ABSTRACT
Vladimir Iljine, from 1908 to 1917, developed therapeutic theatre with psychiatric patients in Kiev in pre-revolutionary Russia (Petzold, 1973; Jones, 1996). He was influenced by Stanislavski. His was the first such work in the twentieth century. In 1909 Iljine published Improvising Theatre Play in the Treatment of Mood Disorders and in 1910 Patients Play Theatre: A Way of Healing Body and Mind. After the Russian Revolution Iljine travelled to Constantinople, Budapest, Berlin and then settled in Paris. In 1922 in Budapest, he met Sandor Ferenczi, who was already using role play in psychoanalysis. In 1925 in Berlin, Iljine translated Moreno’s The Theatre of Spontaneity into Russian and eventually met Moreno in 1964 at the first International Congress of Psychodrama in Paris.
