Fundamentals of Psychodrama

334 Pages·2020·5.366 MB·English

by  FALKO VON AMELN

Falko von Ameln
Jochen Becker-Ebel
Fundamentals
of Psychodrama
Fundamentals of Psychodrama
Falko von Ameln Jochen Becker-Ebel
(cid:129)
Fundamentals
of Psychodrama
123
FalkovonAmeln JochenBecker-Ebel
Norden,Niedersachsen, Germany Vedadrama India Pvt.Ltd.
Chennai, Tamil Nadu,India
ISBN978-981-15-4426-2 ISBN978-981-15-4427-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4427-9
Translation from the German language edition: Psychodrama: Grundlagen by Falko von Ameln and
JosefKramer,©SpringerVerlagDeutschland2018.AllRightsReserved.
©SpringerNatureSingaporePteLtd.2020
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Foreword
Some of my earliest memories are of my first visit to Germany in the summer of
1957. I was five years old, traveling with my parents who were conducting psy-
chodrama demonstrations in several cities over a two-month period. Two years
later, we visited East Germany, taking to the road in a very cramped Volkswagen.
Myfather,whowasbythenofsomecircumference,musthavesufferedgreatly.He
had become accustomed to oversize American cars. But to me it was all a mar-
velous adventure. At that age, I was mainly impressed with comic books in
German, Pez dispensers, the wonderful trains and—encountered first in Vienna
naturally—kaiserschmarrn.
This was of course still a Germany still recovering from the war. But if there
were privations, they did not come to my notice—with one exception: the piles of
rubble that still stood in Leipzig. Mainly I remember the gemutlichkeit and feeling
for years afterward that Germany was my second home. On the many occasions I
have visited Germany since then, these feelings have always returned to me.
Unfortunately, the German language I so easily acquired as a small child has not.
InlightofthisdeepconnectiontoGermanyandpsychodramainGermany,Iam
delighted and honored to write this foreword to this important text. The authors
have done a great service in providing a volume that weaves together both psy-
chodrama theory and practice. They have developed much-needed accounts of
psychodrama in various settings, showing its diversity and originality. They have
alsogonefartoexplodethemythsthatpsychodramaisnecessarilypracticedonlyin
groups and that it is simply a more complicated form of role-playing. My father
would have been especially pleased that they have not left behind his original
conceptionofpsychodramaaspartofatherapeutictriadwithgrouppsychotherapy
and sociometry. As well, their survey of empirical research on psychodrama
includesacallformuchmoreempiricalstudy,sothatthefieldcanbebroughttothe
appropriate modern scientific level.
Itisoftensaidthatthereweresomanygoodideasinpsychodramathattheyhave
beensweptupinotherpsychotherapeutictheoriesandmodesofpractice.Therecan
benodenyingthatpsychodrama hasbeenarichfont ofideasthat lendthemselves
to much borrowing by other approaches. Yet, the authors implicitly provide a
v
vi Foreword
compelling argument that a coherent view of psychodrama renders each of these
discrete ideas—such as spontaneity and creativity, the warm-up, the concept of
catharsis and so forth—still more valuable than when they appear discrete and
disconnected from a systematic approach.
In that spirit, may this book contribute to the growth of psychodrama in a
countrythathasalwayswelcomedit,andhelptogiveititsrightplaceinthevariety
ofmethodsintendedtohealthosewhosufferandinstructthosewhowishtogrow.
Summer 2003 Jonathan D. Moreno
Preface
“Which textbook can you recommend?” Many participants in our psychodrama
seminarswouldaskthisquestionfrequently.Unfortunately,wecouldnotgivethem
a satisfactory answer. There has been a dearth of scientific literature in the psy-
chodramacommunityforsometimenow—“creativity”and“spontaneity”werethe
key maxims of J. L. Moreno, the ingenious founder of psychodrama. In compar-
ison, he was rather skeptical of the written “cultural conserves.”
Overtheyears,wehavedevelopedextensiveteachingmaterialontopicsranging
from psychodrama theory and methodology, group dynamics, team development
and conflict management to psychodramatic work with fairy tales and dreams in
order to support our participants on their way to becoming psychodrama directors.
We have scoured professional libraries, had discussions with colleagues and
repeatedly put the results to test in various fields of work.
The result is this book in front of you, which was first published in German in
2004 and has established itself as a standard reference work in psychodrama
education in German-speaking countries since. Despite a broad range of psy-
chodramaliteratureinEnglish,wehadthefeelingthataconcisetextbook,covering
thewholerangeoftopicsfromtheorytomethodologytopraxeology,isstillmissing
intheEnglish-speaking world.As readers,wehope togive youan insight intothe
workwiththepsychodrama.Ifyouarealreadyfamiliarwithpsychodrama,wehope
that this book will give you new insights and perspectives. Finally, we hope to
bringrecognitiontopsychodramaandthepotentialithasinthefieldoftherapyand
counseling.
Psychodramaisoftenconsideredtobeapsychotherapeuticmethod.Thefactthat
even Jacob Levy Moreno, the founder of the psychodrama, used this method in a
variety of work fields ranging from therapy to social work and organizational
consultation is often overlooked. Given this range, it has not been possible to take
into account all the facets and peculiarities of the different fields of work in all
chapters, even though we have tried to demonstrate the possibilities of transfer as
much as possible.
vii
viii Preface
A textbook will rarely be read in its entirety. Therefore, the individual chapters
have been designed such that they are comprehensible as self-contained texts to a
largeextent.Despitethesubstantivecoherenceoftheindividualchapters,thetexts
also progress systematically by building on one another from the methodological
and theoretical foundations of the method to in-depth considerations on
cross-sectionaltopicssuchasresistancetochangeandgroupdynamics,culminating
inthe findings of theempirical researchon psychodrama.Thus,reading this entire
book is recommended for those readers who want to acquire a comprehensive
understanding of thepsychodramatic practice. Alternatively, there are a number of
other possible ways to read this book:
– For those who want to gain a basic understanding of the psychodramatic
methodology: Introduction-Part I,
– Fortherapistsandcounselorswhoworkwithothermethodsandwishtoexpand
their practice using psychodrama-Parts I and II,
– For psychodramatists who wish to expand their methodological repertoire-Part
II,
– For experienced psychodramatists who want to reflect on their work more
deeply-Parts III and IV,
– For the scientific study of psychodrama (e.g. in the context of psychology
studies)-Part I, Part III and Chap. 20.
We have illustrated the explanations with case studies as much as possible
within the limited scope of this book. There is a glossary of psychodramatic
technical terms at the end, which should help make the reading easier for those
unfamiliarwithpsychodrama.Referencestoglossaryentriesaremarkedwithinthe
text. The glossary entries consistofa brief explanation oftheterm and areference
to the passage which explains the term in more detail.
We decided to use male, female and gender-neutral phrases interchangeably in
order to avoid linguistic imbalance as well as to preserve readability. Gender-
specific phrases usually refer to both sexes.
Psychodrama is an action-oriented and experience-oriented method that can
quickly trigger an intense experience. Psychodrama practitioners require high
methodic and counseling/therapeutic competence to be able to create and control
that intensity. But most importantly, they require high competence so that they do
not accidentally trigger an intense experience in situations where it could harm
clientsorwhereitisnotcoveredbythecontractbetween managementandclients.
While experienced therapists, teachers, counselors or social workers can safely
experiment with individual psychodrama elements (e.g. role reversal, doubling,
emptychairtechnique),awell-foundedfurthereducationatacertifiedinstituteisan
absolute prerequisite to be able to exhaust all possibilities.
We would like to thank
– Jonathan D. Moreno for the personal foreword,
– Satvinder Kaur, Priya Vyas and Springer Nature for making the publication of
this book possible in the first place,
Preface ix
– Shama Parkhe for the competent translation and
– Vedadrama India Pvt. Ltd. for sponsoring the translation.
Psychodrama is an action-oriented and experience-oriented method that can
quickly trigger an intense experience. Psychodrama practitioners require high
methodic and counseling/therapeutic competence to be able to create and control
that intensity. But most importantly, they require high competence so that they do
not accidentally trigger an intense experience in situations where it could harm
clientsorwhereitisnotcoveredbythecontractbetween managementandclients.
While experienced therapists, teachers, counselors or social workers can safely
experiment with individual psychodrama elements (e.g. role reversal, doubling,
emptychairtechnique),awell-foundedfurthereducationataninstitutecertifiedby
your national psychodrama federation is an absolute prerequisite to be able to
exhaust all possibilities.
North, Germany Falko von Ameln
September 2013 Jochen Becker-Ebel
Contents
Part I Methodological Fundamentals of Psychodrama
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1 What Is Psychodrama? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Psychodrama and Role Play. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 Definition and Classification of Psychodrama . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.4 Psychodrama as a System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2 An Overview of Psychodrama. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1 Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2 Warm Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.3 The Protagonist Play. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.4 The Integration Phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.5 Working with the Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Reference. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3 Basic Elements of Psychodrama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.1 The Stage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.2 The Protagonist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.3 The Auxiliary Ego . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.4 The Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.5 The Director. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4 Psychodramatic Arrangements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.1 Scenic Play of Real or Fictional Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.2 The Vignette. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.3 The Role Play. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.4 Role Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
xi