About the Congress

The State of the World

What Can Psychodrama Do?

Conceptual Framework

Psychodrama emerged at the beginning of the 20th century, between the two World Wars, a period marked by profound social transformation. Through his observation of a society shaped by conflict and collective tension, Jacob Levy Moreno proposed an innovative vision: to understand and transform not only the individual, but also the relationships between people and society itself.

A truly therapeutic procedure cannot have less an objective than the whole of mankind.

Jacob Levy Moreno

For Moreno, true therapy cannot have a lesser objective than the totality of humanity, and Psychodrama can thus be understood, from its very beginnings, as a project that is simultaneously clinical, relational, and social.

More than a hundred years on, we once again find ourselves in a particularly demanding historical moment. Armed conflicts, humanitarian crises, political polarisation, online radicalisation, intense cultural tensions, and the growing materialisation of the climate crisis are all expressions of the multiple challenges of the contemporary world. Researchers have referred to this context as a polycrisis, in which different crises interconnect and reinforce one another, or as the expression of a deeper metacrisis, related to the many ways in which we organise societies, values, and the relationship between humanity and nature.

No adequate therapy can be prescribed as long as mankind is not a unity in some fashion.

Jacob Levy Moreno

In this context, it becomes increasingly clear that many contemporary challenges, including those that manifest in mental health, cannot be understood at the individual level alone, and must also be seen as expressions of collective, social, and cultural dynamics. Never before in history have these problems been discussed with such openness. A growing number of civic movements, community initiatives, and spaces for reflection on the future of our societies are emerging across the world.

Human beings can consciously create something new through spontaneous action in the here and now.

Jacob Levy Moreno

In a world where tensions are becoming ever more visible, perhaps the time has come to revisit one of Moreno's central ideas: the relevance of community, encounter, and the capacity to generate new responses to old problems. In celebrating the 40 years of the Portuguese Psychodrama Society (Sociedade Portuguesa de Psicodrama), this congress invites professionals, students, and the wider community to take part in a space of encounter, experience, and dialogue.

An invitation for us, together, to reflect:
What can Psychodrama do in the face of the State of the World?

Thematic Areas

Submit a paper →

Submissions are now open. Works may take the form of oral presentations, posters, or Psychodrama and/or Sociodrama workshops, experiential and/or educational in nature, aligned with the thematic areas of the event.

Area 1

Psychodrama and the State of the World: contemporary readings

Theoretical and practical reflections on the role of Psychodrama in understanding current social transformations, including phenomena such as polarisation, violence, migration, the climate crisis, and emerging collective dynamics.

Area 2

Mental health and contemporary suffering

Psychodramatic approaches to psychological suffering today: anxiety, depression, burnout, isolation, identity, ADHD, eating disorders, the impact of social media, and cultural pressures.

Area 3

Relationships, community, and social intervention

Psychodramatic practices in community, educational, and organisational contexts. Sociodrama, sociatry, and psychodramatic methodology applied to promoting social cohesion, inclusion, and participation.

Area 4

Creativity, spontaneity, and transformation

Exploring creativity as a tool for individual and collective change. Intersections between Psychodrama, the arts, and expressive practices.

Area 5

Psychodrama, culture, diversity, and inclusion

Psychodramatic work with cultural diversity, gender, identity, and social inequalities. Reflections on inclusion, otherness, and social justice.

Area 6

Research in Psychodrama

Empirical studies, theoretical reviews, research methodologies, and impact assessment of psychodramatic interventions.

Area 7

Training, supervision, and professional development

Training processes in Psychodrama, contemporary challenges in the training of psychodramatists, and models of supervision.

Message from the Board

The 17th Portuguese Congress of Psychodrama takes place in particularly stimulating circumstances for psychodramatists across the world. Faced with the emergence of societal challenges that at a global scale are shaking States and populations alike, the theme of this year's biennial scientific congress in Curia could not feel more urgent: "what can Psychodrama do?"

This is also a year of celebration for Portuguese psychodramatists: the Sociedade Portuguesa de Psicodrama turns 40. The Board of the Society and the organising committee of the 17th Congress are fully committed to marking this occasion.

Why celebrate? We know how cultural conserves, such as the commemoration of a date, can stifle spontaneity. We also know, however, that it is precisely over this structure that spontaneity operates. The celebration at this congress will therefore be, first and foremost, a new opportunity to reconnect with our identity matrix, and to honour those whose creative action and innovative impulse gave rise to the initial acting-out of our society. But we also celebrate to allow ourselves to pause and, in so doing, to carry on. The celebration of our 40 years does not mark an ending. On the contrary, it is a necessary warm-up for new and spontaneous acts from Portuguese psychodramatists, a search for a nascent state that, in the face of the world's challenges, is as desirable as it is necessary.

As in previous years, we count on the engagement of our members, psychodramatists and sociodramatists, as well as the presence of guests of recognised national and international standing, to collectively rehearse the co-creation of responses and solutions adequate to this moment in the world.

We hope to see you in Curia!

João Teixeira de Sousa President, Sociedade Portuguesa de Psicodrama

Organising Committee

Chair of the Organising Committee Ana Cruz

Inês Magalhães · Liliana S. Ribeiro · Maria Laureano · Margarida Pedroso de Lima · Nuno Amarante · Paula Carvalho