The cultural responsibility of dance movement therapy: philosophical considerations

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the cultural situation and special responsibility of dance movement therapy, delineating certain philosophical and cultural-theoretical interpretations of the ‘corporeal turn’ and ‘therapeutic turn’ of contemporary culture. It aims to show how dance movement therapy’s theoretical horizon is inseparable from the body-mind integration of contemporary philosophies, and how corporeal turn is present in consumer culture, including some of its destructive forms of idealisation and malign regression. The question of how DMT is able to turn malignant regression to the body into benign regression is addressed, and an analysis of the correlating postmodern idea of resilience is offered. Finally, DMT groups are interpreted as social microcosms, and the way Hungarian psychodynamic movement and dance therapists apply their group therapeutic method for the development of democratic culture in the Civil Group Project is described.

KEYWORDS:

• Psychodynamic movement and dance therapy (PMDT)
• corporeal turn
• phenomenology
• democratic culture

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. https://www.tandfonline.com/action/doSearch?AllField=embodiment&SeriesKey=tbmd20 23.11.2018.

2. https://www.tandfonline.com/action/doSearch?AllField=phenomenology&SeriesKey=tbmd20.

3. https://www.tandfonline.com/action/doSearch?AllField=husserl&SeriesKey=tbmd20.

4. https://www.tandfonline.com/action/doSearch?AllField=merleau-ponty&SeriesKey=tbmd20.

5. https://www.tandfonline.com/action/doSearch?AllField=constructivism&SeriesKey=tbmd20.

6. https://www.tandfonline.com/action/doSearch?AllField=somaesthetic&SeriesKey=tbmd20.

7. https://www.tandfonline.com/action/doSearch?AllField=resilience&SeriesKey=tbmd20 03.12. 2018.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Katalin Vermes

Katalin Vermes, PhD, is an Associate Professor of philosophy at the University of Physical Education, Budapest. She is also a psychodynamic movement and dance therapist and trainer in Hungary and has led psychodynamic movement and dance therapy groups for 20 years. In the Hungarian Association for Movement and Dance Therapy (HAMDT), she works as a member of the Educational Committee and represents HAMDT as a delegate in the European Association Dance Movement Therapy (EADMT) and has worked in the Civil Group Weekend Project since 2012. In 2018 she was voted into the chair of HAMDT. Her main field of research is the phenomenology of the body and the intersubjective dynamics of somatic experiences. She has written a book (A test éthosza (Ethos of the Body), 2006, L’Harmattan, Budapest) and several articles in Hungarian and English; in her writings she integrates philosophical and psychological understanding with therapeutic and dance experiences.