Alternative Therapies: Sociodrama, Nude Therapy, Primal Scream, Psychedelic
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology February 28, 2020 Erika Dyck, Emmanuel Delille
In the 1970s, alternative therapies on the American West Coast, especially in California, embraced spiritual and non-biological approaches that conflicted with Western biomedicine, placing them in a category of new age medicine. These therapies arose from a Cold War context of affluence, dissatisfaction, and cultural anxiety. The article examines four such therapies—psychedelics, primal scream, nude therapy, and sociodrama—arguing that beyond their differences and flirtations with orthodox medicine, they reveal tensions with psychoanalysis and attempts to redefine the therapist-patient relationship. Though none endured in original form, revisiting this history offers insight into changes in psychotherapy in the latter 20th century and the cultural tensions that fueled subsequent therapeutic shifts.