ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with an innovatory dramatherapy project at Broadmoor Hospital which used Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream as a focal point for dramatherapy exploration. The primary objective was to test the preliminary hypothesis that participation in dramatherapy workshops would improve the patients’ self-image. The workshops were based on dramatic stages which parallel normal human development. The three stages of embodiment–projection–role (EPR) have proved a safe and useful paradigm as a basis for dramatherapeutic intervention. Art and dramatherapy, which both work at a primary feeling level, are very potent forms of intervention with individuals and groups who have a variety of ‘body problems’. The choice of the instruments was dictated by the availability of reliable tests to suit the purpose of measuring self-image and matching the objectives of the dramatherapy paradigm which guided the therapist’s approach. The EPR dramatherapy paradigm was chosen because of its safety and familiarity to clinician and patient alike.
