Psychodrama Therapy: A Psychoanalytic Analysis

Moreno’s psychodrama therapy is a type of group psychotherapy, which aims to improve participants’ social interaction skills, re-establish their self-confidence, and enable participants to express their positive and negative emotions in a safe and supportive environment (Blatner & Blatner, 1988; Wilkins, 1999). According to Wilkins (1999), and Yehoshua and Chung (2013), the process of classical psychodrama therapy is divided into three stages, namely, the warm-up stage, the enactment stage, and the sharing stage (see Appendix, Figure 1). Besides that, five elements, such as a protagonist, a director, a stage, the auxiliary egos, and the audience, are essential throughout the process of psychodrama therapy (American Society of Group Psychotherapy

The second stage of psychodrama therapy is the enactment stage. Firstly, the protagonist and the director discuss and select the issue to be dramatized, establish the first scene – the present scene, and determine the starting point of at least three following scenes, such as the past scene and the scenes in surplus reality (Wilkins, 1999; Yehoshua & Chung, 2013). Secondly, the director reiterates the aroused issue to remind the protagonist and other group members in the first few minutes of the psychodrama therapy (Wilkins, 1999). Thirdly, the director requests the protagonist to form a mental picture of the stage by recalling the picture of the scene, which comprises the sights, sounds and scents (Wilkins, 1999). Then, the director aids the protagonist to set up the physical elements or stage in the scene by using the objects that can be found in the setting (e.g., furniture) (Wilkins, 1999; Yehoshua

The sharing phase involve the discussion component. The sharing is the declaration no prejudice for oneself. It is come first followed by discussion of the group. Sharing is not a cognitive reflection but is a deeply personal process. According to the Tiffany L. Clark and Darcie Davis-Gage (2010), the purpose of the sharing phase is for group member explored themselves and to bring closure to them. Moreno et al. (2013) state the sharing phase offer opportunity to members to share their experiences in life and express their feeling and thought. For instance, members may share about how their feelings when they confront with parents. This always bring members release emotional because they get insight into their own difficulties through the open sharing. Group members encouraged to share the role taken from their own personal life experience for those who are held a role during the psychodrama. The function for director in sharing phase of psychodrama is to start and bring a discussion from the participants. The feedback is maximized as the participants active involved in discussion. The director must strengthen the sharing which will to give rise to emotional, self-disclosure and support involvement on the part of members. The sharing able accelerates the growth and involvement of members if they discuss how they are influenced by the session. The director also need to get involved to prevent the participants to