Dramatic Dialogue: Dreaming & Drama in Contemporary Clinical Practice

Abstract

Dramatic Dialog refers to a conceptualization of therapeutic action derived from the legacy of Sándor Ferenczi that articulates how internal object relations and multiple self-states are unconsciously dramatized and brought to experiential life on the analytic stage. The terms dramatic and dramatology imply live dialog in the here-and-now. The metaphors of playing, dramatizing, dancing, and dreaming with the patient are all ways of describing how the analyst joins with the patient in a system of mutual regulation. We define generative enactment as the affirmative and creative dimension of repetition, played out in the intersubjective system and influencing it from the inside out. This article presents an intersubjective and relational perspective on dramatic dialog as a model of therapeutic action and therapeutic traction with case material presented for illustration and discussion. The article samples a wide range of clinical theorists, across schools of thought, geographical regions, and extending over many decades, who view therapeutic action as constituted by dramatic dialog and generative enactment.