Deadly Therapy Lessons in Liveliness from Theater and Performance Theory

Therapists have a lot to learn from theater professionals about helping people narrate important conflicts, understand uplifting ideas, and engage in illuminating interactions. A dramaturgical understanding of psychotherapy is articulated in Deadly Therapy, with a focus on living up to situational norms intrinsic to therapy and managing performance failures associated with the roles of therapist and patient. Norms derive from rules and categories-in society and in therapy-that help people know how to behave, but which also produce self-serving hegemonies of privilege and power, even in therapy. This book employs performance theory-encompassing audience engagement, dramaturgy, gender studies, power and privilege dynamics, critical thinking, and multiculturalism-to investigate the "party lines" that become established in therapy and supervision, and to suggest ways to temper the deadening effects of rules and categories. Book jacket.

Michael Karson, Ph.D., J.D., is associate professor at the University of Denver's Graduate School of Professional Psychology