Understanding The Sessions & Stages Of Psychodrama
A psychodrama consists of five basic elements:
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The protagonist - who is the focus of a psychodrama, being that member of the group to explore their personal issues in a particular session. The term ‘protagonist’ is taken from the Greek theatre, meaning ‘first actor’ or main character. As protagonist, we are the ‘stars’ of our own psychodramas just as we are the starring characters of our own lives. The protagonist is asked to be himself, to portray his own private world. He is stimulated by the use of various psychodramatic techniques to help him to be what he is, more deeply and explicitly than he is in life.
The director – who in collaboration with the protagonist, directs and facilitates any individual drama. S/he has four functions: 1. Producer, 2. Therapist,
3. Analyst, 4. Group Leader
The auxiliary egos – members of the group who are the arms of the director as they aid in their own way to bring the session to fruition. The auxiliary, playing the role of the significant other, is a moving force in the session. S/he can increase the protagonist’s warm up to time, place and reality; intensify the action; help gather information; and in the reverse role, can exaggerate and mirror the protagonist. The auxiliary can represent values, virtues and morals as well as being the significant other.
The audience - in the session is not an audience in the inactive sense of being ‘viewers’ of the action, but functions as a miniature society – one where it is safe to play out one’s hopes, dreams, fears, realities. The group has a double purpose. It may serve to help the protagonist, or being itself helped by the subject on the stage it becomes a client/protagonist, it is a sounding board of public opinion. It is important to have the presence of a group that is willing to accept and understand him/her.
The stage – in most cases simply a space in a room large enough to allow some physical movement, although at Beacon, Moreno built a more complex theatrical structure, which allowed the use of different stage levels in the enactment.
Warm-up Phase:
The warm-up is the first because we warm up to everything in life, whether we are aware of it or not. At the simplest level, the way in which we warm up to anything in life is the way we prepare for that event, and that preparation is the stepping stone to the consequences of that event. The warm-up process fosters group cohesion and trust and enables a protagonist to emerge from the group. The purpose is to warm everyone up to each other and to the director, the director to the group, and everyone to the work at hand. The warm-up does not conclude when the action portion begins, but it continues throughout the session as it is necessary to warm the protagonist up to each time and place in the session. In psychodrama there are many types of warm-ups. There are structured warm-ups, informal warm-ups, group warm-ups and warm-ups designed to produce a protagonist.
Action Phase:
​The enactment is the major segment of the session. This is the movement from scene to scene, using the cues, information and symbols to help the protagonist examine his life and behaviours and to make some choices for the future. The action portion can be divided into three scenes, going back to the locus, the earliest memory when a dysfunctional belief system and behaviour came into existence. Or the action could just be one scene, a vignette of what is happening in the here and now.
Sharing Phase:
​The sharing is the final closure for the group as well as for the protagonist. Its function is twofold:
1 -To enable the group members to de-role from the characters they have been playing. This may be done by sharing how they are different and how they are similar.
2 -To enable people to share from their own life experience with the issue explored.
This takes place when the action portion has concluded for the protagonist. The director, in essence, returns the protagonist to the group. The group is now asked to share something of themselves, of their own lives, their own feelings, as they relate to the experience of the protagonist in a non-analytical and non-judgemental manner. This process of sharing thus helps to link the protagonist with his environment rather than alienating him from it.
One cannot plan the psychodrama. It is existential and of the moment, born step by step, as the protagonist reveals the necessary information, cues and responses. The director then brings together the threads of the session with the aid of the auxiliaries and the group.
Stages of Psychodrama
A psychodrama session consists of three stages: warm-up, enactment and sharing. Each of these is essential to complete the psychodramatic process.
Glossary of Techniques:
One of the most effective techniques is ROLE REVERSAL.
Role reversal is used for specific purposes:
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To develop empathy
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To shift perspective
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To develop understanding of the situation
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To help enactors to have a catharsis
DOUBLING is a powerful technique for the protagonist and director. The double places his/her body in the position of the protagonist, not to imitate, but to feel what the protagonist is feeling. On a deeper level, the double is there to assist and explore the innermost feelings of the protagonist. These are often feelings the protagonist is too fearful to articulate or feelings the individual has not allowed to surface. The double can be used in a variety of ways:
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to verbalise non-verbal communications
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to physicalise one’s words
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to magnify feelings
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to observe and question the self
In the MIRROR technique one enactor reflects the body language and vocal tones of another while the second observes.
SURPLUS REALITY defines those times in a psychodramatic enactment when scenes and events are dramatised that have never happened, will never happen or can never happen. The ability to experience these scenes (with the associated fantasies, fears, emotions and wishes) is one of the magical strengths of the psychodramatic process. The very fact of having experiences in surplus reality is perhaps one of the unique therapeutic potentials of psychodrama.
SOCIOMETRY means ‘companion measure’. Sociometric explorations lay bare the hidden structures that give a group its form: the alliances, the hidden beliefs, the forbidden agendas, the ideological agreements, the ‘stars’ of the show, positive and negative. It is a measure, an information-provider that stresses the social nature of everything we are and do.
SOCIODRAMA – is an action method dealing with inter-group relations and collective ideologies. The protagonist of the sociodrama is the group. It may be that in a spontaneous sociodrama one member has raised the particular issue or social problem to be explored, but in essence group issues are looked at.
TELE – is a two-way relationship, a reciprocal non-verbal communication, quite different from empathy, sympathy, transference or counter-transference. Tele is a dual message sending service. It is the ability to penetrate and understand another person without the necessity of language.