The purpose of this study was to understand the meaning of change through therapeutic
enactment in psychodrama. Existential and hermeneutic phenomenology conducted from the
perspective of a dialectic between storied narrative and thematic analysis was used to investigate
the essential meaning of the experience. Eight co-researchers who had experienced significant
change through therapeutic enactment in psychodrama were interviewed in depth. Transcripts
from these interviews were transposed into narrative form in order to straighten the story of
change through enactment in a before, during, and after sequence. These eight individual
narratives were validated by the co-researchers. An independent reviewer checked each narrative
against the original transcript, video tapes of the enactments, and comments of each co-researcher
for trustworthiness. Each validated narrative provided a rich description of the lived experience
of change through therapeutic enactment.
In addition, fifty-nine (59) essential themes were formulated from the individual narratives:
Fourteen (14) in the planning stage, twenty-four (24) in the enactive stage, and twenty-one (21) in
the reflective, or integrative stage, of the enactment process. These themes were then woven into
a common story representing the pattern and meaning of change through therapeutic enactment
for this group of co-researchers. Finally, notations made during the transposing of the transcripts
into personal narratives, formulation of the essential themes, and construction of the common
story were used to develop a theoretical story of change through therapeutic enactment, as a final
level of hermeneutic interpretation. This theoretical story was then presented in summary form as
a thematic sequence of multi-modal change processes representing a model of change through
therapeutic enactment.
The results of this study suggested numerous theoretical and technical implications.
Foremost among theoretical implications was the suggestion that Tomkins (1992) script theory of
affect may best illuminate the effects and processes of psychodrama and enactment. This study
also had implications for interactional theories of development, contemporary psychoanalytic
theories of interpersonal functioning, theories of moral development, theories of dream
functioning, and ethological theories of myth and ritual.
The results of this study also suggested a number of additional qualitative and comparative
outcome studies for future research.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/9835 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Brooks, Dale Theodore |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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