ABSTRACT
I puzzled over Moreno’s concept of spontaneity for many years. Like fellow psychodramatists, I observed behavior on the psychodrama stage and in life that certainly fit the definition of spontaneous behavior as a novel response to a familiar situation or an adequate response to a new situation and labeled it spontaneous. I wanted a better understanding. I could not figure out how one could measure either dimension, novelty of the situation, or adequacy of response, other than by subjective judgment. Another question was how these two criteria of spontaneity were related. Was one unit or degree of novelty equal to one unit of adequacy? Moreno’s solution to measurement was subjective evaluation by observers. Other attempts at measurement of spontaneity (Keller, Treadwell. & Kumar, (2002); Kipper & Hundal, 2005) have only identified individuals who report the frequency of experiences that were considered spontaneous. Above all, I found Moreno’s description of spontaneity as an unconservable energy incomprehensible.
