Teatro Etnoclínico: apresentação de um novo método psicoterapêutico

The goal of this work is to present a new psychotherapeutic method: the Ethnoclinical Theatre. This method of psychotherapeutic intervention accepts the influence of several areas of study, of which we highlight, in theatre, the theories of anthropological theatre and, in the field of psychology, the ethnoclinical method and the constructionist ideas. The link here proposed between theatre and life stories conceives life as a composition of scenes and meaningful characters that justify modalities of action, of thought and of feeling. The opportunity given by theatre to bring to play these characters/masks and scenes opens a space that fosters the entering of the person into a dramatic play that, by means of conciliatory actions, enables problem solving, offering a new vision from a life scene. In this presentation, we try to (1) question the way through by which dramatic techniques, according to the ethnoclinical theatre method, activate the construction of new meanings in the life stories; (2) describe the main psychotherapeutic stages and the way by which these acquire a structure in the ethnoclinical theatre device; and (3) describe the different types of dramatic strategies that are used in the process of negotiating psychotherapeutic change. In order to achieve these goals, we have elaborated a single-case, ethnographic and qualitative research design, by means of which we analysed the process and the psychoterapeutic effects in three clinical cases, based on the produced artistic material’s content, on dramatization and on dialogues, especially between the psychotherapist and the actor-patient. In the analysis of the case-studies we followed a process-outcome type of research, underscoring both the process and the effects on patients and their relationships. We were able to identify and categorize six stages in the process of psychotherapeutic change: deconstruction, cognition, recognition, (re)construction, metamorphosis, and permanence. We were also able to identify and categorize the negotiation strategies that allow the attribution of new meanings to traumatic life scenes. The following negotiation strategies were determined: cooperative dramatization; participative listening/deuterolearning; dialogical position; mediation position; dialogue with the object; embodiment; and initiatory action.