PSYCHODRAMA: A SPECIAL GROUP APPROACH IN THE PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL

Abstract

I have described elsewhere the use of psychodrama at Brook Lane Psychiatric Center, a small private psychiatric hospital near Hagerstown, Mary- land. This review of a five-year program showed how effectively psychodrama can be integrated into an already well-established hospital program, making significant contributions to patient welfare and to the training of mental health professionals. A survey of the 1968 Directory of the National Association of Private Psychiatric Hospitals indicates that only a few private hospitals make any formal use of this treatment modality. Yet psychodrama has been used for years in several state and federal institutions. Psychodrama, which has evolved from the theories and methods of J. L. Moreno, has achieved world-wide recognition. During a period between 1960 and 1968, more than one thousand students received some level of training at workshops under the auspices of the Moreno Institute, Beacon, N. Y.