accurate they are in expressing whom they want, whether as
associates in a play, as table mates in a dinning room, as
neighbors in their community, or as co-workers in a factory, the
better are their chances to attain the position in their group which
is as close as possible to their anticipations and desires.
... The major experiment was visualized as a world-wide project
– a scheme well-nigh Utopian in concept – yet it must be
recalled again and again to our attention lest it be crowded out
by our more practical daily tasks in sociometry.
We assumed – naively perhaps – that if a war can spread to
encircle the globe, it should be equally possible to prepare and
propagate a world sociometry. But this vision did not arise
wholly out of thin air. Once we had successfully treated an entire
community by sociometric methods, it seemed to us at least
theoretically possible to treat an infinitely large number of such
communities by the same methods – all the communities in fact,
of which human society consists.
... The sociometric experiment will end in becoming totalistic
not only in expansion and extension but also in intensity, thus
marking the beginning of a political sociometry.
493
The spontaneity of mankind in such a future world order will
multiply in direct proportion to the number of its groups and the
numbers of interactions between them. It will be so enormous
that the power of man, the exercise of his collective energy will
surpass everything we have ever dreamed.
45. The maximum and final effectiveness of sociometric
methods cannot be estimated adequately by experimental
designs of any type. It requires total application to an entire
culture and its practice within it for long stretches of time.
UTOPIA/MORENIAN UTOPIA/TELE
... The day may come when, through cultivation and training of
many generations in the conation and cognition of tele, in role
enactment and role perception, we will be able to penetrate the
social universe by standing still, without moving into it, and
communicate with individuals at a distance without meeting
them physically, attaining the effects of extrasensory perception
without an extrasensory function.
UTOPIA/MORENIAN UTOPIA/THERAPY
A truly therapeutic procedure cannot have less an objective
than the whole of mankind.
Rosa Cukier
494
“I predict sociometry and psychodrama will have an
important place in the history of sociology as it will be written in
the year 2000”.
Who Shall Survive? p. lxxxv Preludes
V
VISUALIZATION/BEGINNINGS OF NA INTERNAL
PSYCHODRAMA
Moreno: Try to concentrate now and try to visualize it the
best you can, but don’t tell us anything about it. Just
concentrated on the dream. Do you have it now? Let it pass just
like a sequence of sense through your mind. Do you have it?
(Moreno’s voice is suggestive, gentle and softer than usual).
Dream”, in “Group Psychotherapy”, March 1951, nº4, v.iii,
pp. 347-348.
Moreno: Alright, now Martin, close your eyes breathe deep,
breath deeper and try to fall asleep. Concentrate on that dream.
Very soon you are going to dream the same dream all over again
which you had five days ago when you were sleeping in yours
father- in -law’s house. Here you are the dream is emerging now.
Now the dream is emerging, what do you see first in the dream?
What happens first?
Martin: well, I see a group of women.
Moreno: A group of women? What are you doing there?
Martin: I don’t know…. I’m just watching them.
Moreno: Are you seating or standing?
Martin: I’m standing.
Dream”, in “Group Psychotherapy”, March 1951, nº4, v. iii,
p. 348.
495
W
WARMING UP PROCESS
“Warming up process” is a technical term deriving from
discussion of spontaneity work. Spontaneity is explored through
the study of spontaneous states, states or roles into which an
individual throws himself suddenly. Such states are usually felt
by the acting subject as completely novel experiences,
frequently, in fact, there is no concrete precedent in the life
history of the subject for the role portrayed. A stenographer may
be called on to express anger in the role of a policeman. These
spontaneous states are brought into existence by various starters.
The subject puts body and mind into motion, using body
attitudes and mental images which lead to the attainment of the
state. This is called the warming up process. The warming up
process can be stimulated by bodily starters (a complex physical
process in which muscular contractions play a leading role), by a
mental starters (feelings and images in the subject which are
often suggested by another person), and by psycho-chemical
starters (artificial stimulation through alcohol, coffee, for
instance).
Psicodrama Espanhol p. 328 (nota de rodapé)
WARMING UP PROCESS
The warming up process manifests itself in every expression
of the living organism as it strives towards an act. It has a
somatic expression, a psychological expression, and a social
expression.
Espanhol p. 96
Psicodrama p. 106
Rosa Cukier
496
WARMING UP PROCESS/ABORTIVE
... But he was not aware of the deep psychological conflict in
which the actor became involved, using improvisation on one
hand by recalling and enacting vivid emotional incidents of the
past, and rehearsing at the same time roles, situations and
dialogues, created and organized for him by a playwright. His
actor, because of working in two dimensions, develops a
warming up process which is abortive and embryonic along
spontaneous lines to be obliterated later on – and another
warming up process, organized and conserved, which is to
absorb and translate the inspirations received from what we
psychodramatists call spontaneous states into conserved and
uncreative phrasing, that is, uncreated by the actor.
WARMING UP PROCESS/ACTORS
Third stage: The actors are warming up to their roles. The
change from their private personalities to their role characters
takes place before the public by means of mask, costume and
physical make-up as well as by behavior and gestures. These
stages are separated from one another by a short pause or
blackout.
WARMING UP PROCESS/ACTORS/BODY TRAINING OF
crisis. It may well happen that an idea may occur to player
497
be called forth by the ideas as these occur, b) creating of
responses (“creatoflex”) must be learned.
WARMING UP PROCESS/BEGINNING
… In order to be adequate in a particular act he should begin to
warm up as near to the act as possible and the experimenter
ought to know when he begins to warm up. (Rule of the
warming up process or active productivity.)
Quem Sobreviverá? p. 166 v. 1
WARMING UP PROCESS/DIRECTOR
In the warming up process of the group it is best to view all
the coactors in situ and to view them in the direction of their
productivity. In order to view them you have to move with them,
but how can you move with them unless you, the experimenter,
are a part of the movement, a coactor? The safest way be in the
warming up process yourself is to become a member of the
group. (Rule of “coaction” of the researcher with the group).
WARMING UP PROCESS/FEED-BACK
... It is thoughtless to transfer terms describing sheer mechanical
phenomena to spontaneous human relations. To substitute
warming up by feedback is an oversimplification; it may appeal
to the academicians as another “semantic withdrawal from
reality”.
Rosa Cukier
498
WARMING UP PROCESS/FOR GROUPS
In all forms of extemporaneous psychodrama the chief
problem is how to get the group started. The best prescription is
to let the warm up come from the group itself. Anything can start
the ball rolling. There is no one who begins and there is no
favorite topic. It may start with a joke, with an outburst of anger
of one member of the group towards another or towards
someone not present; the therapist waits patiently until a
situation structures itself of pushes gently along the lines of
strongest productivity. Some sessions are not only leadercentered
but also problem-centered. A problem is given or
chosen; the central intent of such a session is to let the problem
structure itself, assuming that there are certain problems inherent
in the group present, certain gripes, resentments or expectations.
Experience has shown that what appears to be a planless
beginning gradually leads to a significant process of production,
as if it would have been carefully planned. In the course of such
actions, abreactions, interactions, interabreactions, role playings,
dialogues, interviews, discussions, analyses, one or another
individual or a clique of individuals comes forth with a special
problem. It comes spontaneously to an acting out unless the
atmosphere is purposely restricted and unless there is a silent
consensus that action are taboo. Otherwise, acting out will take
place within the group itself and thus the action portion of a
psychodrama session begins. It is due to the awareness of
psychodramatic research that such things take place that the idea
arose to give such acting out a special vehicle within the
auditorium, a psychodrama stage. The acting out came first, the
stage was built to accommodate this dynamic process within the
group. Without a special vehicle for their acting out tendencies
the group members may be inclined to consider them
illegitimate. The use of acting out techniques makes the
responsibility of the director greater and requires a special skill
of direction, but their inclusion has therapeutic and research
advantages.
Who Shall Survive? p. lxxiii–lxxiv Preludes
499
WARMING UP PROCESS/INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
An analysis of the spontaneous responses between Elsa, the
subject, and each of the four partners in the 32 situations acted
disclosed that each individual differed in the frequency with
which she warmed up to a specific relation.
WARMING UP PROCESS/LOVE
... Interpersonal situations as love relations are, as a matter of
course, accompanied by intensively heated states.
WARMING UP PROCESS/MISSING OF
When a person is entirely absorbed by a role, no part of his
ego is free to watch it, and so to record it in his memory.
WARMING UP PROCESS/SPONTANEITY
... The intensity of the spontaneous act cannot last beyond a
certain point in time without weakening. The actor must come to
a pause sooner or later.
... Besides the process of act-making he must have the process of
pause-making under control. An act is rhythmically followed by
a pause. Tension is followed by relaxation. There is a duration of
tension and a duration of relaxation; both are measurable. A
spontaneous act should not continue past the moment when
relaxation threatens to set in. There is the prospect of an inner
creative crisis in every step of spontaneous performance,
physical and mental, artistic or social. This factor is known to
athletes – especially to prize-fighters. A psychological knock-out
takes place long before the physical knock-our. A faulty
Rosa Cukier
500
warming-up process in the losing fighter can generally be found
responsible for a premature end to the fight.
Spontaneity propels a variable degree of satisfactory
response, which an individual manifests in a situation of variable
degree of novelty. The warming up process is the operational
expression of spontaneity.
According to spontaneity hypothesis it is assumed that
learning connected with highly warmed up states establishes
special associations. Contents of learning which enter the mind
connected with highly warmed up states recur more easily with
the recurrence of similarly warmed up states.
Spontaneity propels a variable degree of satisfactory response
which an individual manifests in a situation of variable degree of
novelty. The warming up process is the operational expression
of spontaneity.
WARMING UP PROCESS/STARTER/CATEGORIES/BODY
POSITION GENERATING EMOTIONS
Warming Up Process. The bodily starters of any behavior as
acting or speaking on the spur of the moment are accompanied
by physiological signs. In the process of warming up these
symbols unfold and release simple emotions, as fear, anger, or
more complex states. It is not necessary that verbal reactions
501
evolve in the process of warming up. They may or they may not.
But the mimic symbols are always present; they are related to
underlying physiological process and to psychological states.
Warming up indicators have been determined experimentally.
The experiment was so conducted that the subject had no
intention to produce any specific mental state. It was suggested
to him to throw himself into this or that bodily action without
thinking what will come out of it. The ‘starting’ of these actions
was found to be accompanied by a process of ‘warming up’. We
could observe then that if a subject lets go with certain
expressions as gasping, accelerating the breathing, etc., without a
definite goal, there are nevertheless developed certain emotional
trends. The latter did not seem to be relate to one emotion
exclusively but rather to a whole group of emotions with similar
properties in common. For instance, the following expressions, -
clenching teeth and fists, piercing eyes, frowning, energetic
movements, shrill voice, hitting, scuffing of feet, holding head
high, accelerate breathing, and others, tend to release emotional
states as anger, will to dominate, hate, or a vague precursor of
these trends of feeling. Another set, accelerated breathing,
gasping, trembling, flight, twisting facial muscles, inability to
talk, sudden crying out, clasping hands, etc, is developing
another trend of feeling, anxiety, fear, despair, or a combination
of these. Another set, smiling, laughing, chuckling, widening the
eyes, kissing, hugging, etc, is stimulating a condition of happy
excitation. However, undifferentiated the feelings produced may
be, it is observable that one set of movements starts one trend of
feelings and another set of movements starts another trend, and
so on.
WARMING UP PROCESS/STARTER/CATEGORIES
/OVERHEATED-RUDIMENTARY
... An overheated warming up process would indicate that a
surplus of s factors are operating in a given area – that is, beyond
what is required for an equilibrated act.
Rosa Cukier
502
Psicodrama p. 106
The training has proved to be a valuable aid in the treatment
of feelings of excitation and feelings of insufficiency. We have
found that students who suffer from “rudimentary-warming up”
or from “over-heated warming-up” can learn how to warm up
more adequately. The most striking therapeutic effect is the
general increase in flexibility and facility in meeting life
situations, within the organic limits of the particular individual.
Psicodrama p. 190
/PHYSICAL
... the infant binds its spontaneous energy to the new milieu, via
the physical starters of the warming up process. As we know, it
would not be successful in this effort, if the mental starters of
auxiliary egos – mothers, midwives, and nurses – in this milieu
would not come to his rescue, i.e., by caring for and feeding him.
Psicodrama p. 105
The physical self-starters, as it has been observed in
spontaneous experiments with adults, work by conscious
provocation of a simple act which, if properly aroused, begins,
by its own momentum, to be followed up by other involuntary
and voluntary actions; for instance, the tempo of breathing
increases two to three times beyond the original voluntary step.
Psicodrama p. 103
In the birth situation, the physical starters are stirred up long
before the act of birth takes place.
503
Psicodrama p. 104
WARMING UP PROCESS/PHYSICAL VERSUS VERBAL
That which, for the legitimate actor, is the point of departure
– the spoken word – is for the spontaneity player the end stage.
The spontaneity player begins with the spontaneity state; ... The
spontaneity state develops and “warms up” until it articulates at
the level of speech.
El teatro de la Espontaneidad p. 130
MENTAL VERSUS PHYSICAL WARM-UP
In this case the task is to make mental behavior bodily, it is
the “incarnation” of the mind.
Psicodrama p. 194
When the pupil is asked to sew a button on a piece of cloth,
to comfort a distressed child, to clean a blackboard, various
groups of muscles are set in action and the mind is indirectly
stimulated towards certain emotional states.
Psicodrama p. 194
WARMING UP PROCESS/STARTER/CATEGORIES/SELFSTARTER
We know from the study of the warming up process in adult
performance and inter-personal relations that categories of selfstarters
can be differentiated, that is, physical starters and mental
starters. The differentiation into two separate ways of starting is
not yet available to the infant. ... We can well assume therefore
that he makes use only of physical starters. The physical starters
Rosa Cukier
504
continue to be the rescue-starters in all warming up processes
throughout the life span. ... Unlike the infant, the adult has, of
course, developed mental, social, and psychochemical starters,
which independently may initiate his warming up as well as
interact with physical starters.
Psicodrama p. 104
WITHDRAWAL FROM REALITY
46. A “measure” of withdrawal from reality is the larger the
number of incorrect “guesses” an individual makes of the
relation which the individuals who form his social atom have
towards each other, of the individuals who choose or reject him
or whom he chooses or rejects or who choose or reject each
other. This is a measure of what is often called a “withdrawal
from reality”.
WORD
14. In the course of interaction between two actors the initial
word volume spoken is a clue to the intensity of the sympathy or
dominance of the actor.
WORDS/WORDS VERSUS ACTION
... During a very important part of our life, the earliest part of it,
in our infancy, we have no such means of “normalized” social
communication, but the impress of this period of our life upon
our future development is ever present. In this period, acts are
acts and not words, and the action matrices which we develop in
infancy are prior to the world matrices which we integrate into
them later.
Psychodrama v. 1 p. xiii
505
Psicodrama p. 38
... Warming up indicators are the deciding clue as to whether an
emotional state is in process of release. Verbal reactions are less
reliable signs that a state is reached or about to be reached. A
subject may use apt words with little or no accompanying
emotion, but it is practically impossible, once an emotion is
initiated, to act without being carried away by the trend of
feeling produced. All associations, acts, verbal and mimic are
related to the trend of feelings developed
50. The actual behavior of a subject is not identical with his
symbolic behavior as expressed through words, drawings,
pictures and other projection materials. Psychoanalysis and
projection tests rely upon the symbolic behavior of the subject
and must interpret its significance by means of an analytic code.
It requires to be submitted to two types of analysis, besides the
apperception of the immediate events an interpretation of its
symbolism. In contrast with them psychodrama, role playing,
sociodrama, sociometric tests and other group and action
methods enter into direct contact with the actual behavior of
subjects. Speech, movements, etc., are not seen as fragments but
in their actional and interactional contexts. Changes are visible
in the behavior and actions of the subjects which can be used for
diagnostic as well as therapeutic assessments. The distinction
between “analytic” and “operational” psychotherapies is founded
upon the conditions described here.
... However important verbal behavior is, the act is prior to the
word and “includes” it. The act residua in the Ucs are
topographically prior to the word residua. The inclusion of the
Rosa Cukier
506
motor end of the psychic apparatus into the system of the Ucs
becomes a foregone conclusion.
Z
ZONES
... Certain zones tend toward co-action and cooperation, as the
mouth zone with the throat zone, the bladder zone with the anal
zone, the visual zone with the hearing zone, etc. Certain zones
tend to exclude one another – as the manual zone and the throat
zone, the bladder zone and visual zone. ... Therefore, the
organism of the infant which consisted originally of so and so
many separated segments superimposed upon the various zones
of the organism, will begin to merge them into large areas of the
body. The larger the area of the body which the warming up
takes into its strides, the larger the number of neuro-muscular
units stimulated.
Espanhol p. 98
... One activity at a time excludes every other activity; one focus
every other focus.
Espanhol p. 101
Psicodrama p. 112
ZONES/LOCUS NASCENDI/WARMING UP PROCESS
Process. It is paradoxical that the infant has at birth an
organism whose anatomic and physiological unity is never
greater. ... He is an actor – without words and almost without a
cerebral cortex. He is compelled to form his world on the basis
of small and weakly related zones, scattered unevenly over the
body. These zones can be divided into operational zones and
non-operational zones. ... Certain zones – the visual zone, the
507
nasal zone, the mouth zone, etc., - are already in formation
during the first week of the infant’s life. The significance of
every zone is that it is formed in behalf of an indispensable
function of the infant, and therefore arouses the infant to
concentrate upon the acting out of this function.
Psicodrama p. 107
Each warming up process has a focus. It tends to be
localized in a zone as its locus nascendi. However, the first
sensitized areas – sensitized by these acts of warming up – are
not literally attached to the skin of the infant. There is no mouth
zone, anal zone, actually, but zones of which the mouth or the
anus are a part. The zone is, in this “sociometric” sense, an area
to which, for example, the mouth, the nipple of the mother’s
breast, the milk fluid, and the air between them are contributing
factors.
Psicodrama p. 108
ZOOMATICS
ZOOMATICS/ROBOTS
... The robot, like the auxiliary ego, makes man free from man
and gives him an artificial sense of wellbeing and power.
... But robots cannot produce na ounce of spontaneity.
A human infant results from the conjugation of a man and a
woman. A robot results from the conjugation of man with nature
itself.
Rosa Cukier
508
The fate of man threatens to become that of the dinosaur in
reverse. The dinosaur may have perished because he extended
the power of his organism in excess of its usefulness. Man may
perish because of reducing the power of his organism by
fabricating robots in excess of his control.
Robots derives from a Polish word robota, to work. My idea
of the “zootechnical animal” (1918) was popularized a few years
later by Karl Czapek in a play “Rossom’s Universal Robots”,
1921; he coined the term robot. The term is not adequate as in
the zootechnical animal not only work but also destruction is
implied. Thus in my definition the working robot can become
ferocious and vice versa. A better term than robot might have
been genie. According to the Arabic use there were good and
bad spirits among them who assumed the form of animals, giants
and so forth. The robot is really a “zoomaton” zoo, from Greek
zoon, animal (zoo, live), automaton, a Greek word, neut. of
automatos, autos, self, mao, strive after.
Fundamentos de la Sociometria p. 411 (notas)
... These odd enemies are technical animals which can be
divided into two classes, cultural conserves and machines. The
more popular word for them is robots.
509
ZOOMATICS/ROBOTS/DOLLS
... These observations were confirmed by the attitude which
children show towards dolls. The doll does not have the often
unpleasant counter-spontaneity which real human beings have,
but it has still some physical and tangible reality which pure
fantasy companions do not have. ... Here he gets the first taste of
the robot which he can destroy at will and which may one day go
out and act as decreed by him. Dolls seem to make the child free
– independent from other children and from adults.
ZOOMATICS/ROBOTS/FUTURE
sociometry, sociatry, bioatry and similar disciplines.
... It seems to me that zoomatics, which emphasizes the
semblance between mechanism and organism, is a happier term
for this science than cybernetics, which means steersman.
ZOOMATICS/ROBOTS/HOW TO LEAVE WITH THEM
... The countermeasure lies in a cold appraisal of the situation, a
systematic study of the causations underlying the invention of
mechanical devices, the origin of the robot in human nature and
beyond it, a careful calculation of the “socio-atomic organization
of mankind”. In other words, we should bring the problem into
full scientific consciousness and develop parallel with
sociometry a zootechnique, a science of the technical animals.
Rosa Cukier
510
ZOOMATICS/ROBOTS/PHATOLOGICAL
CONSEQUENCES
... The pathological consequences are enormous. Man turns more
and more into a function of culture and technological conserves,
puts a premium on power and efficiency and loses credence in
ZOOMATICS/ROBOTS/REAZONS FOR IT´S INVENTION
The invention of robots is a skill of homo sapiens. ... Why
should man want robots? It is perhaps the same reason, in
reverse, as the one which at an earlier period made us want a
God to whom we were robots. ... Our relationship to God may be
simply this – he needs a lot of helpers in order to put his creation
over. Man too, has a program of living, of creation on a minor
scale, he needs helpers and weapons to defend himself against
enemies.
... There must be a deeper and additional reason why we wanted
and created the technological kind. An analysis of spontaneouscreative
processes broadened my understanding of the problem.
Infants, immediately after birth demonstrate that the less
spontaneity a being has the more it requires some one who has it,
in order to survive. the infant lives on borrowed spontaneity. The
humans who are at the beck and call of a helpless, crying infant,
who come and carry, feed and comfort it, I call auxiliary egos. ...
The infant wants its auxiliary egos perfect, that is, to have all
their ready spontaneity available for him, the infant, and none for
the egos, themselves. This offers a clue for understanding the
relationship between the idea of the auxiliary ego and the idea of
the robot.
511
ZOOMATICS/ROBOTS/ROBOTS IMORTALITY
... The book is a robot par excellence. Once off the press, the
parent, the producer, the author is immaterial; the book goes to
all places and to all people, it does not care where it is read and
by whom. Many robots have further in common the attribute of
comparative immortality. A book, a film, an atomic bomb, they
do not perish in the human sense, the same capacity is always
there, they can be reproduced ad infinitum.
Rosa Cukier
512

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