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resonate in personal life experiences and cultural factors embedded within the film,
which carry levels of either stress that will be mastered, or act as a trauma to the
viewer" (Ballon & Leszcz, 2007, p. 211).
A number of drama therapists have written about their work employing monsters. Ann
Cattanachs (1996) The Use of Dramatherapy and Play Therapy to Help De-brief Children after the Trauma of Sexual Abuse, offers a potent example of empowering a child by
having her face and overcome a dream monster. One of the most noteworthy points in the
article was Cattanachs assertion that the dream monster not be killed for if it is later
resurrected in the childs dreams it then becomes all-powerful.
The all-powerful nature of the monsters in our dreams and childhood fantasies remains
within us into adulthood, feeding our shadows. As Noga Levine-Keini and Brurit Laub
state in the abstract of Dealing with Monsters, Monsters are a universal element in our
inner life (1999, p. 120). Their work to find therapeutic ways to deal with monsters in
the psyche is built on two approaches: Jungs (1960) work emphasizing the development
of the ego, where the inner monsters reside; and the work of White and Epston (1990)
who pioneered externalizing and personifying inner problems. By integrating the two approaches Levine-Keini and Laub (1999) came up with three missions, beginning with
creation, moving to confrontation with the monster, and finally, relief from the monster.
Moving beyond dialogue, the two therapists employ tools from the various creative arts
therapies psychodramatic scenes, drawing, and sculpting, to experientially explore the
conflict between the client and their monster.
Over the past decade, I've employed and adapted Levine-Keini and Laub's (1999) model
to work with clients confronting Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), addictions, and
eating disorders.
I learned about Levine-Keini and Laubs work while still in graduate school, while writing a literature review based on their article and developing an idea for a drama therapy
workshop employing monster archetypes. Despite the enthusiasm of my cohort over the
monster exercises I'd adapted or created, the workshop didn't happen for several years.
It was when these zombie flash mobs and extravagant haunted houses started appearing
in the mainstream that I recognized a cultural act hunger, a desire for enactment, and decided it was time to resurrect my work, and thus the Monster Movie Salon was born.,
In the Salon, now in its fourth year, we explore monster films through psychological, cultural, and personal lenses. Rather than taking the victim's point of view, we focus on the
wisdom in the monsters story. The distancing device of the monster allows us to explore
meaningful material, such as the family shadow, income inequality, anxious/avoidant attachment, and identity politics, in a fun and dynamic way. We watch film clips not just
from horror movies, but family films, dramas, comedies, and musicals in which monsters
appear, while alternatively engaging in free writing, group discussion, and dramatic play.
This juxtaposition of communal film viewing and embodiment can lead to fresh insights.
We transition back and forth between the cinematic realm and that of the participant's
subjective experience, to explore a phenomenology (Blatner &Blatner, 1997) of monsters. For example, one exercise invites participants to consider human somatic experience by manifesting shuffling zombies, floating ghosts, and stomping daikaiju, inviting
an experience of constriction and expansion (Schneider, 1993). A sampling of other exercises in the workshop series include an adaptation of Sound and Movement Transformations called Monster Transformations, a monster role analysis, Famous Monster Sculpture
Museum, and a three-part story exercise about an encounter with a monster.
By exploring the monster's story through human experience, we see beyond the fears they
induce, to the wisdom they can impart. The monster characters of cinema give shape to
obsessions, compulsions, insecurities, unnamed desires, unwanted emotions, and painful
memories - the very things that bring people into psychotherapy! Thrust from the human
imagination, monsters are a continuum of us, offering meaningful lessons on what it
means to be human.
References
'Thriller' Flash Mob Breaks Out in Downtown Portland, Maine, (2013, October 24) Retrieved March 20, 2015, from http://on.aol.com/video/thriller-flash-mob-breaks-out-indowntown-portland--maine-517985778
Oregon Food Bank, Inc.'s Portland Zombie Walk, (2009, October 24) Retrieved March
20, 2015, from http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/blanca-garcia-rinder/portlandzombiewalk
10 Great Halloween Haunted House Attractions Across The U.S., (2013, September 20)
Retrieved March 20, 2015, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/larryolmsted/
2013/09/20/10-great-halloween-haunted-house-attractions-across-the-us/
Ciment, M. Interview with Stanley Kubrick (1980) Retrieved March 20, 2015, from http://
genius.cat-v.org/stanley-kubrick/interviews/ciment/the-shining
Ballon B., &Leszcz M. (2007). Horror films: tales to master terror or shapers of trauma?.
American Journal of Psychotherapy; 61(2), 211-30.
Benshoff, H. (1997). Monsters in the Closet: Homosexuality and the Horror Film. New
York, NY: Manchester University Press
Blatner, A., & Blatner, A. (1997). The Art of Play: Helping Adults Reclaim Imagination
and Spontaneity. New York, NY: Brunner/Mazel, Inc.
Cattanach, A., (1996). The Use of Dramatherapy and Play Therapy to Help De-brief
Children after the Trauma of Sexual Abuse. In Alida Gersie (Ed.) Dramatic Approaches
to Brief Therapy (pp.177-187).
Jones, G. (2002). Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and
Make-Believe Violence. New York, NY: Basic Books
Jung, C. G. (1960). The collected works of C.J. Vol. 14. Princeton: Princeton University
Press.
Levine-Keini, N., & Laub, B. (1999). Dealing with monsters. Family Therapy, 26(2),
121-133.
Schneider, K. (1993). Horror and the Holy: Wisdom-Teachings of the Monster Tale.
Chicago, IL: Open Court
Tudor, A. (1989). Monsters and Mad Scientists: A Cultural History of the Horror Movie.
Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell, Inc. (p. 222)
White, J. & Epston, D. (1990). Narrative means to therapeutic ends. New York: Norton.
Wood, R. (1986). Hollywood From Vietnam to Reagan. New York, NY: Columbia UP
Ziegler, A. J. (1991). Illness as Descent into the Body. In Jeremiah Abrams, & Connie
Zweig (Eds.), Meeting the Shadow: The Hidden Power of the Dark Side of Human Nature (pp. 29-34). New York, NY: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam
BIO:
Doug Ronning, (http://dougronning.com) MFT, RDT/BCT, is a Drama Therapist with a
private practice in San Francisco, CA and an Adjunct Professor at the California Institute
of Integral Studies. He is a lifelong fan of creature features, a produced screenwriter
(HBOs Tales From the Crypt), and creator of the Monster Movie Salon (http://monstermoviesalon.com)