Role reversal
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"And, sure enough, one fine morning the keepers found themselves pinioned hand and foot, and thrown into the cells, where they were attended, as if they were the lunatics, by the lunatics themselves, who had usurped the offices of the keepers."--"The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" (1845) by Edgar Allan Poe |
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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