We encourage submissions from clinicians as well as humanities and social science scholars in order to make this conference a truly interdisciplinary endeavor.

From its theoretical origins in Freud, psychoanalysis has often turned to theatrical texts and metaphors in order to explore its own meaning as a therapeutic practice. Conversely, theories of theater from Aristotle to Artaud have emphasized the therapeutic value of stage performance. This conference proposes to explore the complex interactions between psychoanalytic and theatrical theories and practices. How is theater therapeutic? How is the clinical setting theatrical? How does the two fields’ shared vocabulary (catharsis, acting out, identification, etc.) speak to their similar purposes? How are clinicians served by theatrical ways of thinking and being? Has theater as a literary and performing art changed since the advent of psychoanalysis?

Papers are invited to address (but are not limited to) the following topics:

• the theatricality of the therapeutic setting
• the theatrical metaphor and psychoanalysis
• clinical and dramaturgical “practices”
• the therapeutic function of theater
• psychoanalytic readings of theatrical texts and/or performances
• literary readings of psychoanalytic theories
• psychoanalysis as a dramatic art
• clinical case studies involving theatricality
• theatrical and analytic space(s)

Please send a 250-word abstract for a twenty-minute presentation to analysis.theater.conference@gmail.com by December 15, 2007.

As submissions will be reviewed blindly, please remove all identifying information from your attached abstract. Be sure to include your name, email address and telephone number in the body of your email.