Adam Blatner

This 1956 popular song is just one of myriad of questions, including “What does he see in her?” and “What does she see in him??” that are all around us. The mind has its own mysterious capacity to reduce the almost disorienting impact of pure wonder. Sociometry was invented by Jacob L. Moreno, M.D., in 1934 (although he had the nascent idea decades earlier).

Sociometric questions rank up there in terms of mystery, and won’t be answered by what the angels call us, affectionately, ‘little brains.” Sociometric choice is so multi-faceted, depending on so may variables, and they shift unpredictably. So we can ask but don’t expect a sufficient answer. It is enough to note the phenomena. (Analogously, Many of the facets of electricity were not elucidated until scores of years later—it was enough to notice that electric phenomena even existed.)