Jacob Levy Moreno (born Iacob Levy; May 18, 1889 – May 14, 1974) was a Romanian-American
psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...
,
psychosociologist, and
educator
A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.
''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...
, the founder of
psychodrama
Psychodrama is an action method, often used as a psychotherapy, in which clients use spontaneous dramatization, role playing, and dramatic self-presentation to investigate and gain insight into their lives.
Developed by Jacob L. Moreno and ...
, and the foremost pioneer of
group psychotherapy
Group psychotherapy or group therapy is a form of psychotherapy in which one or more therapists treat a small group of clients together as a group. The term can legitimately refer to any form of psychotherapy when delivered in a group format, ...
. During his lifetime, he was recognized as one of the leading
social scientists
Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soc ...
.
Early life and education
![J L Moreno Pleven TB](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/J_L_Moreno_Pleven_TB.jpg)
Jacob Levy Moreno was born in
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
in the
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania ( ro, Regatul României) was a constitutional monarchy that existed in Romania from 13 March ( O.S.) / 25 March 1881 with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian ...
. His father was Moreno Nissim Levy, a
Sephardi
Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), ...
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
merchant born in 1856 in Plevna in the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
(today
Pleven
Pleven ( bg, Плèвен ) is the seventh most populous city in Bulgaria. Located in the northern part of the country, it is the administrative centre of Pleven Province, as well as of the subordinate Pleven municipality. It is the biggest ...
,
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
). Jacob's grandfather Buchis had moved to Plevna from
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
, where his ancestors had settled after they left Spain in 1492. It is thought that the Morenos left Plevna for Bucharest during the
Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, following the Plevna rabbi Haim Bejarano in search of a more hospitable environment. Jacob Moreno's mother, Paulina Iancu or Wolf, was also a Sephardi Jew, born in 1873, and originated from
Călăraşi, Romania.
In 1895, a time of great intellectual creativity and political turmoil, the family moved to
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
. He studied
medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...
,
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
, and
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
at the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...
, becoming a
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin language, Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a profes ...
in 1917. He had rejected Freudian theory while still a medical student, and became interested in the potential of group settings for therapeutic practice.
[Biographical detail](_blank)
article by Lucy Ozarin, ''Psychiatric News'' (Volume 38, Number 10), May 16, 2003. Retrieved on December 29, 2007.
In his autobiography, Moreno recalls this encounter with
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
in 1912. "I attended one of Freud’s lectures. He had just finished an analysis of a telepathic dream. As the students filed out, he singled me out from the crowd and asked me what I was doing. I responded, 'Well, Dr. Freud, I start where you leave off. You meet people in the artificial setting of your office. I meet them on the street and in their homes, in their natural surroundings. You analyze their dreams. I give them the courage to dream again. You analyze and tear them apart. I let them act out their conflicting roles and help them to put the parts back together again.'"
[The Autobiography of J. L. Moreno, M.D.
(Abridged), J. L. Moreno, Moreno Archives, Harvard University, 1985.]
Marriages and children
In Brooklyn, New York, Moreno married Beatrice Beecher in 1926. The marriage ended in divorce, and in 1938 he married Florence Bridge, with whom he had one child,
Regina Moreno (born 1939). They too were divorced, and he married
Zerka Toeman in 1949, with whom he had one child
Jonathan D. Moreno
Jonathan D. Moreno is an American philosopher and historian who specializes in the intersection of bioethics, culture, science, and national security, and has published seminal works on the history, sociology and politics of biology and medicine ...
(born 1952).
Career
While living in Vienna in the early 1900s Moreno started an
improvisational theater
Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted: created spontaneously by the performers. In its purest form, the dialogue, a ...
company, ''Stegreiftheater'', the Theater of Spontaneity
where he formulated a form of psychotherapy he called psychodrama, which employed improvised dramatizations,
role-plays and other therapeutic, spontaneous dramatic expressions that utilized and unleashed the spontaneity and creativity of the group and its individual members.
[ Moreno saw "psychodrama as the next logical step beyond ]psychoanalysis
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...
." It was "an opportunity to get into action instead of just talking, to take the role of the important people in our lives to understand them better, to confront them imaginatively in the safety of the therapeutic theater, and most of all to become more creative and spotantaneous human beings."[
In his book ''Who Shall Survive?'' (Preludes, p.xxviii) Moreno wrote of the genesis of his Group Psychotherapy in 1913–14 in Vienna, formulating his ideas while working with groups of prostitutes.
Moving to the US in 1925, he began working in New York City. There, Moreno worked on his theory of ]interpersonal relations
The concept of interpersonal relationship involves social associations, connections, or affiliations between two or more people. Interpersonal relationships vary in their degree of intimacy or self-disclosure, but also in their duration, in t ...
, and the development of his work in psychodrama
Psychodrama is an action method, often used as a psychotherapy, in which clients use spontaneous dramatization, role playing, and dramatic self-presentation to investigate and gain insight into their lives.
Developed by Jacob L. Moreno and ...
, sociometry
Sociometry is a quantitative method for measuring social relationships. It was developed by psychotherapist Jacob L. Moreno and Helen Hall Jennings in their studies of the relationship between social structures and psychological well-being, and ...
, group psychotherapy
Group psychotherapy or group therapy is a form of psychotherapy in which one or more therapists treat a small group of clients together as a group. The term can legitimately refer to any form of psychotherapy when delivered in a group format, ...
, sociodrama A sociodrama is a dramatic play in which several individuals act out assigned roles for the purpose of studying and remedying problems in group or collective relationships. It was developed by social scientist Jacob L. Moreno to explore sociologica ...
, and sociatry. In his autobiography he wrote "only in New York, the melting pot of the nations, the vast metropolis, with all its freedom from all preconceived notions, could I be free to pursue sociometric group research in the grand style I had envisioned".
The ''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' wrote “He found that acceptance of his theories was slow, particularly because some colleagues deplored his showmanship.”
He worked at the Plymouth Institute, Brooklyn, and at Mount Sinai Hospital. In 1929, he founded an Impromptu Theater at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...
and later did work at the Guild Theater. He made studies of sociometry at Sing Sing Prison
Sing Sing Correctional Facility, formerly Ossining Correctional Facility, is a maximum-security prison operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the village of Ossining, New York. It is about north o ...
in 1931. In 1936, he founded the Beacon Hill Sanitarium, and the adjacent Therapeutic Theater.
He later held positions at Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and the New School for Social Research
The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSSR ...
.
In 1932, Moreno first introduced group psychotherapy to the American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 37,000 members are involve ...
, and co-authored the monograph ''Group Method and Group Pschotherapy'' with Helen Hall Jennings
Helen Hall Jennings (September 20, 1905 – October 4, 1966) was a social psychologist and trailblazer in the field of social networks in the early 20th century. She developed quantitative research methods used to study sociometry, a quantitative m ...
. He and Jennings were the first to use a stochastic network
Queueing theory is the mathematical study of waiting lines, or queues. A queueing model is constructed so that queue lengths and waiting time can be predicted. Queueing theory is generally considered a branch of operations research because the ...
model (or, "chance sociogram", as they called it), predating the Erdős–Rényi model
In the mathematical field of graph theory, the Erdős–Rényi model is either of two closely related models for generating random graphs or the evolution of a random network. They are named after Hungarian mathematicians Paul Erdős and Alfr ...
and the network model of Anatol Rapoport
Anatol Rapoport ( uk, Анатолій Борисович Рапопо́рт; russian: Анато́лий Бори́сович Рапопо́рт; May 22, 1911January 20, 2007) was an American mathematical psychologist. He contributed to general ...
.
For the next 40 years he developed and introduced his Theory of Interpersonal Relations and tools for social sciences he called 'sociodrama', 'psychodrama', 'sociometry', and 'sociatry'. In his monograph entitled, "The Future of Man's World", he describes how he developed these sciences to counteract "the economic materialism
Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds matter to be the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materiali ...
of Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 p ...
, the psychological materialism of Freud, and the technological materialism" of our modern industrial age.
His autobiography describes his position as "threefold:
#Spontaneity and creativity are the propelling forces in human progress, beyond and independent of libido and socioeconomic motives hat
A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
are frequently interwoven with spontaneity-creativity, but his propositiondoes deny that spontaneity and creativity are merely a function and derivative of libido or socioeconomic motives.
#Love and mutual sharing are powerful, indispensable working principles in group life. Therefore, it is imperative that we have faith in our fellow man’s intentions, a faith which transcends mere obedience arising from physical or legalistic coercion.
#That a super dynamic community based on these principles can be brought to realization through new techniques..."
Moreno died in New York City in 1974, aged 84. He chose to die by abstaining from all food and water after a long illness. His ashes are buried at Feuerhalle Simmering
Feuerhalle Simmering is a crematorium with attached urn burial ground in the Simmering (Vienna), Simmering district of Vienna, Austria. It lies at the end of an alley, directly opposite Vienna Central Cemetery's main gate.
Description
Opened on ...
in Vienna. His epitaph, at his request, reads "DER MANN, DER FREUDE UND LACHEN IN DIE PSYCHIATRIE BRACHTE" (The man who brought joy and laughter to psychiatry).
Summary of contribution
There is evidence that the methods of J. L. Moreno have held up respectably over time. Subsequent research from the University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...
shows the enormous influence that Moreno's theory of the Encounter
Encounter or Encounters may refer to:
Film
*''Encounter'', a 1997 Indian film by Nimmala Shankar
* ''Encounter'' (2013 film), a Bengali film
* ''Encounter'' (2018 film), an American sci-fi film
* ''Encounter'' (2021 film), a British sci-fi film
*E ...
(''Invitations to an Encounter'', 1914) had on the development of Martin Buber
Martin Buber ( he, מרטין בובר; german: Martin Buber; yi, מארטין בובער; February 8, 1878 –
June 13, 1965) was an Austrian Jewish and Israeli philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of existentialism c ...
's I-Thou philosophy, and Buber's influence on philosophy, theology, and psychology. His wife, Zerka Moreno, wrote: "While it is true that Buber broadened the idea of the Encounter, he did not create the instruments for it to occur." Moreno "produced the various instruments we now use for facilitating the human encounter, sociometry, group psychotherapy, psychodrama, and sociodrama". Zerka was herself an expert in psychodrama and sociometry, and continued her late husband's work.
With training centers and institutes on nearly every continent, there are many thousands of students who are expanding and developing training and teaching the Morenean Arts and Sciences across the disciplines, to more fully realize Moreno's vision to make these social sciences available for "the whole of uankind."Morenean Arts & Sciences
: ''Moreno Institute East'' website. Retrieved on December 29, 2007.
Moreno is also widely credited as one of the founders of the discipline of social network analysis
Social network analysis (SNA) is the process of investigating social structures through the use of networks and graph theory. It characterizes networked structures in terms of ''nodes'' (individual actors, people, or things within the network) a ...
, the branch of sociology that deals with the quantitative evaluation of an individual's role in a group or community by analysis of the network of connections between them and others.[
His 1934 book ''Who Shall Survive?'' contains some of the earliest graphical depictions of social networks (]sociogram
A sociogram is a graphic representation of social links that a person has. It is a graph drawing that plots the structure of interpersonal relations in a group situation.
Overview
Sociograms were developed by Jacob L. Moreno to analyze choice ...
s). In this book, he introduced a famous explanation, why a pandemic of runaways emerged at the New York Training School for Girls
New York Training School for Girls in Hudson was a reformatory school, where teenage girls, between the ages of 12 and 16, who were convicted of any form of juvenile delinquency in New York state were sent. The institution operated between 1904 and ...
in Hudson
Hudson may refer to:
People
* Hudson (given name)
* Hudson (surname)
* Henry Hudson, English explorer
* Hudson (footballer, born 1986), Hudson Fernando Tobias de Carvalho, Brazilian football right-back
* Hudson (footballer, born 1988), Hudso ...
.
Moreno Sociogram 1st Grade.png, 1st Grade
Moreno Sociogram 2nd Grade.png, 2nd Grade
Moreno Sociogram 3rd Grade.png, 3rd Grade
Moreno Sociogram 4th Grade.png, 4th Grade
Moreno Sociogram 5th Grade.png, 5th Grade
Moreno Sociogram 6th Grade.png, 6th Grade
Moreno Sociogram 7th Grade.png, 7th Grade
Moreno Sociogram 8th Grade.png, 8th Grade
Selected works by J. L. Moreno
* Moreno, J. L. (1932). ''First Book on Group Therapy''. Beacon House.
* Moreno, J. L. (1934). ''Who Shall Survive? A new Approach to the Problem of Human Interrelations''. Beacon House.
* Moreno, J. L. (1941). ''The Words of the Father''. Beacon House.
* Moreno, J. L. (1946). ''Psychodrama Volume 1''. Beacon House.
* Moreno, J. L. (1947). ''The Theatre of Spontaneity'' Beacon House.
* Moreno, J. L. (1951). ''Sociometry, Experimental Method and the Science of Society: An Approach to a New Political Orientation''. Beacon House.
* Moreno, J. L. (1953). ''Who Shall Survive? Foundations of Sociometry, Group Psychotherapy and Sociodrama''. Beacon House.
* Moreno, J. L. (1956). ''Sociometry and the Science of Man''. Beacon House.
* Moreno, J. L. (1959). ''Psychodrama Volume 2: Foundations of Psychodrama''. Beacon House.
* Moreno, J. L. (1960). ''The Sociometry Reader''. Beacon House.
* Moreno, J. L., Moreno, Z. T., Moreno, J. D. (1964). ''The First Psychodramatic Family''. Beacon House.
* Moreno, J. L. (1966). ''The International Handbook of Group Psychotherapy''. Philosophical Library.
* Moreno, J. L. (1969). ''Psychodrama Volume 3: Action Therapy and Principles of Practice''. Beacon House.
* Moreno, J. L. (1989). ''Preludes of my Autobiography''. Beacon House.
References
Further reading
*Marineau, René. (1992) ''Jacob Levy Moreno 1889-1974: father of psychodrama, sociometry and group psychotherapy''. Create Space Independent Publishing Platform.
*Moreno, Jonathan D. (2014) ''Impromptu Man: J.L. Moreno and the Origins of Psychodrama, Encounter Culture, and the Social Network''. Bellevue Literary Press.
*Nolte, John. (2014) ''The Philosophy, Theory and Methods of J. L. Moreno: The Man Who Tried to Become God (Explorations in Mental Health)''. Routledge.
External links
Psychodrama and Life with J.L. Moreno: An Interview with Zerka Moreno
(Psychotherapy.net)
Jacob Levy Moreno - his life and his muses. A film by Marco J. D. Maida, brasilian psychodramatist
Jonathan Moreno’s "Impromptu Man: J.L. Moreno and the Origins of Psychodrama, Encounter Culture, and the Social Network"
(Radio Times, WHYY Philadelphia)
Jacob L. Moreno papers, 1906, 1911-1977 (inclusive). B MS c66. Harvard Medical Library, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Boston, Mass.
Zerka T. Moreno papers, 1930-2010 (inclusive), 1957-2000 (bulk). H MS c163. Harvard Medical Library, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Boston, Mass.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moreno, Jacob L.
1889 births
1974 deaths
20th-century Sephardi Jews
American people of Bulgarian-Jewish descent
American people of Romanian-Jewish descent
American people of Spanish-Jewish descent
American people of Turkish-Jewish descent
American psychotherapists
Burials at Feuerhalle Simmering
Jewish psychiatrists
Physicians from Vienna
Psychodramatists
Columbia University faculty
Romanian emigrants to the United States
Romanian Sephardi Jews
Romanian people of Bulgarian descent
Romanian people of Turkish descent
University of Vienna alumni
Social Psychology Quarterly editors