Psychodrama, Role Theory, and the Concept of the Social Atom

Abstract

J. L. MORENO FIRST BEGAN his formal interest in psychology by observing and joining in children's play in the gardens of Vienna, Austria, in the first decade of this century. At the time he was a student of philosophy; he had not yet entered medical school. He was impressed by the great amount of spontaneity in children and became aware that human beings become less spontaneous as they age. He asked himself, why does this occur? What happens to us? The same process struck him when he started to direct the children in staged, rehearsed plays. At the first portrayal, whatever spontaneity was available to the children was mobilized. But the more the children repeated the performance, the less inventive, creative, and spontaneous they became. They began to conserve their energy, to repeat their best lines, movements, and facial expressions because these produced the greatest effect upon the audience. What resulted was a mechanical performance, lacking in reality. Clearly, this was the same phenomenon evident in aging and in certain types of emotional disturbances, where one finds repetition without relation to the current situation, a freezing of affect and of memory.