Return to Part One Go to Part Six Return to Book Excerpts Origins and History of Pesso System/Psychomotor Therapy
This is Part Five of the Article by Louisa Howe, Ph.D.
 PS/P Paradigms [see name change]These four steps in the processing of events formed a schema that paralleled an earlier paradigm that Al had formulated: energy--> action--> interaction--> meaning/internalization. An implication of the new sequence of steps is that it is not enough to become aware of buried feelings (to experience them), nor is it enough to express them toward an appropriate target; besides both of these it is essential to have a new kind of experience that can counteract or provide an antidote to the hurtful experience of the past so that the old map can be put aside as a "program" for behavior and a new one created to take its place. It is ideal figures, most often ideal parents, who provide the interactive experiences on which this alternative map of what the world is like can be constructed. Looking back now on my experiences then as a trainee I am impressed both by the extent to which present-day PS/P understanding had already evolved at that time and the degree to which practices during the 1970s differed from what they have subsequently become. Some videotapes from this era are striking in the differences they reveal. In 1979 Al commented on three 1974 videotapes, indicating what he would do differently some five years later. Since during recent years Al and Diane have only rarely played the roles of ideal parents, it now seems strange to see how often they did so in the past. At that time there still was some improvisation when accommodators responded to a structure enactor, and I recall learning to curb my own tendencies to invent what seemed like splendid responses from whatever figure I was roleplaying at the moment. This was a criticism Al now made of his own former behavior: that he would no longer make statements as an accommodator that had not been requested or agreed to in advance by the structure enactor, nor would he heedlessly mix in statements he was making as himself, Al, or as a therapist. Another contribution I believe I had something to do with during this period related to derolling. One of the 1974 videotapes showed the enactor at the end of his structure being embraced by his ideal parents and then giving a deep sigh of contentment. They stay there a few moments more and then someone says, "Shall we go get something to eat?" Everyone arises and begins to leave the room as the tape ends. It seemed to me that having accommodators ceremoniously give up their roles and resume their own identities would highlight the important passage between the symbolic reality of the structure (with all its transferences) and the everyday reality of the here-and-now to which the enactor must return. Accordingly I believed, and Al and Diane agreed, that this transition should be marked by a ritual divestment of roles that would be faithfully performed at the end of every structure. Negative figures and the cushions representing their extensions were derolled first, while ideal parents were the last to deroll, doing so in unison so that their "child" would not be left in the company of just one of them. A new technique that Al developed during the period when Gus and I were being trained consisted of having a resistance figure for the structure enactor to push against, when there were indications of a need to push but the target figure was still unclear. The therapist often assumed this role in order to provide a neutral target for the enactor's energies. In the process of pushing, the enactor was likely to recall some figure or event from the past. This would clarify whether the resisting figure was positive or negative and who the figure was, at which point a negative or ideal figure could be substituted for the one initially offering resistance. Al had worked out by this time a rather complex scheme consisting of magical, counter (or defensive), symbolic, and literal sexual organs. He theorized that, apart from the functional real or literal organ, each psychologically healthy person has internalized both a symbolic male and a symbolic female organ. Extrapolating from the first as a thrusting, penetrating organ and the second as open and receptive, it was his view that healthy persons of both sexes have the ability to assert themselves appropriately and be aggressive in their own defense, and also, under other circumstances, to be open, sensitive, and able to permit the other a place in their interior life. On another level, whatever bodily parts protrude, whether they belong to a male or a female, can be symbolically phallic; whatever is an opening or an indentation can serve as a symbolic vagina. The eyes are of special significance because they can function both ways: the eyes receive impressions; on the other hand their gaze can be penetrating. When a parent is absent because of death, divorce or separation, military service, illness, workaholism, or other forms of psychological withdrawal, a child is likely to be drawn into the parental role that has been vacated. If a father is the absent parent, the child (whether a boy or a girl) is likely to develop a "magical penis;" if it is the mother who is absent, the child tends to develop a "magical vagina." These magical organs are not present in the consciousness of the boy or girl, but the child`s behavior indicates the unconscious presence of the magical organ, which confers an exciting feeling of omnipotence on the one hand and a frightening sense of erotic arousal on the other. The appropriate PS/P response is to have ideal figures (and their extensions) limit and contain the energies of the magical organs. Counter organs serve to defend the child from the impact of a parent who is too much present, who does not respect the child's boundaries, or who is intrusive or invasive. A counter-penis is developed by the boy or girl when the father is the invasive parent, while an invasive mother is warded off by a counter organ resembling hers -- a counter-vagina. An ideal father responds to his child's counter-penis by actions and words that signify, "You can keep me out", while an ideal mother responds to her son`s or daughter`s counter-vagina by making it clear that she will not let herself be swallowed up by the child. To the best of my knowledge no other theory of psychotherapy has arrived at this formulation, which impresses me as both subtle and profound. Diane says that she plans to work with Al on further description and clarification of these concepts in the future. Al Pesso's formulations often go by fours. What he now calls "symbolic operations" he referred to during the '70s as "metaphors" -- the ways in which a child acquires and possesses the qualities of another person, typically a parent: by Eating, Merging with, Marrying, or Murdering. There is, however, one trio of concepts: to Predict, Produce, or Recognize. Ideally a structure enactor (or the energies of an enactor) can predict what will yield the satisfaction that is sought, can produce it; at the very least can recognize the action that will yield satisfaction when it is suggested by the therapist. These concepts presuppose a basic unity of life, that life is an organic process in which the parts are related to the whole as in a hologram, where the smallest part of the organic process has information about all the other parts and about the whole. Research In 1964 Dr. Charles Pinderhughes, then director of psychiatric research at the Boston V.A. Hospital, had received funding for a five-year research program designed to explore the use of PS/P exercises and structures with hospitalized psychiatric patients, most of them chronic schizophrenics. Dr. Leo Reyna, one of the developers of behavior modification and formerly a teacher of Joseph Wolpe in South Africa, was another member of the research team. Al recalls that through his association with Pinderhughes and Reyna he had the benefit of seeing the work he and Diane were engaged in both through the eyes of a psychoanalyst and through the eyes of a behaviorist. As he began to understand these two ways of thinking about data and of organizing concepts he became clearer in defining and organizing his own ideas, which he sees as being influenced as much by behavioral psychology as by psychoanalysis. Reyna's careful attention to each detail of behavior, as well as his understanding that change occurs in small steps, were especially influential (Note 2). The nature of the research, which had originally been quite broad, was progressively narrowed to one specific goal: studying the species (reflex/relaxed) stance as a diagnostic instrument. A research report was prepared but never published. Gus Kaufman (1981) completed a dissertation that was both theoretical and experimental: Body signals of childhood loss: How relational deficits and stress lead to tension and postural insecurity. A summary of his research is included in the present volume. Melvin L. Foulds and Patricia Hannigan (1974, 1976) conducted research on students at Bowling Green State University's counseling center. In each study one group was composed of students randomly assigned to be a waiting list control, while the other group was involved in 32 hours of PS/P exercises and structures as described in Movement in Psychotherapy (Pesso, 1969). PS/P participants showed increases in positive perceptions of themselves and others as compared to control subjects, significant results which were maintained during retesting 6 months later (1974). Changes were also examined using Rotter's locus of control and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability scales (1976). PS/P participants became significantly more inner directed, and their increases in sense of personal control of life events remained on 6 month follow-up while the control group was unchanged. PS/P participants showed significant changes on the Marlowe Crown scale toward decreased social desirability (p=<.01> which was maintained 6 months later, again with no change having occurred in control group scores. The authors conclude that Psychomotor group therapy may be an effective method for facilitating change in the self-descriptions of growth-seeking college students in the directions of increased internality and a decreased tendency to present oneself in a socially favorable (but probably untrue) light (Foulds and Hannigan, 1976, p.87). Another research study of PS/P was carried out by a Boston University doctoral student in psychology, Robert Sokolove (1975): Verbal and motoric styles of therapy: An outcome study. Three therapy groups and a control group were compared in this research: a Psychomotor (verbal and motoric) group conducted by a certified Psychomotor therapist, Jane Hollister; a body movement (motoric only) group, and a verbal therapy group. Thirty-one subjects were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions. Subjects who rated high on the pre-post measure of autonomic arousal did better in Psychomotor therapy than in verbal or body movement groups. Dissertations and theses on PS/P have been completed by Oelman (1978), Ellingsen-Greenwood (1978), Levenson (1981), Meyer-von Blon (1986), Scott (1987), and psychology students in the Netherlands and Sweden. Dutch Pesso therapists publish Het Pesso Bulletin, which contains articles on Pesso therapy. Glenn Sheehan has also undertaken research by collecting descriptions of their experiences written by people who have done PS/P structures; these too are included in this volume. Travels: European Acclaim During the summer and the fall semester of l973 Al and Diane scheduled an ambitious program of travel to various parts of the United States, Canada, and Europe. Certain events had laid the groundwork for this trip. Al's first book, Movement in Psychotherapy (1969), had simultaneously been published by the New York University Press and by the University of London Press, which made it available in Europe. (Later it was translated into Dutch). An American psychologist named Jacob Stattman had heard the Pessos' presentations at meetings of the Association for Humanistic Psychology and had attended a number of PS/P workshops. He had been conducting programs at European growth centers, and began to use PS/P exercises and techniques in his own presentations. These presentations, along with Al's book, aroused a great deal of interest. The Pessos began receiving letters from Amsterdam, London, and Paris informing them that they already had a following there and asking when they would be able to present their work in person. Faculty and students at the University of Groningen who had a special interest in movement therapy had formed a study group to practice the exercises. When they learned that the Pessos were coming to Amsterdam they enthusiastically signed up to attend the program. Al and Diane received a warm welcome in the places where they described and demonstrated Psychomotor therapy. Their presentation for Quaesitor in London was followed by a sympathetic writeup of their work in the English journal Self and Society, (Francis, 1973). Also through Jacob Stattman they made contacts at the Tavistock Clinic. Subsequently they learned that in England twelve therapists had formed a study group that met weekends to learn about Psychomotor, while a similar group had been formed in Paris. Meanwhile the group of therapists in Groningen continued to meet. For a few years after their first visit Al and Diane returned three times a year to meet with these groups. It was an advantage in the work they did abroad, the Pessos were told, that they were virtually unique in being a couple from America who were still married to each other after more than two decades! Whatever the reasons, they won immediate acceptance from many leading psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, psychologists, and others as peers and indeed as important innovators in the field of psychotherapy. A psychologist on the faculty of the University of Groningen in the northern part of Holland, one of the group who had started teaching themselves PS/P exercises, was so strongly impressed with the Pessos' methods of working that she arranged to come to the United States to spend some months with Al and Diane in Boston during l975. This was Han Sarolea, who subsequently became one of the first Dutch therapists to receive certification and helped organize training programs in the Netherlands. Subsequently, she and Tjeerd Jongsma provided supervision for certification training groups in the Netherlands, and then in Belgium, Switzerland and Norway. Han has made several visits to the U.S. since that time for additional training and has exerted a strong influence in helping to establish and maintain high standards for training and certification both in Europe and in the United States. A psychiatrist trained in psychoanalysis, Tjeerd Jongsma, who headed a therapeutic community for treating drug addicts, was another of the first Dutch therapists certified in PS/P. He found the use of Pesso therapy with drug addicts to be very effective, commenting that it brought about a marked change of mood toward greater trust. Han and Tjeerd were also active in establishing the Vereniging voor Pesso Psychotherapie (Association for Pesso Psychotherapy). These two have since advanced to the status of trainers in Pesso therapy, while others among those certified are moving into the intermediate rank of supervisors, planning in due course to be trainers as well. During the late 1970s Al and Diane decided to concentrate on developing their training program in the Netherlands, rather than in Paris or London, since -- because of the multilingual skills of the Dutch and their high enthusiasm -- the opportunities for widespread acceptance and application of PS/P in the Netherlands, and eventually in Europe, seemed to be much greater. The first certification of Dutch trainees in Pesso therapy occurred in 198l. It was arranged that I should travel to the Netherlands with the Pessos and, in my position as chair of the Psychomotor Institute's training committee (whose other members were Al and Diane), help determine who among this original training group had adequately mastered the task of learning how to be a Pesso therapist. Five people were certified at that time: Han Sarolea, Tjeerd Jongsma and his wife, Nel, Els van Bodegom, and (conditionally) Hans Shurink. Candidates for certification were asked to provide a videotape of their work and also a transcription in English. These were then evaluated with reference to criteria that Al, Diane, and I had worked out. During the course of the first training group, and thereafter as well, the requirements for training and their content and sequencing became increasingly clearly specified. Certification training groups met with the Pessos (sometimes just Al and not Diane) three times a year for three to five days each time. They also met with each other in so-called intervision (peer supervision) groups, and with supervisors. In addition, many trainees have traveled from Europe to the Pessos' base in Franklin, NH, for further training or for structure work. Several three-year certification training programs in Pesso therapy have been completed in the Netherlands, so that by now a great many hospital psychiatry departments, clinics and other mental health treatment programs have at least one trained Pesso therapist on their staff. From the Netherlands interest has spread to Belgium, where a training program was set up and coordinated by Willy van Haver in which several Dutch and Swiss as well as Belgian therapists were enrolled. Swiss psychoanalytic supervisor Niko Roth, who had been in the Belgian group, stimulated interest in PS/P among Swiss psychiatrists; this led to the establishment of a new training group in Switzerland which was coordinated by psychologist Martin Howald. In Norway, Jens Stranheim, administrator of a drug and alcohol treatment facility, sponsored several PS/P workshops which paved the way for the formation of a certification training program. This was subsequently coordinated by Lois Reiersol. Al continues to conduct workshops in Israel, though a certification training program has not been officially established there. In Denmark, BODYnamic Institute is sponsoring a one year program. By and large the European training programs attract about 35% psychiatrists and about 40% psychologists, the remainder being social workers, movement therapists, etc. A good deal of interest in PS/P methods was aroused in West Germany. A vivid account of the Pessos' work, written by Marie and Heik Portele (1978), was published in Integrative Therapie. (This has been translated into English by my daughter, Dorothy Prickett.) An early staff member (and continuing Board member) of the Psychomotor Institute, Arthur Cobb, contributed a chapter on Psychomotor to a German book on body therapies (1977). German interest in Pesso therapy has been greatly stimulated by the publication in l986 of Tilmann Moser's translation into German of the majority of Al's two books, combined into one. The annual conferences of the International Congress on Psychomotricity provided an important platform for Al in presenting his and Diane's approach to therapy. In June, l984, his plenary session address was entitled "Touch and Action -- The Use of the Body in Psychotherapy". This conference was held at the Hague and was preceded by a reception for Princess Margriet of the Netherlands, with whom he enjoyed chatting about PS/P. Two years later Al was asked to give another address when the conference on Psychomotricity was held in Nice, France; this time his topic was "The Image of the Body." A recent letter (Note 3) from Dr. Charles Pinderhughes described his visit a few years ago to a back ward of a mental hospital in South Africa, where he had been sent as a member of an American Psychiatric Association committee to investigate mental health care in that country. He was surprised and pleased to encounter a psychotherapist who had been trained in the Netherlands, making use of Psychomotor (PS/P) therapy! Return to Part One Go to Part Six Return to Book Excerpts | 
