INTERNATIONAL SECTION : PSYCHODRAMA IN SPAIN

Abstract

Clinical application of psychodrama is of very recent origin in Spain.We are not referring to other dramatic techniques such as stage shows, festivals, singing sessions or poetic recitals which have long been performed in some mental hospitals and have been organized on the initiative of a doctor or an ex-patient. In these mental hospitals both patients and staff have cooperated. Probably this easy and useful form of stimulating the patients' social and competitive spirit has been put into practice by present as well as by former generations of psychiatrists.

Our aim, however, is to deal especially with the development of the method known as "Psychodrama." The first attempts within the clinical field were undertaken in autumn 1953 at the Psychiatric Clinic of the Barcelona University. There, at the request of the Professor of Psychiatry, Dr. R. Sarro, together with Drs. Gonzales Monclus and P. Turo, I organized a psychodramatic team consisting, in addition to the abovementioned psychotherapists, of three male and two female auxiliary egos. After a period of scientific, psychological and dramatic training, we were in a position to begin therapeutic work with hospitalized patients.