Application of therapeutic reading model in psychodrama

APPLICATION OF THERAPEUTIC READING MODEL IN PSYCHODRAMA

Iva Žurić

Introduction

Reading for the purpose of therapy is used in

bibliotherapy, one of the so-called art therapies1. However,

the reading as a therapeutic activity is not an often used

method in psychotherapy in general, nor in psychodrama, as well

as psychodrama methods are rarely represented within

bibliotherapy. Following this path, the paper discusses the

place of bibliotherapy within psychodrama to deliver the frame

to connect the two modes of psychotherapy. Accordingly, the

paper points to the existence of similar processes shared by

bibliotherapy and psychodrama, which are primarily related to

the role-taking in psychodrama, or identification with the

characters while reading. Both factors serve as a starting

point for further therapeutic activity, so in this paper I

would like to point out that in this way both therapeutic

methods could enrich their therapeutic potential.

This paper includes several thematic areas related to

relationship of bibliotherapy and psychodrama through

theoretical papers and practical methods presentations. We will

first consider the comparison of transference processes in

psychotherapy with literary transference that occurs during

reading. Literary transference is viewed as hypothesis upon

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which bibliotherapy operates through processes of

identification, projection, catharsis and insight. In this

paper, we will present how important is theory of role-playing

in psychodrama through its application in various stages of

psychodrama work. Dynamics of taking roles is important for

both psychodrama work and for readers to identify with the

characters while reading, so the common processes, such as

identification, catharsis, and insight will be further

considered. The theoretical psychodrama texts which mention

bibliotherapy will be analyzed and the options for integration

of bibliotherapy techniques into the psychodrama work will be

offered.

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1Some of the arts used for therapeutical purposes are music, visual arts, dancing,

drama, poetry, as well as literature.

1. Literary transference and bibliotherapy

Transference in psychotherapy

A transference is primarily spoken of within psychodynamic

psychotherapies, where it „generally represents a transfer of

feelings or attitudes. In psychoanalytic therapy transference

represents transfer of feelings, attitudes or behaviors

originally formed in relation to a person close to you (usually

a parent), onto the therapist. Unlike transference, whose

existence is considered an important condition for the success

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of psychoanalytic therapy, because it allows the therapist to

assist the patient in understanding some of his/her emotions

and attitudes, countertransference may significantly burden the

therapeutic relationship" (Petz, 1992, p. 473).

Transference has a key role in psychoanalysis and

psychoanalytic psychotherapy because of the specific

relationship between patient and therapist - relationship is

the one who heals. An analyst directly observes his patient’s

past through transference and thus realizes what are his

conflicts. The transference relationship between patient and

analyst is manifested through multiple patient’s identification

with a therapist, so during therapy he/she not only recognizes

his father and mother in therapist, but a brother, a sister, a

teacher, a friend, etc., namely any person from the past that

had a big influence on his psychological development.

Transference is also an essential process in psychoanalytic

psychotherapies because it serves as a bridge by which the

patient revives the unsolved conflicts of the past. In this

way, it represents a transfer of painful experiences from the

past into the present with the purpose of reviving them, in the

actual relationship between therapist and patient, and

correcting them in a more favorable climate of the current

situation.

Transference in everyday life

Before we show the relationship between transference and

literature (literary text), it is necessary to analyze the way

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in which transference is manifested in everyday life. Although

Freud in his theoretical and practical work dedicated his

fundamental attention to the analysis of transference in

psychotherapy, he did not neglect the fact that the

transference takes place in everyday relationships outside of

therapy as well (Freud by Miranda, R., & Andersen, SM, 2007:

83). For analysis of transference in everyday life I chose

experimental research in the field of social cognitive theory

conducted by psychologist Susan M. Andersen and her associates.

She did the transference analysis in daily life and her studies

represent the first experimental evidence of transference

(Andersen & Cole, 1990; Andersen & Baum, 1994; Andersen,

Glassman, Chen, & Cole, 1995; Andersen & Berk, 1998).

Transference phenomena in everyday life points to a tendency

that people, when meeting new people, process the information

obtained about them schematically, they categorize, somewhat

biased, distort and conclude wrongly, all coming from the

experiences of past relationships. When this phenomenon takes

on pathological dimensions, it does not allow a person to

create an objective impression of a new person, but it is based

solely on previous experiences, which creates particular

difficulties if the person had a negative experience with

"significant others" in the past. Therapeutic relationship

between a patient and a therapist can help with releasing such

weighted transference relationship, in the way that a therapist

helps the patient to become aware of such a relationship so

he/she could begin to think in new ways and through different

patterns.

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Literary transference

How literature shapes and transforms the lives of

individuals and how it affects the perception of the self? This

question raises Gabriele Schwab, author of the article

“Cultural texts and endopsychic scripts” (2001), where she

talks about the literary transference as a link between culture

and psyche. Literary transference theory looks at literature as

intrinsically linked with the culture and psyche, and focuses

on the relationship between these two fields. Literary

production always includes internal psychological processing as

well as external shaping of cultural material, so that the

psychological and cultural fields are both transformed through

literature, says Schwab.

Schwab also says that the act of reading is "the form of

the transference in the strict psychoanalytical sense" (Schwab,

2001: 161). She then compares the transference in terms of

psychotherapy and transference in literature, thus stating the

similarities between reading and psychotherapy: both favor the

unconscious transference due to the presence of free

association, projective reactions and intensive emotion

investments. These three processes are taking place during

reading and during psychotherapy. Free association is an

essential part of psychoanalytic technique where a therapist

comes to a patient's unconscious by asking him/her to think

aloud and say all he/she could think of. A similar process

occurs when reading, except that it does not necessarily have

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to be outspoken, but free association to read material may

occur and stay in the reader's mind. Projective reactions in

psychotherapy indicate personality contents that a patient

ascribes to other people, which actually belong to him. This

also happens when a reader attributes certain behaviors and

feelings to characters that he himself manifests. Intense

emotional investment often happens in psychotherapy and it is a

key mechanism of treatment. A similar situation occurs during

reading, when a reader emotionally connects or identifies with

the characters or the situation in which they find themselves.

It includes a certain amount of emotional charge which may have

cathartic effect to the reader.

In addition to similarities, in understanding literary

transference there are very important differences between

psychotherapy and literary transference. Instead of

interpersonal relationship between patient and therapist, who

works as a blank canvas for the projection of the patient's

psychological material, literary text uses its own mechanisms

that directs the reader's reaction, and those are the narrative

time and tension, rhythm, volume, tone, etc. A reader may

approach the text if it provides the intimacy of voice,

intensity (of internal) fictional lives, but can also use

distance measures - such as self-reflection and formal

experimentation - to cause an abstract, more reflective

reception. In this way literary texts restructure boundaries

created with readers because they can intensively "absorb" us

in the text or keep us at arm's length in order to become aware

of the performance operations of a literary text. As an example

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of merging with the text Schwab states the novel “The Bone

People” by Keri Hulme, where strong emotional connection happens

between a reader and a character who is a victim of abuse, and

Schwab believes that this novel deliberately traumatizes the

reader to show him the horror of abuse.

Literary text may also recall the mental processes of the

past, evoke them so a reader could almost cathartically work

them through the act of reading. This could take place in such

a way that, as he/she shares emotions with the character, a

reader experiences emotional discharge and relief. Schwab sees

transformative role of literature in that - the inclusion of

new experiences, which are actually old, unconscious, into the

conscious self-image, through the transference relation to

literature. Further on we are able to see how literary

transference creates an impression of more integration and

coherence of the self, says Schwab, because the unconscious

paths are given a new form through the process of psychological

symbolization. Schwab sees in the literature, and the arts in

general, the role of the symbolization of unconscious in the

way that literature serves as a remembrance, contributing to

formation of psychic structures that create coherence of self

and identity. Thus she attaches a great role of translating the

unconscious contents and symbolic re-signification of

unstructured experience to literature.

Bibliotherapy

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The above mentioned literary transference thesis

correspond with bibliotherapy and represent a sort of

background explanation of the mechanism of bibliotherapy. Using

books as treatment is bibliotherapy method where there are

three main elements in the therapeutic relationship - a

therapist, a client (patient) and a book as a medium to

initiate therapy work. There are two opinions within the

discussion about bibliotherapy which differ in terms of content

of books that customers should read and amount of the

therapist's involvement. On one hand there is a view that only

fiction can be used as a therapeutic reading, while some

believe that the works of nonfiction, such as self-help books,

can also be given to clients for therapeutic purposes. Related

to that is the amount of therapist’s presence in the

therapeutic process, so when the self-help books are used, a

therapist's involvement is minimal, it just boils down to

counseling and guidance. On the other hand, when reading

fictional writing, a therapist's role is more important and he

is more involved in the therapeutic relationship, and reading

books is just a dole in therapy. From this the two

bibliotherapy schools emerged - cognitive and affective

(Shectman, 2009). Cognitive bibliotherapy observes the learning

process as the main mechanism of therapeutic change and for

this purpose uses nonfiction writings (self-help books) as a

model for learning through which clients acquire new skills.

Affective bibliotherapy has its roots in psychodynamic theory

and uses written materials in order to uncover repressed

emotions, thoughts and experiences. In so doing a strong

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emphasis is on the emotional experiences of the reader

(client), through identification with the experience of the

characters. Affective bibliotherapy uses fictional writings,

preferably known to most people, where there are different

characters and situations that a reader could connect to. In

such therapy a therapist is important because he/she is working

with the client through his/her emotions and structuring

his/her experience in order to achieve insights that would lead

to specific therapeutic developments. In this way,

bibliotherapy provides a different approach to the problem,

alternative modes of thinking and a higher degree of self-

awareness (Pardeck, 1998). Affective bibliotherapy also

encourages compassion and empathy, encourages functional

behavior in society and helps to define values more clearly.

The process of bibliotherapy includes phases which achieve

a therapeutic effect on the reader: identification, projection,

catharsis and insight. Identification refers to a client’s

identification with the position of the characters and it is

the most important phase because it enables other phases that

follow. Projection refers to the attribution of own mental

content to characters which actually enhances a client’s

involvement in the world of a literary text. Catharsis, if

happens, refers to the emotional relief that occurs after the

experience lived during and after reading, while the insight

includes an additional stage of integration and relating of

lived experience with their own life situation. At this stage,

a therapist works through impressions with a client, and helps

in connecting them with the client's life. Client

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identification with the characters from the book can also serve

as a corrective therapeutic method, especially if a client sees

them as a model from which he/she could learn something. It is

particularly important to emphasize here that identification,

catharsis, and insight are the processes that are also present

in psychodrama work, which will be analyzed in more detail

later in the text, especially the theory of role-playing in

psychodrama.

In selecting books for the affective bibliotherapy, a

therapist must take into account several things, such as the

client's interest in reading and his/her level of literacy,

that the problem described in the book is similar to the

client’s problem, that the tone of the writing is not

(self)accusing and that the book describes realistic ways of

solving problems. When a therapist determines that a client is

ready for the introduction of bibliotherapy in the therapeutic

process, and after he chose the book, he may recommend it to a

client for reading, but by no means he should impose it. Once a

client reads the book a therapist talks with him about the

experiences that have arisen during the reading, and he can

offer to client some of the following activities, such as

creative writing, art activities, discussions and role-playing

(Pardeck & Pardeck, 1992). Role-playing in bibliotherapy refers

to the clients’ taking a selected character's role and behavior

in accordance with what is described in the book. It is when a

client can feel and verbalize experiences that occur in this

role, and further improvise role-playing according to their own

needs, which may be a valuable insight for a client as well as

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for therapist’s further action. Role-playing is also an

essential element of psychodrama which is more specifically

described in the following chapter.

2. Role theory in psychodrama

In the article "The Role Concept, A Bridge Between

Psychiatry and Sociology" in 1961, Jacob Levy Moreno, the

founder of psychodrama, defined a role as "the actual and

tangible form that self takes " (Moreno in Fox, 1987: 62),

or as a form of action that an individual takes at a

certain time for a certain situation in which another

person and objects are involved. A role would actually

represent a symbolic representation of that form of

action. It is a combination of social and individual,

because it is designated by individual's past experiences

and cultural patterns of a society. Although he was aware

that role-theory found the most fertile soil within

sociological theory (G.H. Mead, R. Linton), Moreno still

believed that psychodrama and psychiatry define a role

more fully then sociology, which he held to be focused on

the social aspect only. For him, psychodrama role-theory

includes three dimensions - social roles that reflect the

social dimension; psychosomatic roles that reflect

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physiological dimension, and psychodrama roles that

reflect the psychological dimension of self.

Moreno also believed that psychodrama form of role-

playing, such as role-reversal, role identification, doubling

and mirroring, contribute to mental growth of the person. In

his books on psychodrama, “Foundations of Psychodrama” (2000) and

“Acting-In: Practical Applications of Psychodramatic Methods” (1996), Adam

Blatner, psychiatrist and psychodramatist, elaborated and

systematized Moreno’s role theory naming it "applied role

theory" as it gives pluralistic view of the psyche according to

which personality is made up of many different roles that can

be mutually conflicting and integrative. For Blatner,

psychodrama provides a vital skill for developing meta-roles,

which refers to a person's ability to learn to observe

himself/herself from a distance (role distance) in order to

develop self-observation and self-reflection. The meta-roles

development in psychodrama is achieved through mirroring

technique, where the protagonist views himself/herself as

looking in the mirror while watching auxiliary ego repeating

scene he previously played. Blatner refers to Moreno’s role-

theory as to the role dynamics that allows active and creative

type of imaginative thinking, because a person can use

mirroring “to get out of the situation" and become a director

who has a chance to imagine how this situation might be played

differently. It is important to emphasize here that Moreno’s

belief that man's desire to expand the role repertoire is one

of the fundamental driving forces of man. Expanding role

repertoire emphasizes the human need to play different roles in

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order to deal more easily with different situations, which is

why I think it might be reasonably argued that the psychodrama

is more effective than other psychotherapeutic techniques that

use only verbal methods. Unlike them, psychodrama founds

insight and emotion in the experience because it uses an

experiential type of learning new roles. In this way, multiple

benefits may result from the expansion of the role repertoire,

such as widening of choice feelings, identification by taking

the role of others, and consequently strengthening empathy,

enhancing the sense of self, as well as flexibility

strengthening because playing different roles enhances

adaptation to different circumstances.

Moreno has urged people to live his "Golden rule" in the

way to mentally and practically exercise reversing roles with

others, and to think what it would be like to be someone else,

because he felt that it allows empathy, compassion, and self-

reflection. His view of role reversal technique is best

described in his poem about an encounter, in 1914, which says:

„A meeting of two: eye to eye, face to face. And when you are near, I will tear your

eyes out, and place them instead of mine, and you will tear my eyes out, and place

them instead of yours; then I will look at you with your eyes, and you will look at me

with mine.“ (Moreno in Holmes, Karp and Watson, 1994: 189).

Peter Felix Kellermann, in his article "Role reversal in

psychodrama," published in the book “Psychodrama since Moreno”

(1994), argues that this song is actually a spiritual

foundation of the role-reversal technique in psychodrama, but

also the philosophical foundation of Moreno’s existentialistic

view of life. Through role-reversal each party is encouraged to

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understand the viewpoint of the other side, which allows a

person to be empathically identified with the position of the

other and to view themselves from outside. Kellermann

identifies three processes that occur through the role reversal

technique, such as empathic role taking, playing other people's

roles and feedback from the role. When taking on someone else's

role a person uses empathic, cognitive and behavioral skills to

credibly play the role of the other. Through the enactment of

other’s role we actually show another how we experienced

him/her, which can provide useful feedback on how others

perceive him/her. For all that the role-reversal technique is

one of the fundamental psychodrama techniques and means to

reduce the mechanisms of projection and identification. Ideally

role-reversal enables a protagonist and an auxiliary ego to

change perceptions, because at the same time it provides

insight into their own and others' processes. It can also be

useful as a corrective mechanism that allows us to widen the

narrowed perception of the world and change the impression of

ourselves.

3. Comparison of processes in bibliotherapy and

psychodrama

In previous chapters, the bibliotherapy and

psychodrama postulates are presented, which show

reciprocity in their processes, or which are present

in both psychotherapeutic methods, such as

identification, catharsis, and insight. As for

identification, we saw that a reader, reading a

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literary text, can identify with the position of a

narrator, a character or a personified object in a

literary text, which leads to tension because of the

adoption of the role of other, or for entering into

the role of another. In this way, a reader is more

open to a different understanding of not only the

text, but also himself. The function of a reader’s

identification with text instances3 displayed in such

manner may be correlated with the process of

identification in psychodrama. As mentioned

previously, role-reversal and entering into other

people's roles are basis of psychodrama

psychotherapeutic techniques, as described in the

illustrated psychodrama manual Psychodrama: "The role

reversal reveals our fantasies about ourselves and

others" (Djuric et al., 2004: 21). Playing the role

of someone else, or taking someone else's identity in

psychodrama, a person can experience himself/herself

in a different way, through a different perspective,

and thereby enrich their own sensory and experiential

constitution. Macedonian psychodrama psychotherapist

Zvonko Dzokic talks similarly about role playing in

his book The Power of Psychodrama:

“One of the basic techniques of complementary

reality (psychodrama) is role-reversal. With the help

of this technique, a protagonist enters the role of

another person, relevant to the current situation,

temporarily assumes his/her identity, acts and

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experiences like he/she, communicates the messages

from this new position, perceives and experiences

himself/herself from this other side, from the role

of the other. After returning to his identity, he/she

brings along the knowledge gained in the role of the

other, which gives a different meaning to the

encounter - their own perception and understanding of

reality has been supplemented by others' (Dzokic,

2010: 29).”

______________________3 A narrator, a character or personified object.

Such identification has shown similar functions

in bibliotherapy as well as in psychodrama, because

it allows a reader/protagonist to look at themselves

in a different way, to see what it's like to be in

"somebody else's shoes." Identification may offer

him/her a way to enrich the experience of self and a

clearer insight into their own mental processes.

However, the articles about psychodrama also

emphasize the process of des-identification, which

according to Blatner is a key element in the person's

maturation, and refers to the notion that a person is

not identical to the role he/she plays, but that

impression of self can be made by looking at

themselves as a director who has the freedom to

decide how to behave (Blatner, 2000). In this sense

des-identification provides the freedom to choose

policies and feelings which are inherent to a person.

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When talking about catharsis in bibliotherapy

and psychodrama, it has similar functions of

perceiving, releasing and discharging of emotions in

both therapies. Blatner (2000) mentions that Moreno

claimed that, in psychodrama, after each catharsis of

abreaction and experience, catharsis of integration

should follow, because it is not enough just to

experience the emotions, but one should work through

them and understand the role they play in their past

and present life. Zipora Shectman (2009) mentions

that in reading catharsis occurs when readers become

emotionally engaged by what they read, which is

followed by the release of repressed emotions in a

safe circumstances. Safe circumstances refer to a

reading situation in which there is no criticizing

nor the reader is exposed to possible condemnation

because of how they feel. Bibliotherapy emphasizes

insight as a final stage in the therapeutic process

of bibliotherapy, which would be equivalent to the

aforementioned catharsis of integration in

psychodrama, where a reader works through the

experienced emotions with his/her bibliotherapist and

gains insight on what do these emotions have to do

with them and what are the possible ways of solving

problems.

There are not many authors who write about using

bibliotherapy techniques in psychodrama, or vice

versa, about the application of psychodrama

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techniques in bibliotherapy. Further in this paper I

will cite some of the authors that could pave the way

of finding means through which both therapies could

benefit from one another, or to enrich and expand

their therapeutic possibilities.

The authors who mention bibliotherapy techniques

in psychodrama just glance over their relationship,

for example Blatner, in previously mentioned book

Foundations of Psychodrama in the section titled "Related

Approaches", lists several psychotherapeutic methods

that are associated with psychodrama. So he talks

about drama therapy that uses dramatic texts as

templates for further work, in the sense that members

of the group play the parts of the original drama,

and then explore their own reactions to the roles

that they played. Some groups write and perform plays

based on personal experiences. Blatner also mentions

other artistic approaches related to psychodrama

because they use some of its techniques, such as

poetry and creative writing, which is considered to

require a minimum of the ability for self-reflection

and introspection (psychological mindedness) from a

person.

Another author, psychodrama psychotherapist

Jacob Gershoni, in his book Psychodrama in the 21st Century

(2003) speaks more widely about a variety of

psychotherapeutic methods using psychodrama

techniques in their work. Thus, for example, cites

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family systems therapy, body therapy, as well as art therapy. He

also talks about how psychodrama could be used for

different groups of people, such as adolescents, LGBT

groups, veterans, and addicts. In the part of the

book that deals with the ways in which psychodrama

can be used for the purpose of education, an entire

chapter4 is dedicated to models linking psychodrama

and literature studies. Chapter author Herb Propper

is professor of literature and drama and he used

psychodrama methods with his students claiming that

psychodrama methods have the value of enabling

students for insights and emotional connections with

the characters, themes and situations. He allowed the

students at drama lessons to go on a spontaneous

dialogue with the characters, in a way that he would

put out 2-3 empty chairs and told students to imagine

that the characters from the drama are sitting on

________________________________

4 Chapter „Psychodrama as Experiential Education: Exploring Literature andEnhancing a Cooperative Learning Environment“, page 229

them. After that, students should address the

characters in the form of a statement to verbalize

their own feelings that they have towards them. This

was done in order to warm-up, after what a person who

is especially warmed-up for some character sat on his

chair and answered his own previously asked questions

and questions from other students. In this chapter

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Propper emphasizes that students often have different

and conflicting feelings about a character which can

lead to further exploration of those feelings. Often

such development, when students meet dramatic text

with personal insights, leads to the development of a

different drama than it is in the original template,

which reinforces the creative potential of students.

For example, Romeo and Juliet at Propper’s drama hour

ended with Romeo’s excuse for impulsive killing of

Tybalt, which led to a "more than reality" situation

(surplus reality) in which the two characters reconciled

after death.

The literature on bibliotherapy rarely indicates

it’s relationship to psychodrama. Using psychodrama

techniques in bibliotherapy is mentioned by Helen

Elser, a librarian at Danvers State Hospital in

Massachusetts, in her paper "Bibliotherapy in

Practice" (1982), where she talks about her own

experiences in dealing with mentally ill people

through bibliotherapy. At one point she mentions

using bibliotherapy and psychodrama in working with

juvenile delinquents through the role-reversal

technique. For example, in the conflict between

father and son, a juvenile would enter the role of a

father in order to experience the conflict from his

role and got a glimpse of how the father feels. Elser

argues that psychodrama is also beneficial to such

patients for developing social skills, especially

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those that would allow them to access their

sympathies and to behave appropriately.

From this review of the way in which

bibliotherapy is used in psychodrama, it is evident

that its techniques are mostly used as a warm-up for

psychodrama work. Using books as an introduction to

psychodrama process may be very useful to group

dynamics, as it allows group members to enter into

the roles of the characters that they feel have to do

with their lives. In this way the use of the

character's role in literary work can be viewed as a

preparation for entering into a role. Even the mere

designation of the role (role naming), which the

character of a literary work embodies, represents an

initial stage of psychodrama work because it allows

the definition and analysis of the role (role analysis)5

that can be subdivided into several smaller roles.

A group leader may, after group members enter

the roles of characters from literary texts, ask

questions such as 'How did you feel in the role of

such and such character?', 'Which personal dimensions

did you bring into a role that do not belong to the

character?', ‘Do character’s occupations have to do

with your own issues?', 'What aspects of the

character would you like to take with you and which

you do not like?'. In this way, the existing role of

a character can serve as a ready model to assume the

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role, but what is more interesting is that each group

member has a freedom to play the role of a character

other than the one described in literary text. Such a

possibility, which reading and entering the literary

text gives us, refers to the creation of new roles

(creating roles), which enables further development of a

person and encourages development of creativity and

spontaneity, which in turn designates the basic

skills and principles of a healthy psyche

functioning. Roles that characters from literary

texts embody can also offer ready-made models for

meta-roles, which belongs to one of the main goals of

therapeutic work. Thereby a literary figure can offer

a model of good parent, supportive friend or creative

problem solver, which can certainly serve as welcomed

examples of meta-roles that group members can further

develop or strengthen.

Instead of Conclusion

This work has offered several models of

relations between psychodrama and bibliotherapy in

the way that we first set out to analyze the

mechanisms that lead to the therapeutic effect of

reading. The underlying mechanism refers to the

literary transference process by which a reader

brings his/her own expectations into the text, which

is actually a prerequisite for identification.

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Bibliotherapy represents a therapeutic method in

which a literary ____________________________

5Designation and analyzing, as well as creating roles, belongs to the

vital techniques of psychodrama work said by Blatner to be parts of

Psychodrama applied role theory (Blatner, 2000).

text serves as an element that initiates the

therapeutic work, in a way that a reader is

identified with the world of the literary text, and

through catharsis and insight integrates experienced

cognition and emotion flowing out of reading, thereby

enhancing their psychic life. Role theory in

psychodrama is observed through Moreno’s claim that

role-playing forms contribute to mental growth of the

person, making it a vital concept of Psychodrama.

Generally, Moreno considered, and authors like

Blatner and Kellermann agreed, that role-playing,

namely imagining how it would be to be someone else,

enables empathy, compassion and self-reflection.

Bibliotherapy theorists also point out that

bibliotherapy promotes compassion and empathy and

different approach to problems. Because of the

similarities between psychodrama and bibliotherapy

postulates, in the article I pointed to the

possibility that both therapies enrich their

therapeutic options through the use of psychodrama

techniques in bibliotherapy and in particular,

through the use of bibliotherapy techniques in

psychodrama, which is the basic idea of this paper.

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Models of integrating therapeutic reading into

psychodrama work vary from the use of literary texts

only as a method of warming-up in psychodrama, to the

possibility that a literary text becomes the basis of

all psychodrama work. As a method of warming-up the

psychodrama bibliotherapy can serve as a dynamic

means by which members of the group can more easily,

clearly and more directly enter into different roles

based on the existing models, which may associate

them to some of their problems that can be explored

further through psychodrama work. On the other hand,

bibliotherapy as the foundation of the entire

psychodrama work is very much like drama therapy

which uses dramatic texts and techniques for

exploring the inner worlds in a similar way as

bibliotherapy and psychodrama. In this way

therapeutic reading provides an option for literary

worlds to serve as a template to set the scenes on

the stage which would reflect these worlds and

redefine them according to the needs of the

protagonist. This allows protagonists to perform

alternative endings of literary texts on stage which

strengthens their creativity and spontaneity. For all

this such models of integrating therapeutic reading

into psychodrama work can further expand psychodrama

therapeutic options as one of the most creative

psychotherapeutic disciplines.

References:

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