The article is devoted to the psychological work of a person when encountering a literary text. The author relies on the psychology of art by L. S. Vygotsky, in particular, on his theses that the perception of a work of art, firstly, requires creative activity and, secondly, advances us along our path of personal development. Since such perception does not always occur, the question arises about practices that can promote creative activity of perception and activate the internal work of the individual when encountering a literary work. One of such practices is the method of dramatic improvisation based on literary works developed by the author of the article. The method combines in a holistic process of group work a) joint reading of a fiction text, b) its discussion, c) creative role-playing based on what has been read, and d) psychological work aimed at creating a non-judgmental, accepting, psychologically safe and trusting atmosphere in the group. The article describes the key points of the method and examines in detail the results of a study conducted under the supervision of the author of the article, which compared the personal results of perception of the same fiction text during its simple reading and during work with it in a dramatic improvisation group. None of the respondents who simply read the text evoked any deep personal response. On the contrary, the work with the text prompted the participants of dramatic improvisation not only to reflect on moral topics, but also to “read themselves” and comprehend their actions, experiences and behavior patterns. The article also examines the proposed mechanism for activating psychological work of a person in a dramatic improvisation group, which distinguishes the described method from other practices of working with literary texts.