Psychology situation vs universe situation

#1

Hi everyone,
Trying to get my head around how an issue of situation under psychology (described as practical considerations of the environment, how things stand rationally) is different from a domain of universe (defined as the stable situation).
Apart from one being at the domain level and one at the issue level…
is the difference something like this:
under psychology-conceptualizing-situation the conflict is around people rationally evaluating their environment (an internal process) whereas in the domain of universe, conflict is around an inequity in the environment itself (an external state), and not the way it is thought about?

I may have answered my own question but I was hoping I could check my working before I got too far wrong :sweat_smile:
Thanks for any thoughts.

#2

You probably have it right, but I couldn’t say for certain. Here’s a small glimpse into how I think, just in general. (And, guaranteed, it’s predominantly Linear.)

Note: I’m talking about situations and the universe in this description. Not Situation and Universe. So, definitely not an explication of Dramatica itself, just a hope that there will be useful information that correlates with it.

For me, if there’s a problem with a situation, it’s easy to change. It’s small, and I can fix it by leaving or changing the scenery, etc. But, when talking about things at universal level, I might easily find myself lost and confused, unless I make a serious effort. The problems which live at that scale aren’t so easily fixed, and it annoys me when people try to fix them without stepping back down to see if their plans could even work.

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#3

Yes – you’ve described the difference accurately.

Another distinction is that the domain of Situation is more genre-related, whereas the Issue of Situation is thematic. This means they’ll show up in different aspects of the story–different contexts.

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#4

Can we have a domain of Situation/Universe with an issue of Situation?

#5

Objectively, no, and not directly in the storyform because the Situation issue only appears in the Psychology domain.

THAT SAID, the variation of Situation may be paired with one of the Situation domain concerns in the Plot Sequence report because that report shows what the subjective view from within the story appears to be.

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#6

Thanks also for this nugget. This is still a blindspot for me, the ability to look at the domains and see genre. I’m much more comfortable with theme.

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#7

Another shortcut which you probably know is to look at whatever quad is underneath. Situation (Universe) is made up of Past/Present/Future/Progress which feels different from the Issue of Situation which is made up of Actuality/Order/Chaos/Perception.

You could also look at the quad it’s in – intuitively it helps me to contrast the Issue of Situation with its dynamic pair of Circumstances and situate it in the quad with State of Being and Sense of Self.

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