Musings & Observations / Barry Halpin

For all sad words of tongue or pen,

The saddest are these,

It might have been.

John Greenleaf Whittier

One by one, the six people in the circle plead their case, trying to convince each other why they should remain in the lifeboat and not be thrown overboard into shark-infested waters. They negotiate, cajole and advocate for themselves, as they talk about their past, their unfulfilled dreams and their hopes and plans for the future.

They're participating in the psychodrama exercise known as the Lifeboat Game, loosely based on the 1944 movie "Lifeboat" and somewhat similar to Tribal Council on "Survivor." The game puts a different spin on an ocean liner catastrophe; the lifeboat springs a leak and the survivors are faced with having to vote people off.

As the six residents of Liberation House, a substance abuse treatment facility in Stamford, take turns telling their story, the game becomes a metaphor for their current situation -- it's almost as if they're also trying to convince themselves why they should choose life over drugs. Some have struggled with addiction for more than 20 years and this is a golden opportunity for them to look in the mirror and do some serious soul searching.

They talk of would-haves, could-haves and should-haves and I ask them to stop looking in their personal rear-view mirrors and instead look at the road ahead and think how they can create a drug-free lifestyle. Change is difficult under the best of conditions, but it is possible to reinvent yourself. "It is never too late to be what you might have been," wrote George Eliot.

Drug addicts have destroyed many if not all of their relationships as well as their functional roles in society. Psychodrama offers an opportunity to experience and learn new roles, to find new ways of relating to others and their social environment and to work through inner difficulties. It works towards integrating all levels of a human being: his thinking; emotions; imagination; creativity; and actions in his social environment.

Jacob L.Moreno, philosopher and psychiatrist, developed psychodrama in Austria in 1921; it stemmed from earlier work he had done with improvisational theater. It is probably the oldest form of modern group psychotherapy and has influenced other forms of therapy such as Gestalt and Transactional Analysis.

Moreno was inspired by his work with "street people" and the relocation of refugees after World War I, and his story telling sessions with the children in the Gardens of Vienna, where he created a children's theater of spontaneity. Through this work, the therapeutic potential of spontaneous/improvisational acting became clear to him and lay the foundation for the rest of his life work.

Moreno saw role-playing as ideal for the development of increased communication skills, interpersonal problem-solving skills and self awareness; a basic training for greater health, flexibility and adaptation. The role-plays help participants find and create new and more effective ways to interact with others, which helps to lower emotional stress and the need to act out.

The mantra of psychodrama is that it is more valuable to act out conflicts than to talk about them; it encourages a flexible and active approach to life's problems. One of the fundamental principles is that you can learn and relearn more effectively when you are deeply involved in a crucial scene from your life as opposed to simply talking about it. It provides a greater sense of reality while also working towards insight in action.

The classical psychodrama involves improvisational dramatic action, where the script is written moment by moment, out of the purposes and concerns of the protagonist/chief actor and the group members who play roles of significant others in the protagonist's life.

A number of scenes are played out; depicting ongoing conflicts, unresolved situations, memories of past events, inner dramas and dreams. In these scenes, the experience is as if it were the real life situation taking place in the moment. The action, interaction and group sharing lead to insight and future change.

Moreno felt relationships were the infrastructure of a person's life and that relationships are expressed through roles. When we understand our various roles, the models that give rise to them, the social forces that shape them and the beliefs and attitudes that support them, then we can understand ourselves and make sense of our myriad relationships. Roles are the connection between our needs and feelings and the world we live in. He understood that role playing was ideal for the development of improvisation and role flexibility, a type of basic training for greater health.

Moreno believed it was critical to integrate all levels of a human being; intellect, feelings, imagination and actions within their relationships. His goal was to actualize the creator in each person, believing that spontaneity is the key, the energy that will move people to be creative and provide new clarity in dealing with the conflicts in their lives. The scenes become a dress rehearsal for life, allowing the actors in the psychodrama to see and experiment with the other choices available to them. Free the imagination and see the infinite possibilities!

Many people escape into drugs and alcohol due to an inability to confront the frustrations and conflicts in their lives. They have difficulty expressing dynamic emotions and become frozen in their attempts to deal with life on life's terms; instead they turn to the drink or drug of choice to self medicate. The urgency to resolve matters remains in their head as a monodrama.

In her commencement address to Mount Holyoke College in 1999, the author and columnist, Anna Quindlen, said to the students, "... And then look, every day, at the choices you are making and when you ask yourself why you are making them, find this answer: for me, for me. Because they are who and what I am and mean to be." As with Quindlen, Moreno was a staunch believer in the importance of becoming yourself.

One of the residents is making a case to his fellow players in the Lifeboat Game. He speaks of a life with considerably more downs than ups, full of more than his share of mistakes, broken relationships and broken dreams. He wants more than anything to be able to repair his relationship with his oldest son, who he feels hates him and wants nothing more to do with him.

His emotions get the better of him as he acknowledges all the broken promises his son has heard over the years and how he would give anything to be able to turn back the clock and erase all the pain he caused.

The silence is telling and I know that the others are also revisiting their own broken relationships. Moreno's primary interest was how human beings interact with each other and he strongly believed in the all importance of relationships.

At this moment, everyone in the Lifeboat is saying Amen.

Barry Halpin is a prevention specialist for Liberation Programs, a substance abuse health care agency based in Stamford that provides substance abuse counseling to adolescents and their families in Darien. He's also the director of the countywide Peer Players, an adolescent theater company. E-mail him at barry

halpin@aol.com.