Psicodrama público: Por quê? Para quê?

Abstract

Through presenting fragments of the author’s directing work at the São Paulo Cultural Centre, this paper aims to reflect on the experiences of those attending these events, pointing out the similarities and differences between one-off acts and process. In terms of the similarities it shows that learning is offered to participants of both one-off acts and the process: learning on the individual, relational, cultural, social, political, ethical and aesthetical level. In terms of the differences between act and process, the paper points out that there is a need for both directors and users of this project to be co-responsible for the impact of this work, eliciting their inter-connected understanding of what is being worked with (the demand of the moment within the process), why to work with the identified issues, how to manage these in a sociodramatic manner, and whom does the autonomy and emancipatory knowledge serve, when we implement Moreno’s utopian ideas that lead to social transformation. All this turns the locus, the São Paulo Cultural Centre, into a socio-political clinic. In the final considerations the author reflects on whether psychodrama can be considered an ethical science? Through a critical approach to instrumental reasoning, she argues for the need to return to common sense, what used to be at the starting point of science.