Psychodrama II: Action and Roles

Soliloquy: Verbalizing inner thinking

Soliloquy is a technique that allows access to a person's inner monologue in the midst of an action.

The patient is instructed to express aloud what he or she is thinking or feeling during a scene or a moment of pause, as if he or she were an actor in a play speaking separately to the audience, while the action freezes or continues in the background. In a couple's session, this is very helpful.

As one speaks, the other may be asked to soliloquize, "What are you thinking right now as she says that?"

The patient might reveal, "I'm thinking that she's never going to stop complaining and I just want to leave."

Making this inner speech explicit helps the partner understand the other's reactions that previously seemed incomprehensible or disconnected from the conversation. It brings the hidden truth into the shared space.

Role Shifting and Role Reversal for deep empathy.

Role reversal or role reversal is the king technique for fostering empathy. Partners are asked to swap roles.

"A" must act, speak, and behave as "B," and vice versa, in the context of a specific situation (such as a recurring discussion about parenting).

For it to work, the patient should not caricature the other, but try to embody his world view, arguments and emotions as faithfully as possible.

By having to defend his partner's position and receive his own arguments from the outside, cognitive de-centering occurs.

It is very difficult to maintain hostility toward someone whose shoes (and pains) you are actively trying to inhabit.

Often, this leads to quick insights into how one's own behaviors impact the other.

Creation of new roles and expansion of the self

Sometimes, the problem is not the conflict between existing roles, but the absence of necessary roles.

Role creation involves helping the patient develop a new facet of his personality or a new mode of functioning that is not in his current repertoire, but is necessary for relational health.

For example, a man who only knows how to relate from the "Stoic Provider" role may need to create the "Emotional Partner" role.

In the session, he is guided to build, rehearse and bring this new character to life: How would he move, what would he say, how would he look, how would he look? By acting out this new role in a safe environment, the patient expands his identity and acquires new behavioral skills that he can then integrate into his daily life, breaking the rigidity of old patterns.

Summary

Soliloquy allows access to inner monologue during an action or pause. Making this inner speech explicit helps the partner understand previously incomprehensible or emotionally disconnected reactions.

Role reversal fosters deep empathy by exchanging roles with the other. Embodying the other's view produces cognitive decentering, making it difficult to maintain hostility toward pains that are actively inhabited.

Role-playing helps develop personality facets necessary for relational health. Acting out new characters expands identity by acquiring behavioral skills that break the rigidities of old patterns.