ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the story, the theatrical improvisation and the group process in Psychotherapeutic Playback Theater through the hidden conflicts. It discusses ways to use the concept of conflict to identify the essence of the story and the ways conflict adds the theatrical improvisation with layers of fullness and depth, thus promoting significant reflective processes among group members. The concepts of conflict, opposites and integration are discussed and demonstrated through Freud’s impulse theory and concepts of cathexis and anti-cathexis, Jung’s concepts of completing opposites, Klein’s object-relations concepts of schizo-paranoid and depressive positions, split and manic defenses and drama therapy role theory concepts of role, counter-role and guide. Finally, the use of theatrical structures as an intervention technique aimed to underline and work through conflicts toward integration is discussed and demonstrated.
