Character and Actor-Character Identification in the Theatre

272 Pages·2015·1.51 MB·English

A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Theories of Spectator-
Character and Actor-Character Identification in the Theatre

Submitted by Maria Grazia Turri, to the University of Exeter
as a thesis for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in Drama,
May 2015

This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright
material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper
acknowledgement.

I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been
identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for
the award of a degree by this or any other University.

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A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Theories of Spectator-
Character and Actor-Character Identification in the Theatre

From Aristotle’s theory of tragic katharsis to Brecht’s formulation of the
Verfremdungseffekt, theorists of the theatre have long engaged with the
question of what spectatorship entails. Such question has, directly or indirectly,
extended to the investigation of acting. In the wake of Brecht’s critique of
conventional theatre, emphasis has been put on the study of spectatorship from
the point of view of its cultural determinants and its conscious cognitive aspects,
while unconscious processes have been mostly ignored.

In this thesis I take a psychoanalytic perspective to analyse theories of the
theatre that have investigated the process of identification of the spectator or
the actor with the character. According to psychoanalysis, mechanisms of
unconscious identification, such as projection and introjection, are fundamental
to psychic development and to the construction of the self.

By analysing Aristotle’s theory of tragic katharsis through Freud’s theory of
transference, I propose a new understanding of spectatorship as transference
dynamic. I then conduct an in-depth enquiry into eighteenth-century theories of
acting which lead up to Diderot’s Paradoxe sur le comédien. I investigate the
paradox of the actor, in its fruitful tension between sensibility and
understanding, from the perspective of Melanie Klein’s concept of unconscious
phantasy and Bion’s theory of alpha-function. I hence interpret the art of the
actor as the performing of alpha-function on the spectator’s unconscious
emotions.

The new insights afforded by a psychoanalytic perspective of spectating and
acting illuminate the moral function of theatre and resolve some of the
controversial points brought forward by various theorists, including Brecht and
Rousseau. The moral function of theatre can be construed as a transpersonal
process in which unconscious identifications between spectator and actor
promote the development of a reflective view of the self.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE 9

CHAPTER 1. THEORIZING THEATRE SPECTATORSHIP 13
SETTING THE QUESTION 13
STARTING WITH BRECHT 17
The epic theatre 20
The status of emotions 24
Brechtian katharsis and the unconscious 26
OTHER MODELS OF SPECTATORSHIP 27
Theatre spectatorship as cultural phenomenon 28
Theatre spectatorship from a semiotic perspective 30
Theatre spectatorship from the perspective of cognitive
science 34
SPECTATORSHIP AND PSYCHOANALYSIS 38
The significance of the unconscious to mental life 38
Psychoanalysis in context 41
A psychoanalytic perspective of theatre spectatorship 44

CHAPTER 2. TRANSFERENCE AND KATHARSIS, FREUD TO
ARISTOTLE 48
INTRODUCTION 48
ARISTOTLE’S THEORY OF MIMĒSIS AND TRAGIC KATHARSIS 49
Tragic katharsis: purgation or purification? 49
The meaning of mimēsis 51
Pity and fear 58
FREUD’S THEORIES OF THE CATHARTIC METHOD AND THE TRANSFERENCE 59
The cathartic method 59
The discovery of transference 62
Transference re-enactment and transference analysis 64
Repetition-compulsion – beyond the pleasure principle 67

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AN INTERPRETATION OF TRAGIC KATHARSIS AS TRANSFERENCE DYNAMIC 69
A comparison between tragic katharsis and transference 70
Tragic katharsis as transference dynamic 74

CHAPTER 3. THE ART OF THE ACTOR IN DIDEROT’S PARADOXE
AND ITS EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY REFERENCES 77
INTRODUCTION 77
The eighteenth century, an age of reflections about acting 78
FROM SAINTE-ALBINE, THROUGH JOHN HILL, TO STICOTTI- GENETIC AND
TRANS-EUROPEAN LINKS 81
Le Comédien 85
The Actor 92
Garrick ou les Acteurs Anglois 99
THE RICCOBONI, LUIGI AND FRANÇOIS, FATHER AND SON 103
Luigi Riccoboni’s writings on the art of the actor 110
L’Art du Théâtre by François Riccoboni 115
DIDEROT’S THEORY OF ACTING- A TRAJECTORY 118
Diderot’s earlier theories 118
Diderot and Goldoni 123
The Paradoxe sur le comédien 127

CHAPTER 4. THE PARADOX ANALYSED 138
INTRODUCTION 138
DUAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ACTING 139
William Archer – the paradox put to the test 139
The paradox of the spectator in the eighteenth century 142
The actor’s double feeling 144
THE CONFLUENCE OF FEELING AND UNDERSTANDING IN THE ACTOR’S ART 148
Diderot’s investigation on acting as trajectory 149
The actor’s art and the question of nature 152
THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHICAL AND CULTURAL DEBATE 155
Nature 155
Sensism, sensibilité and esprit 159

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THE DEBATE ON THE ART OF THE ACTOR IN LIGHT OF THE EIGHTEENTH-
CENTURY PHILOSOPHICAL AND CULTURAL DEBATE 163

CHAPTER 5. THE ART OF THE ACTOR AS ALPHA-FUNCTION 165
FREUD’S THEORY OF EGO FUNCTIONING 165
The transition from the topographical to the structural model 165
of the mind
From the psychology of impulse to the psychology of the 168
ego
The relationship between the ego, the id, and reality 170
Identification through introjection and projection 171
KLEINIAN THEORY OF OBJECT-RELATIONS 178
Historical introduction 178
Unconscious phantasy 180
Projection and introjection 182
Ego-splitting and integration 185
The birth of the self 187
BION’S THEORY OF ALPHA-FUNCTION 189
Projective identification 190
Alpha-function 192
The double nature of alpha-function 196
When alpha-function goes wrong 199
AN INTERPRETATION OF THE ART OF THE ACTOR AS ALPHA-FUNCTION 203
The relationship between sensibility and understanding 204
Transpersonal alpha-function and the spectator’s experience 206
Alpha-function and the actor’s double game 207
Disruptions of alpha-function in the art of the actor 208
Brecht’s theory of the actor in relation to alpha-function 211
Spectatorship- envy or gratitude? 213
The fourth wall 215
Spectatorship- passive submission or active engagement? 216
Alpha-function and the study of human nature 217

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CHAPTER 6. SPECTATORSHIP AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT 219
THEATRE AND ITS MORAL FUNCTION 219
Theatre, pleasure, and moral instruction 221
Theatre and emotions 225
UNCONSCIOUS PROCESSES OF ACTING AND SPECTATING 227
Emotional processing in alpha-function 227
The severing of transpersonal alpha-function 229
The depressed actor and the manic position 231
The envious spectator 233
The person of the actor 236
SPECTATORSHIP AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT 238
The actor’s interpretation and her moral values 238
Alpha-function and moral development 241
Empathy and sympathy 243
EPILOGUE 245
Reason and emotions 246
Spectatorship and pleasure 247
The actor and the moral function of theatre 247
The transpersonal dimension of spectatorship 248
Identification and identity 250

BIBLIOGRAPHY 252

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PREFACE

The research presented in this thesis was carried out first at the Department of
Theatre and Drama at Royal Holloway (University of London) and since 2013 at
the Drama Department at the University of Exeter, where I transferred following
my supervisor’s change of post.

The project was born from my desire to understand the nature of the pleasure I
felt when labouring as actress, or spectator, or indeed when I witnessed the
pleasure of the children to whom I taught drama. While working as psychiatrist
and training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, I gained the impression that a
similar pleasure was sometimes afforded in sessions with patients. My previous
studies at the ‘Dipartimento di Musica e Spettacolo’ (DAMS) of the University of
Bologna, providing me with the background knowledge in theatre history and
theories of the theatre, allowed me to formulate a preliminary proposal to frame
the project. From there, the research grew into the exploration of theories of the
theatre in different historical periods, affording exciting opportunities for in-depth
samplings of theatre history. The application of psychoanalytic theory has
grown organically with the research; not only has psychoanalysis been an
opportunity for reading theories of the theatre afresh, but conversely, theories of
the theatre have been the occasion to look at established psychoanalytic
concepts in detail, so to extend their relevance to the understanding of theatre.

Although my research has remained within the scope of theory, my practice as
actress and as psychoanalytic psychotherapist has had an important bearing on
its development. In the text I have used some examples from my practice as
psychotherapist to illustrate certain psychoanalytic concepts.

I have given some consideration to the question of how to use gender pronouns
when writing in general terms, so as to avoid using the masculine as the
universal gender. Any convention has got its limitations; my choice has been
partly practical in terms of helping the reader to navigate the text more easily. I
have used the feminine for the actor and for the analyst, and the masculine for
the spectator and for the patient, and this convention mirrors the use of the
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feminine for the mother and the masculine for the baby, when I am talking about
the mother-baby relationship. Quotations or specific examples necessarily, and
happily, escape from this system. As I will have the occasion to discuss in
Chapter 1, my use of pronouns wishes to counterpoise the gender stereotyping
that, through a Lacanian psychoanalytic perspective, assigns to the gaze of the
spectator the masculine dominant status, in relation to the actor’s femninine
position of subordination. In opposition to this, and within the Kleinian
framework of the mother-baby relationship, I allude to the ‘she’ actor as the
bearer of the wise maternal function which sustains the emotional development
of the fragile psyche of the ‘he’ spectator.

As concerns quotations, I have kept all the French quotations in the original
given the relevance that the use of specific words has for my analysis. I have
also kept the few Italian quotations in the original, but for those I have provided
my own translation as a footnote. For quotations from texts originally written in
German, such as Brecht’s and Freud’s, I have used translations from published
English versions. In a minority of cases when the specific use of terminology
was particularly significant to the discussion, and solely referring to quotations
by Brecht, I have provided the original German text as a footnote.

In relation to the bibliography, I have used the official style required for citations
from ‘The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund
Freud’; this entails that each paper is quoted separately. I have followed a
similar convention for what concerns Klein’s and Brecht’s essays, listing those
that I quote in the text as single entries. Although I have used the collected
versions of their essays, these writings were originally published individually. I
believe that my choice will help the reader to follow more easily and with greater
precision my exposition of these writers’ theories.

The content of Chapter 2 has been published in The International Journal of
Psychoanalysis (April 2015, Volume 96, Issue 2, pp. 369–387).

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