CERVANTES, DON QUIXOTE AND PSYCHODRAMA, REPLY TO PROFESSOR FRANCISCO GARCIA VALDECASAS

Abstract

In the name of the thousands of psychodramatists throughout the world, I thank you for the discovery of the psychodramatic episode in Cervantes' Don Quixote. Millions have read this remarkable novel ·and have passed through the section which recorded the cure of that extraordinary man, but you were the first to discover the connection between that event which brought about the recovery of Don Quixote from his follies, and the psychodramatic method. You have also brought to our attention that Cervantes was not only a great poet but also endowed with an intuitive talent for the dramatic method of healing. Had he lived in our time, he might have become a great psychodramatist, treating the thousands of Don Quixotes who disturb the peace of the world with their follies, and helping to save our society from sickness. But it was his privilege, as it is often given to poets, to discover an idea three hundred and fifty years ahead of time, in a moment of inspiration, and spel1ing out in beautiful poetry what we technicians have to spell out piecemeal, through hard work. Having been anticipated by Cervantes gives our science a most significant, unexpected support, the support of poetic validation.