Reflection on 60 Years as A Psychodramatist

Reflection on 60 Years as A Psychodramatist

This paper is a personal document in which the author shares his personal experiences in learning, understanding, and practicing the psychodrama method in a variety of settings over a long career of 60 years. He begins by challenging the definition of psychodrama as a method of psychotherapy, pointing out its many non-psychotherapy applications and suggesting that it is generically a method of creating dramas, useful in many ways. The author discusses problems and difficulties in learning and becoming proficient with the psychodrama method, the ways in which psychodramatic psychotherapy differs radically from more common psychotherapeutic methods, the existential and phenomenological characteristics of J. L. Moreno’s work, and the importance of the concept of surplus reality. Finally he discusses the many ways in which psychodrama has been applied in non-clinical fields such as education and business and industry. He also relates in considerable more detail his experiences in introducing psychodrama to trial lawyers and how they discovered multiple ways of using psychodrama in the practice of their profession.