“Becoming Jane”: why “coping role” got in the graphics frame and why it should not have been there.

by Don Reekie

Reading “Becoming Jane” in the ANZPA Journal 2007 I asked you to consider that thinking in terms of ‘role’ we have a range of distinctive windows for us to open. Moreno opened a range of windows in to role throughout his writing.

They offer a rich set of perspectives and conceptual angles for appreciating a person’s uniqueness. They provide comprehensive holistic and many faceted visions. Both personal and social realities are revealed.

Moreno saw a “functioning form the individual assumes in the specific moment he reacts to a specific situation in which other persons or objects are involved.” For him ‘role’ was an inter weaving of elements. Sociologists social psychologists and educationists used ‘role’ to place people in society and take account of societal expectations. Media today is full of the word ‘role’ as a matter of position and related requirements. In political commentary, sport analysis or employment/organizational description role is tightened to a prescription and is often redundant. We hear “Batting at number 3 Ponting has the role of …” or “My Foreign Minister Mr Peters understands his role”. The word “role” today has the benefit that it relates the individual to the community of relationships around her or him. Unfortunately it also separates the individual person from their uniqueness fitting them in their “right” “role” for society. A host of windows are ignored for example Moreno’s window on to three levels of freedom in spontaneity development.

The Board of Examiners, in the fifth edition of the Training and Standards Manual (2002), wrote “This Manual is more precise in its use of the term ‘role’. Previously Manuals had phrases such as “the role of the producer”, “the role of the social investigator’, “the role of the therapeutic guide”. …. None of these phrases are psychodramatic role descriptions.” … “We … wish to contribute to an appreciation of Morenian theory that uses the term ‘role’ to refer to the particularity of an individual’s functioning in an interactive context.”

I am passionate that we should not reduce Moreno’s concepts which comprehend at least psychology, social psychology, cybernetics, systems theory, process philosophy and existential cosmology. His theories (I prefer to think of pragmatics) of ‘role dynamics’ assist us mightily to appreciate the way each person is uniquely organized. I do not want the expanding use of the word ‘role’ in the twenty-first century to restrict psychodramatist’s visions and actions.

In my journal article I recognize the organization in each human. As we meet a person we can come to know their particular ways of being. I specially selected the phrase “coping gestalt” to grapple with that organization which weaves our roles. A graphic frame was added editorially to assist the reader. Unfortunately for me the hard-line frame was counter to the permeability I imagine within role. The unconscious replacement of “Coping Gestalt” with our conserve “Coping Role” I believe allows us to miss out on working with the multifaceted organization of role. This made it clear how strong is our conserve . The words “coping” and “role” slipped together naturally along with helpfully intentioned graphic.

I will continue thinking and writing. I am beginning to blog in this area and you can read my original manuscript and further ideas at www.donreekie.com

Retiring Journal editor Rollo Browne and new editor Bonna Ana have each been very helpful in discussing this. The recognition that the word “role” sometimes obscures the organization within role that the concept gestalt was sparked by a brief chat with Vivienne Thomson last August.