Healing in the As-If:” Political Subjectivity and the Aesthetics of Pain in Israeli Psychodrama
This project asks how therapeutic theatre might shape political subjectivity and imaginations of the self. In response to both catastrophic and chronic violence, I track how, within as-if scenes, artistic and therapeutic norms intersect to shape expressions of pain. Due to the sudden onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, my research tracked understanding shifts in a picture of a recovery when an embodied, performance-based repertoire of techniques would pose serious risk to others. Moreover, the RLF grant funded my participation in clinical psychodrama coursework. This helped me develop fluency in my interlocutors’ technical vocabulary in preparation for dissertation fieldwork.