A simple appreciation and understanding of
‘Role’ and ‘Role Identity’
T.T.Srinath Ph.d.
Moreno called man ‘a role player’. Emphasising the point, he said that man is also
‘relational’, which meant that man was constantly in relationships and his existence
was so circumscribed.
Given his fascination for human interaction, he also received support from his equally
accomplished peer Martin Buber who said that relationships which foster will take on
an ‘I-Thou’ or an ‘I-You’ complexion which means ‘me as a person relating to you as
a person’ and not an ‘I-It’ which is ‘me as a subject relating to you as an object’.
Moreno’s inspiration crept into Gestalt and existential thought, which advocated, as
he did, that all experiences encountered, even though may have previous references
are actually being felt in the ‘here and now.’ Moreno also believed, as did Perls, that
all relationships are ‘contextual.’ He thus reiterated often that any human contact has
to be ‘horizontalised’ i.e. everything that happens in ‘encounter’ between people is
significant.
Given this backdrop of relating, relatedness and relationships, Moreno emphasised
that human beings are either in relationship with self or with another at all times and
can never live in isolation.
His theory, which gained robustness through ‘roles’ expression, played out in the
following fashion:
1. He said that every human being has a ‘perception’ of how he / she is seen in a
role and how he / she sees himself / herself in that role. He called this ‘role
perception.’
2. He said that every human being, for himself and for those he / she interacts
with has expectations. He called this ‘role expectation.’
3. When a human interacts with another or even with self he / she create for
himself / herself in the moment, a role. It could be as simple as looking into
the mirror and imagining one in the role of a beautiful person, or relating to
one’s child in the role of parent or to one’s spouse, friend, colleague etc. All
this, he classified as ‘role creation.’
4. Once a person creates for oneself a role it becomes important, Moreno said, for
the individual to ‘take the role.’ i.e. define oneself by the contours of the role
he / she takes on.
5. Following this is to ‘make the role;’ being as effective as one can in the role.
6. In performing the role one may either ‘under develop it’, like when he / she
ignores one’s ‘own shadow’ or is in denial of self needs or what have you.
7. Sometimes an individual ‘over develops a role,’ when the individual gives the
role excess attention like ‘becoming a care giver, sacrificing oneself’ and so on.
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8. When a person under develops or over develops a role he / she will feel fatigued
and would require ‘role relief’ i.e. moving away from playing or not playing the
required role.
Thus we notice that every interaction, every ‘contact’ is role bound and therefore the
human always functions from role when responding to another or even self.
One may ask how a person is in relationship when only with self. The typical example
from Indian culture and dance such as for example Bharathanatyam, where a dancer
even when alone is relating through dance to either nature or a lover or God, all of
whom are not on the stage, yet the dancer creates for the audience a visual imagery
of the other as though on stage.
When we understand the vastness of role repertoire it helps us as Psychodrama and
Sociodrama practitioners to bring it to bear when ‘role reversing’ during an act, thus
the Director of the Psychodrama or Sociodrama can intuitively recommend role
reversal to enhance impact both on the protagonist and on the ‘auxiliaries’ (others
who play roles).
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