Double Vision: Moreno and Dostoevsky

Abstract

The role of the double in psychodrama was certainly one of Moreno's most valuable contributions within the psychodramatic process. Becoming an extension of the protagonist, the double provides a more spontaneous self to compensate for the protagonist's deficits of the moment. An effective double can intuit what it is that the protagonist may need to express when he or she seems to be blocked in the needed action or verbalization. The double should provide the protagonist with a positive role model, by acting out or verbalizing what the protagonist might wish to, but is presently unable to, carry out. In that way, protagonists can use the role modeling as a stimulus that can then liberate their actional behavior.