Adam Blatner, MD, is a Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association

American Psychiatric Association

The American Psychiatric Association is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the most influential worldwide. Its some 38,000 members are mainly American but some are international...

, doubly Board Certified in Child/Adult Psychiatry

Psychiatry

Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...

), a Certified Trainer of Psychodrama

Psychodrama

Psychodrama is a method of psychotherapy in which clients utilize spontaneous dramatization, role playing and dramatic self-presentation to investigate and gain insight into their lives. Developed by Jacob L. Moreno, M.D. psychodrama includes elements of theater, often conducted on a stage where...

 and a psychology theorist. He is the author of the book Acting In, first published in 1973, which became the primary textbook for students of Psychodrama. He also wrote a number of other books and dozens of journal articles and chapters in textbooks, including the book (with his wife Allee Blatner) The Art of Play (see Publications, below).

Blatner has written papers and presented talks on a wide range of subjects, including Process philosophy

Process philosophy

Process philosophy identifies metaphysical reality with change and dynamism. Since the time of Plato and Aristotle, philosophers have posited true reality as "timeless", based on permanent substances, whilst processes are denied or subordinated to timeless substances...

, Postmodernism

Postmodernism

Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...

, and Scriptology

Writing system

A writing system is a symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in language.-General properties:Writing systems are distinguished from other possible symbolic communication systems in that the reader must usually understand something of the associated spoken language to...

. He became close friends with philosopher Charles Hartshorne

Charles Hartshorne

Charles Hartshorne was a prominent American philosopher who concentrated primarily on the philosophy of religion and metaphysics. He developed the neoclassical idea of God and produced a modal proof of the existence of God that was a development of St. Anselm's Ontological Argument...

in the final years of Hartshorne's life, helping him at his home in Austin, Texas.

Education

• Undergraduate studies at University of California, Berkeley; awarded Phi Beta Kappa.
• Medical school: University of California San Francisco campus, graduated in 1963
• Psychiatric residency at Stanford University Medical Center

Publications

Acting-In: Practical Applications of Psychodramatic Methods, 3rd Edition. New York: Springer. 218 pages. (3rd ed. 1996, 2nd ed. 1988, 1st ed., 1973). Also published in Korean, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Dutch, Turkish, Swedish, Finnish, Spanish, and Chinese.

Foundations of Psychodrama: History, Theory, and Practice (4th ed. 2000). New York: Springer, 2000, 320 pp. Also in Portuguese, Korean, Finnish, Turkish, Hungarian, Spanish and Chinese.

The Art of Play: Helping Adults Reclaim Imagination and Spontaneity. co-authored with Allee Blatner (2nd ed. 1997) New York: Brunner/Routledge-Taylor & Francis.

Interactive and Improvisational Drama: Varieties of Applied Theatre and Performance. (February, 2007).

External links

• Official Web site
• Interview with Adam Blatner: Drama in the Service of Education from educationnews.org
• Interview with Adam Blatner: About Mental Health Issues in the Schools from educationnews.org