Entering the Dream: Psychodrama’s Influence on Gestalt Therapy Dreamwork
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12926/q3tv5z34Keywords:
psychodrama, Gestalt therapy, dreamwork, re-enactmentAbstract
This article explores the roots of dreamwork in Gestalt therapy through psychodrama, highlighting connections that are rarely identified clearly. It uses primary sources from both fields to show that Fritz Perls’ method for handling dreams, which emphasizes re-enacting instead of narrating, shares clear structural similarities with Jacob Levy Moreno’s psychodramatic dream technique. These similarities are too consistent to be a coincidence. The article tracks this influence through Perls’ own acknowledgments, observations from his peers, including Lewis Yablonsky, and the clinical developments by Gestalt therapists who continued to use psychodramatic techniques. It argues that the interaction between these two traditions is still fruitful and ongoing.
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