ABSTRACT
The Freudian couch most specifically can be viewed as a stage space, a place where the inner life of the client is played out. This perspective of the therapeutic psychoanalytical space has been taken up by numerous scholars and practitioners. The conscious decision to arrange a space in such a precise manner lends Freud's design decisions to be considered as scenographic. In 1941, psychoanalyst Otto Fenichel offered his critique of the advantages of the Freudian couch in the analytical space remarking that the ceremony of entering a space that contains a couch and moving to lying down can produce a magical impression in the patient. To truly understand the impact of space and place in dramatherapy and across history, it can be helpful to turn back to look at where we have come from as a discipline with regard to space and place.
