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The Quintessential Zerka: Writings by Zerka Toeman Moreno on Psychodrama, Sociometry and Group Psychotherapy, edited by Toni Horvatin and Edward Schreiber. 2006. New York: Routledge. 328 pp. ISBN: 1583917284
The editors have done a great service to the fields of psychodrama, sociom-etry, role theory, improvisational drama, sociatry, and other related endeavors that have emerged from the genius of J. L. Moreno, MD (1889-1974). For a number of years before Moreno's death, his third wife, Zerka, had become his most articulate spokesperson, the primary trainer at his institute and sanitarium at Beacon, New York, and the developer of continuing refinements and ideas of her own. Since his death, Zerka Toeman Moreno has continued to be the doyenne of psychodrama and continues to offer training workshops from her home in Charlottesville, Virginia.
In 1989, Jonathan Fox edited and published a collection of Dr. Moreno's writings (which, though out of print for a few years, has now been repub-lished). I remember thinking even then that a similar endeavor is indicated for Zerka Moreno's writings, which have, for me, always stood out as being significantly more clear and specific than her husband's. This book is even more relevant because those early and later articles have become increasingly hard to find in many libraries. Now students and trainers have ready access to these treasures.
Zerka Moreno edited much of J. L. Moreno's writing through the mid 1950s and co-edited and co-wrote the second and third volumes of the Psychodrama series (Moreno & Moreno, 1959, 1969) and she certainly helped with other publications as well. They were still major co-editors of this journal until Dr. Moreno's death. Aside from this, Zerka Moreno has been prolific in her writing of many of the more cogent articles in the professional literature.
The table of contents of The Quintessential Zerka is broken into five sections that are unfortunately called chapters, each with four to eight articles. Each section includes articles written during a different phase in Zerka Moreno's life. The first article was written in 1944. This section covers the period from 1941-48 when Zerka Moreno first met Moreno and became his secretary. The second chapter, or section, deals with her collaborations and activities from the time of her marriage until 1966, when...