A Very Early Treatment on Psychodrama by its Founder (1939)

Julius Levy Moreno. Psychodramatic Shock Therapy, a Sociometric Approach to the Problem of Mental Disorders.  Offprint: Sociometry, a Journal of Inter-personal relations, volume II, No. 1, January 1939. 8.25x5.5", pp (1)-30. Original wrappers. Very Good copy. Scarce.  $350

“Jacob Levy Moreno (born Iacob Levy; May 18, 1889 – May 14, 1974) was an Austrian-American psychiatrist, psychosociologist, and educator, the founder of psychodrama, and the foremost pioneer of group psychotherapy.”--Wikipedia

“While living in Vienna in the early 1900s Moreno started an improvisational theater company, Stegreiftheater, the Theater of Spontaneity where he formulated a form of psychotherapy he called psychodrama, which employed improvised dramatizations, role-plays and other therapeutic, spontaneous dramatic expressions that utilized and unleashed the spontaneity and creativity of the group and its individual members  Moreno saw "psychodrama as the next logical step beyond psychoanalysis." It was "an opportunity to get into action instead of just talking, to take the role of the important people in our lives to understand them better, to confront them imaginatively in the safety of the therapeutic theater, and most of all to become more creative and spotantaneous human beings."--Wikipedia

“J. L. Moreno, M.D., is recognized as the originator of sociometry and psychodrama, and was a prodigious creator of methods and theories of creativity, society, and human behavior. The methods and techniques he authored have been widely adopted...”--John Nolte, The Philosophy, Theory and Methods of J. L. Moreno, Routledge, 2014, preface

“Moreno was among the first to recognise the healing power of a group, including the importance of self-help groups, where each person becomes the healing agent of the other, without any special training or knowledge other than his or her own experience. Moreno later coined the phrase “group psychotherapy” to recognise this particular form of treatment.”--"A Brief History of Psychodrama", Birmingham Institute for Pscyhodrama.