Role Playing Psychodrama as a tool in Education Training materials - Module 5

Leonardo Da Vinci project – Transfer of Innovation

INDEX

1. Description of module and objectives ............................................................................ 3

2. Introduction to theory ..................................................................................................... 4

2.1. Definition ................................................................................................................ 4

2.2. Role definition ........................................................................................................ 5

2.3. Group definition ...................................................................................................... 9

2.4. Among role and group in psychodrama ................................................................ 12

2.5. Distinction between Role playing and psychodrama ............................................. 14

2.6. Methods and applicative contexts ......................................................................... 17

2.7. Application of these key theories in education ..................................................... 19

2.8. Educational Role-playing ...................................................................................... 20

2.9. The conductor’s role ............................................................................................. 23

2.10. Construction of a role-playing session .............................................................. 24

2.11. Setting construction and classroom learning ..................................................... 26

3. Exercises and examples of role playing ....................................................................... 28

3.1. Structured Role playing ........................................................................................ 28

THE FIRST DAY .................................................................................................................... 28

AN ORDINARY DAY .............................................................................................................. 29

HOW THE OTHER SEE ME .................................................................................................. 29

3.2. Example of semi-structured role playing ............................................................... 29

MY FUTURE .......................................................................................................................... 30

MY DOUBTS ......................................................................................................................... 30

EL THE BEAUTY AND THE UGLY ........................................................................................ 30

WHAT WILL BE ..................................................................................................................... 31

WHAT I WANTED TO SAY .................................................................................................... 31

I SAY IT TO MYSELF ............................................................................................................ 31

3.3. Non-structured Role playing ................................................................................. 32

4. Evaluation ................................................................................................................... 33

4.1. Questionnaire for the Conductor .......................................................................... 33

4.2. Learners Questionnaire ........................................................................................ 33

5. Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 34

5.1. English Bibliography ............................................................................................. 34

5.2. Italian Bibliography ............................................................................................... 34

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1. Description of module and objectives

This module, like the others already presented, is intended to give an overview of the theoretical and methodological background related to role playing. We discuss some distinctive aspects of role playing in psychodrama that characterize and differentiate it from the use of the technique in other training areas.

Initially the definitional aspects, are described and the main theoretical concepts that underlie the theoretical model of the main areas of application are discussed. The technique and methods to design and conduct role playing are then presented. Finally, examples are given of role playing that can be useful as a guide for application.

At the end of the module, VET educators will gain the theoretical knowledge useful to theoretically frame role playing and to define training needs that can be answered with a teaching unit that uses role playing.

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2. Introduction to theory

2.1. Definition

Role playing is perhaps the most used technique in the educational, pedagogical and clinic field with a “moreniana” derivation. It’s employed as an auxiliary technique by systemic, psychoanalytic, gestalt, cognitive-behavioural, psycho-sociological, professionals and others. The role playing used in a classical psychodrama context has meanings, functions and finalization different from those assumed in other contexts.

Moreno uses the term “psychodrama” referring to all action methods: role play, sociodramma, psychodrama, mimodrama. This has created some confusion and makes it more difficult to specifically define role play.

Moreno describes two meanings of role playing. The first refers to a specific process related to the learning process and to the development of roles in the individual (Schutzenberger, 1992).

The term role playing is used to point out both an educational technique and a development phase of the role. As an educational technique it is based on the putting into play, by the members of the group, specific roles of the professional or social area. As a stage of development of the role, role playing is set between role taking, that is the assumption of a role imposed by the social and organizational culture of belonging, and role creating, the creative and personalized transformation of a role.

In any case, role playing brings changes and transformations in respect to the role assigned because it relates the protagonist, through the action of the game, both with his inner world, and with the external one. In the words of Moreno:

“Each role presents itself as a fusion of individual and collective elements, and comes from two factors: its collective denominators and its individual differentiations. It may prove useful to distinguish: the assumption of the role (role taking), namely the fact of accepting a defined role, fully structured, that does not allow the subject to take the least freedom from the text; playing the role (role playing), which allows a certain degree of freedom; and the creation of the role (role creating), which leaves scope to the initiative of the subject, as occurs in the case of the spontaneous actor ". (Moreno, 1980, p. 76)

The assumption of a role (role taking) and playing a role (role playing) show a common origin; they are phases of the same process. In fact, the assumption of the role is not merely a cognitive process and the role play is not reduced to pure behavior. In the process of learning a role, cognitive, perceptual, behavioral and action elements cannot be separated cleanly.

Remember

The term role playing is used to indicate both a training technique and a phase of development of the role. As a training technique it is based on putting into play, by the members of the group, specific roles of the professional or social area.

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“Playing a role perceiving a role, playing a role and assuming a role are processes that go hand in hand in the first phase of learning and conditioning. In situ, are inseparable”. (Moreno, 1980, p. 81)

The second meaning of role playing refers to a specific educational technique. Moreno claims authorship of this technique, emphasizing its derivation from the language of theater. Playing a role can be considered a way to learn to support roles with greater adequacy. Role play is characterized therefore as a space for learning, where the role played is contrasted to the crystallized role. In this sense, role playing is the field of the development of spontaneity and of the meeting between the subjectivity and the socio-cultural mandate of the role.

Role playing is a strategy based on a reconstruction of a real situation in which learners are invited to impersonate organizational or social roles to develop relational and decision-making skills. Indeed S. Caparanico notes that "role playing is one of the active learning methods classified under the term simulation, which aims to miniaturize a real experience in a protected environment, based on a model that starts from reality itself” (Capranico, 1997p. 39).

Role playing is the spoken, acted and participated dramatization of communicative and interpersonal situations that can be experienced in real life, with an emphasis on the aspect of the role. The learner-actor, indeed, is not called to be himself but he is invited to play a character, an alter ego, a figure that will be affected by the personality of the "actor" but that will not totally identify itself with it. Role playing is therefore a playful technique that consists of representing a situation in which each of the actor-learners plays a role according to certain statements that may be more or less structured.

Role playing is educationally an active methodology because the passive acceptance of rules and instructions given by the teacher at the start is not enough. It requires from the student-actor, the active reworking of these. The primary point of interest of this methodology is undoubtedly that the role playing is not free from constraints but mediated by precise directions that the student-actor must still follow.

2.2. Role definition

To better understand what is meant by role in psychodrama, it is useful to analyse the concept.

The structural and dynamic unit underlined by the drama play, in which, like many partial elements, verbal, conceptual codes and codes expressed by sequences of images and actions, flow together, is called in psychodrama terminology the role: this term has a different and much more complex meaning then the one conferred on it by social psychology.

Role, in fact, means function that integrates, coordinates and articulates the set of ways in which an individual is related to a given class of situations and contexts.

Compared to the outside world the roles structure the way in which each interprets what he perceives and interacts with it.

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Moreno states that: "Assuming a role is the way the ego uses of being real and perceptible; the way of being and acting which the individual assumes when it reacts to a given situation, in which they are engaged with other people or objects”. (Moreno, 1965).

Among the roles can be distinguished : emerging roles, latent roles (which become operational much later in life: examples of this are certain professions undertaken later or certain interests that occur in old age); exceeded roles, and current roles.

Roles can also be divided into: psychosomatic roles (established from birth in the interaction with the mother, and that are reflected in the drink, eat, sleep, etc ...); social roles (father, mother, teacher); psychodramatic roles (the same social roles, as they are played on the stage of psychodrama); sociodramatic roles: ideas and collective experiences. In particular, it expresses the individual resonance of the socio-professional world or of a specific social group, in its externalization on the scene in the space of semi-reality; individual roles and collective roles. The role can then be managed adequately or inadequately, with flexibility or stiffness, in consonance or dissonance with the other roles, and so on.

Remember

"Assuming a role is the way the ego uses of being real and perceptible; the way of being and acting which the individual assumes when it reacts to a given situation, in which they are engaged with other people or objects”. Compared to the world inside the roles developed by each person during previous interactions with other people and with themelves, present as clear models of their own behavior and of the organized behavior of others, give them a sense, impulses, memory traces, images, representations, so that they can interact and present themselves to consciousness, as occurs in dreams, through a real inner theater. The dream, in the Jungian perspective, is considered as a "theater in which the dreamer is the scene, actor, prompter, director, author, critic and audience together" in which the "dream figures are personified traits of the personality of those who dream "(Jung 1916 to 1948).

Starting from this perspective, then recovered by Hillman (1983), in the Jungian concept not only dream, but also the inner fantasies, of everything that moves in the unconscious can be understood from the inside through a theatrical logic "if the viewer understands that it is his own drama that is being represented on the inner stage, he cannot remain indifferent to the plot or its dissolution, he will gradually realize that the actors follow one another , and that the plot thickens ... that is the unconscious that turns to him and makes these images appear in front of the imagination. He therefore feels forced, or is encouraged by his analyst, to take part in the play. " The roles are genuine mediators between both the inner and the outer world and the many aspects and levels of structure and integration present in each of the two worlds.

In Moreno’s theory it’s also essential to differentiate the concept from the two main meanings of role: role in the sociological sense and role in the theatrical sense. The sociological role refers especially to the concrete achievements of social roles, referring to cultural and social categories of representation of social life. A social role (eg: traffic warden, doctor) has certain pre-established boundaries, duties, penalties and status hierarchies etc., that are independent from the individual and from the person who has to assume this role. The role in the theatrical sense refers immediately to the concept of "mask", fiction and illusion. In this case we are talking about playing a role or part, not to be that role or part. In both cases, whether we speak of social role attributed to

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an individual, or we speak of playing a role, there is a separation between subjectivity and appearance. The specificity of Moreno’s contribution to the theory of the role concerns on the one hand the extension of the concept of role in all areas of human behavior, on the other hand, the connection to bodily, subjective-intrapsychic and social aspects.

Moreno defines the role as: "The operational form that the individual takes in the specific time when he is reacting to a specific situation in which other people or objects are involved" (Moreno, op. Cit., P. 158). To understand how the roles are interconnected with the individual and are not only an external overlap, it is necessary to think about the structuring function of the role for the personality. It is the ego that emerges from the roles and not vice versa. The direct experience of multiple roles by the newborn baby, structure a bodily, emotional perception which is subsequently representative of its self and its place in the world. The infant gradually experiences various roles, the sucker, the sleeper, the pampered, accepted or rejected, etc. and it will be the convergence and the body-emotional unification and representative of such experiences that will bring out the ego.

Furthermore, Moreno (1985) argues that: "Everyone lives in a world that seems to him totally private and personal, and in which he plays a number of private roles. But the millions of private worlds partly overlap. The major parts that overlap are the elements that are actually collective. Only minor parts are private and personal. Each role is therefore a fusion of private and collective; each role has two sides, one private and one collective. "Each role is a fusion of private and collective elements: the first belong to subjectivity, which in turn are determined by the experiences and the way in which each role takes shape according to those who play it; the second belong to the ideology, the expectations and social pressures that are poured into the role. In this sense it is evident that the ego develops through and owing to a significant penetration of the social in the individual.

Remember

The specificity of Moreno’s contribution to the theory of the role concerns on the one hand the extension of the concept of role in all areas of human behavior, on the other hand, the connection to bodily, subjective-intrapsychic and social aspects.

According to Moreno, mental life is organized through the gradual activation of those relational bipolarities identifiable in the pairing of role / counter-role.

"The role can be identified with the real and perceived forms that the self takes. Therefore we define the role as the operational form that the individual takes in the specific time in which he reacts to a specific situation in which other people or objects are implicated. The symbolic representation of this operational form, perceived by the individual and the other, is called role. "The counter-role is the complementary role with which an individual interacts when he takes a particular role. For example, if the role is a husband, the counter-role will be his wife.

Another assumption of fundamental role in psychodrama is the "auxiliary ego." This is a person of the group that plays at a certain time of the psychodramatic action, a role of another significant character ……of the relational world (and/or professional) or of the inner world of the protagonist (= the person who is at that moment at the centre of the action).

For example, in a situation of supervision, an educator (the protagonist) will represent the relationship difficulties with a disabled boy. In this situation, other members of the group can become auxiliary-egos, assuming the roles of the other "significant characters": the disabled boy's

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mother, the colleague, the manager of the facility, but also internal characters such as the father of the educator himself, whose internal presence determines the experiences and attitudes of the educator towards the disabled boy.

Remember

The '"auxiliary-ego" is a person of the group who in psychodramatic action play the role of another significant character of the relational world or of the inner world of the protagonist. The auxiliary-ego may also represent symbolic or imaginary parts: for example in the previous case, it can become the "sense of duty of the educator", or the sense of "weight on his shoulders" that the educator physically gets from the relationship with the disabled person. The auxiliary-ego therefore has the function of making perceptible and visible (and therefore subject to interaction and discussion) the other characters real and imaginary that populate the experience of the protagonist.

The auxiliary-ego, from the point of view of the director, serves as extension of the therapeutic or training intentionality; on the other hand the auxiliary-ego takes the role of protection from the transposition of transference attributes on the conductor. In psychodrama indeed, the transfer is acted on the auxiliary-ego, not on the therapist or trainer.

The role involves a relationship with others within a specific situation: if there were nothing else but us, a role could not be assumed.

Moreno identifies four categories of roles that later overlap in the development of the human being:

1. Psychosomatic roles (bodily): they are the first to emerge in child development. They are all those roles that affect bodily functions (eating, sleeping, proprioceptive sensations, etc.);

2. Ghost-like or psychodramatic roles: begin to appear early when the representative life of the child is first structured. They are those roles related to the inner world of the person and encapsulate the imaginary and emotional uniqueness of every human being (the role of "obedient child" or naughty , the dreamer, magical, imaginary roles of fairies and witches, devouring ghosts and dream images ...);

3. Social roles: appear experientially at birth (in fact a baby already lives the social role of the child even if he is not aware of it), but their representative internal structure (intended as the ability to perceive individuals as belonging to social groups) is given at the beginning of elementary school. They are those roles that belong to the society in which the individual lives and develops. They are culturally and socially encoded (roles of child, parent, male or female, work etc ...). To further clarify: if we talk about the parent (his role, his duties) we refer to a social role; if we speak about a specific parent, conceptualized and interpreted by a single individual, we refer to a role of psychodrama.

4. Value-roles (or transcendental): They appear and have their emotional explosion during adolescence (elective time for dreams, illusions, projects and “philosophy of life”). The value-roles express the sense and aim of human beings: they are the container that directs life through hierarchies of values, utopias and existential planning. Value-roles are strongly related to both psychodramatic roles and social roles: on one hand they represent the existential specificity of the

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individual (his values), on the other hand they are also the product of social representations (for example, the role of educator brings with it a host of value meanings such as: helping others and fixing what is not right, etc ...).

Roles in psychodrama are the expression of relationships that make up the personal self and allow one to occupy a place in the relational networks in which each time the person finds themselves living and directs the construction of the meanings of the experiences that we make of ourselves and the world.

In their somatic and social dimension, roles contain many traces of which we have no awareness either because they are genetically preset , or through cultural codes that are structured in the individual without being aware of them. They are activated at every encounter with reality with a directing strength that prevails over all other possibilities. The person has then to carry out actions primarily expected and compatible with the existing models, without being able to search for a sense, as it is difficult to pursue the ability to perceive with objectivity (ie without emotional influences from the shadow or the unconscious part) and to develop human intentional relations.

When the person asks himself about the significance and meaning of his life, to understand the complexity and seek the possibility of transcending the meanings given, the ability of the imagination of the psyche exerts its creativity questioning its own foundations through training and the exploration of images that is gradually building and that are offering space for new gestalt, which are sometimes strongly evocative.

From the interweaving of these facets of the roles, especially in those aspects that are most affected by unconscious emotions that are acted out, and from the tension that is created between the roles, new meanings emerge on their own life experience.

The social dimension, the somatic dimension and size imagined of the roles are linked by a circular relationship: the imagined size draws on the social dimension and on the somatic one to develop new potential inherent in human nature by breaking with the predetermined meanings. The social dimension like the somatic one, contain impersonal psychic aspects and sanction the belonging to a cultural and emotional environment. From another side, they make affirmation and personal development difficult. Both dimensions are transformed by the imagined dimension, giving rise to new synthesis that may subsequently fall into rigid plans and back into the circle of knowledge to find their expressive and transformative skills (Casca, 1992).

2.3. Group definition

Role playing is focused on the process, therefore, on doing and feeling: what is on stage is the individual in his relationship with the others, with the group. The group is also the audience who watch with the function of giving feedback in relation to the objectives, roles and situations established. The action and observation are balanced because it is a concrete simulated experience which follows reflexive observation through the analysis of what was represented. This allows the next step, that is the essential transfer from simulation to reality: from the fictional group being portrayed to the actual group to which one belongs. During the performances, which are always an abstraction of reality, the "as if" of the game, the polarization is on the needs of the individual and on the emotional aspects that emerge. This would involve some level of risk, which is contained by the frame of the nonjudgmental attitude.

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The group is the setting for human excellence, the place where the individual encounters himself and others like himself, the one in which he lives, develop skills, knowledge and ability. Within it relationships are born and grow which range from attractions, sometimes repulsion, or indifference. The status of belonging is inevitably conditioned by their own choice and from the desirability that the group exerts on the subject. For example, the spontaneous groups that gather around an interest, such as going on a journey or attending a meeting, give off an invisible force that somehow is related to the expectation of meeting like minded-people which creates a feeling of belonging . It is a natural tendency that leads people to need a social location that enriches their identity through collective roles, which in turn represent that part of the world that everyone carries within himself. Thus the "fathers" and "mothers" are the pillars of education, as are the "leaders" for the history of organizations and management ( ). A group is a set of interdependent people who pursue a common goal, and within which there are psychological mutual relations, explicit or implied. Another more general definition, is that "a group is a set of people who interact with each other influencing each other." In order for this mutual influence to be perceived, it is necessary that the team does not exceed 15-20 units (which is why we often speak of the "small group"). The philosopher J. P. Sartre (1970) adds that a juxtaposition of individuals, understood as a grouping, a set of people, is not a group. To make it a group three conditions are needed:

1. A common interest;

2. Direct communication with feedback;

3. A "praxis", namely a common action to achieve a certain shared goal or revolt against other groups.

Is possible to provide a classification of different types of group using the following criteria: size, composition, constitution, aims, position in society, formal or informal. If we consider the size, the groups can be classified into small, medium and large. If we consider the composition, the groups can be homogeneous and heterogeneous depending on the considered variables (age, sex, ethnicity, occupation, etc ...). The objectives are possible: some to be shared by all members, others not; they may be clear to the whole group or only to some members. If we consider the position in society, a group can be in accordance with social norms or inconsistent. The official or unofficial character is also defined in social psychology as formal or informal. When identifying groups according to how they are constituted, the reference is to natural groups (family, neighborhood, district), artificial or occasional groups (meetings, training groups, missions), durable groups (offices, associations, gangs, classes).

The group performs three major psychological functions: integration, security and regularization. The isolated individual is more fragile than an individual integrated in a group. The latter is a matrix that gives the individual a security key: on the one side the ability to be himself, on the other, the ability to change (you can be someone just for someone else). In fact, a group allows an individual to look at himself in the social "mirror" and compare his self-image, often devalued in our competitive society, to the image of himself for others and consequently feel good about himself.

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On the other hand a united cohesive group, has the tendency to give importance to its life and tends therefore, to perpetuate its existence.

In psychodynamic terms a group is defined as a mental organization, a psychic operator, a feeling of belonging, and a shared past and, at the same time also a complex network of psychic relations between people to observe from a cognitive and phenomenological point of view.

An important contribution to the study of "group dynamics" was given by K. Lewin (1948). This term refers to both the specific knowledge of the small groups and the laws that govern it, as well as the method of intervention aimed at changing attitudes of the individuals in the group and of the groups and of the physiognomy of the group itself.

K. Lewin stressed the fact that a person is within his environment and that we must therefore take into account all the factors that have influence on it. From here the notion of field, defined as "the totality of coexisting facts which are conceived as mutually interdependent. Psychology must conceive the living space, including the person and its environment, as a single field. "

The dynamic personal fields constitute the elements of the group field. The other elements are the different roles, channels of communication, the way in which the group is directed, the rules, the group's values, the goals to be achieved, actions carried out and the different economic, social, cultural, ideological factors that determine its reactions to the environment. All these elements of the social field of the group are interdependent, so much so that the modification of one bring the alteration of the others.

The main concepts of Lewin’s theory are as follows: 1. the living space which consists of a person surrounded by a psychological environment;

2. the person is differentiated into two regions: perceptual-motor and internal-personal, the latter divided into a group of peripheral cells and central cells;

3. also the psychological environment is divided into regions;

4. the living space is surrounded by an external fund that is part of the non-psychological or objective environment;

5. the regions of the person and the environment are separated by borders which have the property of being permeable;

6. the regions of the living space are interconnected so that a fact of a region can influence a fact of another. This influence between two facts is called event;

7. it is said that the regions of the environment are connected when the person can make a move among the regions themselves;

8. it is said that the regions of the person are connected when they are in communication with each other.

Having focused on the strengths rather than individual components brings about two important consequences in the understanding of a group:

- It is a body in motion, that under the influence of emotional factors, beliefs, values, ethical forces makes a series of choices, objectives or otherwise falls back on errors and inefficiency, but nonetheless is always in relation to vectors of emotions and feelings;

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- It is an area of operations, a place crossed by numerous trails, a site of encounters, an interweaving and comparison of these forces.

2.4. Among role and group in psychodrama

In the works of Moreno (and psychodrama in the tradition that most directly relates to him) it is persistently emphasized from the beginning the importance of group dimension. As written by J. Pundik (1969): "The man is a social being. He is born in the womb of a human group, he grows up within it, he learns from the group what its traditions and its norms of coexistence pass on (...) he is a member of groups, organizations, associations. He is a citizen of a community and is subject to its destinies. These concepts, which are now common currency, were not taken into account when Moreno burst onto the scene (...) he set out to create a science of group, of the work of groups, of causes and consequences within groups, between individuals and between groups (...) Moreno (...) invites people to encounter." Psychodrama is therefore an experience lived in group: of group, through the group and with the group.

The most superficial level of analysis originates in direct comparison through the multiplicity of codes activated as much verbal as impressed in perceptual-motor models of each of the group members. The ways in which the protagonist, those he calls to impersonate the other parts and the spectators, act and perceive the situation, in the different versions of the same scene, due to the change of roles of the actors, introduce a plurality of alternative points of view. These allow the examination of the event in relation to its different possible meanings, to the affections evoked by it in the different stakeholders and with respect to the adequacy of the role to the context, to its complexity, differentiation and integration in the overall personality of the protagonist.

But, simultaneously, psychodrama affects a deeper level: a thorough examination of the findings in each group for a certain length of time underline in fact a triple correspondence:

1) In the group everyone assumes and/or attributes to others some current roles, both in the way of presenting oneself and of interacting , as well as through images that, telling or dramatizing certain parts of the self they bring to the group.

2) The network of current roles reflects and is reflected by the network of ones own roles and those of others which formed the relations of the personal history of each.

3) The first and the second network of interpersonal roles also reflect and correspond to the network of intrapersonal roles of each participant. These can be understood both as parts of oneself, not involved in relating to the outside world, and sometimes attributed to others, but not recognized as one’s own, or as independent complexes or as functions or elements which make up the psyche, like the shadow and animus in the Jungian perspective. The played scene is as it were, that which puts into focus the relationships between these three polarities: the here and now of the group, which has emerged through the choices made by each member, underlines through how they personify their parts, clarified and modulated through the pasts subsequently expressed, plays (and is interpreted through) the elsewhere and then of the scenes played. The building process of the current ways of being (interpersonal or intrapersonal) can be historically reconstructed from the combining and crystallizing of one’s own or other’s roles which presented themselves during the past existence and, at the same time, to this past history, relocated by the game into the horizon of the present, new meanings are given, as many as are interpreted by the

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participants. The internal or intrapersonal roles show then through the scenes proposed, mainly those concerning dreams, but also scenes of reality as the intrapersonal roles determine the way in which everyone sees, understands, interprets other people important to him. The intrapersonal roles are those attributed to other outside the self: the characters of past history evoked and group members called to represent them. In the series of psychodramatic games the protagonist repossess them, recognizing them as their own parts, through the change of roles or identifying himself with the parties that, in turn, the other group members attribute to him. In each session, the dramatic play can reveal only some of the many strands of the plot that continually weaves, edits, dissolves, reweaves between the inter and intrapersonal parties of those present. (Gasca, 1992).

Remember

The matrix is an area in which the person develops encounters, acts roles and counter-roles that will determine his typical characteristics operating in relation to others. They are given by both the relational methods that everyone carries within themselves, and from how the dynamics of the role and counter- role are acted in the here and now of the experience.

In psychodrama, the experience of a member of the group, the protagonist, becomes in the eyes of the group the expression of a collective problem, it is a feeling of group in which the needs of the individual merges with the feeling of belonging to a group and possibility of creating their own destiny.

The group then in psychodrama is conceived in two perspectives: the first as a positive container of needs, desires and anxieties of its members; the second as the composite soil of telic relations (or not telic) constantly moving and evolving.

Therefore it is necessary to continuously operate at two levels: on the one hand to build a group that "contains" its members; on the other hand to work, especially with the help of sociometric techniques, to make transparent and subject to modification and positive evolution the relations between the individual members of the group.

In the process of group different matrixes created through the encounter among role and counter-role gradually emerge. Matrixes for Moreno are a "locus nascendi”, made up of places and spaces formed in relational terms. It is an area in which the person develops encounters, acts roles and counter-roles that will determine his typical operating characteristics in relation to others. They are given by both the relational modality that everyone carries within himself, and from how the dynamics of the role and counter-role are acted in the here and now of the experience. They are the following:

Group matrix or sociometric matrix: the constraint structures of a group that may arise with sociometry. It also expresses the cultural, normative, value and symbolic characteristics of a particular group. In this sense it includes the concept of group co-unconscious.

Matrix of identity: both at a stage of development and at a level of Psychodramatic participation. As stage of development, it indicate the time when the child evolves from the maternal matrix, experiencing dynamic fusion/individuation, through the relationship with the maternal counter-role, which primarily performs the function of the mirror. In psychodrama, when dealing with a

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scene related to the developmental stage of the matrix of identity or a scene characterized by fusion/detection dynamic, the level involved is the matrix of identity.

Family matrix: it is both at a stage of development and a level of psychodrama intervention. As a stage of development it is placed after the matrix of identity, and is marked by the evolution from duality (mother figure/child) to triangularity. In psychodrama the level of the family matrix is worked on when processing scenes related to the development or related to issues of triangularity or of the function of the third party (paternal).

Mother matrix: it is both a stage of development and a level of psychodrama intervention. The maternal matrix is the first phase of development of being and is characterized by the fusional and nutritious relationship with the mother figure. It temporary overlaps with Freud’s oral phase. In psychodrama the mother matrix is involved when processing scenes related to this stage of development or related to themes of dependence and functionality.

Social matrix: indicates both a stage of development and a level of psychodrama intervention. As stage of development it is placed after the family matrix and is characterized by the importance of the development of social skills outside the family and the internalization of social roles of the culture to which the child belongs. In psychodrama when processing scenes related to this stage of development, or related to the topic of the integration between socio-cultural and psychodrama roles, the level of the social matrix is involved. In this sense the intervention coincides with the work at the sociodramatic level.

A matrix of values: indicates both a stage of development and a level of psychodrama intervention. The matrix of values is later than the social matrix and covers the period of puberty and adolescence. It is distinguished by a comparison with the values of one’s culture and the search for personal identity. In psychodrama the level of a matrix of values is involved when processing scenes related to this stage of development, or related to the topic of value and the search for identity.

2.5. Distinction between Role playing and psychodrama

There is often confusion between the terms role playing and psychodrama, because both these experiences are linked by the presence of a certain play or scenic action. Is necessary to define what distinguishes role playing and make it different from psychodrama.

The main difference is the level of deep involvement of the participants. Catharsis, the intense emotional experience belongs to psychotherapy and not to training and education. On the other hand, role play can produce even deeply felt emotional resonance. In role-playing, typical social and professional situations are proposed, with the aim of training or creating awareness of the problems, while in psychodrama the subject plays real or traumatic situations of his life.

In psychodrama there is a protagonist who is staging his inner world, with the help of auxiliary egos. The auxiliary egos are chosen by the protagonist, on the basis of subjective criteria often unconscious, to be the site of projection of ghosts, and opportunity for the realization of desire. They may have secondary therapeutic benefits in acting the role of auxiliary egos, but they do not choose the type of role to act. In role playing, instead there is not a protagonist, but only one chance to "put into action", an initial theme that will result in the scenic action. There may possibly be a focus on one or more roles, on which attention is concentrated (eg. the role of teacher or parent); all the roles in the game, however, are taken into account. In role-playing group members have the opportunity to choose the role they want to act. From this point of view, in role playing,

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there are many players who, playing a role, interpret a part of themselves (desired or feared) or a part of the other (known or unknown). The action and the analysis of the

experience will foster important insight in each participant. In parallel to this personal insight, it also produces an insight of the group, following the comparison of different experiences, leading to the reformulation of the problem which was the start of the role play.

Role playing is suitable at various stages of the training process, because of its dual ability to engage the group around a central theme and to allow a personal emotional learning for each participant. Role playing can be proposed from two different situations.

Real situation proposed by an operator. Role-playing, in this case, allows you to shift the emphasis from the one who poses the problem (subjective view), to the overall relations (systemic or global view).

Built or symbolic situation. Role playing in this second case allows to actively deepen the understanding of a specific professional problem integrating emotional data of experience with those obtained from the rational analysis of the context.

A typical example of role playing is the invention of the case: Participants build together an emblematic case, which reflects the work experience common to the group. Characters are introduced (eg. the psychologist, the social worker, the manager, a patient, family members, etc.) and a specific situation. From here a role play is developed in which all or part of the members of the group will play a role.

Whether there are observers or whether all participants are involved as actors in the role-playing game, it is important that they meet the psychodrama criteria. In particular it is necessary to pay attention to the clear alternation of moments in semi-reality and moments of reality. Because of this the scenic action should not be intertwined with interpretive, educational or cultural-general intervention. Equally important is to predict, at the end of the role-playing game, a moment of communication of the emotional experience by actors and observers. This time must be clearly separated from the subsequent theoretical, cultural or operational elaboration by the group. Much the same has to be done about the alternation of interdependent relationships and interpersonal relationships. An interdependent dynamic between roles on stage can be allowed to develop into role playing (unlike in psychodrama), without the handler immediately stepping in with particular techniques (eg. Role reversal, double, mirror). It must be clear, however, that such an interdependent dynamic is granted only in the space of semi-reality of role playing and during the communication of the experience will be restored an intersubjective relationship.

The table below summarizes the differences and the common points of the two techniques presented so far:

Role playing Psychodramma

Is applied in a group context (actors - a group that participates in observing)

It is applied in a group context (protagonist - the public - "auxiliary ego")

In contrast to the real situation, the process that develops in the role-playing game will not have consequences in real life (simulation)

In psychodrama, instead, the relationships can become "real."

Actors follow a "part" focusing on the characteristics and behavioral patterns of the

The character follows and play according to his personal inclinations, staging his

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role, avoiding however attitudes too "acted” inner world

Subject of role playing, meant as an exercise, it is the dramatization here and now of role behavior

Subject of psychodrama is the personality of the subject

Learning objective

Therapeutic target

As underlined also by Lai (1973) role playing presents substantial differences in the actual practice of trainers and clinical. The following are the main changes in applications.

Conduction - The role of the conductor in some cases is almost absent; he is out of the scene and lets the game develop spontaneously in some sort of not-structured encounter. The presence of the conductor varies in other cases with a more active role in one or more steps of the activity: game preparation, scene and final processing/interpretation.

Scene - For some the space of representation must be clearly separated from that of the discussion; for others scene and discussion (or interpretation) are intertwined.

Type of meanings attributed to role playing - The scene played is considered in some cases like a dream, to be deciphered and interpreted. In some cases the function of symbolic communication of the scene, is emphasized; in others the focus is on the analysis of social/institutions roles and their interactive dynamic or their suitability or functionality.

Interpretive reading - There are significant variations in the use of interpretation: centered on the individual, or group-centered. Also in relation to the group role playing is sometimes evaluated in terms of systemic dynamics; in other cases, we focus on an interpretation of the ghost common to the experience of all participants. In the most instructional contexts, interpretation relates more to the adequacy of the role to the situational or institutional context.

The group and the observers – Some consider that in role play all members of the group participate. Others believe that is an important part for the participants to maintain a role of external observer. The audience in this case represents the context to which the actors on stage send the picture of the role and from whom they receive answers that feed the relational circuit. Differences also emerge in the management of the verbalizations by the group. In some contexts interpretive or evaluative intervention on other members of the group are granted; in others, the focus is on the personal experience of the individual; in others still, role play is an opportunity for theoretical elaborations or operational proposals.

The representation of the protagonist: the character plays out "his own history". He can spontaneously recite what he feels or, through the stimulation of the director, use some techniques. One of the most important things to use during a psychodrama session is the technique of role reversal. It is based on the principle that, to be able to see and understand what is on the other side you have to get into it. Here some exercises to perform it: - The family atom in which the protagonist brings on stage the relationship he has with his family and the people important to him; - The social atom in which the protagonist brings on stage the different roles he plays in his personal and social life; - The technique of the empty chair in which the protagonist is in front of an empty chair and first talks about what he feels and then passes into the empty chair, speaking in the place

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of the person with whom he wants to enter into a relationship, putting himself in their shoes. At the end of the dialogue the protagonist and the other person say goodbye leaving each other a message. During the performance a catharsis can occur, a moment in which the protagonist lives his own history so intensely that he can express even by crying or through another way, his having completely identified with the role; this can lead to understanding how, while psychodrama is a group therapy, the one who is personally involved in the first person is the subject/protagonist.

The participation of the audience: what the protagonist plays stirs something in the group, such that at the end of the performance everyone who wishes to can go behind the back of the main character and tell how he felt, trying to report it by words or mime gestures. The members of the group, even during the performance of the protagonist, actively participate in the experience both as auxiliary-ego (chosen by the protagonist to assume the role of real or imaginary people in his life), as well as being involved by what is happening and is brought on scene.

2.6. Methods and applicative contexts

Role playing has its place at various stages of the training process, because of its dual ability to engage the group around a central theme and to allow at the same time an emotional individualized learning process for each participant. The action and the analysis of the experience will foster important insight into each participant. In parallel to this personal insight, it also produces an insight of the group, following the comparison of different experiences, leading to the reformulation of the problem which was the starting point role play. The objectives for which role playing is usually used are:

To train: to give instructions on how to perform certain work tasks, for example in a course for a sales personnel , the sale of a product can be may be staged and the customer-seller interaction simulated.

To select and examine: Candidates can be assessed during the selection process based on the behavior shown in scenarios of organizational life. Alternatively a verification of certain skills can be organized through the staging of a particular phase of work. This is especially useful to test skills and abilities related to know-how and knowing how to be.

To animate: It can be used as a method of pedagogical animation, in order to liven up teaching and increase participation in the lessons.

To educate: in order to work with the group class on the axis of knowing how to be, trying to bring out the experiences, attitudes, values and personal representations related to the function of role specific to a profession. In this case the interest is directed to less prescriptive and more personal aspects, that allow not only the role and behavioral rules to emerge, but also the person.

In the first two cases we are mostly facing structured role playing, quite rigid and prescriptive. In the latter case, instead, the role playing is less structured, closer to improvisation.

The following table summarizes the technique of role playing:

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IL ROLE PLAYING

Where

Role playing can be used in seminars, tutorials, training courses. Especially in the case of role play involving the participants, it is necessary to consider the need to develop a group environment that allows the person to feel comfortable and free to express themselves. The physical environment does not require any special features other than to give enough space to move, while ensuring confidentiality.

Who

Role play can be aimed at many different types of people according to the context and the objective to be achieved; within the setting there is also the trainer and possibly an assistant, a person who helps the trainer in leadership, observation, recording what happens and who, having gained experience, can impersonate specific roles (antagonist, double, ...).

How

Four main stages in role play can be identified : - Warming up: This phase includes all those techniques (short sketches and skits, interviews, discussions ...) designed to "warm up" the environment, to create, if missing , a welcoming atmosphere. There can also be a phase of cluster warming up in which the participants are divided into subgroups. - Action/Game: is the stage of the actual game between the actors. It can include techniques such as role-reversal, twice (the server is placed behind the actor and tries to give voice to what the actor does not seem to be able to express. It is a support function). - Cooling off: opposed to warming up, this phase is used to exit from the roles and the game; it is . used to regain distance. - Analysis/Eco of the group/sharing: role playing provides learning opportunities related, primarily, at the time of the staging of the drama, due to the involvement that is stimulated; Second, the chances for learning are connected at the time of review, discussion, analysis of what happened: words, gestures, posture, attitudes, and of that which is said and that which is left unsaid.

The existence of the last phase of analysis depends on the presence of several converging factors such as: a group that performs the function of the container, the ability and motivation of the participants to get involved, the ability of the trainer to understand at what level of involvement of the interpretations it is appropriate to stop. Each interpretation not required or that can’t be tolerated by the participants will induce defenses and could be less useful for the success of the process stimulated during the session of role. Role playing can be a source of change, but for this to occur, it must be recognized that there is a dysfunction in the current practices of behavior and to be able to create new patterns; this is done through the establishment of a cooperative, relaxed, friendly atmosphere.

Summing up the purpose of this technique, its application allows you to:

develop the ability to communicate and manage interpersonal relations; improve the skills of listening and understanding the viewpoints of others; know how to observe and analyze the behavior of others; develop the ability to mediate; produce strategies to face real and complex situations.

Role playing has an effect both on the emotional and cognitive aspect, “on the knowing, on the know- how and the knowing how to be” (Quaglino, 1985).

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The limit of the technique, especially when the setting is non-structured, could be the inadequate training of the conductor, who needs to be very skilled and capable of correcting at the appropriate time, any un- suitable behaviors of the participants; moreover, the use this experiential technique in situations of limited socialization among members of the group, may be counterproductive and block/inhibit learning (Capranico, 1997).

One of the main advantages however, is to lead participants to a flexible understanding of behavior, stimulating learning both through a commitment to play a certain role, as well as by observing the behavior of others and through feedback.

2.7. Application of these key theories in education

Role playing has been used in the educational field since the Second World War in the US programs of military training for instructors. In the 50’s it was introduced in companies in the English-speaking world and is currently practiced with success in management education, in courses that introduce new roles, roles which are difficult from the point of view of human relationships (eg .: educators, health workers, etc ...), delicate roles in the front office and in sales roles. But psychodrama role-playing takes on specific characteristics. Training through role playing is in any case a powerful stimulus for change. One of the major indicators of the success of the training, in fact, is the motivation which is common amongst the participants. However, the latter is almost never entirely at a level of consciousness. Change is always difficult, painful and often not immediately perceived as a process that provides a great deal of advantages. In most cases this is due to the fact that participants are afraid to give up their experiences and having to go through the steps particularly critical to change again. In addition, change is often required by the organization or by the social context, which does not always take into account the conflicts that arise between the personal needs and those of the same organization or community. An example of this would be a group of parents participating in a sociodrama on their educational role. One of the personal needs will undoubtedly be to safeguard as much as possible one’s own behaviour, which in turn is the results of one’s experience as a child, as well as to learn and to propose an educational model that is on the one hand compatible with those proposed by society and on the other with that of one’s own family system. In general it is quite unlikely that a parent will want to share his emotions with others; the solitude of a mother or a father faced with difficulties is often a well-known condition, frequently it is also associated with the fear of being judged by others, and the fear of seeing one’s own sense of inadequacy reflected by the others. But the need to preserve one’s role often leads to closure and isolation rather than a display in front of others. Already this is a clear manifestation of a conflict. In the modern society in which we live the multiplicity of available information, which is not always entirely consistent, suggests on equal terms, completely different models. Permissiveness against severity, tolerance against social judgment, integration against racism, emotions against tangible goods.... The problem is that there is no "best" model without taking into account social needs, the needs of the cultural context and of the surrounding environment. This is a collective problem that can be faced by the entire collectivity because it becomes itself the main source of appropriate response, without one necessarily take an antithetical form to the other. The same thing happens thinking of the role of educators, teachers, social workers, nurses, doctors, and so on. There are issues for which a clash is inevitable with the collective problems of the role for which it is indispensable to reflect in order to work better. The socio-educational environment is the area in which people whose job It is to care for other people, work, in a completely or partially structured way. Whether they are children, students or patients, they are in a

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state of temporary or permanent disadvantage. "What is being proposed as an" intervention "is basically about three different objectives: learning in order to shorten as much as possible the distance to the collective culture, rehabilitation from a state of uneasiness to a state of social ease, acceptance of a status of disadvantage with a range of tools available that limit the condition of marginalization due to the size of the difference. The care of others is therefore a condition of "social advantage" that tends to promote growth in order to eliminate or minimize hardship determined by the disadvantage of others. It's clear and absolutely inevitable that all this involves the presence of an introspective level of acute awareness and, particularly to prevent one’s own private world from entering in a disruptive and interfering way in the private world of he who actually needs to be "guided". For this reason, sharing, looking at the problem from different points of view and its processing are the priorities for the development of the social role. Role-playing presents itself as a tool and not as a model, as a technique and not as a medicine, as a protected area by subjectivity and not as the bearer of absolute truths. We are faced with the need to facilitate the encounter of all those private worlds that overlap in becoming a "collective", without the threat of open and unmanaged conflict taking over "(Zanardo, 2007).

2.8. Educational Role-playing

Educational role playing allows those who take part, to act as if they were in a situation that is meaningful and then sift through their performances with the trainer and the group. The advantage of its application is in the fact that, in contrast to the real situation, the process that develops in the role-playing game in real life will have no consequences.

Training can be triggered either by structured role playing, a model mostly used in training, conducted with the use of statements on the situation and roles to play, either through a non-structured role or free, with a focus on the personal aspects and character brought by the participants during the interpretation of roles. In the case of a non-structured session some spaces of freedom and creativity will be left to the participants; In fact, the group will be able to choose the topics that it directly perceives as most important.

The instructions in role play are the canvas and the student/actor has the maximum freedom of expression provided it meets the role and instructions. Antonio Calvani, referring to the central idea of constructivism, which "at the center is placed the construction of the meaning, emphasizing the active, polysemic nature, which can’t be determined in this activity" (Calvani, 2001; p. 41) confirms how it is possible to notice the veracity for the method of role playing in which "the actor-student must adapt to their role in accordance with the information required but can choose according to their own categories his own interpretative line, putting it into question with the class and developing a learning that becomes more significant "(Calvani, 2001; p.41).

Role playing encourages cooperation. In fact, the cooperation is what makes "the game" materially successful. If communication does not take place on the stage and if attention is not paid to the relationship with others, it undermines the very essence of the transaction. The teacher does not have to insist on the need to cooperate because the need to lean on the drama partner flows directly from the reality of the "game" and becomes valuable in itself without the need of explanation by the teacher.

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Another fundamental quality lies within the ability of role playing to give body and movement to those situations and contents that in a reading, in a listening or in a video segment may appear as essentially static and thus, less attractive and engaging .

Through role playing, the student is helped to penetrate complex systems and is encouraged to ask questions to others and to himself, which perhaps would not have emerged with only the reading of a text or listening.

It’s useful to keep in mind that, before starting the exercise, you need to identify to which depth you want to lead the group. Below is a table showing the different levels of intensity, opening and processing during the game:

First level

Pedagogical animation

Second level

Structured Role playing

- by chance - following instructions on the roles

Third level

Non-structured Role playing

-on third party Roles or invented -on one’s own role (actually covered)

Fourth level

Psychodramma - about oneself as a person with other protagonist played

Table from Capranico S., 1997, p.49

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Participants who function as "actors" will be assigned some "parts/instructions" in which their role will be defined in the situation that is to be re-created; everyone will receive a scenario that defines the context in which the action takes place. It is essential that each "actor" studies his "part" in an autonomous and independent way. Each performer will have to act (speaking), not so much according to his own inclinations, but more according to the personality of the characters described in the individual instructions. While the "actors" will investigate the "parts", the other members of the group, with the conductor, will formulate hypotheses about which aspects of the play should be observed, and in view of which results, even through the use of grids of observation and detection cards. The latter, for example, can be formed by a series of questions to which observers can respond when the game is finished on behaviors, attitudes, or on which they can take note of any concerns or questions on the conduct of the session.

At the end of the preparation phase, we proceed with the staging of the situation, which may or may not include a first warming phase through short sketches or other exercises to "warm up" the group spirit. During the action, the trainer can also intervene with some techniques such as the "reversal of roles" that allows amplification of the identification process.

After the drama, and after deciding whether or not to spend time at the so-called cooling off or closing of the game, both players and observers are able to assess what happened. Through stimulation provided by the trainer, that can be even a simple question like, "What happened?", there can develop a dialectic between roles or between individuals in order to comment on what happened. In this case, the trainer must create adequate spirit and conditions to allow the development of the analytical work; one way would be to give a voice to those who have just finished playing as he is still within the character (for example, asking "How did you feel in the role?", "what impressions do you have?"), later the observer’s comments are included , and the interpretations of the conductor are also expressed.

A video recording can be used of what happens in role playing. Through the use of a camera it is possible to have the content of the entire interpretation. For the purposes of training it is important that the recording permits the analysis of the salient points of the game. The advantage of recording is the opportunity to listen to and review the game, focusing on details that during the real performance, observers hadn’t noticed, commenting analytically the unfolding action. The use of video recordings is attractive to students because it creates a sort of "TV effect" but unlike television - which excludes the viewer relegating him to a passive role - in this case, the students move actively within the process.

The self-criticism that the learner makes not of himself but of his performance, is active, something which is milder and educationally meaningful if the criticism is not moved in a unidirectional way by the teacher as it would be unwelcome or rejected by the student.

One of the disadvantage could be due to the fact that being aware of being recorded may take spontaneity away from the "actors" inhibiting their expression, or it could

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trigger a " escape into detail ," that would be misleading since the observers could linger in a micro-analysis without taking into account the combination of actions. A method to overcome the latter problem could be to take note of the precise minutes corresponding to moments considered to be salient by the trainer, so as to revise exclusively those points.

One of the advantages unanimously recognized in the technique of role play is to break with the inevitable monotony of traditional teaching. It is known that in a lesson, after about 45 minutes, the index of attention of the listener, whatever the subject matter, tends to decrease. Role-playing and more generally active methods, help to overcome the "curve of monotony" in an effective way because it implies active involvement.

In addition, during role-play, a playful, practical and concrete spirit is established which compensate the theoretical aspects previously treated and often confirms them.

The index of learning inevitably increases because the listening, together with the acting, improve the effectiveness of what has been learned and its retention.

Finally, as a "game", role playing has an intrinsic motivational value which Johan Huizinga argues that "[...] limits and makes free. It attracts interest. It fascinates, that is, it enchants. It is full of the noblest qualities that humans can recognize in things and themselves: rhythm and harmony "(Huizinga, 1973; p. 52). Compared to the holistic character of the ludic experience, the psychologist Donald Walcott says, "it is playing, and is only in playing that the individual, child or adult, is able to be creative and to use all his personality "(Walcott in Bruner & Alii, 1981; p. 125).

2.9. The conductor’s role

It can be said that leading role playing is not synonymous with teaching as the trainer is not a teacher and should not assume a position of superiority over students; he does not present himself as a "container of knowledge" to be transferred to the listener but, putting himself in a symmetrical position in respect to the participants, stimulate the thinking and directs the group in situations of impasse. The trainer can conduct both unstructured and structured settings, differentiating his method of management of the group.

The role of the trainer is to facilitate the establishment of a working group in which everyone has a certain freedom of expression; he becomes the container as a metaphor for someone who is able to understand and process that which has been produced. The development of a training exercise is richer as more various perspectives and levels of reading are taken into account, for example, giving more importance to certain events during exercise than others. At the first step the group is asked to observe, detect; subsequently, depending on the goals, they will proceed with further analysis by the conductor.

It’s important to enhance the work carried out by the conductor of integration between the group and the single member; in fact, group work becomes for each participant

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pre-existing and within this is put his individuality and he draws lessons through analysis or personal processing of content that emerge.

One of the tasks of the trainer is finalizing, which consists in producing analysis and interpretations that are useful outside of the group. This leads back to the objectives and implicit contract signed at the beginning of the course/seminar as well as to the motivations and defenses that the participants manifested towards possible learnings. In a more structured role, the trainer will tend to comment on the adequacy of the model, that is, how much and how the messages were incorporated, while in a semi-structured situation he will need to assess in advance the level of depth reached during exercises, to calibrate the ability of people to metabolize the interpretations produced that usually run on multiple levels. Generally the focus of interpretation is agreed between the trainer and the participants; to interpret then takes on the meaning of relating and explain the meaning of what is difficult to understand. In the classic psychodrama, Moreno talks about action insight or reflection on action. The purpose of any interpretation in this context is the increase of information on aspects of the game, so that it may allow a behavioral change. It is not always acceptable to disrupt the balance which has crystallized and that is why sometimes the task of interpretation can harden the defenses and undermine self-image; the trainer should be able to contain and support this process. The adequacy of a trainer is precisely to be able to stop where it is best , avoiding inappropriate interpretations on psychological issues that fall outside the purpose of the training exercise.

With regards to dealing with resistance it is necessary that the trainer is alert to their own way of defending themselves often voiced through the expression of personal intrusive views and assumptions that lie outside his role and which are not interpretations of what actually happened in the here and now of the group. The task of the educator is not to provide the one best way, which as well as falling outside the scope of the role playing, excludes the multiplicity of variables in human interaction.

The interpretation, therefore, does not arise as indoctrination as those it is aimed at or performed for may support it or reject it. In this regard, the trainer may need to manage the resistance of those who participate; these defenses are expressed in difficulty interacting with others, and may occur with attitudes of hypervigilance or emotional denigration of analysis. A fundamental skill of the trainer must therefore be to know how to treat in a balanced way the defensive dynamics within the group.

2.10. Construction of a role-playing session

In a role playing session there are three stages: the warming up of the group, the performance, the longer stage , and the final participation of the audience:

1) Warm up : the target aim is to reach a state of greater spontaneity, allowing the energy and personal emotions to emerge; working in the construction and consolidation of the bond of canvases established within the group.

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2) The performance: Depending on whether it is a structured role-playing or a free one, the story or group or personal situation to be performed , is presented. The roles can be played either spontaneously or by stimulation of the director/conductor/trainer, with the help of some techniques. One of the most important in terms of psychodrama is the technique of reversal of roles. It is based on the principle that to see and understand what's on the other side you have to enter into it.

At the end of the dialogue the protagonist and the other person say goodbye giving each other a message.

Another technique you can use is that of the double, in which the protagonist is gradually joined by another member of the group who acts the role. A further technique is the soliloquy, where the conductor may interrupt the scene by having the protagonist express how he is feeling at that time. Another specific technique is that of the mirror, which highlights the specific relationship between role and counter-role in certain situations.

During the performance a catharsis can occur, a moment in which the actors live the story in such an intense way that they can actually end up expressing their identification with the role through crying or through other forms.

3) The participation of the audience: what is represented stirs something in the group, such that at the end of the performance starting with those who have acted directly, followed by the audience/observer, there is a moment of expression and emotional sharing about what has been performed, and then there tends to be a summary and a cognitive integration that leads to a greater awareness, a greater learning.

The three key techniques of psychodrama, particularly of role-playing: Double, Mirror, Role Reversal

1. Double. To understand what is meant by double in psychodrama it is sufficient to think about what the mother does with the baby when she tries to perceive and respond to his needs. The mother is the first auxiliary ego of the personal and social history of the child: a mother can respond to the needs of her child if she can "dub" him, that is to say, to give voice to what the child feels, desires, fears etc ... The term double refers to the double meaning of "film dubbing" (= give voice to ...) and double in the sense of "another like me who lives the same experiences next to me (it is common in children to create an imaginary double, which supports them in the experiences of life.) The technique of double enables a group to perceive the universality of perception and to enhance internal unspoken contents.

2. The Mirror. Again it is useful to use the image of the mother figure that, who after an initial phase in which she must above all "dub" the baby, begins to act as his mirror, sending him back his image and restoring with real data the perception of the egocentric child. In adolescence, instead, it is often represented by the best friend with whom the same attitude and the same form are taken, going as far as to choose the same clothes, cut and hair color etc ... The mirror technique consists of replicating a

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scene or a posture of the character (for example, a perplexed attitude of a teacher in front of a student) by the auxiliary ego so that the same character can be seen from the outside. There is a mirror situation and a situation of reflection in psychodrama, both when a member of the group has the opportunity to see himself from the outside (sometimes perceiveing new or unknown aspects of himself ), as well as when the reference to the reality of the other members of the group ("I see you like that ...") favors an insight of reality and greater awareness of hetero-perception.

3.Role Inversion : in the psycho-affective development of the child, the ability to reverse roles (put themselves in the shoes of others, to see things from their point of view) marks the transition from egocentricity to social skills and intimacy. The technique of role reversal can expand awareness of one’s psychosocial relations and at the same time facilitate the capability to identify the other: indeed there is no complete self-knowledge without at least a partial exit from the self, that allows a shift of perception. Role reversal is a powerful tool for restructuring relationships strongly influenced by elements of transference, as it approaches the true humanity of the other, in his unique way of looking at life. To paraphrase the Gospel Moreno says, "Love your neighbor through role reversal" (Moreno, 1984; p. 158)

2.11. Setting construction and classroom learning

When programming a unit or an entire training course that involves the use of active methods and in particular of psychodramatic techniques, which as we have seen tend to stir up deep feelings and personal experiences, it’s essential to pay attention and clearly explain what you are going to do with the group of students.

Being an innovative teaching method, often people don’t expect to have to be personally active, nor are they aware of how useful this is for the acquisition of practical skills and for enhancing the wealth of theoretical knowledge.

First of all the space of the classroom must be organized: it is good to have a room free from desks, the chairs must be arranged in a circle and easy to move to allow the reorganization of the space that has to become "performance space" in which it is possible to move freely or in which you change positions and roles.

Being arranged in a circle in the first phase allows to give a representation even just symbolic, of the basic assumptions that define the rules of the role playing’ setting and of the psychodrama session in general. It is about explaining to the participants that the use such techniques allows a learning centered no longer on theoretical knowledge, but rather on the experience lived of each person. Through the experience of playing this game and experiencing roles different from one’s own one or one’s own role in different situations, participants become aware of aspects of themselves not yet discovered, facilitating positive change or the acquisition of new skills.

It is beneficial to clarify this assumption, otherwise group members may be disoriented by the request for action and consequently not be able to participate constructively. Another basic assumption to explain is the non-judgment one, it should

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be emphasized that in the role-playing game, there is no right or wrong behavior and that it is not an acting course, the aim is not to achieve a perfect performance, but rather to learn from the experience lived personally. In this sense, then there are no better or worse roles, but every role and every attitude must be expressed in respect and in mutual non-judgment. The final rule to be shared with the group is the one of confidentiality. As intimate experiences can be expressed in this type of activity, it is important to negotiate with the group the rule of confidentiality, which involves explaining the fact that if stories and personal experiences emerge, each participant agrees not to discuss outside anything that has happened.

These aspects are also important when doing role play in an educational and not therapeutic setting, and which is aimed therefore at training for a specific profession or function. In fact, changes still occur that are on the level of group dynamics and not only on the skills to be acquired. It is therefore essential to be aware of what is happening, as already stated both on the level of knowledge and on that of the knowing how to be or, in other words, on the group’ process. Playing a role gives the opportunity of living from the inside and becoming aware on the one hand of aspects of oneself and on the other hand of the role that is being played, which are different from one’s own everyday perspective. This process necessarily leads to an enrichment not only of technical skills, but also of the whole person.

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3. Exercises and examples of role playing

It is not possible to provide complete examples of role playing, as it doesn’t involve exercises or games with static and predefined rules. To create a role play it is first necessary to use the rules and techniques described in the preceding paragraphs that must provide the framework within which to design teaching units centered on the training needs and objectives of the course that the teacher or conductor is planning.

Here then are some examples that can be a guide for creative elaboration of role playing to be implemented according to the group of students or to the specific contents of the subjects. Role playing can be applied in any situation, but it is essential to take into account the basic rules of psychodrama and to stick to the phases of warm-up , performance, final sharing.

3.1. Structured Role playing

In this type of role playing, as explained above, predefined roles to be staged are given to the participants. It should be emphasized that in the initial phase of the work session it is essential to provide a moment of warm-up through an exercise or game intended to create a mood that facilitates, in which the personal defenses are lowered and there is a willingness to listen and the absence of mutual judgment.

THE FIRST DAY

An example can be the simulation of the first day of work. The conductor previously prepares the cards for each role which explain some features to represent. For example, the "boss": polite, formal, for each role that express some characteristics to stage. For example the “director”: nice, formal, serious, efficient, etc ... the “colleagues”: the veteran: explains everything, efficient, authoritarian; the "the critical one l": nothing ever suits him, he is always angry, etc ...; "The jolly fellow": he starts talking about everything and overlooks his work, etc ...; the "silent one": never speaks, he is always bent over his work, etc ...; the "friendly one ": nice , affable, efficient at work, etc ...; the "protagonist": in this case it is the newcomer who enters for the first time in the working group and has to find the most suitable personal strategy to address the situation. Depending on the number of participants, several viewers/observers can be considered to watch the scene from outside.

During the performance the conductor may decide to suspend the action to ask someone in the group if he wants to help the protagonist in the representation by being the auxiliary ego through the technique of double.

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The conclusion is fixed by the conductor when he believes that the necessary interactions have occurred to make the experience meaningful.

At the end of the performance, the conductor proposes a round of applause and has the group go back into a circle. The sharing phase starts always allowing the protagonist to speak first followed by the other roles, and finally the spectators.

To support the discussion, a board can be used on which write down the main elements of the discussion.

AN ORDINARY DAY

Another example is the planning of an ordinary day of a person who has the same characteristics of the course participants. For example, for a young person that is attending a course for sales assistants, the played action can be the day from when he wakes up, the journey to work, the arrival at work and the relationship with the customers and colleagues. In each phase there are structured roles to stage. For example, in the first phase, the messy housemate that hasn’t washed the dishes, the girlfriend who asks to use the car; in the second phase: waiting at the tram stop with the other workers; in the third one: late arrival because of the tram resulting in a warning bythe boss, but a colleague who is friend, helps.

In the final sharing, experiences and emotions emerge that influence the actions and interactions and information on how these effect other situations as well.

HOW THE OTHER SEE ME

In this example of psychodrama work is done through the double technique. The activity starts by asking the group members to select, another member who is not well-known to them . Each person of the couple is asked to choose one characteristic of the other and to stage it in a dialog. The aim of the sharing is to make hidden aspects of the way one interacts with others emerge and should provide an awareness to the participants about what the others think about themselves.

3.2. Example of semi-structured role playing

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In this case the conductor does not identify a situation and roles preconceived by him, but gives an open delivery that will be filled with characteristics by the participants.

MY FUTURE

One way is to give a topic and then to make the group decide which roles to choose and with what characteristics. It can be an example "How I see myself in ten years in this profession." A volunteer chooses to be the protagonist and chooses those who have to play the counter-roles of the scene which will be built spontaneously according to the interactions that emerge.

MY DOUBTS

Another method can be the use of the technique of inversion, where participants are asked to think about a situation experienced with respect to a certain theme, for example in a course for teachers of family caregivers: "my doubts about being a family assistant, I have spoken about it with a person close to me". Everyone is asked to choose another member of the group who should play the main character, while he in turn will have to interpret the scene in the role of the " person close to me"; ie if the student x was referring to his wife, the student will have to interpret the wife and the other student y, chosen by x, will have to interpret the student x.

After each micro representation, participants are asked to say goodbye and thank each other in the way they want, they can simply say " goodbye, thank you" or perhaps a handshake or a kiss or a hug.

When all students have performed their scene, the conductor asks what were the feelings experienced. This reflection should lead to the emergence of personal doubts with respect to the profession and by comparison with the others, the group may find useful ways to cope with the doubts or even to overcome them.

EL THE BEAUTY AND THE UGLY

In this case students are asked to write on a sheet a positive and a negative situation relating to a theme, for example, the relationships within the group.

In small groups of four people, the subgroups have to decide at least two situations to act out , one positive and one negative. The audience is represented by the other students, who must try to identify which situation the scene represented relates to.

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WHAT WILL BE

In this case during the warm-up phase, images are used representing landscapes, people, objects, paintings, etc ... that are presented to the group. Each participant will have to choose at least one image to represent a characteristic of themselves now and another to represent a characteristic they would like to have in the future (eg. in ten years). Each presents to the others the images chosen and explains why. Then using a sociometry in action participants are asked to move closer to those who told something with which they feel in tune. Subgroups are therefore formed of about 4-5 people. Each subgroup will have to invent the story of a character in the future starting from the stories of the individuals. Each subgroup will act out the story to the other groups. The final sharing is aimed on the one hand at bringing to light the fears and limitations, on the other hand the hopes and strengths towards the future.

WHAT I WANTED TO SAY

In this role playing the technique of the empty chair is used. It begins with a brief warm-up, which can be done in a circle (see chapter about warming up). After that the participants are asked to think about one thing they would have liked to tell a person close to them but were not able to . For example, a family member or an old friend, an ex-boyfriend, a colleague, etc ... The chairs are placed in a semi-circle and an empty chair is left in the same area. One by one participants can sit in front of the chair and say out loud what they thought. They are then asked to sit in the chair and try to reverse the role and identify themselves with the person wo whom they were speaking and to respond as him to what he heard. They are then asked to express what they felt through a soliloquy.

The final sharing should make past experiences emerge actualizing them in the here and now of the psychodrama experience. A new meaning of the experience should be activated with a new reading of the past and of the indications of the present.

I SAY IT TO MYSELF

A variant of the previous role-playing is using two empty chairs. It’s useful for bringing out the conflict between several different inner roles. For example, between the role of mother or father and that of the worker. Each participant comes to sit on a chair where they express themselves by making the role of parent speak, then they move to the other chair and respond by talking about the role of the worker.

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The sharing will highlight the feeling of being in two roles and from the group comparison meanings and strategies may emerge which are useful to improve the dialectic between roles.

3.3. Non-structured Role playing

You can talk about unstructured role playing when no kind of delivery is given to the group neither related to the topic nor to the method. This type of role playing is more typical of psychodrama therapy, but it can be used in training. Often this type of role-playing is used in situations of supervision, when the participants are called upon to talk about what they want. It can be used for example at an intermediate stage of the training to make students express how they are progressing, in order to make a shared appraisal of the experience. Initially a warm-up exercise is done , which can be carried out by walking in the space of the room with relaxing background music. A series of gaits, can be proposed - faster, contracted, slower, until the participants chose the gait that matches their own breathing rhythm. Everyone is asked to sit down and the conductor asks participants to comment on how they feel at this time with respect to the course. Depending on the direction that the discussion takes, the conductor asks if anyone feels up to acting out what he has recounted verbally. That member is also asked to choose counter-roles that can be co-protagonists and the staged action starts. In the event of an impasse, someone else can be selected to carry out the role of double to help the protagonist to express something different. On another occasion a reversal can be used , asking for example the protagonist to assume the counter -role and vice-versa. In a course for tour operators, for example, students can be asked to express themselves about the difficulties encountered during the internship in managing clients of a certain nationality. Or in a group of students who have serious difficulties to get along together, they can be asked to re-enact a quarrel they had and the various techniques can be employed to include other more marginal characters in the scene, that replace the protagonists of the conflict, which then contribute to the emergence of solutions for its resolution.

During the sharing phase, it is important in these kinds of role playing to focus on the emotional aspects that are raised which are often powerful, so as to make them explicit, to work them through and contain them within the session itself, otherwise they may lead to serious negative reverberations for both the individual and the life of the group.

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4. Evaluation

At the end of the session of each module it is important to have an assessment of what has been learned and what has been perceived. This kind of assessment is in addition to the personal and relational one that occurs during the sharing and aims at giving an external feedback on the learning process. It involves a few short questions addressed both to the conductor and to students.

4.1. Questionnaire for the Conductor

Not at all

To a degree

Quite a bit

A lot

The activities proposed were interesting

The activities proposed were pleasant

The activities proposed were useful to make me reflect on my life

The activities proposed were useful to make me reflect on the relationship with my class group

The activities proposed were helpful in acquiring useful skills for the course I'm attending

The activities proposed were useful to make me think about the way I relate to the others

The activities proposed were useful to make me learn new skills to manage relationships with other

I am interested in similar activities in the future

4.2. Learners Questionnaire

Not at All

To a degree

Quite a bit

A lot

Do I think I have achieved the goals I set for myself?

Did the use of role playing help students improve the knowledge and/or skills with respect to the subject?

Did the use of role playing help me to get to know the other students better?

Was I able to manage the various phases adequately?

Are there some aspects I can improve or do differently?

Do I feel satisfied with the way I carried out the activity?

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5. Bibliography

5.1. English Bibliography

Hillman J., Healing Fiction (Spring Publications, 1994. Original 1983.) (1983) Le

storie che curano, Cortina, Milano, 1984. Jung C.G., (1921) Jung, C. G., & Baynes, H. G. (1921). Psychological Types,

or, The Psychology of Individuation. London: Kegan Paul Trench Trubner. Tipi psicologici, Boringhieri, Torino, 1969.

Huizinga, J. ( 1939)Homo ludens. Amsterdam; Tr. It. Torino: Einaudi. (1973). Lewin, K. (1935), A Dynamic Theory of Personality, NY, US: McGraw- Hill. Moreno, J. L. (1980) Il teatro della spontaneità, Guaraldi, Firenze, Moreno, J.L. (1985) Manuale di psicodramma, vol. 1(1946-1980), Astrolabio,

Roma, Moreno, J. L. & Moreno, Z. T. (1987) Manuale di psicodramma, vol. 2, Astrolabio, Roma, Schutzenberger A. A. (1992), Le jeu de role, Esf, Paris,

5.2. Italian Bibliography

Boria, G., Muzzarelli, F. (2009) Incontri sulla scena. Lo psicodramma classico per la formazione e lo sviluppo nelle organizzazioni. Franco Angeli, Milano.

Boria, G. (2005) Psicoterapia psicodrammatica - sviluppi del modello moreniano nel lavoro terapeutico con gruppi di adulti. Franco Angeli, Milano.

Calvani, A. (2001). Educazione, comunicazione e nuovi media. Sfide

pedagogiche e cyberspazio. Torino: Utet Libreria. Capranico, S. (1997). Role Playing. Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore. Cocchi A. (1992), La parola e il pubblico, Psicologia e lavoro, 86, Patron,

Bologna, Dotti, L. (2017) Forma e azione – metodi e tecniche psicodrammatiche nella

formazione e nell’intervento sociale F. Angeli , Milano, terza ed 2007 Dotti, L. (2010) Lo psicodramma dei bambini - i metodi d'azione in età evolutiva.

III ed. Franco Angeli, Milano. Dotti, L. (2009) Lo psicodramma pubblico: aspetti personali e aspetti sociali. In

Rivista Psicodramma Classico. Quaderni dell'associazione Italiana Psicodrammatisti Moreniani, agosto anno XI.

Dotti L. (2013) La forma della cura. Tecniche socio e psicodrammatiche nella formazione degli operatori educativi e della cura, Franco Angeli, Milano.

Gasca, G. 1992, lo psicodramma come analisi attraverso il gruppo. Psicodramma Analitico, 0, dicembre Torino.

Zanardo, A. (2007) Action methods nella formazione - Approcci e strumenti per la gestione di piccoli e grandi gruppi. Pardes Edizioni, Bologna.

Walcott, D., in J.S. Bruner & Alii (1981). Il gioco. Ruolo e sviluppo del comportamento ludico negli animali e nell’uomo. Roma: Armando.

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