ABSTRACT
Dramatherapy has reached a point in its development where it is sufficiently well established and mature for to stand back and examines not only its achievements but also the gaps in theory and practice. This chapter explores one such neglected area–namely, the relevance to practising dramatherapists of the great English literary critics. Dramatherapy is an eclectic discipline, one of its greatest strengths being its ability to draw inspiration from a wide range of source materials. Students on dramatherapy training courses are usually required to spend some time studying the ancient theatre, healing rituals of non-European cultures, children’s play and the literature of psychotherapy. The dramatherapist must have the same astute eye and attentive ear, the same ability to make inspired links between different strands of a plot and the same determination resolutely to read beneath the surface as did David Read Johnson, S. T. Coleridge or A. C. Bradley.
