RESEARCH - DEPERSONALISATION

 Because the mental health condition of Depersonalisation has been an influence for me in how I'm presenting my piece, and it's not something I regularly experience as a part of my mental health, I wanted to do a bit of further research on the condition as to not misrepresent it in how I talk about my piece in different contexts.

The epidemiology of depersonalisation and derealisation: A systematic review

This definition of depersonalisation gives a good understanding of the experience and sensations that come with the condition. This idea of detachment from the self is something I want to explore in the work's staging to the audience. By creating a work in a black box theatre, I want to create the sensation of observing the duality of the self from a distance for the audience and take the audience out of reality outside of the theatre. I further want to create an atmosphere of unreality through the tech of the piece, using gobos and haze to set the stage in a dream-like state to further this.

NHS: Dissociative Disorders

As I don't personally live with depersonalisation or derealisation as a regular factor in my mental health, I don't want to make a piece directly about the experiences of the condition, as I wouldn't be able to do that accurately. I have experienced the sensation momentarily before as the NHS describes above, similar to how someone may experience deja vu, but not enough to claim any derivative of personal experience. Instead, I was inspired by the idea of observing the self as an entity from the outside as a vehicle for depicting the theme of duality.

Hunter, E.C.M., Sierra, M. and David, A.S. (2004) ‘The epidemiology of depersonalisation and derealisation: A systematic review’, Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 39(1), pp. 9–18. Available at: https://www.proquest.com/docview/236148005/fulltext/EEA5357C46594EE0PQ/1?accountid=14154&sourcetype=Scholarly%20Journals (Accessed: 09/03/2023)

National Health Service (2023) Dissociative Disorders. Available At: https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/dissociative-disorders/ (Accessed: 22/02/2024) 

Comments