Transforming students’ perceptions of selfhood through pedagogical theatre strategies

Abstract

Traditional approaches to postgraduate psychological education are inherently reductionistic – drawing on positivist theoretical models designed for understanding our physical bodies rather than our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Taking a decolonial stance, and advocating for critical reflexivity, this paper argues that theatre holds a potential space for students to engage with selfhood in complex ways. Positioned within critical pedagogy, theatre strategies can present vital opportunities to personalise historical eras, enabling intertwined psychodynamic, cultural, economic, and ideological factors to impact sensuously, emotionally, and cognitively on students. Such immersive opportunities can foster students’ awareness of the social embeddedness of subjectivity, prior to their engagement with clinical practice. Drawing on Fugard’s political tragedy, ‘Sorrows and Rejoicings’, possible guidelines are suggested as to how theatre can educate students about the impact of taken-for-granted social-political attitudes, norms, and values on selfhood.