Psychotherapy in various forms and under various names has existed for many years. The term "mental therapeutics"
was used in 1876 in a paper published in the American Journal of Insanity (now the American
Journal of Psychiatry). An original form of psychotherapy, psychodrama was introduced in the 1920s and was
accepted by the psychiatric community.
Jacob Levy Moreno, M.D., the originator of psychodrama, was born in Romania in 1892 and grew up in Vienna. In
1917 he received his medical degree from the University of Vienna, where his education included experience
in the psychiatry clinic. He then became a health officer and set up a general practice in a suburb of
Vienna. He came to the United States in 1925 and settled in New York.
source: http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/38/10/60
Psychodrama is a method of psychotherapy which explores, through action, the problems of people. It is a group working
method, in which each person becomes a therapeutic agent for others in the psychodrama group. Psychodrama is performed much
like theater, with a stage, props, and balconies.
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As there is no universally agreed-upon statement of its therapeutic objectives, psychodrama was
assumed to influence dependent variables such as personality, locus of control, symptoms, attitudes, and overt behavior. A
mixture of formal and informal, direct and indirect, objective and projective, and clinical and statistical methods of assessment
was used to measure these variables.
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Psychodrama uses the creative energy within the group
to serve the process of healing and change. The group atmosphere is supportive,encouraging, and dynamic. The process offers
a creative way to move beyond old scripts, beliefs, or unconscious bonds to the past, to a greater awareness of the
answers available through being alive to our own creative potential.
source: http://lifestage.org/Psychodrama/psychodrama.html
The reason that psychodrama is useful to the social work practice is because it offers a new way of treatment for a client.
Instead of the same process each time, psychodrama is a new way for a social worker to assess and treat a client.
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Keosha Smith * Social Work 355 * Fall 2005
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