Mythodrama

Mythodrama is a method of psychotherapy , the therapeutic effect of which is achieved by dramatic staging of mythological subjects. The basis of mythodrama is psychodrama and sociodrama - methods developed by the founder of group psychotherapy, Jacob Levy Moreno . The effectiveness of mythodrama depends on the accuracy of the choice of the mythological plot and on the proper organization of the mythodramatic action.

Due to the variety of mythological plots, the probability for a participant to find a motive in tune with him increases many times. In any case, the mythodrama is relevant as much as the archetypal (universal) myth used by it.

The first of the psychotherapists who based on the fact that the content of myth and the content of the human soul had something in common was Karl Gustav Jung : “The concept of an archetype ... follows from numerous observations of myths and fairy tales of world literature, which, as it turned out , contain persistent motifs that suddenly show up everywhere. We find these same motifs in fantasies, dreams, delusions, hallucinations of individuals living today. ” So, we are talking about "sustainable motives" that underlie both mythological and mental reality. The problem arises when we ask ourselves whether a given myth corresponds to the client’s problem - and this is already a question about the interpretation of the myth.

The following forms of mythodrama can be distinguished:

• According to the applied psychodramatic techniques:
  • Psychodramatic.
  • Sociodramatic.
  • Monodrama.
  • Structured exercises.
• By the number of participants:
  • Individual
  • Group
• By orientation to the plot:
  • Loose
  • Structured

Psychodramatic mythodrama. Mythodrama takes the form of psychodrama: there is a protagonist, on whose theme the whole group is working, an exchange of roles is mandatory. As a rule, only part of the group is involved. It is possible to go beyond the mythological scene.

Socio-dramatic mythodrama. All members of the group are involved in mythodrama, there is no protagonist, the therapeutic effect is achieved by expanding the context of the problem with which the participants came to the group. The exchange of roles is minimal, spontaneous reactions from roles are encouraged.

Monodrama . Only the director and protagonist are involved, carried out as part of an individual session. The theme of the protagonist is clearly defined, a contract for work is signed, a mythological plot is selected for the theme, and action is built in accordance with the theme.

Structured exercises. A piece of plot that strictly corresponds to a certain topic (for example, “jealousy”) is pre-isolated from myth. Roles and action space are clearly defined. The protagonists of the group become alternately. The whole group or part of the group is involved.

Like any psychodramatic action, mythodrama begins with the warming up of the group. Warming up allows you to raise the level of energy of participants and tune in to certain topics. The warm-ups can be motor or meditative.

After warming up, the leader voices the group the content of the myth. Then the plot is divided into scenes and the action space of each scene is indicated.

As in any action based on the principles of psychodrama, such techniques as role exchange, duplication, mirror, replicas to the side work in mythodrama. However, they, of course, have their own specifics in mythodrama.

The exchange of roles is not the main device in mythodrama, as in psychodrama, it should be resorted to only in case of conflict, a hitch in action. ^[one]