Dramatherapy Literature Database

R. Emunah, "Drama therapy with adult psychiatric patients", The Arts in Psychotherapy, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 77—84, 1983.

DOI: 10.1016/0197-4556(83)90033-3

File : http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0197455683900333

R. Emunah and D. R. Johnson, "The impact of theatrical performance on the self-images of psychiatric patients", The Arts in Psychotherapy, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 233—239, 1983.

DOI: 10.1016/0197-4556(83)90024-2

File : http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0197455683900242

Abstract:
The process of theatrical production presents both challenges and opportunities to the psychiatric patient. Tremendous pressures are mobilized internally and externally for changes in self-image. The risks involved are contained by the support of the group and the drama therapist, who is responsible for monitoring the impact of the experience. The intensity of this impact seems to be particularly affected by three major factors. First, the degree of the audience's awareness of the patient status of the cast has a tremendous influence on the patients' experience of the play, that is, the degree to which the patients feel their identities are laid bare in a public forum. It is our impression that the most powerful performances occur when the audience is aware of the cast members' patient-status and consciously identifies with their struggles. In some performances of Theater That, the audience's lack of awareness generated stress for the ex-patients, who felt they had to keep crucial aspects of themselves concealed. Their desire to have the bad parts openly acknowledged and forgiven by the community was in large part frustrated. The structure of the performance situation required them to express their internal distress through less direct, symbolic vehicles. On the other hand, certain ex-patients looked forward to shedding the psychiatric identity, and to testing themselves as “normal”. The second major factor is the degree to which the script reveals the personal lives of the patients. The actors experience a greater access to the self when the content of the plays approximates their own experience, derived through improvisation rather than from an external source. Generally, inpatients and many ex-patients prefer, and perhaps require, the direct link to the outside provided by an improvisationally-based script concerning their personal lives. The task of translating one's personal issues into a portrayal of someone unlike oneself may be more rewarding for patients further on the road to recovery. These patients are usually able to sustain the burden of maintaining a symbolic rather than a direct link between internal and external worlds. The third factor is the degree to which the cast processes their personal relationships with each other and with their roles during the rehearsal period. Our experience indicates that patients utilize process sessions to help integrate new perceptions of themselves generated by the play with their “old” selves. Processing sessions of this type are particularly useful when the play is not concerned with mental illness, and/or the audience is not aware of the cast's patient status. The cast then acquires certain functions of the audience: it openly acknowledges and legitimizes the personal transformations which take place within the members' self-images. In several ex-patient performance groups, major revelations occurred in the cast meetings rather than in the performances. The cast meeting, the script, and the audience are three interpersonal structures with organize experience at increasing distances from the self, through which the self can be disclosed. The ease or directness through which the self can be expressed at each one of these levels, varies, according to the degree of “opaqueness” of each of these “membranes.” In the case of greatest opaqueness, with the audience unaware, the script externally-derived, and little cast processing, any process of self-transformation is largely contained within the self. In the case of least opaqueness, with the audience fully aware, the script overtly concerning the patients' lives, and active processing within the cast, the self is most opened to the world. Many inpatients and ex-patients feel so cut off from the world and so isolated, that symbolic or indirect means of linking self and world prove inadequate. Generally, we have found that facilitating the self's access to the world by directly representing their struggles as mental patients in the content of the play, and in the audience's awareness of their identities, has been most effective. However, as they leave their hospital experience behind and develop their own links to the community, they are often capable of continuing this work within themselves, or with therapist and friends. Thus, they are increasingly able to tolerate plays with greater opaqueness, often beginning at the audience level, then the script level, and finally the cast level. A network of theatre experiences varying along these dimensions would be most advantageous to the recovering psychiatric patient.

R. J. Landy, "The use of distancing in drama therapy", The Arts in Psychotherapy, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 175—185, 1983.

DOI: 10.1016/0197-4556(83)90006-0

File : http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0197455683900060

E. R. Dequine and S. Pearson-Davis, "Videotaped improvisational drama with emotionally disturbed adolescents a pilot study", The Arts in Psychotherapy, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 15—21, 1983.

DOI: 10.1016/0197-4556(83)90014-X

File : http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/019745568390014X

Abstract:
This pilot study examines effects of videotaped improvisational drama on social attitudes of emotionally disturbed adolescents, emphasizing locus of control. Researchers hypothesized that subjects who created and acted in improvised dramas would increase in a sense of control over both the dramas and their own lives. Subjects were 12ndash;17-year-old students at a residential school for emotionally disturbed children. Seven were selected for a videodrama class (treatment), seven for a control group. The class met three times weekly for nine weeks as part of the school's curriculum. To prevent subject bias, all secondary students at the school were pre- and posttested on the Nowicki-Strickland Personal Reaction Survey: A Locus of Control Scale for Children. Scores of the control group became more external on the post-test while treatment subjects' scores became more internal as hypothesized. Results were significant at the .05 level. In posttreatment interviews, teachers, caseworkers, and subjects reported increased prosocial behaviors and attitudes among subjects. Despite methodological limitations, the study is a promising step toward defining the benefits of drama with emotionally disturbed adolescents.

D. R. Johnson, "Developmental approaches in drama therapy", The Arts in Psychotherapy, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 183—189, 1982.

DOI: 10.1016/0197-4556(82)90035-1

D. R. Johnson, "Principles and techniques of drama therapy", The Arts in Psychotherapy, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 83—90, 1982.

DOI: 10.1016/0197-4556(82)90011-9

File : http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0197455682900119

R. J. Landy, "Training the drama therapist—A four-part model", The Arts in Psychotherapy, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 91—99, 1982.

DOI: 10.1016/0197-4556(82)90012-0

File : http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0197455682900120

D. R. Johnson and D. Quinlan, "Fluid and rigid boundaries of paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics on a role-playing task", Journal of Personality Assessment, vol. 44, no. 5, pp. 523—531, 1980.

DOI: 10.1207/s15327752jpa4405_13

Abstract:
The concepts of fluid and rigid boundaries were assessed in an improvisational role-playing task in an attempt to differentiate paranoid from nonparanoid schizophrenics. Thirty-one schizophrenic patients divided into paranoid, intermediate, and nonparanoid groups were given an improvisational role-playing task. The resulting scenes were analyzed by Fluid Boundary and Rigid Boundary scales, which were developed on the basis of specific aspects of the physical and verbal representations of characters, objects, and settings. The hypothesis that variations in the disruption or emphasis of representational boundaries differentiate paranoid and nonparanoid symptomatology received support. Paranoid schizophrenics scored higher on the Rigid Boundary scale, i.e erecting and/or exaggerating physical and interpersonal boundaries; and nonparanoid schizophrenics scored higher on Fluid Boundary scale, i.e. showing fused and fluid representations of characters, objects, and settings. Improvisational role-playing seems to hold promise as a medium with diagnostic value.

E. C. Irwin, J. A. Rubin and M. Shapiro, "Art and drama: partners in therapy", American Journal of Psychotherapy, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 107—116, 1975.

DOI: 10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.1975.29.1.107

Abstract:
An art-drama therapy group for latency-age boys made possible the exploration of personal symbols and intense fantasies which resulted in a therapeutically powerful and productive experience. This paper describes the background, rationale, and dynamic process of this group. Multimodal expressive arts therapy is supported.

M. Nitsun, J. H. Stapleton and M. P. Bender, "Movement and drama therapy with long-stay schizophrenics", The British journal of medical psychology, vol. 47, no. 2, pp. 101—119, 1974.

DOI: 10.1111/j.2044-8341.1974.tb02275.x

Abstract:
A study in a hospital with long-term hospitalized schizophrenics using Peter Slade's child drama method. The author compares the cognitive organization and emotional as similiar to those of children in their early stages of development and notes, that therefore drama therapeutic methods such as fantasy enactments and physical action might benefit long-term schizophrenics, who have settled into an institutional existence. The use of movement and drama therapy is being described as to improve body awarenss, coordination and orientation in space as well as emotional expression leading to restore the patient's sense of identity and his relationship with the physical and social environment.