Moreno, J. L. (Jacob Levy), 1889-1974

Psychiatrist.

Moreno, a psychiatrist, is known as the developer of psychodrama, a form of group psychotherapy. Born in Rumania and raised in Vienna, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1925. He had known Franz Werfel in Vienna, where Moreno (at that time known as Jacob Levy) had been the editor of the Expressionist journal Der Daimon (later Der neue Daimon), to which Werfel had been a contributor. They apparently met again after many years in New York in 1940, shortly following Werfel's emigration to the U.S.

Moreno (University of Vienna, M.D. 1917) was a psychiatrist and directed a "theater of spontaniety" in Vienna. After moving to the U.S. in 1925, he conducted psychodramatic and sociometric studies in New York City. Moreno initiated publication of several journals on group psychotherapy, psychodrama, and sociometry; he also founded the Moreno Sanitarium, Moreno Institute, and Moreno Academy; and he organized the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama (ASGPP) and the International Association of Group Psychotherapy. Other activities included coordination of several international congresses in the 1960's and 1970's.

The J.L. Moreno Collection in the Countway Library of Medicine spans most of Dr. Moreno's career, with the bulk of materials covering the last twenty-five years of his life. The papers, which are contained in a total of 2002 manuscript folders, consist largely of correspondence and manuscript materials (including typescripts and handwritten notes); but also to be found here are announcements and programs, registration forms and questionnaires, monographs and reprints, business and financial data, diaries and notebooks, records and documents, transcripts, mailing lists, printed matter, protocols, and patient records.* Added to all of these are more than 35 items and cartons with oversize and bulk materials--scrapbooks and newspaper clippings, tapes and films, personal effects, conference proceedings, journals and books, and archivists' files (the last includes bibliographical materials as well as a list of the books and journals from JLM's library that were donated with the collection).

* Materials related to patients are confidential and may have restrictions placed upon their use.

Jacob Levy Moreno, known for his seminal contributions to the fields of psychodrama, group psychotherapy, and sociometry, was born in Rumania and grew up in Austria and Germany. As a young man he developed a marked interest in philosophy and psychology and attended the University of Vienna, where he earned a medical degree in 1917. A practicing psychiatrist trained in the Vienna of Sigmund Freud, Moreno came to believe that “orthodox psychoanalysis only makes a patient feel more self-conscious and lonely.” Seeking new opportunities, he immigrated to the United States in 1925 and eventually acquired an estate in Beacon, New York, a community in Dutchess County. There he founded in 1936 the Beacon Hill Sanitarium and the Therapeutic Theatre for Psychodrama and established within a few years training institutes for workers interested in learning the techniques of psychodrama and sociometry. Both the sanitarium and the institutes that he directed later come to bear his name. In 1957, after the Moreno Institute had become accredited to provide postgraduate training, an Academy of Psychodrama and Group Psychotherapy was added to the enterprise.

Dr. Moreno was a prolific writer and editor. He directed the operation of Beacon House, Inc., the firm he established to publish journals and monographs devoted to the subjects of sociometry, group psychotherapy, and psychodrama, and served as its chief editor. In addition, he was an editor of such large-scale works as Progress in Psychotherapy, Vols. I-V (1956-1960), The Sociometry Reader (1961), and The International Handbook of Group Psychotherapy (1966). Among the many articles and monographs that he authored are his books, Who Shall Survive? (1934), Words of the Father (1941), The Theatre of Spontaneity (1947), and Psychodrama, Vols. I–III (1946-1969). He also left behind him a number of unpublished manuscripts, mostly autobiographical in nature.

JLM served as adjunct professor of sociology at New York University in the 1950s and ′60s and was active in such professional organizations as the American Psychiatric Association, the American Board of Neurology and Psychiatry, the American and New York Medical Associations, and the American Sociological Association. He founded and held prominent positions in the American Sociometric Association, the American Society for Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama (ASGPP), and the International Association of Group Psychotherapy. Perhaps his greatest satisfaction came through the international congresses of group psychotherapy, psychodrama, and sociometry over which he presided during the last two decades of his life.

The nucleus of the Moreno Collection came to the Countway Library in 1978 as a gift from Dr. Moreno's widow, Zerka, and his son, Jonathan, and was afterwards supplemented by further materials. A few years later the ASGPP established a fund for processing the archive, and in 1984 the materials finally embarked on their slow but inexorable transition from chaotic, crusty boxes to a marked, ordered, and preserved system. Initially, the collection was processed under the direction of Christopher Kraus, a graduate student at Harvard with an interest in psychodrama. Because he finished his studies and left the Boston area before the project could be put in final form, an archivist already on the staff was assigned to tackle the problems that remained to be solved. These concerned preservation of materials, organizing and describing the collection for ease of use, and preparation of a selected name index accurately keyed to the final box and folder numbers.

The introduction prepared by the previous archivist and his assistant no longer describes the arrangement of materials; but their view of JLM as a larger-than-life figure, as well as their comments on his more provocative pronouncements and on some of the unique materials in the collection, is of interest and appears in the front matter to this inventory. Also here will be found a chronology giving highlights of Moreno's life and work and an outline of how the archive is arranged. Following the inventory itself is an index to most of the correspondents and authors of papers who interacted with Moreno and his areas of interest.

It should be noted that the record of the last quarter century of the life of Jacob Levy Moreno reveals an interwoven professional and personal venture shared by his wife and collaborator, Zerka Toeman Moreno. Since Mrs. Moreno frequently acted or wrote in behalf of her husband, no attempt has been made either to differentiate her files or to include her name in the index, other than in obvious instances or for personal materials. This policy has been extended to others who acted and wrote in behalf of Dr. Moreno and his enterprise (albeit on a lesser scale)--for example, Ann Manzoeillo or any of the other secretaries at Beacon--especially when dealing with routine administrative matters.