Persona and Performance: The Meaning of Role in Drama, Therapy, and Everyday Life

The metaphor linking the world with the stage is one that has captured the imagination of philosophers, poets, and social scientists for centuries. Shakespeare, calling all the world a stage, described it best hundreds of years ago; now, in Persona and Performance, Robert J. Landy takes this concept a step further. He shows that drama is not only a metaphor for everyday life, it actually provides a means of self-examination and life enhancement. Encompassing the full range of human experience, role allows us to conceptualize the personality, which Landy views as a system of roles. He asserts that emotional well-being depends upon an individual's capacity to manage a complex and often contradictory set of roles, demonstrating how role offers a uniquely effective method for working through significant personal problems when used as an element of drama therapy.Combining fascinating theoretical discussions with practical clinical illustrations, this volume opens with a review of the origins and development of role in drama and the social sciences. The author draws upon theoretical, clinical, and anecdotal evidence to show how the concept of role connects the three domains of drama, therapy, and everyday life. He then extends C. G. Jung's system of psychological archetypes, presenting a ground-breaking taxonomy of theatrical roles derived from character types found repeatedly in Western drama. Exhaustive in scope, the taxonomy was created as a means of analyzing both everyday life and the types of therapeutic performances that occur within the process of drama therapy. Ways in which we can learn to live with role ambivalence, complexity, and contradiction are discussed in the final chapter.Written in an elegant, accessible style, the work is illuminated by the inclusion of an extended single case study and a group case study, which clearly illustrate the use of the dramatic role method of clinical treatment. Laying the groundwork for an aesthetically based role theory, this volume is destined to become a classic in the field. It will appeal to a wide range of mental health practitioners, including creative arts therapists, counselors, social psychologists, social workers, psychiatric nurses, and occupational therapists. The book also serves as a text for students of educational drama and theatre performance. Read more