Dreaming of an abolitionist drama therapy

Abstract

Despite long standing activist and academic calls for prison and police abolition and the need to consider how carceral logics are embedded in mental health practices, no known drama therapy scholarship currently focuses on these topics. We explain the problems with using policing, prisons, and punitive responses to systemic problems, articulating the ways in which these practices are deeply rooted in settler colonialism, anti-Black racism, ableism, capitalism, cis-heteronormativity, and other systems of oppression. We then offer an introduction to carceral logics and abolition, situating our work as not only about the absence of these punitive systems and ways of thinking, but also about imagining and building another kind of world. Approaches to behavioral escalation and suicidality are articulated as examples of sites of practice where drama therapists are often complicit in harmful practices and offer anti-carceral alternatives as harm reduction methods. We conclude with a call to action to drama therapists to engage in abolitionist practices in their work and to be part of the larger visioning process for a more just world.