Imagination, Identification and Catharsis in Theatre and Therapy

This study examines the underlying theatrical underpinning of dramatherapy, which is firmly based on an understanding of processes which are fundamentally theatrical: imagination, identification and catharsis. It approaches the subject systematically, arguing that the hidden psychological mechanisms which make theatre work are the same as those which operate in dramatherapy. In other words, the authors argue, it is the theatricality of dramatherapy which makes it healing.