ABSTRACT

"Dramatherapy Performance Evaluation", inspired by Aristotle's "Poetics", is a tool created for the qualitative assessment and evaluation of both the performance process and event in dramatherapy. It also provides quantitative measurements of symptoms of clients participating in a dramatherapy performance project, such as the "negative symptoms" of schizophrenia. "Dramatherapy performance" involving clients with schizophrenia is an area of dramatherapy practice that encompasses notions of Psychotherapy, Social Drama and Theatre Performance and provides by its definition a mutative metaphor for the clients' symptoms, relationships, social image and creativity. Qualitative and quantitative research studies have shown that the use of dramatherapy in psychiatric settings for individuals with schizophrenia is an effective therapeutic approach aiming at the reduction of the clients' symptoms, as well as the improvement of their creativity and communication skills. The creation of a "dramatherapy performance" involving clients with schizophrenia was based theoretically on the concept of a tragedian conflict as a metaphor for the schizophrenic condition.