ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explores some of the value systems that may be operating between therapist, client and social agency, in the context of a social services dramatherapy practice for people with learning difficultymental handicap. Although she do not believe that dramatherapy sets out to be a political process, it must operate within a political system. The State, through its penal institutions and relief agencies–health and social services–is one of the main employers of arts therapists in this country. Within such a framework dramatherapy, like any specialism, can be used for good or ill. Dramatherapy as an enabling, transformative medium counteracts this process, accepting communication for what it is in a non-repressive way. Erving Goffman sees the dramaturgical metaphor as a stepping-stone to a more complex analysis. He believes in his early work that as social beings we know and define ourselves and our roles in relation to our interactions with others.
