NOT TO HAVE THAT STONE IN ONES HEART

Abstract

"In today's world psychiatrists don't have the easiest time of it, and perhaps that is the reason that they, like other scientists, tend to speak about their work with modesty. For that reason, also, they are engaged in an ongoing search for new methods and new techniques of healing. From their interest in the health of mankind psychodrama was born." These are the words of the chief psychiatrist of the Bohnice Psychiatric Hospital, Dr. Jaromir Rubes. It is quite difficult to explain the concept of psychodrama in a few limited words. Dr. J. Rubes, director of these sessions, characterized it in this manner: The founder of the psychodramatic school, Dr. J. L. Moreno, asserts that the method which he termed psychodrama is, in effect, an ageold healing method which had to be reinvented repeatedly since time immemorial by many people in the course of their actual lives. It consists of the enactment of different recurring life situations from one's own life as well as from the lives of others; in the process of such enacting, we take on various roles, not only our own but also of others. This role-playing then enables us to get to know ourselves better and to get to know others better so that we can all understand each other more. The method is as applicable as a major component of healing practices in a hospital for the mentally ill as it is for training in interpersonal relations among managers, organizers or even astronauts among whom we can assume just about perfect mental health. Despite this, they may be experiencing serious problems in their interpersonal relations, and thus they can avail themselves gratefully of the help through the Moreno method. J. L. Moreno stems from an old Jewish Spanish family and was born in 1890 on a ship sailing from Spain to Rumania. He studied in Vienna where he knew Dr. Freud, and since 1925, has been living and working in New York where, in the last years, he has headed a psychiatric clinic and is now Director of the Moreno Institute.