PsychoDrama

Essay by Anonymous UserUniversity, Master's August 2007

download word file, 10 pages 3.7

Criticizing the individual unconscious theory of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung's collective unconsciousness replaced by various dynamics, J.L. Moreno chose to be a psychological explorer fathering a system known as Psychodrama. Legends say he was born in 1892 on a boat in the Black Sea and reared in Vienna. The basic personality theory, like Moreno's extroverted personality, is action oriented. In 1906, at the age of sixteen, Moreno published two papers called "Homo Juvenis" and "Das Kinderreich." (Landy, 1986 p. 29) The key concepts upon which he based his theory of personality are spontaneity, situation, tele, catharsis, and insight. The birthplace of psychodrama is said to have taken place by having children who played in parks of his city enact their thoughts and fantasies. By observing the creativity of the children accompanied by a medical degree, Moreno founded the Theater of Spontaneity where he began developing his psycho dramatic techniques.

The perfecting of his techniques came about years later when he moved to the United States. In the late 1920's and early 1930's, Moreno formulated his theories of group interaction therapy. Places he developed he put the theories into practice were in public schools, reformatory schools for girls, and with prison inmates.

Psycho Drama Explained Psychodrama as explained by J.L. Moreno is noting more than an extension of the initial clinical interview.

"The main difference between them is that instead of the patient being in a one-to-one relationship with the psychotherapist, he or she finds themselves removed from the privacy of a consulting room and placed in a position where he/she is given the opportunity to act out and thus experience various aspects of his problems in a larger-than-life dimension. In this process, the patient becomes the protagonist of the drama he creates and may, while under the direction of...