Role reversal
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
""The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" (1845) by Edgar Allan Poe tells of the inmates taking over the mental asylum, or, role reversal of mental patients and mental health professionals."--Sholem Stein |
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Featured: ![]() Kunstformen der Natur (1904) by Ernst Haeckel |
In psychodrama, role reversal is a technique where the protagonist is asked, by the psychodrama director, 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 and mental catharsis, insight, and transformation.
See also
- Archetype
- Cliché
- Fantasy tropes
- Perspective-taking
- Role-playing
- Stereotype
- Stock character
- Reversal of fortune