Psychodrama of the Survivorship

Abstract

Psychodramatic meta-systemic conceptualization offers a holistic view of complex life phenomena such as trauma and survivorship, which have been otherwise traditionally compartmentalized by different disciplines. The author argues that collective survival experience is preserved, communicated, and passed down through generations in the form of familial or cultural messages containing both empirical knowledge and magical thinking components. Indiscriminative following of survival messages outside of its original historical context may, contrary to initial intent, contribute to transgenerational vulnerabilities. Cultural trauma, such as a totalitarian regime, turns the “survivorship wisdom” into a cultural artifact reflected in collective psyche as art and literature. Superstition is also a type of ancient survival messages with prevalent magical thinking. A survival genogram allows for deconstructing messages, processing the “wisdom of the elderly,” and negotiating its informed adoption by unveiling chronological layers of the message's meaning.