psychodrama research

[Adam Blatner]

 My problem with psychodrama research is that it is like exercise  research. There are 
twenty to a hundred components that may be  supportive of health, therapeutic. There is 
also the variable of the maturity and personality of the therapist, aside from the 
technique: and the match between therapist and client. I don't know that I believe that 
any therapy (as a method) is necessarily supportable. I think that any therapy can be 
conducted in a flat or even anti-therapeutic fashion, and that most therapies can be 
practiced by brilliant, medium-smart, talented, no-talented, and very mediocre 
practitioners. If this is correct, then it makes research of a method---not of the whole 
process of psychotherapy---but the method--- problematical, because it may well not be the 
method that's the major therapeutic agent.
    David, I want to promote professionalism, and don't want to undercut a modicum of 
effort---so my concern about saying this is that it colludes with those who cop out on the 
whole endeavor. There are many ways to pursue and establish a more seriously intellectual 
foundation for psychodrama---including recognizing that it is not a unitary process.
     There are many components that I think could be researched, such as the value of role 
reversal with significant others---perhaps not those perpetrating major trauma or doing 
this early in the treatment, but my concern is that in mid-treatment or beyond, we may not 
be asking clients to move to a more mature stance and relinquish the victim role.
    Another component (or group of them) is simply the use of action methods to build 
group cohesion. Again, this must be done with care lest warm-ups become merely a technique 
to substitute for real group process. (Yalom points this out.) Anyway, who else do you 
know out there in our field who is wrestling with these kinds of issues. I am not claiming 
to be correct, but rather putting in just enough of my "two cents" to try to find a few 
others in the network who are considering these problems. Warmly, Adam