I play many roles. My more official role that is gradually fading, but not completely, is that of physician who specialized in psychiatry. Not that I was ever mainline, but neither was I very maverick\u2014sort of in-between. I was enough mainline to serve on the faculty of a mainstream medical school in their departments of psychiatry and child psychiatry (University of Louisville, 1987-1994), and enough to be granted the status of Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association; but still I proceeded along the paths of the art of psychotherapy and more particularly, that approach that included action and self-expression rather than just talk therapy\u2014i.e., psychodrama\u2014about which I wrote two widely-used books. I also developed an interest in the nature of play, especially with adults, and continue to think about that frontier, as wholesome modes of recreation and imagination-development are sorely needed nowadays. <\/p>\n
Another role that is still unfolding is as a philosopher, thinking about how depth psychology, spirituality, current worldview, and other trends are finding new and creative ways to be integrated. The philosophy of creativity derives in part from the ideas of the fellow who first invented psychodrama\u2014Dr. Jacob L. Moreno (1889-1974), but also from others such as the process philosophy<\/a> of Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) and Charles Hartshorne (1897-2000) \u2014the latter whom I was privileged to know in his elder years. Other influences in this mix have included some of the wisdom stories of the Hasidic Jews and Islamic Sufis, a variety of spiritual studies, etc. The cultural aspects of religion was my major at the University of California at Berkeley from 1955-1959 before I entered medical school, and continued to be of interest. While not affiliated with any particular religion, the nature of spirituality has always intrigued me. <\/p>\n A third role is more playful, laced with fantasy and imagery, and connected also with an informal avocation of cartooning, influenced by comic books and taken into more science-fiction directions in some ways. Veering sometimes towards the silly and at other times towards a playful integration of metaphysical notions, I\u2019ve found that it generates a way to present some of my far-out speculations, some of which I take more seriously, others are framed in a more light-hearted fashion. <\/p>\n A fourth role is as a proponent of a number of tools I learned while I wrote about psychodrama: These techniques and concepts go far beyond the medical model and have applications in education, business, social action, community building, recreation, and other settings\u2014and, indeed, as they are refined and adapted to the task, offer some promise to help in the general challenge of consciousness evolution. (Indeed, in 2007 I edited an anthology about the applications of improvisational and interactive drama<\/a>.) So this remains another mission that gives my life extra juice and meaning. <\/p>\n A fifth role is as one who deeply enjoys and celebrates life, through participation in our community\u2019s chorus, several types of dancing groups, fitness group and walks, romantic with my wife, keeping up good relations with extended family, chats with friends, and so forth. <\/p>\n A sixth role is more ambiguous\u2014it deals with trying to keep up with a changing world, with electronic media, such as this blog\u2014and what it means to have a blog and a couple of websites \u2014; in realizing I can\u2019t keep up with the information explosion, and withdrawing from television, subscriptions to newspapers and magazines, and so forth. This is still in process, because at the library I pick up used newsmagazines\u2014and in general enjoy reading and discovering new arenas. <\/p>\n A seventh role involves my giving lectures to our local lifelong learning program\u2014which I helped found in late 1997\u2014. Summer single lectures and often twice a year six-lecture series on some topic ranging from practical psychology to aspects of history or philosophy. I learn as much if not more in preparing for these classes as I teach. So that\u2019s fun, too. (I\u2019ve posted some of the more recent lectures on my website<\/a>.)<\/p>\n An eighth role is through this blog and my website(s) as an essayist, a writer of papers. This fits with my emerging role as philosopher, but also draws on or offers a channel for expression of the other roles. I\u2019m beginning to imagine this as a kind of art form, coordinating pictures, cartoons, and words, and it\u2019s an unfolding form, with new technologies and other developments opening new possibilities. I may yet return to book-writing, as I\u2019m revising or expanding on some old books or monographs I\u2019ve done. <\/p>\n I\u2019ve found that folks who know me in one or two of these roles may not know much about my involvement in the others. It\u2019s all right, though, because we all select those roles we can better resonate with, and recognizing this dynamic of selectivity is part of my interest in applied social psychology\u2014and derives also from another branch of the aforementioned work of Moreno. <\/p>\n