Once every few decades and sometimes centuries, magnificent people are born. These people are not only magnanimous geniuses but also are born with an intrinsic wisdom of what the human kind needs. They give to humankind something that is very novel and fresh on the one end and very lasting and evergreen on the other. Their lives are a reflection of their passion, perseverance and deep belief in what they are creating and giving to the world at large. The Hindi word that comes to mind is Rishi meaning Sage. This term has been used in our Indian scriptures for wise people or clear seers. Rishis could see with wisdom both the tangible and the cosmic realities. They contributed to the world and shared various scientific as well spiritual realities through writing of scriptures. These scriptures though were not based on intellectual knowledge but what they experienced and made meaning of.

According to me, one such beautiful personality was Dr. Jacob Levy Moreno (May 18, 1889 – May 14, 1974). He was a Rishi, born in Romania who belonged to the world at large. Though much has been written about him, I am sharing below, all that has touched me the most about his thoughts, views, concepts and the discipline:

Body Intelligence: Being a talk therapist for over two decades, I have worked with and understood the limitations of words. Though talk therapy works wonders I have noticed that when a person has to share all that they are experiencing, words fall short. Over the past 20-30 years, more and more areas like business and education are moving towards the recognition of other forms of intelligence rather than just the rational and logical one. Emotional intelligence, social intelligence and spiritual intelligence are being talked about and integrated into training designs and educational curriculum. Neuro Linguistic Programming also has been in vogue for the past couple of decades. But as I see it, Moreno saw and created the integration of all this in Psychodrama beginning in 1909. Through use of our Act Need – the need of the Body for Movement/Action, he integrated the use and growth of all kinds of intelligence into the active personality of the individual. In Psychodrama, he invented a method that utilizes experiences as the foundation of growth and transformation simply because as humans we are born experience based learners and experience is our fastest way of learning!!!

Concretisation: Through what he named as Psychodrama, he invented a dynamic and live human science. A science about the psyche of people that has had and still has methods and techniques that can be used, tested and verified in action. His methods over the last century have changed the way we can observe, study and work with the human psyche as it is in action and interaction with the world. Due to his enormous finding, the human psyche need not remain only inside a person, where it cannot be closely, tangibly and objectively observed both by one’s own self and others. Moreno’s method of concretisation made it possible for the first time to put out there and give a tangible form to what a person was wanting to work with or understand about their inner world. A spatial way where, with their concretisations, they could explore themselves in relationship to the world around them; their relationships with people, animals, objects and spaces. This demonstration of the human psyche was pivotal in making psychotherapy an objective observable science just like Carl Rogers demonstrated scientifically and objectively the core conditions of a healing relationship. 

Relational Approach: Moreno’s model of human development and healing is totally relational. While he saw and understood the importance of individual identity, he also strongly saw human beings as entities that formed through their interaction with others. In my words, we human beings are not isolated non-stick cookware that do not attach or get connected to the food that is cooked in it. Instead we are permeable membranes that are at all times connected and exchanging with our environments, the things, people, places and animals around us. His views that ‘Everything happens in a relationship’ created a bridge between psychology and sociology. His entire Spontaneity Theory of Child Development with its 3 stages is based on how we develop our personalities in relationship to the environment our primary caregivers provide, and the people we come into contact with throughout our lives. While these primary relationships form the foundations of our relationship with ourselves, others and with life in general, each new moment becomes an opportunity for new learning. This relational philosophy is utilised in the working method of psychodrama.

Sociometry and Sociodrama: Dr. Moreno was the first person to create a method of working with groups. He coined the term group psychotherapy and group therapy. At any given point in time, what was the composition of a group along various parameters was of concern to him. He emphasised on the co-collective, that which a group creates when they come together. He believed that the more a psychodramatist understood what a group was about and what themes were emerging, the more closely they could work with them on what mattered to the group. To understand the composition of any group, he developed a method called Sociometry. Further, his focus of working with groups was not limited to the psychological world of one person. He further developed tools and mechanisms that worked with the issues of the group as a whole. Issues that were affecting a particular community and society as a whole were taken up through Sociodrama. While in a psychodrama, an individual is a protagonist, in a sociodrama, the entire group is a protagonist!!

Twin Concepts of Spontaneity and Creativity: Moreno saw Spontaneity and Creativity as factors that were at the foundation of all beginnings. Whether it was the birth of a baby, or the birth of new technology, system, tradition or culture, at the foundation of it all lay the human capabilities of spontaneity and creativity. He observed that once any system or culture got more and more set in their ways, they started to diminish and eat away into the very foundations of spontaneity and creativity that started them in the first place. Through psychodrama, he scientifically developed a method of making the spontaneity and creativity in a person available to them in their actual living through inviting them in the here and now. Spontaneity, according to Moreno, is a readiness in any person to respond adequately to a situation.  It is a preparation in the person for free action. It is empowering to realise that whatever patterns we might be recreating for ourselves, if they are not helpful, we can invite our spontaneity to create new ways of existing!! It is liberating to experience that we are not carved in stone!! As soon as there is experienced freedom to create something, as humans we are able to access and channelise our energies into creating something, an idea, a musical composition, a new life style and so on. With spontaneity, naturally comes our creativity!! It amazes me how he created this magical method of psychodrama and its various techniques to channel spontaneity and creativity for healing and transformation in the here and now!

Role Theory: Though there are numerous other concepts in psychodrama that are intriguing but a significant one I would want to share here is that of a ‘Role’. Moreno defined a role as ‘a unit of function and organisation. It is a form of phenomena that is more than behaviour, observable in a particular situation in relation to other phenomena’. If we look at our personality as being composed of very many different roles, a particular role is that part of us which is activated in the moment and engaging with the given context. What has stood out for me is how simple yet powerful this concept is. On one end, it is a simple concept to understand that a role is that part of us, which may be activated in any given situation and interaction. This role or for that matter any role is composed of three faculties; thinking, feeling and action. On the other end, this concept is all encompassing and we are able to understand large parts of an individual’s personality and interactions through the various roles and role clusters that are either well developed or over used or under developed. A role however cannot be understood except in relation to another counter role. For any role to get activated, it needs another counter role from the context/situation. This concept of role relationships creates a solid foundation for facilitating transformation in people as it gives people an insight into when and how different roles are activated in them. Their own observation and experience of their roles creates possibilities for role shifts and transformations within them. Since the last century, the concept of role has been widely used in varied organisational settings, in the social sciences, the arts, in education and the health field.

An Economic Method: Being someone who had a strong pull for working with communities, Moreno developed the psychodrama method as a group method. He wanted it to be visible. He began working in the 20^th century with children in parks and in community spaces. He believed in involving the audience in a way that they connected with what was going on. Eventually as it fully developed into a group therapy method, it has worked wonders. Working on the principle of Mutual Tele, where every person in a group will feel a positive, negative or neutral pull towards one another, and vice versa, the psychodrama group works on the larger principle that everyone who is in a group on a particular day is there for a particular reason. Even though one person (the protagonist) does their own work, they work for the whole group and based on the tele factor, everyone in the group benefits. This makes psychodrama an extremely economical method. 

I especially feel that for a country like India, where the socio-economic situation of a lot of people does not make individual therapy either feasible or accessible. Group therapy and sociodrama are both very significant tools that can be used for psycho-education, healing, learning and transformation at large scales.

The Social and Cultural Atom: Moreno defined the social atom as the smallest social unit that could be observed. He said the social atom was a fact and that each person at any given point in time was at the centre of their social atom. Their atom consisted of relationships with people, things, animals, spaces and activities that were significant to them. All these relationships have mutual tele flowing in them whether positive or negative. At the larger social level, a society consists of numerous social atoms that have inter-connections with each other. All these inter-connections, just like society, are alive realities that are dynamic and constantly changing. We can only observe what is happening in the here and now as a one moment snapshot. In another moment things could change. The social atom therefore is a snapshot of an individual’s relationships at a given moment. Moreno added to this, the concept of the cultural atom. He observed and stated that any given relationship of a person was also a dynamic entity. From moment to moment two people lived different role relationships with one another. These role relationships could not only be observed but also intervened in order to bring about transformation and development in both the individual and the relationship. This combination of the social and cultural atom lays the foundation for therapeutic and transformational intervention in psychodrama.