Content uploaded by Peter Rober
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Peter Rober on Jul 22, 2020
Content may be subject to copyright.
John Shotter: a personal tribute*
Peter Rober
a
One day John Shotter sent me an email in which he referred to him-
self as a ‘phrase junkie’. I think I understand what he meant. In his
lectures, in his papers, as well as in his casual conversations, John
liked to quote from the works of Mikhail Bakhtin, Ludwig Wittgen-
stein, Gregory Bateson, William James, Henri Bergson, and others.
Often when I sent him an email, what I got in reply was a courteous
email invariably including one or more quotes in John’s response to
my concerns.
I have been in awe of John for as long as I have known him. In
our many conversations, I often felt like an ignorant therapist in the
face of his eloquence and erudite knowledge of philosophy and psy-
chology. And when reading his writings, this feeling was very often
reinforced. Many times I did not understand exactly what John was
describing in his papers. I sensed what he wrote was important and
I was fascinated by what I was reading but I could not say that I
understood what he meant. I learned that – at least for me – reading
Shotter takes time. Time to read and time to let it sink in. And then
time to read it again, and again time to let it sink in. In this way I
ended up learning much from John. But I always experienced dis-
quiet because it felt like my understanding was not as rich as what
John had written; that there was always something more that I had
not taken into account; and that my reading of his thinking was
never quite right.
For a number of years I hosted the European Summer School for
Family Therapy in Leuven. It gave me the chance to work closely
a
Context, UPC KU Leuven and Institute for Family and Sexuality Studies, Depart-
ment for Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Belgium. Email: peter.rober@kuleuven.be
* Many thanks to Michael Seltzer for his editorial help in writing this text.
V
C2017 The Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice
Journal of Family Therapy (2017) 39: 492–494
doi: 10.1111/1467-6427.12181
with John and the group of participants during the day and then to
go out for dinner and beers in the evening. Then we talked and in
recent years I noticed that John seemed disillusioned with what he
called ‘academic stuff ’ and with its impotence in dealing with the
dehumanizing tendencies in the so-called human or social sciences.
John told me: ‘Science is focused on capturing factual truth, and
seems to forget that we are not beings, but rather becomings.’
I did not know at the time that he was in fact quoting Tim Ingold,
who wrote about this in the book he edited with Gisli Palsson called
Biosocial becomings (2013). After he said it, I said nothing, and looked
at John in silence.
He noticed that I was lost, and he said:
Let me explain ... We are not human beings but rather human becomings.
We are in it together, perpetually going on together and creating our
selves. Our being human,ourbeing a person, is something that we continu-
ally have to aim at,totry to be. Life is a task.
I liked what he said, although I still was not sure I understood.
At about that same time, I told John about some short stories I had
published and about the short films I had made of a few of these sto-
ries. I also told him about a script for a feature film I had written. I
explained to John that:
For me this writing of stories and scripts is a hobby, but it is also kind of
a therapy keeping some balance in periods when academic work risks to
invade my sleep and my waking life like a Pac-Man on speed.
John understood.
He took a sip from his Duvel and said:
Just last week I was saying to my wife Cherrie, it’s about time I did
something else, rather than writing this academic stuff. In fact, I’m
beginning to despair of ‘being reasonable’. It clearly doesn’t change the
de-humanizing wave in the field of psychology at all. It is been going on
for years, and my writings don’t make a difference. Yes, maybe I should
write a play script instead, or with you, a film script ....
He drank again and said:
...but I want to do something in music too.
We had long conversations about music, plays and stories. John
had been teaching in Holland for years, and he could read my short
stories that are published in Dutch. It was always nice for me to hear
his comments and his encouragement.
Tribute to John Shotter 493
V
C2017 The Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice
Later that evening he said:
Here’s a quote from John Ruskin that you might like: ‘The greatest
thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something and tell
what it saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can
think, but thousands can think for one who can see.’
John left a silence for a few moments. Then he said:
Ruskin is referring to theatre, poetry and music, but not to science.
Certainly not science.
Then John told me about his fascination for Samuel Beckett.
He said that in his younger years he had directed two Beckett plays,
Waiting for Godot and Endgame:
It was a special experience that three weeks of rehearsals at least are
needed for the actors to ‘build in’ the subtle timings and ‘relational
expressions’ into their performances ... It was a marvellous experience
to see a piece of ‘drama’ emerge.
Silence.
We drank from our glasses.
Then John said:
I’m going to stop being an academic. I’m going to start music lessons, I
think. There is just this one paper I still have to write. Just one paper. I
promised a friend to write it, so I will, but after that I will focus on music
or theatre.
I’m not sure what paper he was referring to, but according to my
count, he has written several papers and a book since then.
The next morning, at breakfast he said to me: ‘I have a present for
you.’ I was surprised because it was not my birthday, but then he said:
‘The present is a quote. It is a quote of Samuel Beckett’s.’ He handed
me a slip of paper on which he had scribbled: ‘Try again. Fail again.
Fail better.’
That was a few years ago. But I’m still grateful for this gift. It
means a lot to me. Not only because the quote reflects a humble per-
spective on the human condition that is strangely consoling. It also
means a lot to me because the fact that John gave this quote to me
convinces me that he understood my struggle and my pain.
Thanks John for the quote. Thanks for your writings. And thanks
for the privilege of spending time with you while drinking beer and
talking about life.
Peter Rober494
V
C2017 The Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice