PSYCHODRAMATICS T H E GENEALOGY OF A CLINICAL MODALITY

Abstract

The central purpose of this paper will be to trace in a genealogical manner certain archaic forms of the psychodramatic modality preceding the discovery of the contemporary psychodramatic method by J. L. Moreno. The resultant focus of this research will be a consideration of several phenomenological constructs which are integral to our general clinical understanding of the human neurosis and specifically relative as pillars supporting at least the intuitive theoretical base of archaic forms of psychodramatic treatment. We will observe the genealogy of psychodramatics proper, beginning with the ancient Greeks through the psychiatric tradition of Western Europe of the 1700s and finally ethnological work which has been done in this century related to certain Indian tribes located in the continental United States. We are approaching certain methods which are distant cousins of the clinical method which was created by Jacob Moreno, analogous to the fact that although the Australopithecine was in some sense of the word 'man' (Tobias 1973), we could not equate this creature in the completely dimensional sense to the modern day homo sapiens. We must consider man as a transphenomenal creature who in antiquity and throughout the ages has understood in some part of his being the dictum which it took the genius of Moreno to express--"act yourself as you never were so that you may begin to be what you might become. Make it happen. Be your own inspiration, your own playwright, your own actor, your own therapist and finally your own creator" (Moreno 1971).