As has been stated, the term "role-playing game" was first used in the late 1970's. The term "role-playing" for a type of psychological group therapy was first used around 1949. Prior to that time it was referred to as "drama therapy" and originally as "psychodrama."
The practice of role-playing as a form of psychological group therapy officially began in Vienna, a the Komodien Haus theatre on April 1, 1921. It was pioneered by Dr. J.L. Moreno as a form of group psychotherapy. The first participants were probably Viennese prostitutes in Dr. Moreno's office (I am serious). Dr. Moreno noticed the frequency at which the prostitutes of Vienna's red light district were arrested and started a group to discuss their problems and allow then to lend support to each other for not only legal issues, but also personal and medical issues.
The public debut of role-playing in the form of the first psychodrama was less than auspicious:
"The first recognized public psychodrama took place on April 1, 1921 at the Komodien Haus, a theater in Vienna. At that time, Moreno invited the people of the community to the theater, with its stage showing an empty 'throne.'
Dressed in the costume of a jester, he called members of the audience to take the role of a leader. The audience apparently did not understand Moreno’s message, and no one was seen worthy as taking the leadership in the turmoil of the post-war era."
-Karen Carnabucci, MSS, LCSW, TEP
The "leader" in Dr. Moreno's psyhcodrama was the protagonist. The other participants played supporting roles in the life of the protagonist.
Dr. Moreno moved emigrated to the United States in 1925, but the first American psychodrama group, the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama was founded in 1942. Dr. Moreno died in 1974. I wonder what his thoughts on the role-playing hobby were, or if he even knew that it existed as anything other than a group psychotherapy?
DM
