PSYCHODRAMA AND PSYCHOANALYSIS

Abstract

The comparison, or rather the contrast, between psychodrama and psychoanalysis under discussion in current issues of Group Psychotherapy brings to mind the question of their actual historical contact and the possible influence of one upon the other. Because of the extreme divergence of the two theories, it is sometimes difficult to remember that, while Moreno was born many years after Freud, they were both working on their theories contemporaneously in the same city for many years. They met on one occasion as Moreno reports.1 We have ample evidence from Moreno's writings what place psychoanalysis bad in the development of psychodramatic theory. In short, Moreno describes himself and Freud as "worlds apart." So far, however, we have had no direct evidence as to whether the founder of psychoanalysis felt as much at odds with the founder of psychodrama as was true in reverse.