Psychodrama
Jacob Moreno
Moreno was born in Romania in 1890 (there is some disagreement as to the exact date). He is credited with laying the foundation for the first theories of group processes. His areas of practice and research were sociodrama, sociometry and psychodrama.
At a time when Freud’s psychoanalysis was at its height in Vienna, Moreno felt that there was another way to work with people; instead of problems he saw the possibility of people being creatively cathartic through using drama. While still living in Vienna Moreno opened a theatre where actors and audiences together acted out stories. Moreno felt that psychodrama allowed a catharsis to take place and considered it an alternative to passive talking therapy. Sociodrama was born.
Moreno had deepened his inquiry into the functioning of groups and of how members of social groups interact and interconnect. He developed a social measurement of these relationships and published a book in 1934, Who Shall Survive that lays out a model for this social measurement.
‘...that can reveal the structure and quality of relationships between the individual persons and the group, such as sympathies, antipathies, or indifference’ (Franke, 2003 p. 50).
He felt that through the measurement of these relationships the needs of the group and each individual member of the group could be met in the best way possible.
According to Franke (2003), Moreno felt that looking at the individual and attempting to find an underlying cause of their problem is not enough; the client needs to be seen in their own life context. This sounds very like a systemic approach that is now used in some current therapy models.
Moreno was born in Romania in 1890 (there is some disagreement as to the exact date). He is credited with laying the foundation for the first theories of group processes. His areas of practice and research were sociodrama, sociometry and psychodrama.
At a time when Freud’s psychoanalysis was at its height in Vienna, Moreno felt that there was another way to work with people; instead of problems he saw the possibility of people being creatively cathartic through using drama. While still living in Vienna Moreno opened a theatre where actors and audiences together acted out stories. Moreno felt that psychodrama allowed a catharsis to take place and considered it an alternative to passive talking therapy. Sociodrama was born.
Moreno had deepened his inquiry into the functioning of groups and of how members of social groups interact and interconnect. He developed a social measurement of these relationships and published a book in 1934, Who Shall Survive that lays out a model for this social measurement.
‘...that can reveal the structure and quality of relationships between the individual persons and the group, such as sympathies, antipathies, or indifference’ (Franke, 2003 p. 50).
He felt that through the measurement of these relationships the needs of the group and each individual member of the group could be met in the best way possible.
According to Franke (2003), Moreno felt that looking at the individual and attempting to find an underlying cause of their problem is not enough; the client needs to be seen in their own life context. This sounds very like a systemic approach that is now used in some current therapy models.