Between Tele relation and I-Thou meeting: The therapeutic value of the psychodramatic concept of Tele from a Buberian approach

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Highlights

  • The concept of Tele represents a deep meta-psychological framework in psychodrama.

  • Tele relations overlap with an I-Thou meetings and Buber’s philosophy of dialogue.

  • Tele relations consist of an intersubjective and authentic encounter with the other.

  • Tele assumes that selfhood can be revealed via a reciprocal meeting with another self.

  • The notion of Tele invites therapists to encourage the creation of an I-Thou meetings.

Abstract

Tele is one of the most elusive and enigmatic concepts in psychodramatic theory. Although It represents one of the five main therapeutic factors that operate in psychodramatic practice, the lack of clarity and multiple meanings of the concept make it difficult to use clinically or even as a general therapeutic guideline. The present paper proposes that the concept of Tele may be elucidated by using Martin Buber’s philosophy of dialog. It demonstrates how Tele overlaps with Buber’s concept of I-Thou and how, for both concepts, it is the intersubjective encounter which is the mainstay of self-constitution. This paper maintains that the concept of Tele represents a major therapeutic idea, namely, that selfhood may only be revealed and expanded via an authentic meeting with another selfhood. The notion of Tele invites the therapist to encourage the creation of an I-Thou relation in the therapeutic space, based on the assumption that this is the main road through which the patient may connect with his or her deep subjectivity.

Introduction

Psychodrama is a psychotherapeutic method based on dramatic enactment and role playing. It is usually applied in group therapy format and focuses on externalizing intrapsychic and interpersonal conflicts (Blatner, 2000; Karp, 2005; Kellermann, 2006; Sacks, 1993; Tahar & Kellermann, 1996). The main principle of psychodrama is therapy in action, in which the patient is invited not to talk about his world but to express it actively through dramatic enactment, which often leads to cathartic experiences and new insights. The method was developed in the beginning of the 20th century by Jacob Levy Moreno, who is also considered to be one of the founding fathers of group psychotherapy in general.

According to Moreno (1954; 1944), one of the problems classical theories suffer from is that they tend to explain human development from a reductionist and pathology-oriented perspective – whether it is behaviorism, which uses animal models and experimentation to infer on human beings, or psychoanalysis, which analyzes child development in terms of neurotic mental patterns. Moreno suggested that instead of seeing the human infant as either an animal located on the high-end of the animal scale, or, alternately, as a young barbaric savage, our point of view should reflect the highest level ever reached by man, the peak that not only manifests but also account for mankind's highest achievements.

Moreno assumed that expressions of human genius are a manifestation of the innate creative and spontaneous force of creation that exists in all human beings. Assuming that spontaneity and creativity are idiosyncratically human traits that form the basis of mental well-being, he believed that the role of psychodrama is to help patients get in touch with their inherently-existing inner sources of spontaneity and creativity (Howie, 2012; Kellerman, 2006; Nolte, 2014; Scheiffele, 1997). In psychoanalytic terms we might add that psychodrama connects the idea of the nuclear self, in Kohut's terms, or the true self, in Winnicott's language, with one's capacity to be spontaneous and creative. Psychodrama assumes that connecting with the origins of play, spontaneity and creativity promotes mental health and well-being, whereas role fixation and lack of spontaneity indicate high anxiety and the absence of potential space.

Although he was a trained psychiatrist, Moreno objected to the use of the professional jargon underlying medical thinking, arguing that mental disorders should be seen as the product of the social and cultural forces hampering human beings on their way to self-realization and self-fulfillment. Like other existentialist psychiatrists such as Karl Jaspers, Ronald Laing and Thomas Szass, he assumed that a man labeled as "mentally ill" will eventually become even more disturbed and ill, because he will identify with the social role of the madman (Apter, 2003; Howie, 2012; Nolte, 2014; Telias, 2019). Moreno suggested that instead of classifying patients according to various personality theories we must strive to look at human suffering not in terms of pathology but in terms of health; that is to say, we must help the human being, any human being, to reconnect with his or her inner creative and spiritual dimension.

Moreno also offers his theory of roles and turned it into one of the cornerstones of psychodramatic therapy (Moreno, 1934; 1961; 1987). He suggested that man is a role player and that every individual is characterized by a set of somatic, social, and psychological roles that influence his or her emotions, thoughts and behavior: "The function of role is to enter the unconscious from the social world and bring shape and order to it" (Moreno, 1987, p. 63). Moreno claimed that the capacity to expand the spectrum of roles that characterized an individual, or to increase the amount of freedom, authenticity and creativity one experienced while playing these roles, allowed the individual to reach a fuller life experience. Thus, the goal of psychodrama is to help the individual to explore, through awareness-raising and active inquiry, the roles he or she consciously or unconsciously plays in his life (Blatner, 2000; Clayton, 1994; Moreno, 1989; Nolte, 2014; Tauvon, 2005).

It is important to clarify that although psychodrama and drama therapy often seem similar, they are not identical (Blattner, 2000; Kedem-Tahar & Kellermann, 1996; Landy, 2007). Drama therapy is oriented specifically toward the creative-expressive learning of roles. Its general purposes is to promote healing while developing skills of improvisation and creative thinking. Psychodrama, on the other hand, is oriented more toward experiential learning, including specific working through emotional, cognitive, interpersonal, behavioral and non-specific issues. The dramatic enactment serves as an opportunity for increased self-reflection. While in drama therapy, the drama is the aim and the psyche is the means of expression, in psychodrama the psyche is the aim and the action-drama is the means (Kedem-Tahar & Kellermann, 1996).

Section snippets

The meaning of the concept Tele and the problematic nature of Moreno's philosophy

Alongside the therapeutic effect of psychodramatic practice, one of the known problems of Moreno's philosophy and ideas is that beyond their technical and methodical applications in psychodrama, they can hardly be used as a solid personality theory from which one could derive clear therapeutic interventions (see: Boria, 1989; Blatner, 2000; Kellermann, 2006; Polansky & Harkins, 1969; Yablonsky & Enneis, 1956). Moreno’s role theory, describing people according to their role repertoire,

Between Tele relations and I-Thou meeting

Buber's basic assumption, that man incarnates from his beginning a being in a relation, led him to the realization that self-consciousness, too, cannot come into being independently of interpersonal relationships. In his book I-Thou (Buber, 1923 [1970; Buber, 1923 [1970]), he first introduced his unique perception of a selfhood that is constituted in the spectrum of two central types of relations, two distinct modalities of being, that point at two different points of origin, an I-Thou relation

Conclusions and clinical implications

The assumptions that human beings can exchange emotional messages from a distance is by no means unique to Moreno. It may be found as early as in Freud’s teachings, who suggested that the analyst should be in a state of Free-floating attention in order to let his unconscious connect with and feel the patient’s unconscious. Melanie Klein, and after her also Bion, proposed the mechanism of projective identification, and describe it as a universal communication mechanism where each side projects

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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