THIS IS A REPRINT OF AN ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN THE WINTER-1998 ISSUE OF "THE PSYCHODRAMA NETWORK NEWS"
A SOCIODRAMA IN VIENNA: A REPORT FROM THE FIELD BY DR. LEWIS YABLONSKY (Past-President of The American Society
of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama; Emeritus Professor of Sociology, California
State University-Northridge; and author of PSYCHODRAMA Brunner/Mazel, l990.)
In early l996 I received an invitation to present psychodrama at the World Congress
of Psychotherapy in Vienna in July, l996. As a student, colleague and later pal of
my beloved mentor J.L. Moreno for over 25 years I felt compelled to accept the invitation
to return to the birthplace of psychodrama. Moreover, during my wonderful years with
the Master, I had heard numerous stories about his exciting intellectual and spiritual
times during his early life in Vienna. I was highly motivated to go to the source
of the powerful phenomenon that has significantly affected my life. After lots of
faxing, back and forth, I agreed to present one lecture on the theory and method
of psychodrama; and then on the following day I would direct a demonstration of psychodrama
for this large and eminent international group of therapists.
My first lecture on the basic elements of psychodrama struck a positive chord with
an audience of over 1000 people who were apparently interested in psychodrama, and
honored me with their presence. I was exhilarated by their enthusiastic response
and I along with most of the group looked forward to my demonstration on the following
day.
As most of us do, I sleep very little when I am in Europe-and I was quite excited
in anticipation of my psychodrama performance on the next day. That morning, I was
up early, and it seemed as if the spirit of Moreno propelled me to visit one of his
old and heralded haunts-Vienna's famous Museum Cafe. I arrived there shortly before
it opened at 9 AM. I was the first one into the historic coffee shop. I wandered
around, at first looking at old faded pictures on the walls and various signatures
of artists and poets from the past who had inhabited the place. Of course, I was
looking for some visible sign of J.L. The best I could come up with was that I clearly
felt his spiritual presence. The elderly waiter who took my order for a coffee and
croissant was only around 65--however, he looked like he had worked there for decades.
Like the American shmo that I am I couldn't resist informing him that "an old
dear friend of mine use to hang out here around l910." Compounding my dumb comment
I remarked, "did you know Dr. Moreno?" As he walked away he shrugged his
shoulders as if to say, "another crazy American."
I thoroughly enjoy my 2 hour stay over coffee, and feeling J.L.'s spirit I found
myself asking him in my silent soliloquy, "what kind of psychodrama session
should I run this afternoon? I didn't want to run an old standard family conflict
session. I wanted to do something unusual and in keeping with the historic locale
of Moreno in Vienna. In my psychedelic mood, the session I would run came to me.
I was struck with the obvious fact that three individuals who had changed the world
for both good and evil lived in Vienna around the same time. Adolph Hitler, Sigmund
Freud, and of course J.L. Moreno!
I began warming-up to a sociodrama about Hitler, Freud, and Moreno. Not only were
these three individuals destined to change the course of history, their ideas for
changing the world were formulated in old Vienna in the early years of the 20th century.
Also of great significance, later on, Vienna at mid-century became infested with
death and destruction under a Nazi regime. The Jewish population of Vienna was virtually
eliminated by the iron fist of Nazism.
When I entered the auditorium that afternoon there was over 1000 people emotionally
bubbling-- anxiously awaiting a psychodrama experience. My first sociodramatic task
was to find three people in this large group who could play the roles of Moreno,
Freud, and the monstrous Hitler. Fortunately there was a distinguished psychodramatist
in the group, Dr. Gong Shu who had studied with Zerka Moreno and knew Moreno's life
and work. (Dr. Shu, later helped to organize Zerka Moreno's historic workshops in
several Asian countries.) I pressed her into service to depict J.L. Moreno. I found
a Freudian psychologist to play Freud. And a young man who had suffered with his
family under the former dictatorship Romania agreed, with some enthusiasm to role-play
Adolph Hitler.
After a brief introduction about my concept of the session, I brought Adolph, Sigmund,
and Jacob on-stage. There was a brief interplay between the protagonists. A memorable
comment occurred in response to my question to "Hitler", "How do you
feel sitting here with these two Jews? In true form, Adolph replied, "They won't
be around for too long." The sociodrama rolled into high gear, for about an
hour, and produced a heated discussion about the contribution of each of the protagonists
to history. In the post-discussion period of the session several notable patterns
of response emerged in the group.
l. The session, as expected hit an emotional chord with a number of Jewish people
in the group who had personally suffered through or lost family in the holocaust.
Their tears, anguish, and anger focused on Hitler, and produced a number of personal
diatribes against the evil one. At several points, as the Director, I was tempted
to veer into a classic form of psychodrama with one of these people. However, I wanted
to deal with the larger macrocosmic issues.
2. I was not surprised to get a vehement response to the session from some neo-nazi
individuals in the group who attacked the validity of doing a session of this type.
Notable, in this regard, was the angry comment of one post-Hitler Viennese Nazi,
who rose several times to say, as he moved from the rear of the auditorium to confront
me directly, "Why bring this up again, these issues have nothing to do with
psychotherapy!
In part, in my response, I sermonized at length that this man (pointing to Hitler)
was responsible for the murder of around12 million people in his camps---and had
contributed to the mental health problems of a generation of people, and that any
attempt to deny the magnitude of this significant problem created in the 20th century
was absurd. My response met with considerable support from most of the group, but
with more anger from the vocal neo-nazis minority in the group who still infest all
western societies.
3. An unanticipated response from a segment of the group was received from some of
the younger therapists in the group, especially some of the Austrians. They were
concerned about their collective guilt for the atrocities committed by their parents
and older relatives. A notable comment was, "Although, I had nothing to do with
the transportation of Jews from their homes to their deaths in the concentration
camps, I feel guilty for these atrocities--and my parents and older relatives who
probably did commit these crimes won't talk to us about their participation in these
events. I am stuck with these unresolved feelings and family secrets."
On this issue, I especially remember a psychiatrist from Africa who rose from the
group, and made an eloquent and emotional statement about the old slave trade atrocities--that
still plagued the emotions of many young Africans, including himself. This, for the
first time, triggered my personal feelings for the collective guilt, I felt as an
American for what our forefathers committed on African-Americans. The post-discussion
on this issue triggered by the session was highly emotional, and produced a level
of catharsis and some greater understanding of this continuing problem, especially
in the United States and Africa.
In summary, it is important to note that throughout the session, their was positive
input from "Moreno" and "Freud"; however, the emotional thrust
of the afternoon was focussed on the evil impact of "Hitler". The size
of the group, and their diverse interests and expectations cut somewhat into the
impact of the session--however, at the end most of the group and me were very emotionally
affected by and learned something more about the continuing saga of of Hitler's Germany
and its evil impact on the world of the 20th century.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I have received a brochure that a video cassette of some of
the presentations at the Congress and several of my session including one with the
title: Lewis Yablonsky's "Die Basiselemente des Moreno's
Psychodrama" VT 563 is available from Video-Cooperative-Ruhr, Bohmer, Ahlefel, Lampen GbR, Kielstr.10, D-44145 Dortmund, Germany.
For further information contact:
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