HACP Daring to Step into Someone Else’s Shoes

J.L. Moreno’s Role Theory and its Applications in Psychodrama Psychotherapy

Doris Prügel-Bennett, Psychodrama Psychotherapist (UKCP), Teacher of the Alexander Technique (STAT), Certified Doula/Birth Partner 4/20/2013 2

1. Introduction

J. L. Moreno’s (1889 – 1974) achievements were the extension of role theory from social theory to psychology. He developed the theory further on a general level and introduced role playing i.e., action methods into psychotherapy. Moreno’s body of work places the individual firmly into the social world. Both, his theory and practice accept the physicality of human beings as part of their life world.

Psychodrama, sociodrama, the social atom and sociometry in action (the measuring of connections within groups), Impromptu theatre, Playback theatre and the living newspaper are all practical results of his thinking and practical work in the realm of drama and therapy. Moreno’s major existential concepts of authenticity, spontaneity, creativity, “act hunger”, and TELE (the connection between individuals) underpin his theoretical and practical work. He embraced the notion of psychological catharsis in all his work.

Moreno’s theoretical body of work is vast and many ideas still require further development. Particularly, David A. Kipper developed Moreno’s role theory further.

In this paper, I shall a) discuss Moreno’s general role theory as he perceived it to be for human individuals in relation to the world; and b) the practical application of his role theory and the specific techniques within psychotherapy that makes the work the psychotherapeutic modality of psychodrama.

Definition of the term role theory 3

According to this statement, role theory can exist outside psychodrama. Psychodrama, however, cannot exist without a robust theoretical body of role theory and its practical application cumulating in psychodramatic or action work.

2. History of role theory

The development of role theory stems from the end of the 19th/beginning of the 20th century but the use of “roles” points back to the role on which the lines of for the actor in Greek theatre were written. It is understood that in rituals people take on roles and dress accordingly in order to highlight topics relevant to humans, marking special events or to pacify the spirits, etc.

Role theory needs to be understood in the context of Modernity. Notions of the self, self-reflection, self-development were in vogue, after traditional values and beliefs began to vane (Giddens, 1991). The division of labour caused fragmentation within the individual.

As philosophers and social theorists, Moreno was marking the split between the ideal conditions for the self and the alienation of it in an increasingly modernising society. Generally, the focus on language, and hence a concept of the split of body and mind, became accepted in practice and theory, also in Psychology. Moreno’s role theory and action methods were a reaction against the emerging fragmentation.

Social theorist George Herbert Mead (1863–1931) studied cultures and their rituals. According to Mead, role playing in social life, as in rituals, have social and psychological significance for individuals and societies. Role playing integrates roles, i.e., its importance and meaning, into the own self (Clayton, 1994, p 122). Its aim is the continuation of vital social aspects. Moreno was influenced by Mead’s theory but also by his own observations of children at play.

Moreno’s achievement of working seriously with role play was his interest in authentic expressions of the self. His passion was to facilitate encounters between human beings, with the aim for the participants to understand themselves and to be understood by people who live around them. 4

3. Moreno’s conceptualizations of roles

3.1. The existential level of Moreno’s role theory:

The concepts of the role and the self are connected. Until an individual can play roles, the self cannot be expressed. Acting in roles and using language are considered the vehicles with which we interact with others. However, both roles and language are prescribed by social, cultural, historical forces and limit the expression of the essential self. Art, drama, music, poetry, etc. are alternatives of expressing our selves more fully. These forms of expression may escape parts of the rigidity of the prescriptive and limiting forces of language and roles.

Moreno’s definition of the concept of role:

Consciously and unconsciously, individuals chose the roles they play in life, they way they relate to others and how they position themselves in relationships. In so far, the functions of roles are to

- organize intra- and inter-relational activities - help to pursue and fulfil individuals’ needs

Role perception and role enactment are the two necessary factors for a role to come into existence. Necessary pre- conditions for the “birth of a role” are a locus nascendi, status nascendi, and a matrix i.e., the right space at the right moment 5

with the right preconditions and information. The less structured a situation is the more potential there is for the right condition to arise and for a new role to come into existence.

Three fundamental human features of creativity build the foundation for the birth, the existence and the ability to change roles. A creative situation needs

Spontaneity: energy that emerges at the right moment, “cannot be accumulated” and is “consumed instantly”. (Kipper, 1996, p 106).

According to Karp the following four characteristics build part of the creative process a) “Spontaneity prepares the subject for free action” b) “feeling of surprise” c) “breaking the existing reality in some way” d) “change must take place in the situation” (Karp, 1994, p 52).

Due to social, cultural, historical norms, spontaneity and creativity diminish but can be trained within psychodramatic work.

3.2.Moreno’s theory of Role development:

From birth onwards, roles develop – always and only inter- relationally

 Psychosomatic role (eater, sleeper, gender, etc.)  Social role (gender, counsellor, parent, etc.)  Psychodramatic role (enacting roles out of choice)

Roles can be over- and under- or adequately developed. Role analysis helps to identify needs in specific areas for individuals. Moreno’s role theory offers an alternative framework to clinical formulations and concepts of pathology (Blatner, 1991). Moreno was interested in the attitudes in the role (Moreno, 1985, p 161). That is, he tested people’s willingness and ability of role playing. Role playing, role perception are techniques to aid role creation as well as to identify obsolete, dysfunctional roles, and/or role discrepancies. Role expectations, submissive and dominant roles can be identified and worked with in psychodramatic work. Obsolete roles may be discontinued. Role playing is the major vehicle for all of these processes and practical experiences to change, develop or abandon roles. 6

Role models are important for role development. However, the main aspect is the ability of spontaneity in a human being for a new role to emerge. Kipper identified the need of the right amount of challenge, skills and energy for roles to be effectively working for individuals. One aspect of psychodramatic work is spontaneity training.

Kipper’s contribution to role theory:  Role play theory  Setting Moreno’s work into historical context  Extending and refining role theory by adding conceptualizations of role maintenance, role preservation and role disintegration and dissipation based on considerations of role satisfaction/dissatisfaction.  Introducing concepts of skills, energy and challenges as necessary aspects for role activity on a general level. (Kipper, 1991)

3.3. Role play theory

Moreno says:

“Role playing is prior to the emergence of the self.” (Moreno, 1985, p. 157)

This statement refers to the necessity to acquire experience in role playing as a developmental fact. Role playing facilitates as well as demonstrates the creative capacity of human beings. Even though Freud noticed the psychological and developmental importance of role play in children (Stadtler, Spörrle, 2008, p. 169) he did not consider it as an aspect of psychological investigation worth to be understood in more detail or to be made use of in psychological work.

Moreno recognized the potential of role playing as “ability to satisfy basic psychological needs and ... [the] inherent therapeutic qualities.” (Kipper, 1996, p 101).Moreno is being credited to first introduce role play into modern psychotherapeutic work (Kipper, 1996, p 102).

Role play and relational, psychological work are part of the same activity. It helps individuals to understand and appropriate the world with her/his own understanding. In non-verbal communication physical expression (performance?) often underlines the meanings of the words spoken. 7

Psychodrama is the oldest and most elaborate method that uses role playing (since 1921) within a psychological and therapeutic context. Role play entered psychological therapies in the 1950s, mainly for solution focussed and behavioural work, rejecting aspects of catharsis. (Kipper, 1996, p 105). In psychotherapeutic work, role theory is still used in its systemic application such as systemic and family therapy (Williams, 1998), mainly as a means of role analysis. B. Hellinger’s constellation work and Voice Dialogue by Hal & Sidra Stone use role play while retaining catharsis as an important aspect of change. Empty chair work is widely applied.

Non-therapeutic application of role play is common practice in education, industry, management training, etc.

4. What happened to role theory?

Generally, role theory has gone out of fashion for various reasons:

 On a general level, constructivist thinking disputes all essence and claims that they are constructs, including the self and the role.  Role theory has been regarded as a classification system that does not explain how roles work (Zetterberg, in Kipper, 1991, p 82)  Working with role play was considered primitive, less serious and sophisticated compared to language based work.  In psychodrama, the problem is that theory and practice are not well connected (Kipper, 1991, p 72). Many psychodramatists are hands-on people. They are immersed in their practical work. Moreno himself prioritized practical work.  There seems a major conflict in the thinking of the concepts of self and roles in psychodramatic thinking. “The psychodramatic tradition itself struggles with ‘the real’ and ‘the role’. It plays with the idea that there is a real self and yet maintains that a self is a set of roles in constant interaction.” (Williams, 1998). However, Kipper (1991) does not see this as a contradiction as roles are transient, the self is permanent. There is a “... difference between the ‘self’ and ‘roles’”. (p 72) 8

5. Psychodrama

In psychodrama, role play is a sincere activity but includes all emotions including joy. The sincerity of role playing, showing, telling and hearing one’s own truth in role and role reversal enables profound work for individuals within a group. In psychodrama, the world of individual reality and shared reality may blur, allowing for deep analysis and a space for catharsis and change.

In psychodrama, people are expected to enact or take roles. Role enactment and role taking do not allow for any variation. The role needs to portray the sentiment and content of the protagonist’s truth. It is unhelpful when roles cannot be recognized by the protagonist, when they are only partially enacted, distorted or adequately enacted (Moreno, 1985, p 169).

Role playing in a psychodramatic setting involves auxiliary egos who are chosen by the protagonist to ‘hold’ roles of important others. An auxiliary ego stays in a role and is given some liberty to feel into the role and report from there, being able to distinguish between her/his own and the protagonist’s aspects.

Role creating is the process where a protagonist may develop a completely new role for him/herself that is required in order to become functional again. (Stadtler, Spörrle, 2008, p 176).

All these engagements of roles are communication in action. This way of working makes the activity of psychodrama a dynamic experience.

Action methods are employed to

 go beyond the pure focus on language  externalize and concretize emotions, thoughts, imaginations, etc. by physical, vocal, and verbal means  develop a congruence between body and mind, emotions and thoughts, etc.  conduct a role analysis  access the creative capacity of human beings  prepare for moment and space (“surplus reality”) for catharsis and change  create a space for rehearsing more functional ways of thinking, feeling and behaving  work with empathy training 9

In psychodrama, roles and role reversals do not stop at playing other people but are extended to realms of the symbolic, abstract, physical, spiritual entities.

In classical psychodrama, the movement is from the present – to the past – further to the past – further to the past, etc, possibly future – to finishing in the present, assimilating cathartic changes into new thoughts, behaviour and roles, etc.

Psychodrama group work: Psychodrama work is a co-creative process within groups. It accesses the co-conscious and co-unconscious (every individual, his/her past, cultural, historical events, etc. contribute to the making of these spheres). The psychodrama director is aware of his/her co-creation in the work. In the group work everyone becomes an auxiliary therapist through sharing their life experience. Every constellation of a group is unique and shapes the outcome of the session. Every protagonist works for the whole group and every participant works in her/his own right. Roles in psychodrama help to engage in a process of differentiation and connection between fellow human beings.

The following roles are part of a psychodrama

- Protagonist - Director - Observers - Auxiliary egos - The double (classical, containing, hit and run) - Mirror

Role playing and enactment work engage a person on many levels:  Mental  Physical  Emotional  Cognitive  Behavioural  Individual  Inter- and intrapersonal  Verbal and non-verbal 10

Classical psychodrama consists of four phases: 1. Warming up 2. Protagonist selection 3. Enactment 4. Sharing

Psychodrama is integrative in so far as the individual approach by the psychodramatist may be analytical, embraces object relations or Attachment Theory. All aspects (conscious, unconscious, material or abstract can be concretized in roles. Psychodrama is also used in one-to-one sessions.

6. Where is psychodrama used?

Psychodrama work is carried out in a variety of areas. Practitioners work in the NHS mental health, in children’s hospices, youth work, therapeutic communities, social services, education, with sexual offenders, in prisons.

7. Conclusion

Moreno’s role theory and its application stand in opposition to the prevailing notions of fragmentation, pressure of time, space and finances, audit and solution focussed society. The modality retains the complexity of life experiences, for both the client and the psychodramatist. It embraces cultural, historical, spiritual, etc. influences. The method is inclusive and vitalising. It allows “bodies and consciousness [to] swing together” (Williams, 1998). It is a leveller: dividing factors diminish and allows people to be themselves for once albeit for a short time. 11

8. References

Blatner, A. (1991). Role dynamics: A comprehensive theory of psychology, Journal of Group Psychotherapy, Psychodrama and Sociometry, 44(1), 33 – 42. Bustos, D. M. (1991). Locus, matrix, status nascendi and the concept of clusters. Psychodrama Since Moreno, London: Routledge, pp.63 – 76. Clayton, M. (1994), Role theory and its application in clinical practice. Psychodrama Since Moreno, London: Routledge, pp. 121 – 144. Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and Self-Identity. Cambridge: Polity Press. Karp, M. (1994) The River of Freedom. Psychodrama Since Moreno, London: Routledge, pp. 39 – 60. Kipper, D. A. (1991). The dynamics of role satisfaction: A theoretical model, Journal of Group Psychotherapy, Psychodrama and Sociometry, 44(2), 71 – 87. Kipper, D. A. (1996). The emergence of role playing as a form of psychotherapy. Journal of Group Psychotherapy, Psychodrama and Sociometry, 49(3), 99 – 120. Moreno, J. L. (1985). Psychodrama. First Volume. Fourth Edition with New Introduction. Ambler. PA: Beacon House Inc. Stadler, C., Spörrle, M. (2008). Das Rollenspiel. Zeitschrift für Psychodrama und Soziometrie. 7(2), 165 – 188. Williams, A. (1998). Psychodrama and family therapy – what’s in a name? International Journal of Action Methods, 50(4).

Doris Prügel-Bennett Email:[email protected] www.dorispb.org.uk

British Psychodrama Association www. psychodrama .org. uk