Exploring values, attitudes and prejudices: psychodrama as applied ethics

Psychodrama in the professional field of offence-oriented therapy is first a tool of applied ethics: the scenic action is an attempt to recognise, evaluate and contextualise problematic behaviour and thinking. In order to achieve these goals, some major challenges must be overcome, especially in the individual setting: prejudices, hermeneutic injustice, imbalance of power and lack of autonomy. This article, published in the Zeitschrift für Psychodrama und Soziometrie (ZPS), shows how the methods of psychodramatic play and director’s commentary are effective in overcoming these hurdles and promote a shared moral understanding of the behaviours concerned.