PSYCHODRAMA ON CLOSED AND OPEN CIRCUIT TELEVISION

Abstract

J. L. Moreno was the first to break the orthodox rule of treating only one person in the family. He treated concurrently both parties in a marriage, as early as 1923 (1) as reported in German, and the first English report of this approach appeared in 1937 (2). It is frequently and erroneously stated in psychiatric literature that Bela Mittelman was the first to do so, but his first publication on this appeared much later, in 1944 (3) and he was, besides, a student of Moreno. It was natural, therefore, that Moreno would look for a medium which permitted a more effective approach for the treatment of intimate ensembles as well as for larger groups. With this in mind, he began to weigh the possibility of using the mass media of communication and he was also the first to evaluate and use motion pictures and television in the treatment of marital couples, families, groups, in combination with psychodrama. (4) Reports on the television medium for teaching, training, therapeusis and research via psychodrama have appeared in this journal from time to time. (5,6)