Chapter 3
History of Sociometry, Psychodrama,
Group Psychotherapy, and Jacob L.
Moreno
Abstract This chapter presents the histories of sociometry, psychodrama, and group
psychotherapy while also outlining the history of Jacob L. Moreno, their founder.
Major events from Moreno’s life are covered as they relate to the development of
his philosophy and the practice of his triadic system, sociometry, psychodrama, and
group psychotherapy. The popularity and decline of Moreno’s methods throughout
their history are highlighted while offering insights into these historical trends in the
USA and globally. Connections are drawn between Moreno’s history and the history
of social work while also framing him as a social worker due to the nature of his
philosophy, theory, and practice. A comprehensive timeline is offered which depicts
the parallel timelines of psychodrama, social work, group therapy, psychology, and
society.
Keywords History · Sociometry · Psychodrama · Group work · Group
psychotherapy · Jacob Moreno
A historical analysis of sociometry, psychodrama, and group psychotherapy is incomplete without also presenting the life of Jacob L. Moreno. While there is no disagreement about Moreno being the founder of sociometry and psychodrama, there is
controversy about his claim to be the founder of group psychotherapy. At the very
least, he was a pioneer of group work and group psychotherapy. His sociometric
and psychodramatic approach to group work offered one of the only alternative
approaches to psychoanalytic groups at the time of its conception. To understand the
marginalization of Moreno’s approaches in the larger group work and social work
arena, it is essential to get to know Moreno himself.
3.1 History of Group Psychotherapy
Within the group work arena, there is some ambivalence surrounding the development
of group therapy. Many attribute the first group therapy session to Dr. Joseph Pratt
who, in 1905, brought together 15 of his tuberculosis patients in Boston for an
educational meeting and gradually noticed the therapeutic effects of these groups
© The Author(s) 2021
S. Giacomucci, Social Work, Sociometry, and Psychodrama, Psychodrama in Counselling,
Coaching and Education 1,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6342-7_3
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3 History of Sociometry, Psychodrama, Group Psychotherapy …
for his patients (Hadden, 2015). Pratt’s approach certainly is group work, but can
we call it group therapy? Moreno argues that an educational lecture and discussion
cannot by itself be classified as group psychotherapy, because first the group (group =
patient) must be diagnostically assessed (1947a). Others suggest that J.L. Moreno is
the father of the group psychotherapy movement which encompassed multiple group
methods attributed to other individual pioneers—including Pratt’s didactic approach
and Trigant Burrow’s group analysis (Meiers, 1946; Moreno, 1966; Renouvier, 1958;
Thomas, 1943). It appears that the emergence of group work field was introduced by
a group of pioneers.
According to Jacob Moreno (see Fig. 3.1), there have been three psychiatric revolutions. The first was led by Philippe Pinel at the turn of the eighteenth century
in France with the rejection of punishment in favor of treatment for the mentally
ill. Sigmund Freud led the second psychiatric revolution by shifting the conceptualization of mental illness symptomology from neurological roots to a psychological basis. Jacob L. Moreno, in a 1955 address to the American Society of Group
Psychotherapy and Psychodrama (ASGPP), laid claim to group psychotherapy as the
third psychiatric revolution with himself as its pioneer (Moreno, 1961, 2006; Nolte,
2014).
The terms “group therapy” and “group psychotherapy” were first formally introduced by Dr. Jacob L. Moreno in 1932 at the annual conference of the American
Psychiatric Association in Philadelphia (Moreno, 1945; Moreno & Whitin, 1932).
Until 1935, Moreno was the only author to use the terms “group psychotherapy” or
“group therapy” (Renouvier, 1958).
Fig. 3.1 Jacob Moreno in
the early 1960s. Reprinted
with permission from
Figusch (2014)
3.1 History of Group Psychotherapy
33
3.1.1 Group Psychotherapy Defined
Moreno’s group therapy ideas began in 1913 with his experience organizing a group
of sex workers in Vienna—“we began to see then that one individual could become
a therapeutic agent of the other and the potentialities of a group psychotherapy on
the reality level crystallized in our mind” (1955a, p. 22). Moreno argued that group
therapy must include more than an educational lecture, a discussion, a group member
sharing their story to the group, or even watching a psychodrama, though group
therapy may include one or more of these (1947b). While Moreno also advocated for
the use of group work outside of the psychotherapy realm, this question is restricted to
that of group psychotherapy. In his Open Letter to Group Psychotherapists, Moreno
states that “in individual psychotherapy the patient is a single individual. In group
psychotherapy the patient is a group of individuals” (1947a, p. 16).
John Nolte, in The Philosophy, Theory, and Methods of J.L. Moreno, offers us a
striking clarification regarding group psychotherapy:
Moreno’s idea of group psychotherapy meant treating the group; other group therapists
remained focused on the individual, and their methods could often be better described as
treating individuals in a group setting. Individual psychotherapy, Moreno pointed out, is
based on the psychodynamics of the individual. The treatment of a group is based on sociodynamics that involve the interrelationships and interactions of the members of the group, not
just the collection of individuals and their personal dynamics. According to Moreno, treatment of groups became possible only after the development of sociometry, which allows the
group therapist to identify and characterize the constellation of relationships existing within
a group. (2014, p. 122)
Group psychotherapy developed within the context of Moreno’s triadic system of
sociometry, psychodrama, and group psychotherapy (Moreno, 1946). It is important
to note here that many group work experts in the social work profession have also
criticized social work practitioners and educators as lacking a basic understanding
and competency to engage the group-as-a-whole, instead they do casework or individual therapy in a group setting (Bitel, 2014; Corcoran, 2020; Giacomucci, 2020;
Gitterman, 2005; Knight, 2017; Kurland & Salmon, 2005; Shulman, 2015).
According to Carl Whitaker, Jacob L. Moreno “was probably more clearly responsible for the move from individual therapy to the understanding of interpersonal
components of psychological living than any other single psychiatrist in the field”
(Fox, 1987, p. ix; as cited in Gershoni, 2009). Moreno organized both the first American and International societies of group therapists and served as the first presidents
of these societies—now known as the American Society of Group Psychotherapy
and Psychodrama (founded in 1942) and the International Association of Group
Psychotherapy (founded in 1973).
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3 History of Sociometry, Psychodrama, Group Psychotherapy …
3.1.2 Moreno’s Controversial Personality
Moreno viewed each human as having within them a mirror of the Godhead. He aimed
to realize and actualize his own expression of godlikeness, and at the same time, he
was not always a saint. In some ways, his actions contributed to the isolation of
sociometry and psychodrama and their lack of presence in the social work field. The
clinical social work field adopted much of its foundation from psychology, psychoanalysis, and psychodynamic schools in an attempt to professionalize as early as the
1920s (Ehrenreich, 1985). Moreno’s philosophical system contradicts with psychoanalytic theory and Moreno himself was an outspoken critic of it. He believed that
insight was a product of action—what he called action insight. And he believed that
creativity and spontaneity were a necessity for change. He harshly criticized Freud’s
talking cure. In an encounter with Freudthat possibly took place at the University of
Vienna, Moreno declared:
Dr. Freud, I start where you leave off. You meet people in the artificial setting of your office.
I meet them on the street and in their homes, in their natural surroundings. You analyzed
their dreams; I try to give them courage to dream again. (Moreno, Moreno, & Moreno, 1964,
pp. 16–17)
Taken from their context, one might have guessed that these words were uttered
by a social worker in that they reflect early social work’s philosophy and practice.
Moreno’s differentiation from Freud and his followers is one of the reasons that
sociometry and psychodrama have been marginalized in the larger psychotherapy
field (Gershoni, 2009; Moreno, 2014). In 1934, Moreno writes of the conflict between
his approaches and psychoanalysis stating “there is no controversy” between the two
approaches, “I am the controversy” (Moreno, 1934, p. cviii). Gershoni (2009) indicates two primary reasons for psychodrama’s isolation in the larger group therapy
field: “One was that Moreno’s ideas and methods were wildly divergent from established methods in the fields of psychiatry and psychotherapy, particularly psychoanalysis. The second was that his personality was as controversial as his ideas”
(p. 298). J.L. Moreno established the ASGPP in 1942, and within a year of its
founding, Samuel Slavson started the American Group Psychotherapy Association
(AGPA). AGPA maintained a psychoanalytic focus and much higher professional
standards even requiring doctoral degrees for membership (Moreno, 2019). The
ASGPP welcomed anyone as a member and was more focused on psychodrama and
the other creative arts therapies (until they formed their own associations in the 60s
and 70s). Moreno and Slavson developed a rivalry which seems to be continued to
this day by the ASGPP and AGPA which remain mostly segregated with their own
memberships, journals, theoretical traditions, and histories (Blatner, 2005; Gershoni,
2009). Gershoni (2009) writes that there is only about a ten person overlap in membership and that each organizations’ journal includes almost no reference to each other’s
publications.
While the AGPA and ASGPP continue to remain loyal to their histories, the
International Association of Group Psychotherapy and Group Processes (IAGP)
operates as an inclusive group work organization with an entire section devoted to
3.1 History of Group Psychotherapy
35
psychodrama and another to group analysis. It seems that the American group organizations became divisive and differentiated themselves from each other while the
IAGP and group workers around the world have done a much better job at integrating
psychodrama into mainstream group work and psychotherapy as a whole.
Moreno’s personality also impacted the integration of his ideas into academia in
the USA. Though he initially emerged as one of the most notable social scientists
in the 1930s, his personality got in his way and in the way of the acceptance of his
approaches. One of his critics writes, “his commitment to mysticism, his bombastic
personal style and his megalomania drove most of his early supporters away. These
features of Moreno’s persona (see Fig. 3.2) were too much for regular members of
the academic community to bear” (Moreno, 2014, p. 144). Moreno published most
of his work through his own publishing house (Beacon House), which may have also
contributed to the absence of his work beyond the psychodrama community. Perhaps
Fig. 3.2 Jacob Moreno in action. Reprinted with permission from Figusch (2014)
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3 History of Sociometry, Psychodrama, Group Psychotherapy …
the greatest lost opportunity for integrating his methods into academia came in 1947
when Moreno was nominated by leading professors from multiple universities to
head Harvard University’s new sociology department laboratory. He writes of his
gratitude for the unnamed sociometrist who spoke on his behalf arguing that he
would not be a good fit for the role—“I owe him everlasting gratitude for talking
in my behalf as an auxiliary egoin absentia—remarked that I would hardly accept
the job, that I would not fit into academic life, with its formalities and limitations”
(Moreno, 2019, p. 87).
3.2 History of Sociometry, Psychodrama, and Jacob L.
Moreno
While group work was gaining momentum in the USA, J.L. Moreno’s ideas of
sociometry, psychodrama, and group psychotherapy were beginning to emerge in
Vienna. In the early 1900s, as a university student, he and his friends founded the
Religion of the Encounter and opened the House of the Encounter, which seems to
mirror the settlement house. It is interesting to note that Jane Adam’s settlement house
even included drama clubs which were the most popular groups within Hull House
(Bailey, 2006). The House of the Encounter provided free support, help completing
official applications, job assistance, food, housing, and legal support for refugees and
immigrants flooding into Europe (Marineau, 2014; Nolte, 2014). In the evenings at
the House of the Encounter, everyone gathered for a community ritual discussing the
events, concerns, and problems of the day. Moreno described these mutual aid meetings as the first encounter groups and a “theater of everyday life” in his autobiography
(2019, p. 211).
Moreno describes himself as a mystic prior to his education in psychiatry. He
studied theology and philosophy and was deeply influenced by his spiritual experiences and beliefs. He wrote of the evolution of an understanding of God, moving from
a distant I-He God in the Old Testament, to a more personal I-Thou God with Jesus in
the New Testament. His religion, and one of his early anonymous publications titled
Words of the Father (1921), pronounces a new philosophy of an I-I God. Moreno was
declaring that everyone has the capacity of accessing and awakening the Godhead
within them. To support his claim, he highlighted creativity as a quality inherent to
deities across culture and history and argued that human beings also have the capacity
to create. The Religion of the Encounter is the basis for Moreno’s conceptualization
of human nature through an existential and spiritual framework that recognizes the
dignity and worth of each individual. Moreno’s sociometry, psychodrama, and group
psychotherapy developed from the philosophy that we are “cosmic beings” in addition to our biological, economical, sociological, and psychological nature (Moreno,
2012). Through this conceptualization of human nature, he avoided pathologizing
approaches and worked to empower individuals and groups to heal themselves.
3.2 History of Sociometry, Psychodrama, and Jacob L. Moreno
37
Later, in his work at Mittendorf refugee camp, he had proposed that a formal
assessment and diagnoses would uncover the social configuration of the refugee
camp as the root of its troubles and formally suggested that the camp be restructured “by means of sociometric analysis” (Marineau 2014, p. 55). Moreno’s work in
Mittendorf, between 1915 and 1918, is identified as a foundational event in the establishment of sociometric theory. Coincidentally, at about the same time, Mary Richmond published her famous book “Social Diagnosis” (1917) as social work practice
continued to evolve, emphasizing the social environment of the individual (Giacomucci, 2018a). Moreno originally conceptualized group therapy as the treatment of
oppressed, marginalized, or excluded populations (Gershoni, 2013; Nolte, 2014)—he
worked with a variety of populations including immigrants, sex workers, prisoners,
and the severely mentally ill. Stimmer (2004) claims that because of the context
and nature of Moreno’s work, sociometry, psychodrama, and group psychotherapy
really began as social work—“Die psychodramatische Idee jedenfalls begann als
Soziale Arbeit; ihre Wurzel, ihre Basis ist die Soziale Arbeit” (“In any case, the
psychodramatic idea began as a social work; its root, its basis is social work”; p. 19).
Moreno’s experiments with drama and theater began in the parks of Vienna playing
with the children, telling them stories, and experimenting with role-playing. In the
refugee camp, he developed Theater Reciproque where refugees found relief from
their harsh reality by engaging in the surplus reality of drama. Of this time, Moreno
writes, “when Theater Reciproque becomes a part of the life of the community it
takes on the force of a religious ritual, a ritual of healing.” (2019, p. 212) As a mystic
studying medicine at the University of Vienna, Moreno seems to conceptualize the
healing process from a religious perspective.
Jacob L. Moreno writes that the first psychodrama/sociodrama took place in
Vienna on April Fool’s Day of 1921, at a decisive time in Austria just after World
War I and the dismantling of the Austria-Hungary Empire. Dressed as the king’s
jester, he called for members of the prestigious audience to come on stage and take
the role of “King of the New World Order” and discuss their plans to stabilize
the country. Shortly after this historical moment, Moreno organized the Theater of
Spontaneity (Stegreiftheater) which enacted spontaneous scenes incorporating the
audience, often using events from the local newspaper or suggested topics from the
audience. Moreno intended to use the theater as a medium for social change, but in
the process, observed that participation had been therapeutic for both the audience
and role players (Nolte, 2014; Marineau, 2014; Moreno, 2019). He developed his
vision of sociatry—or psychiatry for society (1947) which articulated his commitment to healing at the societal level: “A truly therapeutic procedure cannot have less
an objective than the whole of mankind. But no adequate therapy can be prescribed
as long as mankind is not a unity in some fashion and as long as its organization
remains unknown.” (1934, p. 3).
In 1925, Moreno immigrated to New York City. This decision was impacted by a
number of factors including a vivid dream of living in New York that he had experienced, involvement in conflicts with other Vienna theater leaders, a new invention
of a recording device he was working on, and hopes for a new audience that would
be more accepting of his ideas. Prior to his migration to the USA, Moreno published
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3 History of Sociometry, Psychodrama, Group Psychotherapy …
his first nine books anonymously, inspired by his spiritual principles which suggest
that ideas could not be owned by anyone:
A name is a form of capital and links the inventions and works of an author to proprietary,
priority and other legal rights. Anonymity, on the other hand, begins and ends with the
assumption that a work created by an individual or a group is not the property of anyone in
particular, it belongs to universality. (Moreno, 1955, p. 29).
However, as a result, many of his early ideas were taken by others. In his move
from Austria to the USA, he shifted from primarily religious writing to primarily
scientific publications and began to publish using his name.
Upon arrival to New York, Moreno began tirelessly working to promote his ideas
offering demonstration at hospitals, churches, prisons, and schools, though he experienced many difficulties as an immigrant. At her suggestion, he married Beatrice
Beecher in 1926, largely to be granted US citizenship and a license to practice
medicine in New York State. In 1929, he opened Impromptu Theater at Carnegie
Hall, a re-creation and adaptation of the Vienna Theater of Spontaneity. In 1932
at the APA conference in Philadelphia, he presented his sociometric research from
Sing Sing Prison coining the terms “group therapy” and “group psychotherapy.” It is
interesting to note that psychoanalyst Franz Alexander, who coined the term corrective emotional experience, was present at this 1932 APA meeting with Moreno and
commented on the potential effectiveness of Moreno’s group method to reduce crime
(Moreno & Whitin, 1932). Through his work in the early 1930s, Moreno gained the
support of Dr. William Alanson White, superintendent of St. Elizabeths Hospital
in Washington, DC and former APA president. While supporting Moreno in New
York, White was also working with Harry S. Sullivan in DC (Marineau, 2014) who
later developed an interpersonal theory of psychiatry (1953) which shows some
resemblance to Moreno’s interpersonal theory of sociometry.
For an entire year in the early 1930s, Moreno lived at the New York State Training
School of Girls at Hudson, New York, and worked as the Director of Research. Here,
he conducted extensive sociometric assessments, tests, interventions, and research
which led to the 1934 publication of one of his most famous books, Who Shall
Survive?: A New Approach to the Problem of Human Interrelations. Moreno and his
colleagues in Hudson were some of the first social scientists to address racism and
racial tensions within communities (Moreno, 2014). By this time, he was lecturing
regularly in multiple universities including Columbia University, the New School
for Social Research, and New York University. Beginning in 1935, Moreno started
predicting boxing match winners through the application of sociometric analysis; for
the next 19 years, he never made a wrong prediction and was often in the newspapers
because of it. After his short marriage to Beatrice, he married Florence Bridge in
1938. Jacob and Florence had one child, Regina Moreno, and worked together to
further the field of psychodrama until their divorce some years later. Florence’s
contribution to psychodrama theory was primarily on the topic of child development
(Moreno & Moreno, 1944).
It was not until 1936 in Beacon, New York, that Moreno began to systematically develop and use psychodrama as a form of psychotherapy at which point, he
3.2 History of Sociometry, Psychodrama, and Jacob L. Moreno
39
Fig. 3.3 Beacon Hill Sanitarium, later renamed Moreno Sanitarium in 1951. Reprinted with
permission from Figusch (2014)
developed a reputation for successfully treating psychosis, interpersonal problems,
and marital conflicts. In 1936, Moreno opened Beacon Hill Sanitarium in New York
State which was later renamed Moreno Sanitarium (see Fig. 3.3). It was here that
his group therapy and psychodramatic approaches found a firm foundation and was
used routinely with his clients suffering from severe mental illness. This treatment
program was in many ways similar to the milieu therapy and therapeutic communities
that would emerge later (Moreno, 2014).
Moreno Sanitarium developed a reputation for treating “untreatable” psychiatric
cases (Moreno, 2019). In his work with patients with psychosis and schizophrenia,
rather than try to convince them that their delusions and fantasies were not real, he
encouraged them to act it out on the psychodrama stage. In 1937, the Red Cross
Director became interested in psychodrama, and a few years later, a psychodrama
stage was built at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, DC, the largest federal
mental health institute in the USA. Even President Franklin D. Roosevelt expressed
interest in Moreno’s ideas in the mid-1930s hoping that they could help the USA
through its time crisis (Moreno, 1955).
In 1941, Zerka Toeman traveled from England to Beacon, New York, in hopes
of finding effective treatment for her mentally ill sister at Moreno’s Sanitarium.
Zerka quickly began working for Jacob Moreno, editing and translating his work and
later contributing her own additions to sociometry and psychodrama. Later in 1949,
they married. In 1941, J.L. Moreno opened the Sociometric Institute and Theater of
Psychodrama (later known as the Psychodramatic Institute) in downtown New York
City where he began to train other practitioners in his new model—from the late 1940s
until the early 70s, six nights a week, a public psychodrama was conducted at J.L.
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3 History of Sociometry, Psychodrama, Group Psychotherapy …
Moreno’s Manhattan theater (Moreno, 2014). Within a few years, dozens of psychiatric hospitals around the USA were using psychodrama in their treatment programs
including multiple Veterans Administration hospitals—some of which event built
dedicated psychodrama stages on their campuses.
In the USA, Moreno’s popularity increased in the 1940s and he was even considered for a department chair role at Harvard University (Moreno, 1955). American
Sociologists adopted Moreno’s ideas with a passion while American psychiatry
remained less interested. The American Sociological Society even created a section
on sociometry in 1941 and in 1955 began publishing Moreno’sSociometry journal
which had been in print since 1937 (Moreno, 2019). The Cold War and World War
II sparked a greater reliance upon group therapy due to the influx of soldiers back
into society. All three branches of the US military employed Moreno’s sociometry
concepts along with Lewin’s group dynamic analyses to enhance the functioning
of military leadership (Moreno, 2014). The US Navy became particularly interested—sociometric studies in the Navy discovered that poor group cohesion and low
sociometric choices were correlated with various poor outcomes such as sick days,
low morale, accidents, and disciplinary actions (Moreno, 2014). The British sent
leaders of the military to study sociometry with the Morenos’ to better understand
the varying death rates in various military platoons. They attempted to use used
sociometry to organize groups of soldiers within the army during the war—“the
whole process of induction and basic training in the British Army was restructured
along the lines laid down by sociometric theory” (Moreno, 2019, p. 320). By the
1950s, Jacob Moreno and his wife Zerka Moreno had begun traveling six months of
the year to provide psychodrama demonstrations around the world. The increasing
popularity of psychodrama at the time is evidenced by a 1950 publication which
estimated that about one-third of all mental institutions were using psychodrama as
a therapy approach (Borgatta, 1950).
In the 1960s–70s, psychodrama techniques became popularized through the
encounter movement, T-Groups, sensitivity training, the Human Potential Movement, and humanistic psychology. J.L Moreno’s work influenced most of the leaders
of these movements who had studied with him previously, including Kurt Lewin,
Abraham Maslow, Fritz Perls, Viktor Frankl, and Carl Rogers (Maslow, 1971;
Moreno, 2014, 2019; Treadwell, 2016). Within these popular movements, very little
credit was given to Moreno’s influence. Moreno was friendly with Kurt Lewin,
who was a pioneer of group dynamics, T-Groups, action research, and founded the
National Training Laboratories (NTL) which had a significant impact on the field of
group dynamics and group research. Unfortunately, Lewin died suddenly in 1947 and
his followers and Moreno did not get along which further marginalized psychodrama
from the emerging T-Group movement and group dynamics research (Moreno, 2014).
The popular magazine Life published a 1968 article on the Human Potential
Movement (Howard, 1968) which provoked Abraham Maslow, father of humanistic
psychology and former APA president, to send the following letter to the editors:
Jane Howard’s article on Esalen and other new developments in education and psychology
was excellent. I would however like to add one “credit where credit is due” footnote. Many
of the techniques set forth in the article were originally invented by Dr. Jacob Moreno, who is
3.2 History of Sociometry, Psychodrama, and Jacob L. Moreno
41
still functioning vigorously and probably still inventing new techniques and ideas. (Maslow,
1968, p. 15)
Other authorities in the field have made similar comments as it relates to
Moreno’s influence on the encounter movement, the Human Potential Movement,
T-Groups, gestalt therapy, and other experiential techniques. Eric Berne, the founder
of transactional analysis, comments on this dynamic which he calls the Moreno
problem:
Perls, founder of the gestalt movement, shared with other ‘active’ psychotherapists the
Moreno problem: the fact that nearly all known ‘active’ techniques were first tried out
by Moreno in psychodrama, so that it makes it difficult to come up with an original idea in
this regard. (Berne, 1970, p. 164)
Similarly, William Schultz, a pioneer in the encounter group movement, notes
that “virtually all of the methods that I had proudly compiled or invented [Moreno]
had more or less anticipated, in some cases forty years earlier” (as cited in Blatner,
1996, p. 181). And in his book on the history of the encounter movement, Kurt Back
(1972) notes that “Moreno can claim, perhaps rightly, that he is the originator of both
group therapy and encounter groups” (p. 149).
J.L. Moreno believed that the encounter movement “cannibalized” his work and
impacted the reputation of psychodrama (Moreno, 2014, 2019). It was during this
time that many developed concerns for the psychological safety of psychodrama
techniques and encounter groups which had become more focused on confrontation
(Blatner, 2000; Cooper, 1974, 1975; Giacomucci, 2018b; Posthuma & Posthuma,
1973; Yalom & Lieverman, 1971). In a large study on various types of encounter
groups, researchers found 7.8–9.1% of participants reported harm related to their
participant in the encounter groups (Lieberman, Yalom, & Miles, 1973).As the
encounter groups (as well as T-Groups and sensitivity training groups) became more
sensationalized in the late 1960s and early 1970s, academic respectability and theoretical connections dissipated leading to a loss in credibility (Spence, 2007). As the
evidence-based practice movement began to take root and grow in the 1970s–90s, the
encounter movement and psychodrama techniques continued to lose their popularity.
In 1974, Jacob L. Moreno died. He abstained from food and drink after a long
battle with illness. Moreno’s youthful dream had come true—his methods had been
adopted into the larger culture while his influence remained mostly anonymous.
When his friend and colleague Lewis Yablonsky visited him just before his death,
Moreno whispered in his ear, “I’ve lived a full life. I’ve done my job. It’s time for me
to go on to something else” (1976, p. 284). Although his life on earth ended here,
in true psychodramatic fashion, the final chapter of his autobiography describes his
future projected journey beyond death—into the afterlife including encounters with
God, angels, Freud, and the great philosophers (Moreno, 2019).
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3 History of Sociometry, Psychodrama, Group Psychotherapy …
3.3 Moreno as a Social Worker and Sociatrist
Jacob Moreno’s career reflects that of a social worker. His clinical work was with societies most oppressed and underserved communities including immigrants, refugees,
prostituted women, inmates, children, and the severely mentally ill. He explicitly
worked to empower these communities and develop systems and tools to help individuals help each other. Early in his career, while his colleagues were practicing psychoanalysis, he was exploring the impact of relationships, society, and the environment
on individuals—he even suggested that mental illness was a result of larger social
forces (1950). Similar to the social work profession which emerged from charity and
settlement house movements with religious influence, Moreno’s work began with the
House of the Encounter. Moreno’s community work to promote exemplifies social
work’s commitment to social justice, self-determination, and empowerment (Niepenberg, 2017). Moreno even worked several years as Director of Social Research for
the New York State Department of Social Welfare. The whole of his work could
be seen as a career composed of an integrated blend of case work, group work,
and community work—micro, mezzo, and macrosocial work. His work included
the entire range of social work practice including with individuals, couples, families, groups, organizations, communities, and even leaving an impact on the larger
society. One aspect of social work that makes it unique is its multidisciplinary nature;
it integrates psychology, medicine, sociology, criminology, philosophy, education,
policy, politics, and activism. Similar to social work, Moreno’s work included each
of these fields and his methods continue to be used within each of these respective
fields.
Interestingly, in 1947, Moreno predicted that a doctoral degree in sociatry will be
given in the future, utilizing a synthesis of knowledge from the fields of psychiatry,
medicine, psychology, education, and sociology. He writes that “The art and skill
of the sociatrist will depend upon a synthesis of knowledge towards which all social
and psychiatric sciences will have made their contribution” (Moreno, 1947, p. 10).
In the same year, Catholic University began offering the first Doctorate in Clinical
Social Work (DSW) degree, though the PhD in Social Work had been around since
1920. By the late 1990s, the DSW degree disappeared until the University of Pennsylvania reintroduced it in 2007 (Hartocollis, Cnaan, & Ledwith, 2014). If Moreno
was alive today, he might argue that the DSW is the fulfillment of his prediction—the
social worker is fundamentally a sociatrist, one that treats conditions arising from
interrelations of individuals, families, groups, and society.
3.4 Sociometry and Psychodrama Since Moreno’s Death
in 1974
Following J.L. Moreno’s death, Zerka continued to spread psychodrama through
her leadership, writing, and training—she is affectionately remembered by many
3.4 Sociometry and Psychodrama Since Moreno’s Death in 1974
43
as “the mother of psychodrama” (see Fig. 3.4). A year after J.L. Moreno’s death,
the American Board of Examiners (ABE) in sociometry, psychodrama, and group
psychotherapy emerged to provide standards for certification and promote a wave of
professionalism in the psychodrama field. While J.L.’s writing was hard to understand
and philosophically complex, Zerka translated his methods in a way that made it
easier to understand and teach. A collection of Zerka’s most popular publications
was organized and republished under the title The Quintessential Zerka in 2006,
making them more available to students and trainees. In her memoir, To Dream
Again (2012), she mentions around two dozen countries that she repeatedly traveled
to teach psychodrama.
In the decades after Moreno’s death, the membership of the American Society of
Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama was consistently declining. Other creative
arts therapists, who were previously ASGPP members, began to organize and found
their own societies including the dance therapists (in 1966), art therapists (in 1969),
music therapists (in 1971), drama therapists (in 1979), and the poetry therapists (in
1981). Numerous other humanistic psychologies (including gestalt therapy and transactional analysis) emerged. Concurrently, the counselors (in 1973), psychologists (in
1991), and social workers (in 1979) began to establish their own formal group work
divisions or associations. Previously, the ASGPP and AGPA (in addition to AAGW
Fig. 3.4 Jacob and Zerka Moreno in Amsterdam in 1971. Reprinted with permission from Figusch
(2014)
44
3 History of Sociometry, Psychodrama, Group Psychotherapy …
until its 1955 merger with NASW) were the only group therapy organizations in
the USA—with ASGPP being the only creative arts therapy organization. As such,
it attracted a much broader membership of group workers, psychodramatists, and
creative arts therapists until they differentiated with their own organizations.
At the same time, many mental health hospitals that had adopted psychodrama
were closing due to deinstitutionalization policies. The development of new psychiatric medications led to the further medicalization of mental health treatment and
a significant decline in inpatient treatment programs beginning in the late 1950s.
While psychiatric hospitals closed and medicalization promoted medication-based
treatments for mental illness, it also created conditions for alcoholism and addiction to be recognized as a disease and an increased number of addiction treatment
programs became available. Many of these programs integrated psychodrama into
their programs tracing their psychodrama lineages to the therapeutic communities, or
trainers such as Virginia Satir, Sharon Wegscheider-Cruse, Tian Dayton, and others.
In the first few decades after Moreno’s death, it seems that psychodrama’s
popularity significantly declined overall in the USA while increasing around the
world. One of the larger influences related to psychodrama’s decline in the USA
included the lack of quality research on psychodrama as the psychotherapy field
moved toward medicalization and evidence-based practices. Psychodrama’s theory
of change, spontaneity-creativity theory, makes it nearly impossible to manualize the
psychodramatic approach, and thus, it was not eligible for review as an evidencebased practice by the American Psychological Association. As the psychodrama
field progressed, it seems to have fallen short in its attempts to professionalize.
In the USA, most psychodramatists are in private practice rather than university
settings which limits their access to research support and research grants (Orkibi
& Feniger-Schaal, 2019). Until the mid-1990s, very little had been done to address
psychodrama’s potential for re-traumatizing clients. As trauma theory and trauma
research progressed (Herman, 1997; van der Kolk, 1996), multiple trauma-focused
and trauma-informed psychodrama approached emerged (Dayton, 1994; Giacomucci
& Marquit, 2020; Hudgins & Toscani, 2013; Kane, 1992; Kellermann, 2000) but the
damage to psychodrama’s reputation had already been done. A new wave of cognitive behavioral psychotherapies seemed to monopolize the psychotherapy field with
a plethora of empirical research to support their approaches which seamlessly fit
within the US medical system.
Although the mental health field in the USA has not embraced psychodrama in the
past few decades, it is especially popular in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Turkey,
Israel, Asia, and South America (Nolte, 2014). Many countries have established
psychodrama psychotherapy as a scientifically validated evidence-based practice
(Orkibi &Feniger-Schaal, 2019). Though it is hard to find psychodrama in US universities, various other countries have entire graduate degree programs in sociometry
and psychodrama (Giacomucci, 2019). While psychodrama’s popularity declined in
the USA, it continued to increase on the international stage. The influence of culture
may have been at play in these larger fluctuations as well. The countries that do have
robust psychodrama communities also have cultures that place significant value on
3.4 Sociometry and Psychodrama Since Moreno’s Death in 1974
45
community, relationships, and expression. Individualism and the medical model in
the USA appear at odds with many of Moreno’s theories.
In the past few years, it seems that both group psychotherapy and psychodrama
are increasing in popularity again. The most recent meta-analysis on psychodrama
psychotherapy indicates an increase in psychodrama research from 2008 to 2017 with
over a quarter of studies in that decade taking place in 2017 (Orkibi & Feniger-Schaal,
2019). Between 2011 and 2013, the North-West Psychodrama Association in England
republished 9 of J. L. Moreno’s most popular books which had become difficult to find
since they were no longer being printed. In 2018, the American Psychological Association formally recognized group psychology and group psychotherapy as a specialty
which creates the possibility of new educational programs in group psychotherapy.
In 2018, the Journal of Social Work with Groups published two articles emphasizing the usefulness of J. L. Moreno’s triadic model—psychodrama, sociometry,
and group psychotherapy—for social workers who facilitate groups. The first article
explores the “synergistic relationship between group work and psychodrama” while
discussing “the convergence of these two approaches as well as ways they can
enhance one another and service delivery when used together” (Skolnik, 2018, p. 1).
The second article continues the dialogue started by Skolnik and emphasizes the
power of psychodrama to renegotiate traumatic experiences (Giacomucci & Stone,
2019). The authors of the two aforementioned articles also teach the only current
psychodrama courses within social work graduate programs in the USA at Yeshiva
University (Sari Skolnik) and Bryn Mawr College (Scott Giacomucci) which both
emerged in the 2019 Spring semester.
Moreno died in 1974 before he could finish organizing his complete autobiography. In 2019, the completed Autobiography of a Genius was published—just a
year after the 100th anniversary of Moreno’sDaimon journal publication in Vienna.
Social worker’s interest in the creative arts therapies continues to increase (Heinonen,
Halonen, & Krahn, 2018). In 2020, the Social Work with Groups journal published a
special edition titled The Creative Practitioner: An Introduction to Psychodrama,
Sociometry, and Group Psychotherapy. This appears to be the first social work
journal to publish a special edition on psychodrama and is a significant event in
the integration of sociometry and psychodrama into the social work field. If this
momentum continues, we could see a more dramatic re-emergence of sociometry
and psychodrama within the social work field. At this particular point in time, there
appears to be newfound interest and growing attention to Moreno’s methods in the
social work field and the other mental health professions. Perhaps we are at the
beginning increased integration and collaboration between psychodramatists and
social workers. This book is an attempt to concretize that integration.
46
3 History of Sociometry, Psychodrama, Group Psychotherapy …
3.5 Conclusion
In our work with clients, we engage in a thorough history taking process in order
to fully understand the here-and-now presentation of a client. Without this, intervention or future planning is limited. The same is true when considering the future
of an organization or a field—in the case of this chapter, the future of the field of
psychodrama. An understanding of Moreno’s methods is incomplete without considering the historical contexts during which his methods were developed and how the
larger socio-cultural forces influenced his work, particularly in the USA where he was
living and working. The history of psychodrama emerged in parallel with the history
of social work. Both histories intertwine with the fields of group work, psychology,
and medicine (see Fig. 3.5).
3.5 Conclusion
47
Fig. 3.5 Parallel timelines depicting the intersections between social work, group therapy, Moreno,
psychodrama, psychology, medicine, and USA history
48
Fig. 3.5 (continued)
3 History of Sociometry, Psychodrama, Group Psychotherapy …
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49
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