The Science Behind Spontaneity
Keywords:
Spontaneity, Psychodrama, Resilience, Flexibility Mindset, Flexibility SequenceAbstract
Spontaneity and creativity were central to J.L. Moreno’s understanding of mental health and social functioning. He developed spontaneity tests, spontaneity training, and role training to help people have more access to their spontaneity and creativity. In The end of trauma, Bonanno (2021; Bonanno, G. A. The end of trauma: How the new science of resilience is changing how we think about PTSD. New York, NY: Basic Books) lays out two factors—flexibility mindset and flexibility sequence—that work together to promote resilience in the face of traumatic events. These two factors help explain both inverse link between anxiety and spontaneity and what happens mentally in the process of spontaneity. By bringing the past and the future into the present moment on the psychodrama stage, psychodrama provides a way to help participants expand their access to spontaneity and creativity, develop a flexibility mindset, and practice the flexibility sequence.
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