JONATHAN AND ROLE REVERSAL

Abstract

Dr. Moreno's "Discovery of the Spontaneous Man" (GROUP PSYCHO- THERAPY, Aug. 1955, pp. 103-129), ably aided by Jonathan and Zerka, is not only a charming picture of father-mother-child interaction, or "transaction" (Dewey), but also has important theoretical and practical implications. With his great ability to see the general in the particular, Moreno has formulated 26 hypotheses which are capable of empirical testing. Spontaneity and the irreversibility of individual existence may be treated with greater generality than Moreno does. All natural phenomena in any locally ordered region exhibit both spontaneity (change) and irreversibility (momentum or inertia) in varying and relative degrees. All structures are both stable and unstable and the amount of each they exhibit depends upon what standards of comparison are chosen or taken