The Future Psychodramatist from China

Tong (Chloe) Han visited Melbourne today.  She says this is her exciting day, her big day!  We look forward to seeing her again soon.

Reading Group, Friday, 27 June 2014 - Moderator, Marie Watt

"TO DREAM AGAIN"                              

  (In other words, "TO PLAY GOD")

Marie says:

"At the conclusion of last month's reading group, I found myself captivated by the title Zerka Moreno chose for her memoirs.  My curiosity prompted  me to return to the source in order to discover what was underlying this choice of phrase.  Turns out she was quoting her husband in a claim he made once when interacting with Freud, the so-called father of dreams. In this month's reading group, we will discuss this whole quote and also explore a little Moreno's own techniques when dealing with dreams."

 Quote 1: "Well, Doctor 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, and in their natural surroundings. You analse their dreams.  I try to give them the courage to dream again.  I teach people how to play God."    (Moreno 1946:5-6, also in Volume 1 in the section on the Psychodramatic Technique of Dream presentation).

Questions which occur:

Was he only talking about night dreams or was he using the dream phenomenon in a larger context in relation to psychodrama? 

What are the advantages of approaching a dream in the manner outlined in Volume 1?

What meaning can be made of Wilma Scategni's interpretation of this approach?

2. Quote From Wilma Scategni: "This brings us back to a concept that Moreno himself kept asserting (Moreno 1946:204) In fact. he affirmed that when a person is totally absorbed by a role, no part of his ego is free to observe this role and therefore to record it in its memory.  (Moreno posits the problem of training the ego to fulfil the doble role of thinking and acting simultaneously.)  At the same time, the attempt to recall the most minute detail both about the situation in which the dream developed and about the dream itself can set off a kind of 'Warm up" that allows the dreamer to experience the dream atmosphere most intensely.  In this way, Moreno invites people to envision the dream according to its sequence - beginning, development and end. Over the course of the dramatisation, he invites the patient to live through his or her dream while at the same time being outside the dream as an observer.  (Psychodrama, Group Processes and Dreams, Wilma Scategni 2002 P. 17)

What time?  12.30 pm for a 12.45 pm sharp start and finish precisely at 1.45 p.m.

Fee: $10.00 ( goes toward maintaining the Zerka T. Moreno Library including the George Cally Reference Section). Includes freshly brewed coffee, a selection of teas and a biscuit.  Bring your own lunch.

RSVP to PIM Administrator on 9416 3779

Moreno Psychodrama Society Members - Introducing Marie Watt

Psychodramatist, Educator, Community Worker, Dancer, Story-Teller and Dreamer

Scene-setting for the psychodrama of my life:

* Western District sheep farm

* Local bush school

* Convent boarding school

* Various convent locales in Melbourne during my forty-two years as a nun, educator and community worker.

* My return to secular living and my present work as a psychodramatist, group trainer and dream group facilitator.

Enough scenes you say?  Certainly enough to conjure up what seems like a cast of thousands - the auxiliaries and audience from all sorts of social milieux and walks of life, the ever-changing protagonist "me" and the director I have always sensed to be present.

The Drama:

As a I look into the heart of my life, I can identify the fires which seem to burn, the passions which animate who I am and who I want to become:-

1) My sense of the land of my being and my desire to explore it in depth.  This fire was lit in childhood as I explored the physical landscape and developed an innate sense of the presences it contains.  Religious life took this into spiritual realms.  My life among aboriginal people during my years as a nun returnd me to a sense of the spirit in the land and heightened an appreciation of the link between earth and spirit.

2) My life-long love of reading and story-telling and the scope these provide for a rich and imaginative life.  Fairy tale, folk tale and myth, in particular, paint in broad strokes the big themes of human experience.

3) The world of dreams, so archetypically linked with the stories mentioned above, yet so perfectly adapted to the details of the individual life acting as they do, as inner wisdom and guide.

4) The centrality of the body to the dance of life.  I am so grateful to J. L. Moreno for introducing me to the spontaneous dance of psychodrama and the body freedom this elicits.  This has become the salsa and cha-cha-cha of my present, giving me the freedom to explore the ever-widening dimensions of things.

The Sharing:

The above, I know is the bare bones of my experience, never really complete or perfectly understood until there is some response, spoken or otherwise, from the other, you, the reader, today.

I imagine you before me now.  I find myself mirrored in your eyes, through the lens of your own experience and feelings.

This interchange closes the curtain on things.

It's what makes me whole.

Theatre of Spontaneity - Sunday 29th June 2014

When Organizational Cultures Hurt....” 

Click here for Full Details

‘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.’  

Moreno – Who Shall Survive. 

Gather together for a cup of tea or coffee from 6 p.m for a 6.30 p.m sharp start at the Psychodrama Institute of Melbourne, 155 Langridge St, Collingwood.

$20.00 ($15.00 MPS Members)
SUPPER provided.
RSVP by Friday 27th June to Gavin O'Loughin  0403 597 685