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psy·cho·dra·ma

(sī′kə-drämə, -drămə)

1. A psychotherapeutic technique in which people are assigned roles to be played spontaneously within a dramatic context devised by a therapist in order to understand the behavior of people with whom they have difficult interactions.

2. A dramatization in which this technique is employed.

3. An event, social interaction, or narrative that manifests psychological forces or problems: "In [Pierre, Melville] abruptly reinvents himself as a domestic novelist, proposing to write a psychodrama of family intimacy" (Richard H. Brodhead).

psy′cho·dra·matic (-drə-mătĭk) adj.

psy′cho·drama·tist (-drămə-tĭst, -drämə-) n.

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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