'It blows my mind' : intoxicated performances by Ridiculusmus
Richard Talbot
Performance Research August 18, 2017 DOI: 10.1080/13528165.2017.1412654 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Intervention | MDMA-assisted psychotherapy |
| Topics | Altered states of consciousness Psychedelic-assisted therapy PTSD |
| Keywords | Performance art Theatre Play Drama Staging Acting Theatrical piece MDMA Therapy Psychotherapy PTSD Treatment Mental health treatment Healing Therapeutic interaction Altered states Mind-altering experiences Intoxication Psychedelic experience Psychological well-being Emotional health |
| Citations | 2 |
| Key points | Argues that the play "Give Me Your Love" serves as a form of public engagement with MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, using dramaturgy and staging to explore transitions in consciousness. |
Abstract
Give Me Your Love by Jon Haynes and David Woods, Artistic Directors of Ridiculusmus, is the second in a trilogy Dialogue As The Embodiment of Love, to be presented in 2018, a series of plays investigating innovative mental health therapies. Give Me Your Love is a response to the first UK trials of MDMA assisted psychotherapy for chronic treatment resistant PTSD. The work has been made in partnership with psychologists Peter Kinderman and Anne Cooke, and Ben Sessa, the lead researcher of clinical trials in the UK. This article includes extracts of a dialogue between the two writer-performers reflecting on their personal and collective efforts to conjure, channel and recreate intoxication. It considers the affective interplay between therapists and client in the clinical therapy process, and a conterminous interaction between performers and audience in the production. In the play two Welsh squaddies attempt a homemade version of the trials that they have missed out on. With one performer in a cardboard box and the other locked outside of the performing area, Woods and Haynes channel physical and psychological recreations of their research, attempting to take their audiences on an experiential immersion but also exposing the theatrical context. Aspects of dramaturgy and staging that play with transitions and interruptions in consciousness are also considered here. In Give Me Your Love, the ‘absence’ of the complete actors’ bodies foregrounds, amongst other things, the experience of the present audience, in their box. Set against a critical response to the work that it does or does not ‘blow [me] away’ (a hipster update on the 1960s account of experiences that could ‘blow [my] mind’) the article thus considers the performance, as a form of public engagement
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on PTSD, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Theorizing that Psychedelic Assisted Therapy May Play a Role in the Treatment of Trauma-Induced Personality Disorders. | 2024 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The potential use of N-methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDMA) assisted psychotherapy in the treatment of eating disorders comorbid with PTSD. | 2021 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD in adolescents: rationale, potential, risks, and considerations. Adolescents with PTSD | 2024 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Agency in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: Implications for Therapy | 2023 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Inner World in the Outer World: The Phenomenology of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder from a Psychoanalytic Perspective | 1996 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |