The Routledge Introduction to Theatre and Performance Studies: A Book Review Through the Lens of Sigmund Freud.

 Title: The Routledge Introduction to Theatre and Performance Studies: A Book Review Through the Lens of Sigmund Freud.

Author: Dr. Shekhar and Team

Affiliation: Psychology Doctor's Forum for All 🏥⚖️

Abstract

This review examines The Routledge Introduction to Theatre and Performance Studies by Erika Fischer-Lichte, edited by Minou Arjomand and Ramona Mosse, through the psychoanalytic framework of Sigmund Freud. The book is a rigorous and comprehensive guide to the discipline, structured in three parts that move from central concepts to methods and then to boundary-pushing applications. While Fischer-Lichte does not position her work as psychoanalytic, her emphasis on the spectator's experience, the emergence of meaning, and the transformative power of performance resonates profoundly with Freudian concepts. This review argues that the book's central concerns—the theatrical event as a shared experience, the role of the spectator's body, and the emergence of meaning in the space between actor and audience—can be illuminated by Freud's theories of identification, catharsis, and the return of the repressed. The article also engages with Immanuel Kant's aesthetic philosophy, particularly his concept of the sensus communis, to further contextualize the book's contributions. The review concludes that while Fischer-Lichte's introduction is not a psychoanalytic text, it provides a fertile ground for psychological inquiry, offering a map of the discipline that the Freudian lens can help to navigate.

Keywords: Erika Fischer-Lichte, performance studies, theatre studies, Sigmund Freud, Immanuel Kant, psychoanalysis, catharsis, identification, spectatorship

1. Introduction

Some books are maps. They do not merely describe a territory; they give you the tools to navigate it. Erika Fischer-Lichte's The Routledge Introduction to Theatre and Performance Studies is such a book. It is a comprehensive, authoritative, and, at times, surprisingly intimate guide to a field that has become increasingly complex over the past half-century. Published by Routledge in 2014, the book was edited by Minou Arjomand and Ramona Mosse, who also translated it from the German, and it has been widely praised for its depth and synthesis.

The question this review poses is not whether the book is good. It is. The question is what happens when we read it through the lens of a particular psychological tradition—that of Sigmund Freud. Fischer-Lichte is not a psychoanalyst. Her framework is phenomenological, performance-theoretical, and aesthetic. But the concerns that animate her work—the body of the spectator, the emergence of meaning, the transformative power of the theatrical event—are also Freudian concerns. The unconscious, the return of the repressed, the dynamics of identification: these are not peripheral to theatre. They are central to it.

This review has three aims. First, to provide a summary of the book's structure and central arguments. Second, to examine those arguments through a Freudian lens, exploring how concepts like catharsis, identification, and the unconscious can illuminate the book's contributions. Third, to engage with the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, whose concept of the sensus communis offers a complementary framework for understanding the communal nature of theatrical experience.

2. The Book: A Map of the Discipline

Fischer-Lichte's introduction is structured in three parts. Part One, "Central Concepts for Theatre and Performance Research," introduces the language of the field. It examines the concept of theatre, the history of the discipline, and the concept of performance. Part Two, "Fields, Theories, and Methods," looks at how to analyse a performance and how to conduct theatre-historiographical research. Part Three, "Pushing Boundaries," expands on these lessons to engage with theatre and performance in a global context, introducing the concept of "interweaving performance cultures" and developing a transformative aesthetics of performance.

The book's central argument, if it can be reduced to a single thesis, is that performance is not a text to be decoded but an event to be experienced. Fischer-Lichte is interested in what happens in the space between actor and spectator, in the "emergence of meaning" that occurs in the live encounter. This is not a book that tells you what to think about theatre. It is a book that teaches you how to think about it.

The reviews of the book have been uniformly positive. CHOICE recommended it, noting that "rarely do books with 'introduction' in the title exhibit the depth of synthesis that this one does." The book is described as stimulating in its approach, conversational in tone, and rigorous in its scholarship. It is a fitting introduction to a field that has itself become increasingly interdisciplinary.

3. A Freudian Reading of the Book

What happens when we read Fischer-Lichte through Freud? Several points of contact emerge.

3.1 The Spectator's Body

Fischer-Lichte's emphasis on the spectator's body is one of the most striking features of her work. She draws on the work of Max Herrmann, who argued for a modern view of theatre as a bodily encounter, one in which the spectator's body is no less involved than the performer's. This is a phenomenological claim, but it is also a psychoanalytic one.

For Freud, the body is not merely the container of the mind. It is the site of the drives, the locus of pleasure and unpleasure, the place where the unconscious makes itself felt. The spectator who watches a performance is not a disembodied eye. They are a body that breathes, that tenses, that sweats, that weeps. The theatrical event is an event of the body.

Freud's concept of the return of the repressed is relevant here. The performance, like the dream, allows repressed material to return in a contained, aesthetic form. The spectator does not simply watch a story. They feel it in their body. The repressed returns, but it returns safely. The frame of the theatre holds it.

3.2 Catharsis and the Pleasure of Tragedy

Freud's essay "Psychopathic Characters on the Stage" (1905) is a key text for any psychoanalytic engagement with theatre. In it, Freud asks how it is that the audience derives pleasure from witnessing tragedy. His answer is complex, but it centres on the concept of catharsis. The audience experiences a release of repressed emotion through their identification with the tragic hero.

Fischer-Lichte does not engage directly with Freud's essay, but her concerns are similar. She is interested in the "transformative power of performance," in the way that the theatrical event can change both actor and spectator. This is a cathartic model of theatre, even if it is not framed in psychoanalytic terms. The performance allows something to be released. Something shifts.

The pleasure of tragedy, for Freud, is the pleasure of release. The repressed returns, but it returns in a form that allows it to be discharged. The spectator enjoys the illusion without being overwhelmed by it. This is the aesthetic pleasure that Freud sought to explain.

3.3 Identification and the Unconscious

Freud's theory of identification is central to his understanding of theatre. The spectator identifies with the hero. They experience the hero's emotions as their own. This identification is not conscious. It is not a choice. It is an unconscious process, similar to the fantasies children play out when wishing to do what grown-ups do.

Fischer-Lichte's analysis of the theatrical event as a shared experience resonates with this. The performance is not something that happens to the spectator. It is something that happens with the spectator. The boundary between actor and audience is porous. Meaning emerges in the space between them. This is the space of identification, the space where the unconscious of the spectator meets the unconscious of the performance.

3.4 The Unconscious of Performance

Fischer-Lichte does not use the language of the unconscious. But her attention to the "emergence" of meaning—the idea that meaning is not pre-given but emerges in the event—is consonant with a psychoanalytic understanding of meaning as something that is always deferred, always partial, always shaped by forces that exceed conscious intention.

The performance, like the symptom, is a compromise formation. It expresses something that cannot be said directly. It is a return of the repressed in a form that can be witnessed. The spectator does not simply decode it. They participate in it.

4. Kant's Aesthetic Philosophy and the Theatrical Event

Immanuel Kant's concept of the sensus communis offers a complementary framework for understanding what Fischer-Lichte describes.

In his Critique of Judgment, Kant argued that aesthetic judgments carry a claim to universal validity. When I say something is beautiful, I imply that others should agree. This implication presupposes a shared sense—a sensus communis—that makes communication about subjective experience possible.

Fischer-Lichte's theatrical event is an enactment of the sensus communis. The actor and the spectator share an experience. They co-create meaning. The performance is not the actor's private expression, nor the spectator's private interpretation. It is something that happens between them, in the space of shared aesthetic judgment.

Kant's philosophy also emphasizes the necessity of community for thinking. He wrote: "How much and how correctly would we think if we did not think as it were in community with others to whom we communicate our thoughts, and who communicate theirs with us?" The theatrical event is an institutionalization of this principle. The spectators think together, feel together, and make meaning together.

5. Clinical Implications

For mental health professionals, Fischer-Lichte's book offers more than a map of a discipline. It offers a model for understanding the therapeutic potential of performance.

The mechanisms that Fischer-Lichte describes—the bodily encounter, the emergence of meaning, the transformative power of the event—are the same mechanisms that operate in drama therapy, psychodrama, and other performance-based interventions. The clinical evidence for these interventions is substantial, though imperfect. A meta-analysis of theatre interventions found significant reductions in anxiety, depression, and PTSD symptoms among adult participants. A meta-analysis of psychodrama found a significant overall promotional effect.

The Freudian lens clarifies why these interventions work. They engage the body. They allow the return of the repressed in a contained form. They create a space for identification and catharsis. Fischer-Lichte's book, read through this lens, becomes not just a map of theatre studies but a map of therapeutic possibility.

6. Conclusion

The Routledge Introduction to Theatre and Performance Studies is a masterful guide to a complex field. Fischer-Lichte's emphasis on the bodily encounter, the emergence of meaning, and the transformative power of performance makes her work deeply resonant with psychoanalytic concerns. While she does not position herself as a Freudian, her concerns are Freudian concerns. The body, the unconscious, identification, catharsis—these are the hidden threads that run through her text.

Reading Fischer-Lichte through Freud does not distort her work. It illuminates it. It shows that the questions she asks—what happens in the theatrical event? how does meaning emerge? what is the relationship between actor and spectator?—are also the questions that psychoanalysis asks. And it shows that the answers she provides, while not framed in psychoanalytic terms, are answers that psychoanalysis can recognize.

For mental health professionals, the book offers a model for understanding the therapeutic potential of performance. For theatre scholars, it offers a comprehensive introduction to the field. For anyone interested in the intersection of psychology and performance, it is an essential text.

7. References

· Boal, A. (1979). Theatre of the oppressed. Urizen Books.

· Freud, S. (1905). Psychopathic characters on the stage. Standard Edition, 7, 303-310.

· Freud, S., & Breuer, J. (1895). Studies on hysteria. Standard Edition, 2.

· Fischer-Lichte, E. (2014). The Routledge introduction to theatre and performance studies (M. Arjomand & R. Mosse, Eds. & Trans.). Routledge.

· Kant, I. (1790/2000). Critique of the Power of Judgment. Cambridge University Press.

· Keltner, D., & Bonanno, G. A. (1997). A study of laughter and dissociation: Distinct correlates of laughter and smiling during bereavement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73(4), 687-702.

· Thomson, P., & Jaque, S. V. (2011). Testimonial theatre-making: Establishing or dissociating the self. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 5(3), 229-236.

· Wang, X., Ding, R., & Luo, R. (2024). Effectiveness of psychodrama on mental health outcomes based on Chinese samples: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled studies. Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health, 11, e89.

Disclaimer: This article is provided strictly for educational and academic purposes only. It is not intended to serve as medical, psychological, or professional advice, and it should not be used for the diagnosis or treatment of any mental health condition. The author and publisher assume no responsibility or liability for any consequences arising from the use of this material.

Prepared by

Dr. Shekhar and Team

Psychology Doctor's Forum For All 🏥⚖️