Page 44 - NAMAH-Oct-2020

Namah Vol. 28, Issue 3, 15th October 2020

Little wonder, there is a wing of psychotherapy A repressed emotion can be explored in
called drama therapy. Every night in our various forms of expressive arts, such as
dreams we escape the straightjacket of our dance, poetry, songs, drawing. It can become
social circumstances. Pretend play makes a dialogue with the tormentor, and with
us imaginative, dreamy, trippy. Creative the witnesses. Reality can be re-imagined.
juices moisten our souls. We get to live many Emotions can be amplified to get to the heart
lives within a single life. The therapist’s of the matter. When the actor shares the drama
chamber is called the ‘Play Space’. Here with others, chances are that she will meet
the analysand gets to relax, pretend to be others who have had similar experiences.
one of her personalities, imagine dialogues They will be willing to share, finding in her
with others or with sub-parts within herself. a sympathetic listener. Together they can
She can be her future or ideal self. She can support each other.
create a dynamically changing scenery, full of
unknowns, that keeps her curiosity fresh. The
game starts with no pre-meditated goal. As
she explores the inner space, with or without
prompts from the therapist, the analysand
actively imagines the next move. She creates
a formation that could materialise in her real
life. Such is the power of play-acting, which
is why drama therapy has a track record of
success stories.

Drama can be healing when done
intentionally. Its secret of healing lies in Is it easy to enact one’s own traumas? Not at
the fact that it pulls out an affect that was all. The process of psychotherapy is self-work
repressed within, such as a childhood and therefore hard work. Imagine if Draupadi
trauma, or some shame or guilt. These were to act out the court scene where she
energies are like churning eddies that pull was insulted she would have to relive that
the person down. Repressions show up as trauma. But she also gets to imagine a new
symptoms in the other layers of the being outcome. She could put words in the mouth
— as lack of mental concentration, dullness of the elders like Bheeshma and Drona, who
in the vital, or skin diseases in the physical. were silent witnesses to her shame. She could
All these together are called pathologies, enable her husbands to protect her honour. In
which can be cured with drama therapy, fact she could change the script so drastically
because it is a tool to draw out hidden she would never become a gambling bet.
stuff. The person enacts the traumatic Women in Draupadi’s situation, who have
event in her life. The retelling of her story access to healing services, re-enact the dramas
dislodges it from her inner being and places of their abuse in therapy sessions. Even
it outside, in a larger space. The victim watching a drama can be healing.
can get fresh air to breathe, which means
a fresh perspective. Dramatists have re-written the scene from the

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