(Re)acting medicine: applying theatre in order to develop a whole-systems approach to understanding the healing response

Abstract

This critical reflection is based on the belief that creative practitioners should be using their own well-established approaches to trouble dominant paradigms in health and care provision to both form and inform the future of healing provision and well-being creation. It describes work by a transdisciplinary team (drama and medicine) that is developing a methodology which is rooted in productive difference; an evolving synergy between two cultural and intellectual traditions with significant divergences in their world-view perceptions, approaches and training methods. This commonality is underpinned by four assumptions that: (1) human-to-human interactions matter, (2) context matters, (3) the whole person and their community matters and (4) interpretation matters. In this paper, we reflect on the project's early stages and uses of this methodology to investigate the fundamental human-to-human interaction of a person seeking healing (a healee) with a healer. We believe that this interaction enables the healing response – the intrinsic ability of the human organism to self-heal and regain homeostasis.

這份批判性解讀基於一種信念，即創意實踐者應當運用其業已完善的方法來挑戰健康與護理供給領域的主導範式，幫助未來治療供給與康樂設施的建立並提供相關經驗。本課題由跨學科（戲劇與醫療）團隊執行，這一方式形成了一種立足於高產差異的研究方法論，在兩種文化與知識傳統之間，因全然不同的世界觀，視角，方法與訓練模式而形成了不斷演化的協同增效關係。這一共性來自于四項假設：（1）人與人之間的互動至關重要，（2）語境須納入考量，（3）人與其社區的關係需要考慮，（4）詮釋解讀非常重要。在本文中，我們反映了該專案最初階段的情況，並運用該研究方法論探討了在病人尋求康復過程中與治療師之間的基本人際互動。我們相信這類互動能夠啟動癒合反應，即機能自愈與重獲體內平衡的人體本能。

Esta reflexión crítica está basada en la creencia de que los profesionales creativos deberían estar usando sus propios y bien establecidos enfoques para dificultar los paradigmas dominantes en la provisión de salud y cuidados, para formar e informar el futuro de la provisión de curación y la creación de bienestar. Describe el trabajo de un equipo transdisciplinario (teatro y medicina) que está desarrollando una metodología que está enraizada en la diferencia productiva: una sinergia que evoluciona entre dos tradiciones culturales e intelectuales con discrepancias significativas en su visión del mundo, sus percepciones, sus enfoques y sus métodos de entrenamiento. Ésta colectividad está respaldada por cuatro suposiciones que; (1) las interacciones de humano-a-humano importan, (2) el contexto importa, (3) la persona entera y su comunidad importan y (4) la interpretación importa. En este papel reflexionamos sobre las primeras etapas del proyecto y los usos de esta metodología para investigar la fundamental interacción de humano-a-humano de una persona buscando sanación (una persona a sanar) con un sanador. Creemos que esta interacción facilita la Respuesta Curativa – la habilidad intrínseca del organismo humano para curarse a sí mismo y recuperar homeostasis.

Keywords:

• healing response
• performance
• placebo
• humanities
• well-being
• systemic methodology

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Miguel Farias (Neuro-Psychology, Oxford) for his continuing input into the development of our methodological approach and to Karen Mattick and our colleagues at the University of Exeter Medical School who have continually supported our work. We are, perhaps, most grateful to the University of Exeter Medical Students who not only engaged wholeheartedly in the lecture described above but also who provided us with invaluable insight into their experiences as people, students and the next generation of healers.

Notes on contributors

Sarah Goldingay uses the lens of performance to think in new ways about current societal issues and problems. With a transdisciplinary approach, her research and practice address two specific aspects of this wide-ranging topic: (1) how performance can help us better understand twenty-first well-being, identity, health care and healing and (2) the role of creative practice and intangible cultural heritage in developing public engagement with well-being.

Paul Dieppe is a doctor whose clinical speciality is rheumatology. His previous appointments have included Professor of Rheumatology in Bristol, Dean of Bristol's Faculty of Medicine and Director of the MRC Health Services Research Collaboration. His main areas of academic interests include: osteoarthritis, joint replacement, the placebo response, health and well-being and healing.

Mick Mangan has published numerous books and articles on theatre and society, theatre and social justice, theatre and gender, popular performance and British drama. His most recent book is Staging Ageing (2013). He has also worked professionally as a director, dramaturg, literary manager and playwright.

Debbie Marsden, a molecular biologist by training, is now a Research Fellow in Health and Wellbeing. She develops and conducts high-quality multidisciplinary research using creative approaches to design and evaluate policies and interventions that engage and support sustainable lifestyles and promote well-being. Previous qualitative and quantitative research has centred on the use and development of outcome measures in the cancer genetics, patient experiences in cardiac trials, DNA damage and cancer research.

Our research is carried out at the University of Exeter's Department of Drama and Medical School and Loughborough University's Department of English and Drama.

Notes

1. The National Alliance for Arts, Health and Wellbeing website is a useful means of understanding the depth and range of research and creative practices in the nine regions that make up its membership (National Alliance for Arts, Health and Wellbeing 2013).

2. This is often described as activities which take scientific research findings ‘from bench to bedside’.