SELF-ACCEPTANCE THROUGH PSYCHODRAMA

Abstract

I want to describe in this paper a recently conducted psychodrama in which I was the protagonist. The director was a psychodrama instructor1 and the audience consisted of the first year graduate students in clinical psychology at Harvard University. The students in the first year class were from various parts of the country and had degrees from highly dissimilar universities and colleges. Although no one knew anyone else in the class before the semester began, we became a closely-knit group, for we all seemed to share common views and interests on many matters. We had often discussed personal problems freely among ourselves and I considered· everyone present a close personal friend of mine. In the course of my psychodrama I was able to disclose a long-standing emotional problem which I had never before been able to admit publicly. In this paper I will attempt to describe the psychodramatic situations and their particular resolutions which enabled me to overcome my fears. Dialogue will be quoted whenever essential to an understanding of the situation