Medicine: Theatrical Therapy

The audience in the 250-seat auditorium of the sleek new Veterans Administration Hospital in Salt Lake City last week was restless at first. But no audience ever entered more wholeheartedly into the spirit of a production. For the spectators were mental patients, and they were watching fellow patients enact a play about something they all felt intimately —the appearance of mental illness under unbearable strain. The play: The Caine Mutiny Court Martial.

In the therapeutic technique of psychodrama (TIME, Jan. 24), patients act out their own experiences or roles related to them; in presenting...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!