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Thesis Info
- LABS ID
- 00465
- Thesis Title
- The theatrical experience as human transformation: theater and neuroscience of emotions
- Author
- Dorys Faria Calvert
- E-mail
- doryscalvert AT gmail.com
- 2nd Author
- 3rd Author
- Degree
- PhD
- Year
- 2014
- Number of Pages
- 475
- University
- Thesis Supervisor
- Christine Hamon-Siréjols
- Supervisor e-mail
- christine.hamon-sirejols AT wanadoo.fr
- Other Supervisor(s)
- Language(s) of Thesis
- French
- Department / Discipline
- Theater
- Copyright Ownership
- Languages Familiar to Author
- Portuguese, French, English
- URL where full thesis can be found
- Keywords
- Theater, neurosciences, emotions, neuroplasticity, transformation, theater therapy
- Abstract: 200-500 words
- This is an interdisciplinary study – essentially encompassing theater, psychology and neuroscience – whose goal is to analyze the transforming (and, somehow, therapeutic) potential inherent to theater practice. This work is divided into two core areas of investigation: the first focuses on the dialogue that the theater has had with the life sciences throughout the history of Western civilization, highlighting the idea that the scientific study of emotions is presented as the main thread between theoretical and practical exchanges of the performing arts and life sciences. The second focus area of this research concerns the relationship between contemporary neuroscience of emotions, the work of the actor and the transformations that could occur through the theatrical experience – especially for the actor – on an ontological level. In this research, some neuroscientific concepts that prove fundamental to the development of a neurobiological approach to the emotional work of the actor have been developed. They are: neuroplasticity, the neuron mirror system, the brain gratification circuit and the conscious use of the procedural memory.