60 years after the 1st International Congress of Psychodrama, held in Paris from August 30 to September 3, 1964, we share an article by Dominique Jamet extracted from the archives of Anne Ancelin Schutzenberger who was a great organizer and active partecipant of this special event. On our website, you can find some photos of this article published on Le Figaro Litteraire at that time : it reports the testimony of the first day of the congress from the journalist who was in the room crowded with 600 people! Photos and attached French transcript will allow you to read the entire original text. There is also a proposal of an English translation.
Here is the final part that concludes the article:
« Le Congrès s'amuse mais il n'y a pas de quoi en faire un... Psychodrame »
that we translated in English for you :
[...] This is probably not the place to go into the details of these fascinating but difficult communications. While the very principle of psychodrama is accepted by all and the audience unanimously pays tribute to Jacob Levy Moreno, the pope of psychodrama, experts debate both the technique and the meaning of this therapy. Should improvisations be direct or give free rein to spontaneity? Can psychoanalysis and psychodrama be combined? Is psychoanalysis the culmination or negation of psychodrama? In short, does one have to be strictly Morenian, Adlerian, Rogerian or Freudian? Is psychodrama just an element of sociometry (measurement of group tendencies) or is sociometry just the basis of psychodrama?
These are questions - you will agree - that go beyond the scope of this modest account. On the evening of that day, we only recall its grandiose conclusion. Freud had discovered the forces of the individual unconscious. Jung emphasised the role of the collective unconscious. Moreno had succeeded in liberating the individual and collective consciousness.
And the audience took their leave to the cry of « Long live the third psychoanalytic revolution! »
- Dominique Jamet dans LE FIGARO LITTERAIRE – SEMAINE 3 AU 9 SEPTEMBRE 1964
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Filmed by French television, this fragment shows Dr. Moreno explaining the psychodrama he directed there. The occasion was the first International Congress of Psychodrama, which took place in Paris in September 1964. (Credits & Copyright : Sergio Guimaraes)
⇒ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwaVie3cBqc
