VISION FOR THE FUTURE OF PSYCHODRAMA.

messages from worldwide psychodramatists

Adam Blatner

To the IAGP-psychodrama section online:

   Hi colleagues!  I am Adam Blatner, a psychiatrist and psychodramatist now
living in central Texas, USA. I've written books about psychodrama and you
can find out about those and read some of my papers on my website: 

<www.blatner.com/adam/>

    I became involved with psychodrama in 1966 during my psychiatry training
at Stanford Medical Center in California, and have continued to find new
possibilities for its application and new depths in its rationale. Several
trends have been unfolding, as I see it:  (1) Moreno's sociatric ideal, using
dramatic methods and other techniques as applied social psychiatry, is being
carried forth by many dramatist with little or no knowledge of Moreno's work,
by people whose background is in the theatre. Whether in the fields of drama
therapy, drama in education, or interactive theatre, these related fields
have a great potential for cross-fertilization with psychodrama and I hope
more inter-disciplinary events may be developed.  (2) There is a great need
for more writing in the field, and more research. In addition to the American
psychodama association's (ASGPP) journal, the International Journal of Action
Methods, other journals also can be vehicles for your papers: The Arts in
Psychotherapy, the British  or Australian/New Zealand or German, Portugese,
and other journals. Perhaps these are on our IAGP website, or we can work
toward this.  There is also a great need for qualitative and quantitative
research about our methods.

    Other possible projects:   A CD-ROM (large computer diskette) which could
hold a directory (with photographs) of our members; another one with the
major original writings scanned-on. Translations among the various languages.
(I have been looking at some of my books in other languages which, I am
ashamed to admit, I cannot read. And I know that much of this material is
redundant, describing the same basic principles found in most of the
textbooks. However, I get the distinct impression that there is at least 30%
in each book that has not yet been expressed in any other language or any
other book or article. I wonder how we could get abridged or distilled
material, translating just what hasn't been said before so many times. I have
been impressed with the number of books published in many countries, and it
seems as if the field is growing, with ups and downs in membership depending
on the state of organizational cohesion.

   I'll close with an invitation to you to feel free to write to me and
discuss your ideas and hopes-- I love to encourage people and network you
with others with similar special interests. I am enthusiastic about
psychodrama because I see it as a unique group of concepts and tools which
offer great promise for helping people to become more reflective and mentally
flexible, which in turn may help us to work together more harmoniously in
addressing the challenge of building a better world.

     Warmly, Adam Blatner