Exploring what it means to be an authentic therapist in the present day, Sara London playfully melds together the tenets of performance art and psychoanalytic theory to advance the hopeful new notion of the performance therapist.
In an era where the therapist is now more of a public-facing entity than ever before, developing a sense of who one is both inside and outside of the consulting room is a complex undertaking. In response, London reconceptualises the therapist’s identity in a contemporary way, transcending preconceived labels, by bringing an understanding of performance art into an analysis of psychotherapeutic practice. Through this interdisciplinary approach, London attends to the complex questions faced by psychoanalysts and psychotherapists in training and in practice: can a therapist perform and be authentic? Can a therapist perform and have true intimate relationships within the confines of that performance? And can a therapist perform as themselves?
This provocative and highly original work will provide both new and experienced psychotherapists with an understanding of the clinical and philosophical significance of performance art to cultivating therapeutic identity.
Author(s): Sara London
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 132
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
The guest list
Notes
Part I: Performance art
Chapter 1: History of performance art
References
Chapter 2: Performance art in practice
Note
References
Chapter 3: Performance art in psychoanalysis
What is performance art to psychoanalysis?
How is it written about?
References
Part II: Identity
Psychoanalysis and the self
References
Chapter 4: The tripartite structure
References
Chapter 5: The persona
References
Chapter 6: The False Self and the idealized image
The False Self
The idealized image
References
Part III: Performance (of the therapist)
"Performance" - A dirty word?
Bon appetite!
Reference
Chapter 7: The structural performance
How does a structurally psychoanalytic performance look?
How theory becomes personal: Performance to technique
Note
References
Chapter 8: The emotional performance
What is the emotional performance?
How does the emotional performance look?
How emotion becomes skill: From performance into technique
Note
References
Chapter 9: The intersection of structure and emotion: How a therapeutic performance looks
Another place setting is in order
Note
References
Chapter 10: The therapeutic table set for two
The act of "acting out"
The acting of enactments
Someone call the waiter
Note
References
Part IV: Authenticity
Where does authenticity come from?
References
Chapter 11: Performing a "real relationship"
It's "real" complicated
Keeping it "real"
Note
References
Chapter 12: Self-disclosure and authenticity
What is self-disclosure?
When to self-disclose
Self-disclosure gone awry
The perfect coleslaw
References
Chapter 13: Authenticity and the environment
Authenticity outside the dyad
The solution to the authenticity problem?
Note
References
Part V: Application
Dessert is served
The secret sauce of the "good enough" performance therapist
Viola! Magnifique!
Note
References
Chapter 14: Coming into being (or, the magic of relating)
References
Index
