Adam Blatner

Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner

Social Inclusiveness

Originally posted on September 10, 2017

It occurred to me that another function of psychodrama is social validation.. We are social beings who are unconsciously asking, “Do you see me? I exist. Does anyone care? Does anyone find me interesting? Am I in any way a part of the whole?” A colleague in Italy wrote that in a sense, the field of theatre is the “mother” of psychodrama. It responds to those who have the courage, responding to the need, to share—and show—the inner world: How it is, and how they want to transform it.

What if Freud underestimated the psychic needs, and Jung, who expanded these many-fold, similar underestimated the social, the need to show and share. What if social connectedness is a fairly basic human need? To dance in a circle together! I dare to suppose that that need became not only over-ridden as culture became more industrial and atomized, but then overlooked and neglected!

Alfred Adler was the most extraverted of the early depth psychologists, and he talked about “Gemeinschaefts-gefuehl”—lamely translated as “social interest.” Make it more a need, a need to feel part of what is intuited to be the group. It explains good stuff and horrible stuff—behaviors that had gone unexplained.


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