Theater of spontaneity

The theater of spontaneity  is a type of theater that can be used as a form of psychological therapy . It was created by the psychosociologist and psychiatrist Jacobo Levi Moreno.

The theater of spontaneity includes: psychodrama , sociodrama, spontaneous theater and artistic activity. We say that it covers all these disciplines since it can be applied as a tool of group therapy ( psychodrama ), in work with groups in the social field ( sociodrama ) or in the pedagogical field ( pedagogical psychodrama ), among many other uses that are they can give you.

How does the theater of spontaneity work?

The theater of spontaneity procedure is based on playing improvised parts within the theater; parts that have not been practiced. Dialogue, action and story are created collaboratively by the actors as the improvisation unfolds in the present tense, without the use of an already adjudicated script. This procedure has proven to be not only sufficient training for actors, but it often has an advantageous impact on interpersonal bonds.

According to recent research, when acting the subject experiences an alteration of consciousness. It is an alteration of the changing subjective experience, namely: attention , perception, images and fantasy, internal speech, memory , thought processes, meaning of experiences, perception of time, feelings and emotional expression, levels of arousal, self-control, self-image and sense of personal identity .

The theater of spontaneity has been recommended in couples therapy training, where role play can also be used . The efficacy of spontaneity theater as a treatment for some psychological disorders is still being investigated, and improvisation training is believed to be helpful in some cases of social anxiety disorder .

The spontaneous theater that appeared very later took some elements from the theater of spontaneity with artistic or socio-community objectives. It is then a device that does not use the same resources as the theater of spontaneity but is linked to it, although it is very different from therapeutic psychodrama.

Psychodrama

Psychodrama -also founded by Moreno- is another of the psychotherapeutic techniques used, as is the theater of spontaneity. But it is necessary to clarify that, for there to be psychodrama, there always has to be a group according to Moreno, which does not condition that some therapists take some resources from psychodrama in individual or bipersonal therapy.

For the founder of this psychotherapeutic current, the individual is part of the group, therefore, the psychic healing of the individual and that of the  group  or society are totally interdependent.

One of the objectives of this psychotherapeutic trend is that the person can have a greater degree of exercise of their possibilities, it is a possibility of creating attitudes and ways of seeing things that allow living differently . It’s about feeling better about yourself. Generally, a psychodramatic therapeutic process is shorter because it goes beyond the word to action. There are no strict codes, it is perceiving, feeling, at that given moment with those people.

There is only one psychodramatic theory but there are many ways of seeing it , interpreting it, for that reason over time different approaches have been developed, such as psychoanalytic, gestalt, systemic psychodrama, among others.