On dramatic reality and its therapeutic function in drama therapy

Life-crossroads on stage: integrating life review and drama therapy for older adults

“…The second methodology is drama therapy. Through imagination, creativity, and the flexibility of the dramatic reality (Pendzik, 2006), drama therapy allows individuals to explore different aspects and new points of view regarding their life story. Study results show that the therapeutic processes throughout the intervention enhanced mental health and well-being indices (such as sense of meaning in life and self-acceptance) among the experimental group participants, while the care-as-usual control group did not show any change in these indices.…”

“…Drama therapy interventions are made mainly within or through the dramatic reality À a safe space that integrates reality and fantasy and allows the individual to explore subjective experiences in the present (Pendzik 2003(Pendzik , 2006. In a drama therapy group, the clients, together with the help of the drama therapist and other participants, animate relevant aspects of their lives within the dramatic reality's present time.…”

“…This allows individuals to discover and share different and new perspectives that are impossible to manifest in real life: the expression of inner voices, dialoguing with a person who has already passed away, talking to God, and moving without space and time limitations (Moreno, & Moreno, 1969). The dramatic reality allows individuals to return to their childhood or move forward in time to the future, to go beyond reality, thus liberating the individual from the constraints of the real world (Pendzik, 2006).…”

Drama and Healing in Ancient Greece: Demeter and Asklepios

“…3. This is called 'dramatic reality' (see, among others, Jenkyns 1996, Jones 1996, Duggan and Grainger 1997, Jennings 1998, Pendzik 2006). 4.…”

The mismeasure of a young man: an alternative reading of autism through a co-constructed fictional story

“…While Peter does not wear a bow-tie, there is something of the professor or "geek" about Peter's demeanour which is not uncommon in people with autism. This character, and further the story, creates a kind of "dramatic reality" (Pendzik 2006) that "exists between reality and fantasy: it partakes of both and belongs to neither." In therapeutic uses of creativity, a "dramatic distance" between patient and character is crucial to the presentation of a "problem" to be addressed.…”