He psychodrama Is a form of psychotherapy created by Jacob Levy Moreno Inspired by the theater of improvisation. It represented the point at which a withdrawal from the treatment of the isolated individual occurs and the verbal methods towards an approach of the treatment of the individual in a group, with methods of action.
If we look at the name we see that it is composed of two words: psychology and dramatization. And how could we relate them both?
Think of a play, when someone acts, there is an intermediary state between fantasy and reality. The fantasy mode allows us to do things that are out of our reach in real life, such as expressing dreaded emotions, changing patterns of behavior or exhibiting new traits. When we experience these experiences, even in a fictional way, these new experiences can be part of the repertoire of our real life.
The session of psychodrama is the inheritor of the theatrical function, in this process, it is Moreno who had the merit of having transformed the classic theatrical function in the improvised of the Theater of the Spontaneity and this one in the dramatization of the Therapeutic Theater, when discovering the potential Therapeutic approach to Dramatization.
Hence, psychodramatic techniques could be applied to the exploration of the psychological dimensions of a problem, such as education, psychotherapy, and industrial relations.
Psychodrama is a group therapy that uses dramatic techniques and representations of different roles to be able to get the individual on stage, externalize their problems with the help of therapeutic actors and get rid of the altering episodes Your mental well-being .
Next I will mention the elements, instruments and stages of psychodrama.
Elements of psychodrama
The session of psychodrama is defined by three contexts, namely social, group and dramatic.
The human being is a social being, and as such lives in society, relates and develops important bonds. The social context corresponds to the extragroup and to the social reality, and it is said context the main generator of the material that is treated in psychodrama, it is in this context where the individual has developed and has become ill. In this medium the individual will relate the events occurred in said medium, with its particular perspective.
It is spatially located outside the scope of work. It is governed by laws and social norms that demand from the individual, which integrates certain behaviors and commitments.
The group context is shaped by both patients and therapists, the interactions that occur between them and the result of such interactions (customs, rules and particular laws). Within this context the protagonists or themes are outlined.
The difference of this context and the previous one is the greater freedom, tolerance and understanding that are given in the group context.
The dramatic context is the staging by the protagonist and the director and it is a product of the protagonist, full of meanings and suggestions. It is artificial and fantastic and in it the protagonists play their roles in a"as if". They interpret roles, interact in a particular way and can do and undo scenes, modify events, exchange characters, alter the temporal context... Thus, it contributes to decrease the intrapsychic tensions of the Protagonist.
Within the therapeutic process, the separation between contexts is taken care of, in order to provide the patient with a special area within which he feels safe and protected.
Instruments in a psychodrama session
The instruments present in a psychodrama session are 5, namely, the protagonist, the stage, the auxiliary self, the director and the audience.
The protagonist is the key point in the dramatization, he is the author and actor of his work, with which he has the ability to develop the argument from what he thinks or feels he can faithfully follow or modify it at will. He is the person in whom the group tensions are centered and that is why when he is chosen and happens to the stage he becomes the hero or heroine of the group and can receive both successes and failures.
The scenario is the place where the technique is applied, it is a protected field for the protagonist and a field to work in vivo. It has a rectangular shape, and one of its major sides contacts the wall that makes the background, the other three sides correspond to the space intended for the audience.
The height of the stage (vertical dimension), exerts a singular influence on the protagonists since it facilitates the experience of the"as if", everything is a fiction, therefore it acquires a commitment with the role that is played and not with the individual in yes.
The levels involved in the scenario are 3; the conception; Growth and consummation.
In the conception the Director realizes the Caldeamiento, the encounter with the protagonist and the conception of the Dramatization.
In growth, Director and Protagonist are located to plan the first scenes and create the dramatic context.
Finally in the consummation are located the Protagonist and the Yo-auxiliaries to carry out the Dramatization.
The auxiliary-ego is the one who has the function of playing complementary roles to those of the protagonist and the performance of some psychodramatic techniques. Its functions are of guide and therapeutic agent, social investigator, actor and objectified subjective observer.
With respect to the first function this is done exclusively in the dramatic context. The auxiliary self aims to investigate, ie to verify that the proposed roles or situations are actually committed, and where it must establish a link with the protagonist. And on the other hand, comply with the instructions that he receives from the director when the latter has interacted with the auxiliary Self.
The auxiliary self as an actor has the function of creating and acting. Everything that he has to say to the Protagonist will do it from the role of actor. But in turn, you must be able to interpret the dramatization of the characters.
With respect to the function of observer, the auxiliary self is the one who can elaborate and share with the group the results of what he experiences with it.
The director is in charge, as his own name indicates, of directing, in such a way that the technique and the method are directed, to the therapeutic thing. To be a director, he must have a qualifying degree, must have completed three years of theoretical-practical seminars, must have received a minimum of 100 hours of psychodramatic therapy and have been supervised for a minimum of 50 hours.
The director must use the means, the techniques and look for the appropriate strategies so that the dramatized subject contains all the elements at the psychological and sociological level.
You should also pay attention to the following components: you must offer a safe environment, you must sign a commitment to the patient and the auxiliary self, you must establish when there are fees, and decide how the payment will be (individual or group). You should also specify the time of the vacation and set the rules of the game, based on absences.
With regard to the therapeutic process, it should monitor its functioning, introduce the necessary modifications, keep the link between patients under control, highlight the links that occur in group treatments, maintain the framework, prevent, give discharge and terminate The therapeutic work.
The director has three functions; Of therapist; Producer and social analyst.
With regard to the role of therapist this is not done in the same way throughout the psychodrama. In the first part the material is obtained, in the second part the material is worked and in the third it is shared. That is to say, it must initiate the session, heat up, detect the emergent, choose the protagonist and intervene.
On the other hand, his role as a producer performs during the dramatization that is when he must discriminate the material provided by the protagonist.
Finally, the function of analyst exercises during the stage of comments and analysis.
To finish with the elements, the audience is made up of the set of people, who are around the stage, patients and I-auxiliary. At the beginning of the psychodrama, the audience is also formed by the group and the functional unit (director and auxiliary), emerging the protagonist of the initial emotional climate.
The presence of other people in the Auditorium gives a particular cohesion to the target group. In the public psychodrama the influential variable is the composition of the auditorium whereas in the private psychodrama the influential intensity is the affective, discriminated and personal of the members.
Stages of the psychodrama session
Psychodrama consists of three stages; Writing, dramatization and comment phase.
Heating is a process that occurs naturally in organisms that are prepared for action. From a process it is incited to the group interaction and to the communication between the members of the group. It is a question of drawing coalition the expression of real affective or aggressive feelings that will try to solve during the dramatization.
Within this stage there are two types of heating, non-specific, since the focus is on the group, facilitating the interaction and the decrease of tension, and specific, where the protagonist emerges, which can be a subject or a person.
Dramatization is the core of psychodrama and consists of the interpretation of characters and the mobilization of emotions, seeking conflict resolution. The material contributed by the protagonist materializes and forms on stage.
Finally, in the comment stage, the members of the group are asked for opinions on the role play and experiences are shared.
Additional Features
It is a method of diagnosis as well as of treatment. One of its characteristic features is that the role play is organically included in the treatment process. It can be adapted to all kinds of problems, personal or group, children or adults.
Through techniques such as the auxiliary self, spontaneous improvisation, self-presentation, soliloquy, resistance interpolation, new dimensions of the mind are relieved and, more importantly, they can be explored in experimental conditions"
One of the most contributory aspects to the psychodramatic method of the author Rojas Bermúdez, was to provide it with a theoretical body.
The basic structure of the personality and the core of the ego start from a physiological model. When a mother breastfeeds her child, all the stimuli that are given in that actor are part of the relationship, if it is cold, if the mother becomes tense, all this is recorded and recorded on the memory footprint. This process is repeated in all the basic functions of the subject and gives rise to the psychosomatic roles that make up the core of the self.
The structuring of the psyche is the result of the individual's interactions with his environment, first with the monitoring of genetic patterns and later as the fruit of social learning.