Jacob Levy Moreno for our time: psychodrama at the crossroads between psychotherapy, art and everyday life

Abstract

This article describes how Moreno developed psychodrama as a psychotherapeutic group method at the crossroads between art and everyday life. To this end, we first present a short biographical sketch, and then look at Moreno's life and professional path against the background of social circumstances at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. We point out his Jewish roots and the influence of the Jewish community on his early development, important childhood and mystical experiences, the years of study in Vienna before the First World War, the influence of artistic currents, especially Franz Kafka, Dadaism and Expressionism, and his medical experiences in the First World War and after. This is followed by a look at his first theatrical experiments, in which he sought opportunities for human encounter and the revival of sacred theatre. His original understanding of spontaneity and creativity, developed in experimental improvised theatre, became crucial to his discovery of psychodrama as the psychotherapeutic method for which he is best known. In conclusion, we show how we used sociometry and psychodrama in group therapeutic work with children and adolescents.