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ABSTRACT. The author highlights points emerging from 4 recent articles on the use of psychodrama in the treatment of trauma survivors. He reflects on the salient characteristics of the interventions described, giving attention to their implications for the future, and discusses the place of psychodrama in the growing trend in psychotherapy that focuses on designing disorder-specific treatments. The characteristics discussed are the effect(s) of theories other than J. L. Moreno's (e.g., 1964) on the future practice of psychodrama, the benefit of incorporating alternative psychological theories accounting for the effectiveness of the method, the importance of the elements of experiencing and enactment in present and future psychodrama-based models, the centrality of the double technique, the advantage of using manuals for treatment, time-limited models, and the transient quality of role playing and the meaning of that.
FOR SEVERAL DECADES, the original (classical) formulation of the psychodramatic procedure remained the sole intervention modality taught and practiced by psychodramatists. Although calls for experimenting with other role-playing paradigms were voiced years ago (e.g., Kipper, 1986), only recently have the first encouraging signs of such a development been evident. Psychodrama is experiencing a period of expansion as it increasingly follows the same trend observed in other forms of group psychotherapy, namely, an emphasis on designing problem-specific treatment procedures. This trend is based on the concept that different diagnostic categories would best benefit from different treatment procedures. Such specific modalities can offer novel interventions with new or modified techniques. For the most part, however, they are creative variations of already existing psychotherapeutic approaches. The new developments in psychodrama have been welcomed by therapists who have advocated for such progress (e.g., Blatner, 1996; Kipper, 1997). Those therapists have supported the creation of modified action methods procedures that might be integrated with other therapeutic modalities and the development of versions of the classical psychodrama that are suitable for specific clinical populations.
One area in which psychodrama has made an impressive stride is in the treatment of trauma survivors, both adults and children. In the introduction to a theme issue on this subject, Hudgins and Kipper (1998) noted that the notion of treating trauma survivors with psychodrama may appear rather surprising at first glance. One might not expect psychodrama to be a treatment...