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Dramatherapy
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DRAMATHERAPY: SYMBOLIC
STRUCTURE SYMBOLIC PROCESS
SUE JENNINGS
Published online: 14 Sep 2011.

To cite this article: SUE JENNINGS (1987) DRAMATHERAPY: SYMBOLIC STRUCTURE

SYMBOLIC PROCESS, Dramatherapy, 10:2, 3-7, DOI: 10.1080/02630672.1987.9689319

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02630672.1987.9689319

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 DRAMATHERAPY: SYMBOLIC STRUCTURE SYMBOLIC PROCESS

SUE JENNINGS

Sue Jennings is a Consultant Dramatherapist in the U.K. and in Greece. She lectures at the London
HospitalSchool of Medicine and at the College of Ripon 8 York St. John. She is currently conducting
dramatherapyresearchinto childabuse for Hertfordshire SocialServices andinto inferti@at Newtram
DistrictHospital. She is director of Dramatherapy Consultants. This paper is basedon one presented
at the International Congress of Creative Arts Therapies, New York, 1985.
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“1 am interested in the actor because he is a human being. This involves two principal
points: firstly my meeting with another person, the contact the mutual feeling of
comprehension and the impression created by the fact that we by to open ourselves
to another being, that we try to understandhim; in short the surmountingof our solitude.
Secondly, the attempt to understand oneself through the behaviour of another man,
finding oneself in him.”
Grotowski (1968)

Dramatherapy is a group and individual process which explores at many levels of metaphor,
dramatic engagement between its members. Dramatherapy has both a symbolic structure - an empty
stage on which the enactment of dramatic healing rituals take place - as well as a symbolic process in
which theclientexperiences thejourney, (accompanied bythetherapist)frombeing unwell tobeingwell.
There are other therapeutic processes that also have symbolic structures and processes, however
we need to consider the focus of the dramatherapy process which will help us define more dearly the
nature of dramatherapy.

IS IT A NEW PRACTICE?
Dramatherapy is often described as a new discipline. Once that is staled, then it is usually
accompaniedby a need to explain it in relation to other bodies of knowledge,especially psychology and
medicine and to demonstrate its logical links with existing disciplines. We find it necessary to translate
the languageof dramatherapyintothe languagesthat are used by other professionalsand find ourselves
influenced by the client group with whom we work, the type of institution within which they are placed,
the colleagueswith whom we share professional space and the overall value system that permeatesall
these categories.
However Iwanttosuggestfirstofall that Dramatherapyisnotanewpracticebuthascertainlyexisted
in some form or other in our ancient and historic past. Accounts of healing rituals and shamanistic
performances always describe a dramatic engagement that becomes the art of healing. Nevertheless
there is a danger in saying that we have an historic past, because there is then the tendency to slip into
an evolutionary model of dramatherapy which can be equally unhelpful.
As Jean Duvignaud (1972) has suggested, there is a kind of romantic notion of the unbroken line
from the cave to contemporary society

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 "that the complexity of modern life can be understood in relation to the simplicity of
primitive societies."

And again,

"it sets out to separate artistic expression from real experience. by associating the
former with a privileged kind of existence, pure and detached from all actuality."

It seems that we have a need to anchor ourselves in some kind of ancient past so that we can feel
ourselves connected to an idealised vision of untainted origins.
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I am suggesting another possibility. Drama and Theatre in its many forms appear to have been an
integralpartof mostsocieties(ashaveotherformsofart).Eachsocietyatanymomentin timeandspace
respondsand re-createsthedramathatis appropriateto thattimeand place. It can be influencedby past,
present or future events; it can be reactions to, or rebellions against; it can be the drama of the people,
the drama of the elite, the drama of the specialist or the drama of the magician. However, drama is - and
the form of the drama is directly related to the cultural conditions of the context in which it emerges.
The drama in which we engage will be influenced by all the drama experiences to which we have
access from the present and the past. It will include our knowledge of ancient and modern theatre, our
experienceofdifferentactingandtheatreforms, ourwidestpossiblereadingofliterature includingpoetry,
our ability to use dramatic media in addition to improvisation and scripts such as masks, puppets and
other projective phenomena, and our understanding of the fundamental roots of play in children's
development.
Dramatherapy is essentially drama experience within a context of healing. The essence of
dramatherapy is thedramathroughwhich unwell individualscanmakeaconnectionbetweenthe "drama
within", and the "drama without" in the context of the therapeutic alliance.

UNDERSTANDINGSYMBOLISM
Ihave developed elsewhere [Jennings (i)1986 and 1987 the problemsof reductionism in therapy,
of reducing symbolic communication to one dimensional expression. The important understanding of
symbols in dramatic ritualis their polysemicnature, thatthey are multidimensionalmeans of expression.
Therefore an understandingwithin an anthropological framework of the symbolism inherent in both the
culture of the illness, and the culture of drama, is crucial for the dramatherapist's practice.
Medicalanthropologists have contributed considerably to our greater understandingof health care
systems, (seeforexample Helman 1984, Kleinman 1980).It is notappropriatetousethewesternmedical
model as the only model within which healing is possibte. There are also systems of folk health care and
popular health care (see Kleinman for an elaboration) which also have their function in the way we view
illness and health. What do we as therapists understandwhen someone comes to us and says they are
unwell? What experience can we draw on to understand the experience of the client? Since our own
norms and values of health and sickness may vary drastically from those of our clients, we need to go
further than the logicof what is being said. For example, not only physical causation is being described
when a dient says,

'My shoulders ache, I can't carry any more", or "It's bad blood, that's my problem".

Susan Sontag (1983) has described in her research into literature, for example, the difference

4
 between the romanticismattached to tuberculosis earlier this century and the shame attached to cancer
in contemporary society. What she describes are societal values attached to the reality of the illness;
for example,the idea of illness as punishment, both for society as in plagues or epidemics; or for
individuals who feel they have sinned.
A colleague recently shared with me an experience of asking a young girl in junior school how her
father was. The pupil replied,

"0daddy is much better but he's still in his pyjamas."

Aquitedear indication of the state of her father's health was communicatedthrough this symbol that
he was not yet wearing his clothes of well-being.
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Anthropology not only helps us understand the cultural context of the illness and the symbolismof
the illness, it also informs us of awider canvas for understandingsymbolic communicationthat emerges
in the dramatherapy itself.
As Meier (quoted in Fordham, 1978) states,

"every physician must also be a metaphysician"

Dramatherapists also need knowledge of the many forms of dramatic healing riluals that existed
withindifferentculturesinthe pastand inavarietyofcontemporarycultures.M y own researchondrama,
ritual and healing (Jennings, 1985,1987)- amongstthesenoiTemiartribe of Malaysia.Thistribe had
a dear distinction between the illnesseswhich needed healing seances to bring about improved health
and those that neededa brief consultation with the midwife or shaman. The healingseanceswere mainly
for conditions seen as resulting from 'soul sickness' which were often related to certainsorts of feelings,
or lack of them. These rituals involve the special place set apart, ritually decorated, led by the shaman
who 'in role' was in touch with benign spirit guides from the animal or plant kingdom, who would assist
in treating the patients.
This is enacted within a context of music, singing, and trance. For very serious conditions, the
shaman himself goes into trance.
In addition to the curative seances, the tribe has a clear notion of similar seancas that can also
promote well-being and maintain health in the community. Dramaticritual for health,as well as a means
of dealing with illness, keeps a balanced perspective for health maintenance within their own cultural
context.
Another ritual drama of healing is described by Shorokogoroff and quoted by Lewis (1971).

"After shamanising, the audience recollectsvarious moments of the performance,their

great psychophysiologicalemotion and the hallucinations of sight and hearing which
they have experienced. They have a deep satisfaction - much greater than that from
emotions produced by theatrical and musical performances, literature and general
artistic phenomenaof the Europeancomplex, becausein shamanising the audience at
the same time, acts and participates."

Thus the anthropologist both medical and social is a source for the dramatherapist in the further
understanding of dramatherapeutic practice.

UNCONSCIOUS PROCESSES
Unconsciousprocesses are not just manifestedwithin the context of psychotherapy.They are a part

5
 of the totality of the humanexperience and are frequently expressed in heightenedform through all forms
of art. An understanding of psychotherapeutic phenomenon both at a theoretical level but also at an
experiential level is a complementary area of knowledge that is essential for the dramatherapist.
Although part of the dramatherapist‘s training is participation as client in a ‘closed’ dramatherapy
group,in which material that is unconscious and latent is worked with in the context of the group
experience, it is also desirable that dramatherapists have experience of verbal psychotherapy. One can
perceive that there are dramatic elements within verbal psychotherapy, (dramatic action is often seen
as ‘acting out‘!) neverthelessthe ritualisation of time, space and the shape of the group can be Seen to
have dramatic origins. Therapist and clients too are ‘in role’ and the metaphoric expressions are often
the externalisationof internal dramas. The phenomenonof transference is essentially adramaticact as
the client behaves as if the therapist is mother, father or significant other in the client’s past or present
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life.
I have developed this theme in an earlier paper (Jennings 1985) where I also suggest, using an
analogy from the Greek ancient Theatre, that the verbal therapeutic model could be described as
Apollonianwithitsemphasisondarity,light, individuationandreason. Isuspectthattheverbaltherapist’s
view of dramatherapy is often Dionysianwith imagesof dramatic freedom without boundaries,which are
revelrous, cathartic and destructive.
However,the reality of the dramatherapeutic process is the balance between the individualand the
collective; between light and dark and between order and disorder.
As I have suggested, when discussing the contribution of social and medical anthropology to
dramatherapy, an understanding of psychotherapy is essential enabling some understanding of the
unconscious processes and their multiple manifestations.
Murray Cox (1978) says:

Training in psychotherapy therefore allows the therapist to meet himself in tolerable

doses, and todiscover thedirectionin which hisdeveloping expertise and interestlies.”

-
DRAMATHERAPY THE WAY FORWARD
Dramatherapyprofessional practice is at avery important developmental stage. The tendency is to
explain it by other establisheddisciplines or to incorporateit within an existing framework of reference.
Essentially dramatherapy is a practice and process of drama in which the context is one of
unwellnes and the focus is on the manifestationof unconscious metaphorical expression. We need to
be careful that we do not institutionalisedramatherapy in our attempts to explain it and fix it in time and
space for posterity. Drama itself is an organic process which changes in relation to the needs of
individuals, societies and cultures.
The way forward is not necessarily to placedramatherapywithin the context of a medical modeland
then feel the disillusion that we have not been able to change the system. The various environments in
which dramatherapy practice is appropriate are still being explored both in the public and the private
sector; within health, education, prisons and the social services. There are new movesto develop more
dramatherapy in the community now that there is greater emphasis on community based care outside
of institutions.
However, it is important for dramatherapists to address the theme of professionalism without
becoming an elitist sub-group of society, with a sieve with very large holes. The importance of
professional status is that it is the best possible resource that we can be for our clients. This includes
appropriatetraining over several years, and most importantly,regular supervision for as long as we are
in practice. There are still ideas that the dramatherapist is a type of creative technicianwho uses many
dramatic skills, or that drama should be placed within therapy, or that there is therapy through drama.

6
 It is an existential risk to state that dramatherapyexists and is essentially a dramatic process. As Ihave
briefly described it is informedby other disciplinessuch as anthropology and psychotherapy,just as we
are better informed about our clients with a working understandingof psychiatry and psychology.
However, dramatherapy is essentially understood by understandingthe nature of the dramatic act
and the dramatic process from the symbolic structure and the symbolic process. The polysernic nature
of the dramatic act in which we express the intra-psychic, the interpsychic, the interpersonal, the socio-
cultural as well as the existential and even the archetypal, demonstratesthe multiple metaphors which
may exist in a fleeting moment of drama.
Bruce Wilshire (1982) suggests this dimension when he says

'The power of theatre as metaphor is the power of meaning compressed: world

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suppressed into "world". with energy flowing continuously back into world."

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