Howard Blatner was born in Los Angeles in 1937 to parents who had immigrated from Eastern Europe around 1910 due to the persecution of Jews. He was awarded Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Berkeley during his Junior year, and then graduated in 1959 with honors in the field of cultural aspects of religion. He attended medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, graduating in 1963. After internship in Los Angeles, Dr. Blatner did specialty training in the psychiatric residency program at the Stanford University Medical Center. While there he discovered the therapeutic role playing approach called Psychodrama, which became one of his sub-specialty interests, integrated with a general exploration of other types of psychotherapy.
