Fundamentals of Psychodrama

By Falko von Ameln and Jochen Becker-Ebel

This book offers a comprehensive guide to psychodrama, including the underlying philosophy, methodology, theory and applications. Taking readers through the process of staging a psychodrama session, from the contracting phase, exploration and enactment to closure and integration, the book also presents brief short examples to illustrate how to choose the best methodological approach for any context, and describes in detail the various psychodrama techniques and their application in practice, with indications, contraindications, typical pitfalls and FAQs. The book demonstrates that psychodrama is not merely a collection of methods and techniques and that the potential of psychodrama cannot be fully utilized without an in-depth knowledge of its conceptual foundations. With examples from a range of practices, it shows the broad applicability of psychodrama in therapeutic and non-therapeutic contexts alike, e.g. in educational contexts (school and adult education), social work, organization development, coaching and many other fields. This easy-to-read book uses jargon-free language and will appeal to psychotherapy researchers and practitioners, as well as non-therapeutic professionals like human resource consultants and life coaches.    This is a translated and revised edition of the best-selling German book Psychodrama: Grundlagen (Springer, 2014, 3rd edition).   

• Language: English
• Publisher: Springer
• Release date: Jul 25, 2020
• ISBN: 9789811544279

Falko von Ameln

PD Dr. phil. Falko von Ameln, Diplom-Psychologe, Supervisor/Coach (DGSv), arbeitet als selbstständiger Berater und Trainer mit den Schwerpunkten Change Management, Führungskulturentwicklung sowie Aus- und Weiterbildung von Beraterinnen, Supervisorinnen und Coaches. Er ist Editor-in-Chief der Zeitschrift "Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation (GIO)" und nimmt zahlreiche Lehraufträge wahr.

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© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020

F. von Ameln, J. Becker-EbelFundamentals of Psychodramahttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4427-9_1

1. Introduction

Falko von Ameln¹   and Jochen Becker-Ebel²  

(1)

Norden, Niedersachsen, Germany

(2)

Vedadrama India Pvt. Ltd., Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Falko von Ameln (Corresponding author)

Email: [e-mail]

Jochen Becker-Ebel

Email: [e-mail]

If we take people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as if they were what they ought to be, we help them to become what they are capable of becoming.

(Goethe, Wilhelm Meister´s Apprenticeship)

Keywords

PsychodramaRole playIntroduction

1.1 What Is Psychodrama?

In the first half of the twentieth century, Jacob Levy Moreno, a physician, psychotherapist and philosopher, developed psychodrama as a method of

Physical demonstration (Greek drama = action),

Inner experience (Greek psyche = soul).

Moreno himself described psychodrama as … the method (…) that explores the truth of the soul through action.

Psychodrama is primarily known as a group psychotherapy method, though its applications are much more diverse. It is used as much in organizational counseling, classroom settings and social work as in the therapeutic field. Although psychodrama is generally considered (and conceived) as a method for working with groups, with minor modifications, it is also suitable for individual work (Chap. 6).

Psychodrama primarily has no artistic aspiration (like theater), but always aims at changing the protagonist(s) and the whole group. An internal conflict (such as the decision about one’s professional future) of a protagonist, the one introducing the topic, standing in the center of a psychodrama play can be visualized, analyzed and solved on the stage by the psychodrama director using various psychodrama-specific arrangements and techniques. How this happens will be articulated in the course of this book. The protagonist experiences his play for himself as well as the other group members, who in the process of identifying with the protagonist, also share the play’s impact.

Compared to other simulation methods (role play, case study, etc.), psychodrama is particularly characterized by the realistic representation created in the play. After participating in a psychodrama play for the first time, one is usually amazed how real the action on stage feels. In order for this to happen, the situation in question is supposed to be relived and not replayed in psychodrama. On the other hand—again in contrast to alternative methods—psychodrama makes it possible to go beyond facts (e.g. the bad conscience) using surplus reality, where the situation in the play becomes real and is available to be processed.

Psychodrama includes a variety of different methods and forms of work that cannot be presented all at once. Hence, we will first explain what is known as protagonist-centered work here; the full variety and complexity of psychodramatic work will then unfold in the following chapters.

1.2 Psychodrama and Role Play

Unlike psychodrama, role-playing has gained popularity in training, language courses, behavioral therapy and school education. Initially, a psychodrama play may seem like a role play for a psychodrama newbie. In fact, role-playing and psychodrama share common historical roots, although psychodrama differs from role-playing or even goes beyond role-playing in some significant ways. In the course of this book, those unacquainted with psychodrama will gain an exact understanding of how psychodrama works and what differences and advantages it has over role play. To begin with, we want to give you an overview of the most important points in order to provide a basis for understanding further remarks.

Role-play helps reconstruct real-life situations in a simulation situation. Usually, the goals are

1.

To observe how one or more players behave in a certain situation,

2.

To rectify the dysfunctional aspects in their behavior.

The participants in a role play receive a fixed set of instructions (e.g. in a written format), which could look something like this:

Example

You are Mr. Gardner, head of a medium-sized company in the telecommunications industry. Your business is going well. Just a few days ago, you received a big contract and all employees in the company must be available for the same. In this role play you will meet Mrs. Carlson, who is responsible for the purchase department of your company. Mrs Carlson is a competent employee, however, she has annoyed you several times with her flexible attitude towards working hours. Mrs Carlson will request you to sanction her leave for next week. You are angry—the employees are aware that they must request for a holiday at least four weeks in advance, and the contract is at risk if the purchase department does not work smoothly. Moreover, you want to give Mrs. Carlson a well-deserved lesson so that she realizes she can not get away with it like that.

The participants are required to take on their roles unrehearsed (i.e. improvised), but as true to the instruction as possible. The role play usually takes place without the intervention of the director. Then, participant’s behavior is analyzed on the basis of the criteria set by the director; new behavioral options are practiced in the next round, if necessary.

Role-play is the best-known (e.g. in organizational development) and the most frequently used simulation method. While role-playing offers good opportunities to analyze and practice behavior, as the sole intervention, it has a number of disadvantages:

Since the script of the role play is written by the director (an author of training literature or something similar), the played-out situations lack everyday life reference. The participants find it difficult to establish a (particularly emotional) relationship with their own character. Furthermore, there is a risk that role plays constructed on the basis of chosen themes and situations are not relevant to the participants, as they are to the director.

The role instructions are a limitation as they exclude a range of behavioral possibilities. On the other hand, they are usually too tight to give the participants the security they need for a confident and convincing completion of their roles. As a result, the participants can at best identify with their roles to a lesser extent. Furthermore, the participants often feel overwhelmed by the requirements of improvisation or believe in having to implement the role specifications as accurately as possible and with perfect theatrical performance.

The implicit or explicit specification to follow the role instructions as exactly as possible creates a quasi-examination situation. As a result, often participants perceive role play as a test that one can either pass or fail, depending on how convincingly one plays the role. Not only does this create fear of assessment, stress and tension in the participants, but it also adds to the artificiality and the unrealistic nature of the role play.

The simulation situations in role-playing contain only a small number of the factors that would influence the action in reality. The reality is always more complex than the simulation in a training situation. This, of course, applies to psychodrama too, but at a later point, we will show that psychodrama allows a much more complex representation of reality than the role play.

As mentioned earlier, role-playing is a good method for checking and modifying behavior. However, this behavioral training approach is ultimately based on an unsatisfactory and highly condensed behavioral model. If one wants to understand and change human action, one must take into account not only the observable behavior but also motives, goals and other inner states that guide behavior. However, this occurs only to a small extent during a role play.

Important

Psychodrama avoids these disadvantages to the greatest possible extent, as the theme and objective of a psychodrama stage are determined by the protagonist and the group.

A first significant difference from role play is that in psychodrama, the theme and objective of the play are usually defined by the group and not by the director. This does not imply that psychodrama is not goal-oriented: When applying psychodrama, usually a structural thematic framework is prescribed (in the case of organizational development, for example, the topic of the seminar, such as conflict management) and the protagonist or the group then determines which situation should be processed, within this framework. In a protagonist play, there is no learning goal given (e.g. the practice of conversation techniques), but the protagonist determines what she wants to achieve in her play, for example, gaining insight, strengthening her previous course of action, exploring unconscious motives, practicing new courses of action or assistance in decision making. Keeping in mind the importance of the group in psychodrama, the group plays a key role in the choice of topics as well as protagonists, not only in plays centered around the group but also in protagonist plays. The above-mentioned danger of misjudgment of the relevance for the participants is thus largely avoided in psychodrama.

Important

In psychodrama, we do not work with constructed scenarios, but with situations and themes from the protagonist’s or the group’s real life.

In psychodrama, there are no constructed scenarios that are used as raw material, but most situations that the protagonist has experienced in her real life. It is also possible to play situations that are imagined in the future or even hypothetical (Sect. 3.​5)—all of these possibilities, as will be seen later, depict the protagonist’s subjective reality and thus are equally realistic for him. The protagonist does not implement an externally prescribed script, but he is the creator, director and actor of his own play. The feeling of playing an unrealistic situation without reference to one’s own life cannot arise at all.

Important

Psychodrama means to present the situations played in their spatiotemporal context.

In psychodrama, it is to be made sure that a certain scene is not just reproduced in a vacuum; but on the contrary, the situation is anchored in space and time, in the here and now for both, the protagonist and the group. The atmosphere that was present in the situation in question is evoked by setting the stage. The distance between the participants and the play is over. Thus, psychodrama triggers participants’ feelings to a far greater extent than the role play, which often influences the action more strongly than rational reflections.

Important

The roles in psychodrama are usually not improvised, instead specified by the protagonist.

According to the principles presented so far, there are no fixed role instructions and no pre-structuring or formalization of the situation to be played in psychodrama. The roles are specified in detail by the protagonist during role reversal and merely re-enacted by the other participants. Performance pressure can hardly arise as the protagonist can retrieve the situation from his memory (or, in the case of future situations, from his imagination) and the participants do not have to improvise. On the other hand, participants are not necessarily committed to mechanical reproduction of the protagonist’s specifications in completing their role. They may also feel empathy and introduce spontaneous impulses, interpretations, modifications, etc., which the protagonist can correct, if necessary. The participants are therefore under no pressure to be creative or professional.

Important

In psychodrama, protagonist-centered work is always working with the group, by the group and for the group.

Moreno assumes that protagonist plays have a high experiential value because of identification mechanisms, not only for the protagonist, but also for the other participants; the plays are indeed experienced by all participants as genuine and gainful. In summary, it can be said that the risk of artificiality in psychodrama is not the same as in role-play.

Important

Psychodrama reflects the complexity of what is portrayed better than a role play.

A situation chosen by the protagonist can be reconstructed on the psychodrama stage at a level of complexity that is sufficient to take into account the factors that have an influence on the protagonist’s decision making. For example, the number of people appearing in the play is virtually unlimited, since the roles can be represented not only by the group members, but also by chairs, scarves, moderation cards, stuffed animals in therapy with children, etc. The fact that even action influencing factors such as motives, conscience and absent persons can be embodied by other players and processed on the psychodrama stage, is of particular benefit. Psychodrama does not only focus on what appears to be an observable reality in role-playing. Rather, the psychodramatic experience takes place in a world designated by Moreno as surplus reality, which embodies the subjective reality beyond the visible, the inner world of the protagonist. Surplus reality can be considered as a central factor in psychodrama. It enables the systemic simulation of action-relevant factors at a complexity level unattainable with role play.

Important

Psychodrama is the act of experiencing one’s own subjective reality.

The most succinct possible summary of the differences between the two methods is obtained by scrutinizing the meaning of the concepts: While in role-playing one plays a role (which does not have to be one’s own), psychodrama depicts an act (drama = action) of experiencing one’s own inner world (psyche = soul), which, as a formalized externalization of one’s own inwardness, is necessarily experienced as relevant, realistic and based on one’s own experience.

1.3 Definition and Classification of Psychodrama

Psychodrama is a method which enables individuals and groups to present life events in the form of scenes, explore them and change their subjective experience. The following overview is an attempt at a detailed and differentiated definition of the process of psychodrama.

Overview

Substantive Definition of Psychodrama

The Founding Principle of Psychodrama

An active transformation of the client’s (systems) intangible semantic (meaningful) content (e.g., expectations, emotions, relationships) into a tangible stage arrangement using theatrical elements (e.g., stage, props, teammates) is the basic methodological principle that distinguishes psychodrama from other methods. When supported by special psychodramatic techniques, the symbolic elements of the emerging experience, the so-called psychodramatic surplus reality, can be explored and transformed by the client in an active way. This can further enable the construction of new personal meanings, development of new impulses for action, and testing of new behavior.

The Basic Elements of Psychodrama

Psychodrama is part of J. L. Moreno’s therapeutic philosophy as well as a part of the psychodrama, group psychotherapy and sociometry triad. It includes

A series of specific guiding principles for the interpretation of individual and social reality, particularly the role theory as well as concepts of spontaneity and creativity,

A specific praxeology, i.e. instructions for professional design of psychodramatic intervention,

Specific forms of work, e.g., protagonist-centered, group-centered, topic-centered or sociodramatic work,

Specific arrangements (improvisation, sculpture work, etc.) as well as,

A number of specific techniques such as role reversal, doubling, mirroring (Table 1.1).

Table 1.1

Overview of psychodrama

The philosophical background of psychodrama is characterized by humanistic values. Psychodrama highlights not only one’s creative and social potentials but also the possibility for a more conscious, responsible and humane organization of the community.

Areas of Application for Psychodrama

Psychodrama has applications

In various fields, such as psychotherapy, teaching, internal and external adult education, social work, supervision and coaching,

In different settings, e.g., with individual clients or groups,

In various institutional contexts,

For different target groups, e.g., migrants, managers, students, clinical patients with different disorders or old people (Table 1.1).

1.4 Psychodrama as a System

Some authors understand psychodrama as a collection of techniques whose application needs the involvement of other theories such as psychoanalysis. This is an unhistorical reduction of psychodrama since its methodical components cannot be removed from its philosophy, praxeology and various guiding principles. Thus, psychodrama is described as … a consistent approach for the management of challenging relationships, i.e. an integral system of theories and methodologies that is similar to psychoanalysis, Gestalt psychology, the systemic approach or behavioral therapy.

Some authors define psychodrama on the use of role reversal. In our opinion, this approach is not convincing, since it remains purely formal; neither the similarities in different forms of psychodrama work nor its theoretical premises can be satisfactorily illustrated. In addition, psychodrama can be done without the use of role reversal. A definition that requires the use of role reversal as a necessary condition for psychodramatic work is too narrow to do justice to the breadth of the process. We therefore define psychodrama using the principle of active representation of subjective reality—a definition that is already created on the basis of the process (psyche = soul, drama = action).

Psychodrama is often defined as a method of group psychotherapy. This restriction to the therapeutic field is historically unjustifiable since Moreno developed psychodrama even in fields of pedagogy and sociology, social work and so on. Today, psychodrama is increasingly used in non-therapeutic fields without pursuing psychotherapeutic aims. If psychodrama is understood as a method, by definition it must be regarded as being detached from its application fields.

The same applies to settings in which psychodrama can be used: While psychodrama is often defined as a pure group method, its application in individual settings is certainly possible and has often been described. A definitive connection to the group setting should therefore be abandoned.

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020

F. von Ameln, J. Becker-EbelFundamentals of Psychodramahttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4427-9_2

2. An Overview of Psychodrama

Falko von Ameln¹   and Jochen Becker-Ebel²  

(1)

Norden, Niedersachsen, Germany

(2)

Vedadrama India Pvt. Ltd., Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Falko von Ameln (Corresponding author)

Email: [e-mail]

Jochen Becker-Ebel

Email: [e-mail]

The word drama has its origins in the Greek meaning to act, do or perform (…). Psychodrama can therefore be described as the method that explores the truth of one’s soul through action (…). Since it is impossible to directly penetrate into one’s soul, and understand what goes on in there, psychodrama attempts to make one’s psychic content visible and represent it within the framework of a tangible and controllable world (…). Once this phase of externalization is complete, the second phase begins. It involves re-internalizing, re-ordering and re-integrating that what has been externalized. In practice, both phases go hand in hand (Moreno, 1959, p. 77; 111).

Keywords

PsychodramaPsychotherapyOrganisational consultationCase studyWarm-up phaseAction phaseIntegration phase

Psychodrama is a highly complex and diverse process. In this chapter, we want to give our readers an insight into the most important and frequently used psychodramatic methods. We will do so by using two case studies. The case studies refer to a seminar on Conflict Management, as well as a psychotherapeutic process, but are easily transferable to other fields of application.

2.1 Getting Started

Psychodrama is not only about self-awareness and intense emotional experience. It also includes movement, playfulness and creativity.

Example

Organizational Consultation—Getting Started

Dr. Michael Gardner, psychodrama director and organizational consultant, opens the seminar at the hotel Neuenheimer Hof in Heidelberg with the words: Welcome to our seminar on ‘Constructive Conflict Management’. My name is Michael Gardner, and I will work together with you for the next three days. I know that you all come from different sections of Intermedia AG and do not know each other well. I therefore suggest that we get to know each other first. Instead of doing it in the usual formal introductory round, I want to create something more open. For that, I would like you all to stand up. Please stand along an imaginary line according to the first letter of your last name. In other words, if your last name starts with A, you’d be standing near the door here, and if it starts with Z, you’d be closer to the window over there. The participants get up, walk around the room and begin to ask each other’s names. In doing so, Dr. Gardner has broken the ice.

The director in the above mentioned case study designs the beginning of the seminar with what is called action sociometry. This creates movement, a non-committal contact between participants right at the beginning and makes it easier to remember names.

Even in individual work, the first few minutes of a consultation can be designed using this action method. This is demonstrated in the following case study based on an initial psychotherapeutic interview.

Example

Psychotherapy—Getting Started

Mrs. Madison has been referred to John Smith by her family doctor. She is experiencing sleep disturbances as well as depressive symptoms. In the initial interview, Mr. Smith explores the history of his client’s presenting complaints using psychodramatic methods.

My discomfort started about two years ago, says Mrs. Madison.

Mr. Smith puts a rope on the ground of the therapy room and says, Imagine, this rope represents the past two years. Now, I’d like to ask you to choose one of these scarves to represent your sleep disturbances.

(Mrs. Madison chooses a gray scarf.)

When did these sleep disturbances begin? asks Mr. Smith.

I would say, about a year ago, replies Mrs. Madison.

If the rope signifies two years, then one year is roughly in the middle of the rope. Please place the scarf such that it is approximately in the middle of the rope. Can you tell me one important event that happened during that time? asks Mr. Smith.

Yeah, my daughter went to America around the same time. She is studying biotechnology there, replies Mrs. Madison.

Mr. Smith continues Please place a symbol next to the rope to represent this event, and transfer yourself back in time. Your daughter is on her way to America …

Mrs. Madison begins to breathe heavily.

Mr. Smith stands next to her and speaks as Mrs. Madison: I realize, I’m breathing heavily. I feel stifled.

Mr. Smith explored the course of his client’s complaints by means of action and helped the client verbalize her experience using what is called doubling. In doing so, the therapist has combined the gathering of anamnestic information with an opportunity for reflection for the client.

2.2 Warm Up

Each psychodramatic process begins with what is called warm up. It is intended to prepare clients for the subsequent psychodramatic action, similar to warm-up exercises in sports.

Example

Organizational Consultation—Warm Up

Once Dr. Gardner introduces the seminar program and elicits participant expectations, and everyone gets to know each other, he asks them to come together to form dyads. The task is to discuss typical workplace conflicts and write down outcomes of their discussion on metaplan cards. In doing so, the participants will approach the topic of Conflict within a protected setting of a dyad. Mr. Gardner then plans to have the outcomes presented and sorted, in order to gain an overview of areas of conflict in an organization from the participants’ perspective. Following this, Mr. Gardner would choose one of the situations and analyze it using psychodramatic methods on the second day.

As the example shows, the warm-up phase also serves diagnostic purposes and helps form a deeper relationship between participants. Psychodrama has a wide range of warm-up techniques. Drawing a social atom is one of the most important warm-up techniques, which is demonstrated in our second case study.

Example

Psychotherapy—Warm Up

In the first session, John Smith gained the impression that his client’s depressive symptoms started with the change in her family situation after her daughter’s departure. In today’s second session, he wants to take a closer look at Mrs. Madison’s social engagement.

He says I would like to gain a better understanding of how you feel in your current relationships with other people. Please take this sheet of paper and draw a circle in the middle that represents you. Then draw, around you, all those who are currently close to you—these can be family members, friends, colleagues, or anyone who is important to you at the moment. Please draw circles to represent women, and triangles to represent the men. The greater the distance in a relationship, the farther you move that symbol toward the edge of the sheet. If you have a positive relationship with the person, draw a solid line connecting you both. Draw a dashed line for a negative relationship, and a wavy line for a neutral relationship. Use these lines to indicate both, how you relate to the person as well as how that person relates to you.

A detailed description of this technique can be found in Sect. 14.​5. The theoretical model of the social atom is described in Sect. 14.​2.​3.

2.3 The Protagonist Play

The following example illustrates the protagonist play, often referred to as the classical psychodramatic approach.

Example

Organizational Consultation—The Protagonist Play

The second day focuses on further exploration of a conflict situation from the participants’ working life. For this purpose, the group selected a situation presented by one of the participants, namely a conflict with their supervisor. Michael Gardner enters the stage with the participant, Mrs. Carlson, and begins with the exploration of the topic. Mrs. Carlson narrates how she was late for work because she had to take her three-year-old son to the hospital. At work, she asked her supervisor for a short-term leave, and the supervisor reacted in a displeased manner.

The director asks the protagonist to create her office on stage using tables, chairs, and other objects, so that the group can get a better idea of the situation. Fellow participants from the group play the roles of people involved in this situation (supervisor and colleague). The protagonist recreates the situation as she experienced and perceived it. Since the participants do not know the situation itself, their roles are played in a constant role reversal with the protagonist. Mrs. Carlson and her supervisor (played by another participant, Mrs. Pearce) stand facing each other on stage. Mrs. Carlson asks: I would like to take leave next week. Is that possible?

The director gives the instruction to reverse roles. Mrs. Pearce repeats the question from the role of Mrs. Carlson, and Mrs. Carlson replies from the role of the supervisor: Who will do your work then?

Now the roles are changed back. Mrs. Carlson goes back to her role, and Mrs. Pearce again takes the role of the supervisor. She repeats the supervisor’s last sentence, and Mrs. Carlson answers again from her role: I’ve already spoken to Mrs. Johnson, and …

The entire dialogue is reconstructed similarly in a role reversal.

The director now asks the protagonist to stand on the edge of the stage, while her role is filled by another group member. Now, the whole scene is replayed, while Mrs. Carlson watches it from the edge of the stage. This change of perspective—by stepping into a distant position—helps the protagonist often gain insights, which could not be gained from the situation itself.

This short case study highlights some important elements of a protagonist play:

The protagonist is in the center of the play.

The roles of those in interaction are embodied by other participants in the group, who are referred to as auxiliary egos in psychodrama.

The scene is constantly developed using role reversal.

Depending on the objective, the protagonist can experience the recreated scene from the inside perspective or reflect upon it from the outside perspective (in psychodrama, this is known as mirroring).

In the following case study, it becomes clear that role reversal promotes empathy toward her interaction partners and thus helps gain insights, which would be difficult to access from her own perspective.

Example

Psychotherapy—The Protagonist Play

In the second session, Mr. Smith wants to expand further on Mrs. Madison’s social atom. In the first interview, we saw that Mrs. Madison had lost her only attachment figure, her daughter: Her husband had died a few years ago, and Mrs. Madison had no close friendships that could help her through her loss. Furthermore, she has no idea of how to make her existing relationships more active. Now, the social atom is created by placing a chair for Mrs. Madison in the middle of the therapy room, while more chairs are grouped around it for her attachment figures.

Mr. Smith asks Mrs. Madison to change various roles by sitting on the respective chairs. Mrs. Madison, please sit here and change into the role of your brother James. You are now James Madison. Please introduce yourself.

(The protagonist introduces the brother.)

Mr. Smith asks Mr. Madison, how is the relationship between you and your sister?

Well, since my sister lost her husband, she has been very withdrawn. I seldom hear from her anymore replies Mrs. Madison from the role of her brother.

Would you like to be in more contact with her? asks Mr. Smith.

We’ve grown apart now. We used to meet more often in the past, sometimes for a weekend comes the reply.

Mr. Smith asks Would you like to revive that time, Mr. Madison?

Yes, of course, I have plenty of time now since I am retired comes the reply.

In addition, one can also replace the auxiliary ego with the empty chair, a psychodrama technique that was taken over by and has become known through the Gestalt approach.

2.4 The Integration Phase

The integration phase aims at supporting the protagonist (sharing), offering her a broader perspective (role feedback) and integrating all participants who assumed different roles (auxiliary ego, spectator) back into a common group process. In individual work, the director offers sharing and role feedback to the protagonist.

Example

Organizational Consultation—The Integration Phase

After Mrs. Carlson’s protagonist play, the group sits together in a circle. The director begins by asking participants for a sharing, i.e. each participant shares specific aspects from their own professional life that they found to be similar to the topic of the protagonist play. Subsequently, the participants, who assumed the role of an auxiliary ego, give Mrs. Carlson a role feedback, i.e. they reflect on their experience in the roles (as a supervisor, colleague, etc.) and share how Mrs. Carlson’s behavior in those roles affected them.

2.5 Working with the Group

The constellation work, which is mostly attributed to family therapy today, also has its origins in psychodrama. It helps is presenting and working through structures of a system in an active and creative manner.

Example

Organizational Consultation—Constellation work with Groups

On the morning of the third day, the seminar addresses the topic of Intergroup Conflicts. The participants are to be made aware of the dynamics of conflict in an organization. For this purpose, a live organization is created on the stage, in such a way that each participant represents an organizational unit of Intermedia Ltd. Participants are then asked to position themselves based on their perception of their organizational unit’s position within the organizational power structure: The participant, who represents a particularly powerful division, is asked to sit on a chair, whereas the one who represents a low-ranking division squats down. Each participant is then asked about the typical conflicts that emerge in collaboration with other departments, their mutual expectations, as well as possible solution strategies.

The constellation work belongs to what is known as arrangements (Sect. 4.​7).

In sociodrama, it is not just one protagonist but the entire group that is at the center of the intervention. It includes the following forms of work:

Topic-centered (working on a specific subject),

Group-centered (working on relations between group members) and

Sociopolitical sociodrama (exploring the social dimensions of a topic).

The different possibilities of working with groups are further described in detail in Chap. 7.

2.6 Summary

As demonstrated in the above case studies, the acting out of life events—from the past or anticipated for the future—is the most important methodical principle in psychodrama which distinguishes it from other forms of therapy or counseling. According to its historical references to theater, psychodrama always takes place on a stage—often indicated only by a circle of chairs. In the protagonist-centered psychodrama, the protagonist is in the center of the play, where her concerns are acted out in a creative manner with the help of the director, and the group members (known as the auxiliary egos) play the roles of important caregivers. In sociodrama, the focus lies on the group’s questions and not individual concerns. The stage, the protagonist, the director, the auxiliary egos and the group are referred to as instruments of psychodrama (Chap. 3). Psychodrama offers a variety of methodological building blocks and techniques in order to guide the process before, during and after the action-based presentation (Chaps. 4 and 5). The most important techniques are role reversal, doubling and mirroring.

Reference

Moreno, J. L. (1959). Gruppenpsychotherapie und Psychodrama: Einleitung in die Theorie und Praxis. Stuttgart: Thieme.

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020

F. von Ameln, J. Becker-EbelFundamentals of Psychodramahttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4427-9_3

3. Basic Elements of Psychodrama

Falko von Ameln¹   and Jochen Becker-Ebel²  

(1)

Norden, Niedersachsen, Germany

(2)

Vedadrama India Pvt. Ltd., Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Falko von Ameln (Corresponding author)

Email: [e-mail]

Jochen Becker-Ebel

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All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages. (Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 7)

In Psychodrama, the action space is constituted by five basic elements, which are presented below:

1.

The stage,

2.

The protagonist,

3.

The auxiliary ego,

4.

The group,

5.

The director.

3.1 The Stage

Moreno developed psychodrama from his theatrical experiments, and the proximity of psychodrama to the theater is evident. In view of this fact, it is not surprising that the stage is one of the most important basic elements of the process. The stage in Moreno’s Institute in Beacon Hill had three levels with a balcony. The audience sat on the first, lowest level, the protagonist and director moved to the middle level for the exploration of the topic, and the actual psychodramatic action took place on the top most level of the stage (see Fig. 3.1). Even though this three-stage concept is still used in every psychodramatic enactment today (Sect. 10.​8.​1), psychodrama does not require elaborate equipments or a professional stage sets. In regular psychodrama work, the director, the protagonist and the group can define any sufficiently large space as a stage. Usually, the stage is set in one part of the room by placing participant’s chairs beyond the imaginary edge of the stage in a semicircle, which should have a radius of at least 3 m.

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Fig. 3.1

Moreno’s original Beacon Hill Stage, now at Hudson Valley Institute (Photograph by Jochen Becker-Ebel, with friendly permission of Rebecca Walters)

The distance between the spectators and the protagonist has to be determined by the stage itself—small enough to ensure an emotionally intense and supportive atmosphere, big enough not to oppress the protagonist. The psychodramatic stage creates a safe space that must be preserved during the enactment. Nobody should therefore leave or join the group during this time.

Psychodrama has no specifications with regard to the design of the group room. The room should simply be sufficiently lit and darkened if required, and the stage should be free of distractive furniture (such as overhead projectors, flip charts).

Upon entering the stage, the protagonist leaves the reality of the group behind and enters the surplus reality of psychodrama. In surplus reality, situations from the protagonist’s inner world are recreated (using props) and brought to life. Each room has items that can serve as props for a psychodrama enactment: A table can represent an island, a ship or a cave, chairs can replace all kinds of furniture and serve as walls and other obstacles, or even turn into a car or a train compartment when placed in a rectangle.

Despite the separation between the surplus reality (on stage) and the group’s reality (off stage), the director should, at all times, be aware of the fact that the dynamics emerging on stage are not only limited to the stage, but also include the entire group. On one hand, this allows the director to use the group as an additional diagnostic tool, but on the other hand, he must also observe and protect the needs of the group alongside those of the protagonist.

The stage creates the protagonist’s living space in a real space. Thus, the dimension of space becomes an important factor in psychodrama: I cannot emphasize sufficiently that in our research the configuration of space as a part of the therapeutic process is of utmost importance (Moreno, 1966, 1975, p. 14). Schäfer (1995) has suggested that the psychodrama space is relevant in three aspects:

as a real space,

as an imaginary space i.e. as a reflection of the place, where originally the re-enacted scene took place, and

as a social space with the stage as a part of the group events.

According to Schäfer (1995), one is present in all three spaces at the same time, with multiple overlaps. Therefore, what happens in real space also has meaning in all other spaces, and thus, the psychodrama stage forms an intersection between the inner and the outer world. Winnicott (1953) has described this in his concept of the transitional space.

3.2 The Protagonist

In the protagonist-centered psychodrama, one of the group members—the protagonist—is the focus of the play. The goal and the course of the play is essentially determined by their question and the situation they introduce. The protagonist is the main recipient of the therapeutic and educational impact of the play. There is no protagonist in sociodrama. The whole group is the focus of the play.

Unlike in a role play, the protagonist does not receive any guidelines explaining his role and dialogues. Instead, he brings a (real or fictional) scene from his own life onto the stage under the guidance of the director: he is a poet, director, and actor in one person (Moreno, 1923). He is expected to