J.L. Moreno and the Psychodramatic Method

On the Practice of Psychodrama

John Nolte

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780367225667
• eBook ISBN: 9781000649826
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Beginning with a discussion of the intrinsic nature of psychodrama and providing the reader with a thorough description of the psychodramatic method, this book navigates the nature, applications, theories, and practices of the techniques originated by J. L. Moreno.

The book covers the work of the psychodrama pioneer in the field of mental health and discourse on his techniques. Methods of handling situations and scenarios that frequently arise in psychodrama sessions are described and amply illustrated with examples from actual psychodramas. The existential philosophy upon which psychodrama is founded, Moreno's Doctrine of Spontaneity-Creativity, and the theories important to understanding psychodrama are all discussed. The final chapter is devoted to the life and work of J. L. Moreno.

This book will be of great interest to psychodramatists, drama therapists, psychotherapists, and other mental health professionals who use the psychodramatic method in counseling and training programs.

1

WHAT IS PSYCHODRAMA, ANYWAY?

Role playing is a universal activity among children of all cultures. As children, we learn from older children or re-invent it ourselves. We teach school, explore outer space as astronauts, search for treasure buried by pirates, play doctor or cowboys and Indians, and engage in all sort of adventures. There are even suggestions that role playing is an evolutionary legacy from pre-human species. Philosophers, Rousseau, Froebel, and Dewey for example, had long pointed out that play was important in children’s learning. It took the genius of J. L. Moreno, however, to transform the role-playing games of childhood into the organized, coherent, and structured method of psychodrama, that has since been employed in multiple ways, in education and training; in psychotherapy; in personal growth and development; and in social research.

More than a Method of Psychotherapy

The most common definition of psychodrama is based on its most widely applied function¹ as a method of psychotherapy, in which people act out the problematic situations in their current lives and troublesome ones from their past experiences instead of merely describing them as happens in conventional psychotherapies. The definition of psychodrama as a method of psychotherapy, however, greatly obscures the fact that it is a method which has several distinctly different applications. It is far more than just a psychotherapeutic method. In 1948, Ronald Levy wrote that in a broad general sense, psychodrama “includes the whole family of skills, techniques, and processes which are involved in the ‘unrehearsed’ but not unplanned, dramatization of human problems for the purpose of dealing with them more effectively” (p. 226).

Generically, psychodrama is a method of creating dramas, a systematized form of children’s creative role playing. It is a dramaturgy, an art form. As such, it is also a method of communication. Psychodrama is a way to explore, understand, and express one’s subjective experience, a method of personality development. Psychodrama is also a method of training, an educational process, and a research instrument. All these activities are legitimate functions of the psychodramatic method.

When he first offered training in his methods, psychodrama and sociometry, Moreno announced that his courses comprised educational, guidance, and marital counseling, mental disorders, and social maladjustment as subjects. The courses were open to educators, ministers, and counselors of all kinds, in addition to psychiatrists, social workers, and psychologists. It was clear that he saw psychodrama as far more than a psychotherapeutic method in the customary definition of medical psychiatry. The fact was that he saw therapy in a far broader sense than that of psychiatry. As a result, all students, whether counselors, therapists, teachers, or others, were taught the same thing—the basic psychodrama method. Moreno’s concept of group psychotherapy as the therapy of the group rather than treatment of individuals in a group setting, and his mantra of “every person the therapist of every other person,” were embedded in all the training at his Psychodramatic Institute.

A Dramaturgy

The lowest common denominator of psychodrama’s functions is creating dramas. Every psychodrama, even if it is only a few minutes long, is indeed a dramatic piece. It is different from the conventional drama in that it does not require a script, trained actors, rehearsals, carefully constructed scenery, or costumes and props. In conventional theater, a proscenium arch separates the audience from the actors and the action. The psychodrama stage is easily accessible to the audience, from which come the protagonist and auxiliary players. A psychodrama is produced spontaneously in the moment, without a script, without rehearsals, scenery, and costumes, and with a minimum of props. The protagonist and actors emerge from the audience and return to it. Rather than to interpret an author’s work, the role of the director is to assist the protagonist to communicate her or his subjective experiences in dramatic form. That psychodrama is a dramaturgy also means that psychodrama is an art form.

A Method of Communication

There are many wonderful definitions of art (Popova, 2012). One of my favorites is: “A work of art is a message to the world, from the world, about the world.”² Psychodrama is without question a method of communication. It provides a unique and powerful way to convey to others what we have experienced in our lives. The audience is invited to be present as we recreate and act out events and fantasies complete with our thoughts and our feelings. In psychodrama, the protagonist doesn’t tell a story from his or her life. He or she re-lives an experience, a wish, a dream, or a fantasy in the presence of the audience. In the process, the actions, interactions, thoughts, and emotions of the protagonist and of all the other individuals involved are portrayed in a richness, intensity, depth, vibrancy, and completeness that goes far beyond narrative. We observe and participate in the protagonist’s tribulation, pain, joy, triumph, and celebration. We see the protagonist and his or her life as the protagonist experiences it.

The most important communication is the protagonist’s communication with him or herself. Through reenactment of experiences, the protagonist extracts information that has remained hidden and inaccessible. The protagonist thus comes to know her or himself more thoroughly. Through psychodrama, one makes sense out of events that have heretofore been confusing, baffling, perplexing, or bewildering.

A Method of Psychotherapy

The most extensive application of psychodrama has been in the mental health field. This is not surprising since Moreno was a psychiatrist who first employed spontaneity drama techniques to resolve troubles in a distressed marriage in the early 1920s. Moreno developed the psychotherapeutic function of psychodrama in conjunction with his establishment of a psychiatric hospital, Beacon Hill Sanitarium in Beacon, NY, in 1936. The protagonists of the early psychodramas were psychiatric patients. Psychodrama, with its emphasis upon interpersonal relationships, reflected Moreno’s conviction that psychiatric symptoms result from interpersonal problems rather than from internal conflicts. This was contrary to the conventional viewpoint, the medical model of mental illness. For Moreno, treatment was focused on relationships, groups, and society at large.

Psychodrama is uniquely designed to achieve what psychotherapy seeks to do, i.e., to provide relief from emotional distress. By replicating direct experience in a flexible and controlled setting, psychodrama provides deep insight into the genesis of one’s actions. The action insight that the protagonist earns from psychodramatic work is deeper and far more effective than the cognitive insight a client receives from conventional psychotherapy.

Personality Development

“Know thyself,” the famous Greek aphorism often attributed to Socrates, has elicited similar points of view over the centuries, for example:

I must first know myself, as the Delphian inscription says; to be curious about that which is not my concern, while I am still in ignorance of my own self would be ridiculous.

Plato

He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.

Lao Tzu

Make it thy business to know thyself, which is the most difficult lesson in the world.

Miguel de Cervantes

Observe all men; thy self most.

Benjamin Franklin

Other expressions incorporating the notion of self knowledge with an emphasis on being include:

“Know Thyself” was written over the portal of the antique world. Over the portal of the new world, “Be Thyself” shall be written.

Oscar Wilde

We only become what we are by the radical and deep-seated refusal of that which others have made of us.

Jean-Paul Sartre

Without self knowledge, without understanding the working and functions of his machine, man cannot be free, he cannot govern himself and he will always remain a slave.

G. I. Gurdjieff

Psychodrama reflects the spirit of all of these views.

Expanded understanding of oneself, insight, is a basic principle of most methods of psychotherapy. However, one need not have a psychiatric problem to desire, seek, and benefit from greater self awareness and self understanding. Moreno sometimes described psychodrama as therapy for normal people.³ Psychodrama is a powerful method for the re-examination of one’s life experiences, especially those that are associated with strong positive or negative emotion. Highly functional people find value in participating in activities that generate insight. These include psychotherapies of many kinds, personal growth and development groups, and psychodrama training groups where people have opportunities for exploring puzzling and problematic events in their lives. Psychodrama, which involves the whole person physically, mentally, and socially, is the most powerful approach to the task of greater self understanding.

For several decades in the last half of the twentieth century, the human potential movement consisted of a wide variety of workshops often labeled as human skills training, personal growth and development workshops, or as encounter groups. These events made use of psychotherapeutic techniques as well as techniques developed from small group research. They promised increased personal effectiveness. Jonathan Moreno (2014) discusses the history of the human potential movement and its relationship to the theory and methods of J. L. Moreno at length in his book about his father. The psychodrama training workshops of the Moreno Institute provided a prototype for these events. Personal growth activities are differentiated from psychotherapy in that the latter is considered remedial, treatment of a disorder, while the former involves expansion of self understanding and social effectiveness.

Social Skills or Role Training

One of the earliest nonclinical applications of psychodrama was role training, a form of psychodrama that prepares a person to meet future situations. Role training allows one to experience anticipated difficult situations on the psychodrama stage and to practice responding to them in a safe setting. Psychodramatic techniques were used for training as early as 1928 when Moreno conducted role training sessions for managers of Macy’s Department Store (J. D. Moreno, 2014). A few years later, Moreno was deeply immersed in his pioneering sociometric research project at the New York Training School for Girls at Hudson. One of the problems he confronted was preparing students for successful living in open society after discharge from the institution. In the first edition of Who Shall Survive? Moreno (1934) describes role-playing sessions in which the students of the New York State Training School for Girls were put in situations that they might expect to experience after leaving the institution. Since then, role training or some modification of it has found widespread usage in many venues and especially in business and industrial situations where it is often referred to as role play. Moreno sometimes called role training “rehearsal for living.”

Noted industrial psychologist Norman R. F. Maier made extensive use of psychodramatic role playing in the business world. Maier worked with large industries on the problems of improving supervision. The program was focused on moving leadership from an autocratic model to a more democratic one. In his books (1952, 1953, 1955) Maier describes many ways in which role playing can be used to introduce human relations training into the industrial setting.

Psychodrama in Education

Psychodrama has been creatively employed by teachers ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. What is Psychodrama, Anyway?
• 2. The Basics of Psychodrama
• 3. Warming Up
• 4. Creating the Drama
• 5. Protagonists Describe Their Dramas
• 6. Beyond Psychotherapy
• 7. Psychodrama Theory
• 8. A Brief History of Psychodrama
• 9. The Aspirations of J. L. Moreno
• Index