The German language \u201cZeitschrift fur Psychodrama\u201d\u00a0 (Zeitschrift\u00a0 translated\u00a0 literally is time-writing, that is, a Journal). The latest issue deals with general sociological concerns from many standpoints. The problem this poses is that it opens wide the implications of Moreno\u2019s vision and throws into question the narrow bounds of professionalism monitored by the Board of Examiners.<\/p>\n
In that same spirit of recognizing the further implications of Moreno\u2019s methods, what I call \u201caction methods\u201d crosses boundaries with drama therapy, use of objects in play therapy and the creative arts therapies, has applications in education and business, and in general won\u2019t \u201chold still\u201d for a narrow fixing of point of view.<\/p>\n
This latest German-language issue—the Zeitschrift—casts a broader net, revealing the boundary-crossing issues in many directions. To me, it seems that it\u2019s getting to be time that psychodrama renames itself something to do with simulations, because that\u2019s what accounts for its effectiveness both within the field of psycho-therapy and well beyond that. Indeed, it seems to met that these beyond-therapy applications will soon quite outnumber the applications in therapy, if we keep alert to the underlying dynamics. Better call it \u201cenhanced simulations\u201d\u2014it\u2019s less psychological and less dramatic and more in line with trends in contemporary education.<\/p>\n
This another way of talking about psychodrama, perhaps less psychological or psychotherapeutic! It\u2019s a way to recognize that many things require more experiential learning, and also learning that takes into consideration the temperamental inclinations of the student. Some people are more visual, some more auditory, some learn best by doing. There are many other variations in learning style, so we need some way of instruction that involves the students\u2019 temperament!<\/p>\n
In thinking about what we do, I\u2019ve become increasingly aware of the ways that Moreno\u2019s methods might be applied quite beyond the context of psychotherapy. I realized that what we have here is the application of the technology of simulations \u2014which has been used in military situations (war games), astronaut training, and innumerable other situations. It\u2019s more holistic, recognizing that merely knowing answers to questions, mere studying of books, doesn\u2019t result in true mastery of the kinds of skills needed in many operations.<\/p>\n
The word \u201cenhanced\u201d comes from having the process expose the thoughts behind certain actions. The psychodramatic techniques of the double or asides, for example, do this. But I\u2019ve become aware that enhanced simulations may also be used for non-psychotherapeutic applications of psychodramatic or sociodramatic methods.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the word \u201cdrama\u201d technically means re-enactment, but almost a century\u2019s\u00a0 worth of usage has shifted the word from its original form of re-enactment to something altogether more emotionally intense. Therefore, I\u2019m acknowledging this by removing the suffix \u201c-drama,\u201d and making the phrase instead, \u201caction explorations.\u201d Sometimes it\u2019s not all that dramatic, and indeed taking the emotionality out of the situation can often clarify matters.<\/p>\n
A third trend that calls for a shift in our language from psychodrama to action methods is that there have emerged a number of other fields that draw on similar principles, such as drama therapy, educational drama, role playing, applied improvisation, and related approaches. It\u2019s important to build bridges, not barriers.<\/p>\n
For all these reasons we need a shift in lauguage. Let\u2019s leave psychodrama for it\u2019s use as a recognized form of psychotherapy, as it is established that way also in the literature. (Michael Wieser\u2019s online psychodrama bibliography has many thousands of entries!) In summary, I propose the use of the term \u201caction methods\u201d instead of \u201cpsychodrama\u201d when referring to non-clinical, non-psychotherapeutic applications of Moreno\u2019s methods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The German language \u201cZeitschrift fur Psychodrama\u201d\u00a0 (Zeitschrift\u00a0 translated\u00a0 literally is time-writing, that is, a Journal). The latest issue deals with general sociological concerns from many standpoints. The problem this poses is that it opens wide the implications of Moreno\u2019s vision and throws into question the narrow bounds of professionalism monitored by the Board of Examiners. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,25,4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-action-explorations","category-play-and-spontaneity","category-psychodrama","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2735"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2735"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2760,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2735\/revisions\/2760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}