Analytic Psychodrama

Analytical psychodrama is a therapy based on role-playing, the observation of unconscious mental activities, and the using of transfer. This technique can be either individual analytical psychodrama or group. The individual analytical psychodrama is a therapy based on role-playing and the observation of the unconscious mind.

There is a dissimilarity that is to be made between psycho-drama and analytic psychodrama. Psychodrama is a method of investigating supernatural processes by dramatizing improvised scenes staged and acted by a group of participants, whereas analytic psychodrama is a form of analytic psychotherapy that uses a play and its dramatization as a means of elucidating unconscious phenomena.

In analytic psychodrama the importance is given on the interpretative function of the play: a play leader analyzes transference and resistances. The drama offered in the play is a provocation to engage in symbolizing, which is frequently delicate in the kind of patient for whom this therapy is intended.

Following the Second World War, importance in theories about groups and group methods were being developed quickly and found a predominantly positive reception in France. Informed by a wealth of explanation, the field of psychodrama then grew and was extensive to adult psychotherapy.

In practice, an analytic psychodrama is centered around a theme that is recommended by a patient, and it being acted out by him and the other participants. As an alternative of the free associations that is used in classical treatment, the patient is invited to act out and stage the whole lot that comes to his mind with the aid of the other actors. Whatever can be acted out, however it has to stay behind in the realm of the play. The drama enacts and accomplishes the following:

• The dramatization of conflicts.
• Access to representability.
• Mediation through the play.
• There are three types of participant in psychodrama:
• the patient, who chooses the scene,
• the other actors; who act out the suggested scene
• the play leader, who does not act but interprets and makes connections between the meanings of the different scenes.

Questions:

• For who is the analytical psychodrama recommended?
• Who undertook the first analytic psychodramas with children?