In psychodrama

Psychodrama

Psychodrama is a method of psychotherapy in which clients utilize spontaneous dramatization, role playing and dramatic self-presentation to investigate and gain insight into their lives. Developed by Jacob L. Moreno, M.D. psychodrama includes elements of theater, often conducted on a stage where...

, role reversal is a technique where the protagonist is asked, by the psychodrama director

Psychodrama director

A psychodrama director is the leader of a psychodrama session who by his/her actions is aimed to help the protagonist enact significant scenes from his life and experiences in a meaningful and therapeutically beneficial way...

, to exchange roles with another person (an auxiliary ego) on the psychodrama stage. The former assumes as many of the roles of the other as possible and vice versa. In that way, one is able not only to experience a different perspective of the situation (to walk into someone's else's shoes), but also to witness one's own behaviour from the other side. Thereby, the role reversal can bring significant abreactive

Abreaction

Abreaction is a psychoanalytical term for reliving an experience in order to purge it of its emotional excesses; a type of catharsis. Sometimes it is a method of becoming conscious of repressed traumatic events....

 and mental catharsis

Catharsis

Catharsis or katharsis is a Greek word meaning "cleansing" or "purging". It is derived from the verb καθαίρειν, kathairein, "to purify, purge," and it is related to the adjective καθαρός, katharos, "pure or clean."-Dramatic uses:...

, insight, and transformation.