Psychology knows many methods of group psychotherapy. One of them is the psychodrama method. This is a theatrical replay of problem situations, which helps people to better understand their inner world, the characteristics of other people. However, it is a great way to unleash your creativity. Psychodrama helps a person to change perception, self-perception, attitude, self-attitude, behavior. As a result, the productivity of the life of the individual and its relationships increases.
Method essence
The founder of the method is an American psychiatrist, psychologist, sociologist Jacob Levi Moreno. The scientist himself perceived psychodrama not only as a method of psychotherapy and creativity, but also as a separate form of art, a philosophy of life.
The theory of psychodrama is one of the most vague in psychology. The founder did not leave clear instructions, descriptions, theses, regulations, rules. There is not even a general definition for the term “psychodrama”. Attempts to study the method and structure the theory continue to this day.
Psychodrama – role-playing, games with elements of improvisation, close to theatrical performances. The method is based on children’s games. Psychodrama makes adults return to childhood, give free rein to fantasy, and surrender to the game. There are no prohibitions in the game. There you can shout, behave cheekily or, on the contrary, be weak – after all, this is a mask, a role.
The psychodrama method is used to restore family, labor, love, friendship. Psychodrama is a universal way to stabilize, harmonize the state of a group and its individual members.
The structure of psychodrama
The founder of the method identified three main components of a successful sociodrama: role theory, theory of spontaneity, sociometry. Let’s take a closer look at each of them.
Role theory
In psychodrama theory, the role is:
- habitual human behavior;
- experiences made up of personal, social and cultural elements;
- a form of behavior, functioning that a person takes at a particular moment in time in response to a certain situation.
People play many roles in real life as well. Moreno divided them into categories:
- Psychosomatic: everything related to the body. For example, the role of a person eating food.
- Mental: everything that determines emotions and states. For example, the role of the sufferer.
- Social roles. They characterize a person’s behavior in relations with other people.
- Integrative roles. They mean everything that is on the spiritual, supra-individual level. For example, the role of a loving person, a believer, a creator.
Normally, a person plays each of these roles. Only the ratio and severity of roles changes. But they develop gradually, along with the development of a person. Jumps from one level to another cause personality deformations and pathologies.
Some roles are conserved and become stereotypical behavior for the individual.
Spontaneity theory
Creativity, reaction to new conditions or new reactions to old situations. It is an energetic impulse that either goes out or is suppressed. Psychodrama teaches the constructive expression of spontaneity and control over it. We are talking about creativity in all its forms, including a creative approach to life.
Sociometry
A method for determining the nature of relationships in a group, likes and dislikes. The result of the survey is a sociogram, or a psychological portrait of the group. Read more about the sociometry method in the article “Sociometry as a Method in Psychology”.
Types of relationships from the perspective of psychodrama
Psychodrama theory considers three types of relationships: transference, empathy, body:
- Transference means endowing another person with your negative, undesirable qualities. The perception of another person in this case is inadequate.
- Empathy (feeling) involves the ability to imagine yourself in the role of another person. Cognitive and emotional components are involved. Empathy is achieved by playing the role of another. It helps to see the situation through the eyes of another person.
- Body – participants’ adequate perception of each other, mutual understanding, mutual feeling. Understanding cravings or rejection from each other.
A sign of mental health is adequate self-perception, perception of others and their relationship to a person, interaction with others based on empathy and the body.
The practice of psychodrama
Psychodrama can be done as an individual therapy, but it is better to use this method for group work.
Conditions of conducting
- The optimal size of the group is 6-9 people. However, there are cases of successful practice in halls of up to 100 people.
- It is better to make the composition of the group “motley”. At the same time, you need to be attentive to the little things, to prevent possible problems caused by a large difference in age, social status or mental state. The uniformity of the composition is justified only in groups with a narrow focus, for example, for drug addicts anonymous. In other cases, heterogeneity helps to recreate the situations of society as realistically as possible.
- The duration of one lesson and course is set individually, but in any case, regularity and consistency are important. When choosing a time frame, one must remember to maintain a sense of group cohesion, the relevance of experiences from the previous session, the ability to solve all group and individual problems. Average therapy option: meetings once a week, session length – 1.5-2 hours.
- The type of group is individually determined: completely open, completely closed, with the ability to exit, with the ability to enter, with the impossibility of leaving, with the impossibility of entering.
- It is important to communicate in “you”, the use of real names.
In addition, it is imperative to adhere to two main principles of classes: confidentiality and value-free judgments. You cannot take information outside the group, you cannot evaluate the words and actions of the participants.
In the process of training, random participants should become a single social organism, a collective. The organizer’s task is to create an atmosphere of trust, openness, and mutual assistance. In this regard, it is important to regularly study group problems, reflection, sociometry, analysis of the sociogram.
Positions and elements
Classical psychodrama identifies 5 components: protagonist, presenter, auxiliary “I”, audience, stage. Let’s consider them in more detail:
- The protagonist is the main subject of the lesson. The problems of this participant are dealt with first. The group member himself, who was awarded the role of the protagonist, is at the same time an actor, director, playwright. With the help of other participants, he reproduces personal experience, understands himself and his environment. There is only one limitation: not to exert physical influence on other participants. The rest is complete freedom of creativity.
- Group leader, organizer. Encourages activity, directs, helps. He is a therapist, director, catalyst at the same time. The leader observes, evaluates, plans, organizes games and scenes.
- Auxiliary “I” – the participants, which the protagonist has chosen to embody the roles in his script. Auxiliary “I” act as psychotherapists, intermediaries between the presenter and the protagonist, real or imaginary people, including the projections and transferences of the protagonist. They improvise, but the direction of movement is dictated by the protagonist and the presenter.
- Spectators are participants who are not involved in games. They just watch from the sidelines.
- The stage is the place where the action unfolds. Again, there are no rules: a circle drawn in chalk, a semicircle of people or chairs, a real stage in a theater.
At the request of the protagonist and the presenter, any decorative elements can be used: makeup, chairs, flowers, books, clothes, decorations, etc. You can add any entourage if the protagonist needs it to play out his problems.
The personality of the host
The host is a permanent person. In some cases, two leaders are selected, who agree among themselves on the distribution of work. Not every person is suitable for this role.
Requirements for the personality of the host:
- knowledge and understanding of the theory of psychodrama, its methods;
- sincerity;
- openness;
- courage, determination;
- creativity;
- rich fantasy;
- the ability to quickly and adequately respond to unforeseen situations;
- vision of the group’s potential, positive attitude, persistence of beliefs;
- self-confidence and group success;
- the ability to inspire, inspire;
- leadership skills;
- the ability to have to yourself, to induce to tell something secret;
- sense of humor;
- the ability to support, stimulate, provoke;
- risk appetite.
Spontaneity and creativity lead to personal change. The facilitator must himself possess these qualities and encourage spontaneity and creativity of other participants.
Phases of psychodrama
Each session has 3 components: warm-up, action, sharing:
- Warming up involves creating a trusting atmosphere, exercises to rally the group, and the mood of the participants to discuss personal problems. At this stage, the group members decide what they want to talk about today.
- The main part involves the definition of the scene and theme, the appearance of the protagonist on the stage, the selection of a specific situation from recent events, a discussion of expectations from the work, the game itself.
- Sharing – discussion, reflection, exchange of emotions, feelings, experiences, associations. It is important to avoid judgments, interpretations of everything that happens. At this stage, the protagonist leaves the role, gains emotional balance, realizes that he is not alone in the problem. Other participants also understand the prevalence of their difficulties. Sharing is necessarily carried out in a circle.
The last stage contributes to the additional cohesion of the group.
Psychodrama techniques
In the classical theory, there are three techniques of psychodrama:
- Duplication. Participants from the audience are sometimes included in the game, portraying the protagonist’s alter ego. Vocalize suppressed thoughts, feelings, emotions, desires. The protagonist confirms or denies what was said. If it confirms, then independently repeats the words of the understudy.
- Mirror. The protagonist becomes an observer, and another participant from the secondary “I” is selected for his role. He copies the behavior, speech, facial expressions, gestures, postures of the protagonist. With the permission or at the initiative of the presenter, he draws attention to some of the features of the protagonist. He, in turn, has the opportunity to look at himself from the outside, to independently figure out problems and mistakes.
- Role exchange. For a while, the protagonist changes roles with one of the auxiliary “I”. You can change many times. This helps the protagonist to feel the other person, see the world through his eyes and understand his attitude.
These are just basic techniques. In modern practice, there are much more of them, a combination of methods is allowed. Each technique has its own characteristics and contraindications. A person with an appropriate education, well versed in theory and practice, has the right to use psychodrama.
Epilogue
The psychodrama method is one of the dying methods. It is used less and less. Perhaps the fact is that psychodrama requires not only extensive professional knowledge, rich experience, but also highly developed intuition, creativity, spontaneity, and fantasy.
