Introduction: the constellation of initiation symbols in the group’s dreams

A person’s entrance into a psychodrama group is often marked by a sort of initiatory entrance through a ‘narrow door’. Emotions, tears, and a heightened potential for empathy sanction his or her emotional entrance into the group. For psychodrama, entering through the ‘narrow door’ means that a participant brings some deeply meaningful piece of himself and of his life history to the group. He may feel as if he is giving himself or his dreams ‘to the group to feed on’ and is letting himself be chewed or ripped up into pieces in the hope of being put together again at a higher level of consciousness.