Bloomsbury Performing Psychologies: Imagination, Creativity and Dramas of the Mind (Performance and Science: Interdisciplinary Dialogues)

Performing Psychologies offers new perspectives on drama and psychology, demonstrating the value of theatre and performance to scientific understanding of the mind. Encompassing a range of conditions (including autism, dementia and schizophrenia), the book challenges stereotypes of disability, madness and creativity, bringing arts and science into dialogue, with contributions from psychologists, theatre scholars and practitioners. The book demonstrates how performance practices offer insights into mental processes, engaging with emotion, memory and psychological experiences in ways that complement and enhance scientific approaches. In Part 1, Nicola Shaughnessy offers case studies of Hamlet and Katie Mitchells theatre directing to explore historical and contemporary perspectives on the dynamic interactions between theatre, psychology, conditions of mind and conditions of production. The different ways in which performance interacting with neuroscience offers insights into psychopathologies, atypical imagination and creativity is illustrated through the consideration of participatory and applied practices in health and community settings. In Part II, Philip Barnard contributes his perspective as an applied scientist to investigate the cognitive processes associated with creative thinking and to develop bridging strategies to support shared understandings in interdisciplinary work. Contributions from psychologists, health professionals and a drama therapist, reflect on working with performance based media to engage with conditions such as autism, dementia and eating disorders. Part III features examples of performance practices illuminating interior worlds and includes work with inmates on death row, the staging of autism in the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Chekhov Lizard Brain and the production of The Eradication of Schizophrenia in Western Lapland, a piece performed by UK theatre company, Ridiculusmus.