use of "psychodrama" in media

[CGayle]

I just read an editorial about the election  (I do NOT want to discuss election here), that used the term "psychodrama", stating, "in the psychodrama that is this election,...."

It is the fourth time I have heard "psychodrama" used in this regard this year.  A couple times on mainstream tv news. "Psychodrama" is increasingly used to describe dramatic intensity....but in a negative vernacular vs a positive one. The ups and downs and back and forth's of this election for which "psychodrama" has been used seems to refer to dramatic intensity that changes often and in surprising ways, like an action thriller, and perhaps refers to the intensity of polarizing...the polar opposite of healing.  At any rate, I have not liked this usage.

I started to write a brief comment to the columnist of this article...and then I wondered if maybe I was over reacting.  Maybe "psychodrama" is getting a new use in the culture.  Is this a concern?  Does it matter?  Is this an opportinunity for education?  Would that be nerdy? 

I looked up in dictionary, does psychodrama have other usages?  My dictionary is quite dated (20 years), but there was no other usage in Webster's, 1988...."an extemporized dramatization designed to afford catharsis and social relearning for one or more of the participants from whose life history the plot is abstracted".  

Close enough to not be proper use of term by journalists.  Although they make up new words and usages every day...the more clever the better.  

Have others read/heard this usage of "psychodrama"?   And if so, what are your thoughts and reactions?

Cynthia Gayle
Seattle

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