Experience Report: Psychodrama, Education, and Prison - Emerging Crossroads

Abstract

This article is based on the description of a project named "Therapeutic Theater" carried out in a closed regime penitentiary unit, aiming to foster reflections between the interconnection of psychodrama, social psychology, and the pedagogy of the oppressed in clinical practice. During the twelve group psychotherapy sessions conducted with twenty-three participants, artistic resources such as poetry, drawing, dance, and performing arts, especially in the form of spontaneous theater, were used to promote the formation of a group identity and facilitate the expression of the participants. A horizontal approach was valued, considering the subject's protagonism in their own therapeutic and existential process. Despite the challenges faced in the prison context, achievements were observed in alleviating psychological distress and in the participants' psychosocial development. This paper aims to present a group clinic that enabled active and collective participation of group members, fostered encounters between subjectivities, and stimulated critical reflection on social and racial issues inherent in the prison context. Furthermore, it understands mental health care as a political act in building new trajectories in both collective and individual spheres.