Updated 4/21/2011 Also see paper on
sociodrama in education on this
website.
Sociodrama is a method for exploring the
conflicts and issues inherent
in social roles. It is an extension of psychodrama, a method developed
by J. L. Moreno, M.D. (1889-1974), a psychiatrist who invented these
methods in the later 1930s and early 1940s. Moreno was also a pioneer
in the fields of group psychotherapy, social psychology,
improvisational theory, and the philosophy and theory of spontaneity
and creativity.
This webpage is being updated partly in celebration to the recent
publication of a new anthology,
Sociodrama in a
Changing World (in which I have a chapter). Others who have
contributed to this volume include Herb Propper,
Valerie Monti Holland, Nina Garcia, Rosalie Minkin and Eva Leveton. Eva
has also edited another anthology published a year ago (see references
below). On April 30, we are holding a panel on sociodrama at the 2011
annual meeting of the American Society of Group Psychotherapy &
Psychodrama (held in Clearwater, Florida, near Tampa.)
In addition, there have been several international sociodrama
conferences held in the last half-decade! Maurizio Gasseau, the
director of our International Association of Group Psychotherapy and
Group Process discussion website wrote recently about some history: He
noted that the 1st Sociodrama Conference was created by Manuela Maciel
in Carcavelos near Lisbon in October 2007; a 2nd Sociodrama Conference
was organized on the Boat between Stockholm and Helsinki in March 2009
by Monica Westberg, Kerstin Jurdell, Eero Julkunen, Per Henriksson,
Judith Teszary. A 3rd Sociodrama Conference was organized in Patgonia,
Argentina by Monica Zuretti, and plans are being made for a 4th
Sociodrama Conference that will be held in Iseo Italy in September
2013! (This group includes Luigi Dotti, Clelia Marini, Paola De
Leonardi, Leandra Perrotta, Tony Zanardo, Wanda Druetta, Chiara de
Marino, Maurizio Gasseau. Manuela Maciel, Monica Westberg, Monica
Zuretti and Ron Wiener—all will be consultants of the 4th Sociodrama
Conference in Italy. You can find more about these conferences by
googling "sociodrama conference."
So this approach is gaining traction. Personally, I think that in the
long run sociodrama may influence the evolution of consciousness on
this planet more than psychodrama as a clinical modality---but this is
so only in the sense that public health measures applied widely and in
a preventive fashion have more aggregate impact than medical treatment
of the individual patient.
Sociodrama is similar to psychodrama in that both utilize group
dynamics, enactment, and psychodramatic methods. They differ in the
focus of the problem being addressed. Psychodrama deals with the
problems that an individual person (i.e.,
“the protagonist) faces in dealing with real life situations. Those
problems involve several levels—the general cultural milieu, the
interactions of the social roles, and the particular forms those roles
take in the real people involved. A person is a nexus of many roles
and, more, in that process of coming together of many qualities,
embodies a particular way he or she expresses each role and works out
ways of integrating them. The problem is complexified by the fact that
the individuals in the protagonist’s life are also particular
people—not just roles—and so they play their roles in certain ways.
Some of the ways people play their role are consistent with how most
people might expect that role to be played, but a fair amount of the
interaction is also affected by idiosyncratic elements, certain
qualities that express creativity, wisdom, foolishness, neurosis,
quirks, and so forth.
To restate: Psychodrama addresses both the role conflicts and the
individuality of the people playing out those issues. Sociodrama in
contrast focuses on explicating the depth of complexity and conflicts
at the level of the social roles involved. Consider for example a
teenaged girl interacting with her father. There are general issues
that might be shared by many of the people in the group, people who
have been in the role of fathers of teenaged girls, or who have known
men in that role (and by extension, parents of teenagers, and teenagers
in relation to parents—there are over-lapping issues in all of these
realms), and exploring such issues would be more sociodramatic. On the
other hand, the peculiarities or quirks of this particular teenaged
girl and that particular father, dealing with, for example, the
daughter’s areas of talent, or the financial considerations of the
father at the time of the enactment, or issues that concern also the
individual qualities of the mother, who happens to be mentally
ill—these issues make it more psychodramatic.
In terms of role theory, an individual may be imagined to be a
combination of multiple roles, and the way they interact as a “nexus.”
This interaction of many roles and role components mix also with the
various elements of individuality—abilities, special interests,
temperament, genetic make-up, life history, cultural circumstances—,
(see my webpage on considering the
components of individuality
and another webpage on the
factors involved in human development)
and this is further compounded because one person’s individuality plays
of the equally complex and unique individuality of others in the social
network. Who I am is a product of not only my individuality, but the
quirks of who each of my parents were, and for that matter other key
players in my development. All this requires an examination at the
level of the protagonist’s own experience, how she interprets
perceptions, and what patterns of reaction she has developed.
Certainly this is complicated, but it’s made even more so because of
the social roles embodied by each individual player. In psychodrama,
both the roles being played and the individual ways people play those
roles are explored.
Sociodrama, on the other hand explores the general nature of the social
roles—which are themselves quite complex. Many social roles are being
redefined in each age group, with each generation, so that, for
example, the expectations associated with being a “good” kid have
changed several times in the last century.
Sociodrama acknowledges that it is worthwhile addressing these shifts,
the issues associated with social roles in general. In certain
situations it becomes worthwhile to examine the nature of various
social roles and how they play out, how they interact with those in
other social roles, or people from other cultures, and so forth.
These roles might involve age, religion, ethnic background, perceived
racial differences, gender, sexual preference, vocation, economic and
social class, political orientation, national loyalty education, and so
forth. Also, there are often more subtle differences within large
groups that can generate a great deal of tension. (Examples: Those
Christians who believe in Hell as a real consideration in life and
those who would prefer to exclude that category from their belief;
those of African-American heritage with different skin tones; and (less
true in this country now, but not insignificant in the past, Jews
immigrating from Germany versus Eastern Europe; and among the latter
group, those from the region around Lithuania (“Litvaks”) versus those
in the regions around the Ukraine (“Galitzianers”). Sometimes these
differences were the basis of jokes, and sometimes these differences
became the source of truly unpleasant conflicts.)
Each role has levels of associations, disagreements as to how it should
be defined, what qualifies as performing well versus performing poorly
in that role. Each role tends to evoke other deeper associations,
thoughts and feelings—and sociodrama aims at bringing these elements
into consciousness.
Each role tends to generate certain particular dynamics when associated
with another role, so, for example: middle aged fathers and sons;
fathers and daughters; father-husbands and mother-wives; fathers and
new stepmothers, and so forth. Other variables include:
– the role in a historical era, teenage girl in the 1940s versus
in 2010, minister in 1940 versus 2010... etc.
– the role at a certain age: a 20 year old new
father; a minister at age 80 with 60+ years of experiences,
including the changes in his denomination, trends in theology, etc.
– the role in relation to another role: A
young father of a newborn boy; a middle-aged father of a teenaged
girl—in relation to that girl... etc.
– the tensions of the individual in relation to the
majority in that group: a teenaged girl who feels different from what
she perceives is the norm for her age and gender; a minister who is at
odds with what he perceives to be the mainstream of his religion.
Roles, then, have their own depths. In any given role, for any
particular situation or relationship, there are five levels of thoughts
and feelings: (1) what is expressed openly; (2) what is thought
explicitly but can only be shared with close friends or a therapist, if
anyone; (3) thoughts and feelings that slightly register in
consciousness but are mostly pushed away—this is the “pre-conscious”
level; (4) thoughts or feelings that are repressed, that remain out of
consciousness; and (5) those ideas that have never been considered—they
may exist in other cultures or elsewhere in society, but would be
experienced as absolutely new and barely conceivable (e.g., “What,
women vote? But this is 1842! Never heard such nonsense!”)
In addition, people in roles—even fully immersed in just one role
dimension—nevertheless experience much of the turbulence of multi-role
psychology—including all the mental maneuvers (including the “defense
mechanisms described in psychoanalysis) designed to reduce feelings of
emotional discomfort.
A key point of this paper is that in addition to bringing out the
various component attitudes of any single role, sociodrama also should
present the various avoidance and adjustive mental maneuvers, the
little voices that go along with the processing of interacting
complexes within any given sociodramatic conflict: e.g., I don’t want
to think about this. It’s all their fault. Why does it have to be so
complicated? I’m not going to give in, I’m going to protest! Well,
maybe I should just keep quiet.
People’s lives are enormously complex. There are conflicts among the
parts of the self, the different motivations and preferences. There are
conflicts and allegiances with others, and among different groups and
even whole cultures. There are conflicts between what an individual
might prefer and think and what they and others think should be felt
and thought—the group norms.
Every psychodrama has elements that really relate not just to the
particulars, but what most people in that role might be thinking and
feeling—that is, every psychodrama contains a variety of implicit
sociodramas.
In any sociodrama, all people involved also have aspects of their
particular lives that exemplify aspects—sometimes a lot, sometimes only
a tiny bit—of whatever is being explored as the themes in the
sociodramatic enactments.
Any psychodrama has the potential to transform into a sociodrama, and
vice versa. This can be most valuable in helping protagonists realize
that aspects of their problems are not an expression of individual
idiosyncracies or weaknesses, but are the product of cultural issues,
types of oppression, conflicting norms, and those issues are shared by
thousands or millions of other people.
A caution, though: If the group exploring a sociodrama has come
together to explore an issue and not feel that their own personal lives
will be disclosed, the group leader should realize that there is a
slight to moderate tendency for sociodramas to drift into psychodramas.
A protagonist begins to create scenes that have elements that aren’t
built into the general role, but express rather the problems in dealing
with a particular other person. A girl with a teenage pregnancy
has problems with parents, but a scene in which the father uses that
predicament to behave in individual, unusual ways would need to be
excluded. It would be that girl’s own psychodrama, not a sociodrama.
The auxiliaries need to continue to behave according to the average
expect-able social norm for that culture, and the director should not
allow such an enactment to proceed: “No, Julie, that’s not sociodrama.
That may have to do with your own family—or perhaps you’re playing it
the way a friend of yours experienced it—but we’re not going to pursue
that. We need to explore what most girls go through in this situation.”
Applications
I think sociodrama may in the long range have more applicability and do
more good for the society’s development than psychodrama! Similar
techniques are used, but the focus is different. The reason I consider
this possibility is that sociodrama is a great way to learn to be
empathic with a wider variety of situations, to learn the skills
of psychological literacy or emotional and social intelligence,
and to think more sharply, clearly, and critically about current social
problems.
The world is changing faster, accelerating in the social responses to
technological innovations. Cultures are mixing more, people traveling
more, immigrating and emigrating, subgroups are seeking more “rights,”
social norms are shifting. The general ability to be mentally flexible
is becoming a necessity for adaptation, though this wasn’t so true two
or three generations ago.
Education, also, needs to become more attuned to what is relevant to
the students. In the more stable past education could be driven by a
curriculum designed by wise elders who were working from values and
cognitive sets that were—well, by definition, old-fashioned!
Sociodramas have been conducted internationally and in many settings.
They have addressed socio-economic issues in the nation or the city,
social conflicts in communities, professional sub-groupings, and so
forth. The whole idea of identifying subtle sub-groupings, just noting
their existence explicitly, is an element in some forms of group work
(e.g., Yvonne Agazarian’s approach.)
There is some overlap in methodology and goal between sociodrama and
Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, as well as its offshoots,
Forum Theatre, Rainbow of Desire, and so forth. There is a slight
overlap with other forms of applied theatre (Blatner, 2007).
I envision this methodology as becoming a core part of the curriculum
in higher education (Blatner, 2006). I am interested in other
approaches and if you write to me and make suggestions, I will cite
your name and your point in this paper.
Summary
Sociodrama is making gains and promises to offer an important extension
of the vision of Moreno. He never intended his ideas to be confined to
the hospital or the clinic. When he wrote as the first line of his
magnum opus,
Who Shall
Survive, "A truly therapeutic procedure cannot have less an
objective than the whole of mankind," he meant that really good
tools---and I consider his contributions to consist of a goodly number
of such tools---have applications in all domains. I hope this
introduction stimulates your interest!
References:
Blatner, A. & Blatner, A. 1997. Applying sociodramatic methods in
education Chapter13, pp. 124-133, in
The Art of Play: Helping
adults reclaim imagination and spontaneity. New York:
Brunner/Mazel.
Blatner, A. (2006). Enacting the New Academy: Sociodrama as a
Powerful Tool in Higher Education.
ReVision:
A Journal of Consciousness & Transformation. (This article
is on
another webpage on this website)
.
Blatner, A. (2007). Psychodrama, sociodrama and role playing. In A.
Blatner (with D. Wiener) (Eds.)
Interactive and
Improvisational Drama: Varieties of Applied Theatre and Performance.
Omaha, NE: iUniverse.
Leveton, E. (2010).
Healing
collective trauma using sociodrama and drama therapy. New York:
Springer Publishing Company.
Minkin, Rosalie.
(2001a). Linking the generations through sociodramatic improvisational
theatre. The British Journal of
Psychodrama & Sociodrama, 16, 89-96.
Minkin, R. (2011).
Sociodrama for
our times: the A, B, C of sociodrama.
Contact author.
Sternberg, Patricia & Garcia, Antonina (2009). Sociodrama (Chapter
19), in D. R. Johnson & R. Emunah (Eds.),
Current approaches in drama therapy
(2nd ed.). Springfield, IL: C. C. Thomas.
Wiener, Ron; Adderly, Di; & Kirk, Kate (Eds.). (March 2011).
Sociodrama in a changing world.
www.lulu.com See also the
table
of contents on this website.
Also, there are many other references to sociodrama through the search
function at the
internaional psychodrama
bibliography online
