Performance and Cure

In this fascinating addition to the "Classical Inter/faces" series, Karelisa Hartigan suggests that drama was regularly performed in the theatres built within or adjacent to the ancient sanctuaries of Asklepios. She argues that a pageant which showed the enactment of the god healing prompted the dream therapy the patient experienced at the sanctuary. Patients who viewed this drama were ready to receive the nightly ministrations of the deity, his attendants and his animals while they slept in the dormitory at the Asklepieion. To support her thesis, Hartigan discusses the mind-body relationship in the healing process, a relationship the medical profession is beginning to recognize. She concludes by presenting first-hand material based on her experience doing Playback Theatre for patients at Shands Hospital at the University of Florida. In performing improvisational scenes at bedside or in a community space, she has witnessed how the mini-dramas lift the patients' spirits and offer them hope for a successful outcome to their illness.

ISBN 0715636391   Volumes 1 ISBN13 9780715636398 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 227 Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC   Published in London Imprint Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd   Series title Classical Inter/faces Format Paperback   Height (mm) 234 Publication date 21 May 2009   Width (mm) 156 DEWEY 616.89152309   Spine width (mm) 13 DEWEY edition DC22   Academic level Professional / Scholarly Pages 144

		Glossary
		Introduction		1
I		Drama and Healing in Contemporary Medicine		5
1		The Relationship Between Mind and Body		5
2		Art and Medicine		13
II		Drama and Healing in Ancient Greece		18
1		The Cult of Asklepios		18
		The God		18
		The Process		27
		The Evidence		38
2		The Sanctuaries		45
		Epidauros		45
		Other Major Healing Sites		53
		Regional Sites		59
		Local Sites		69
		Pausanias and Asklepios		73
		Athens		74
III		Drama and Healing in the Contemporary American Hospital		81
		Case Study: Shands Hospital at the University of Florida		81
IV		Asklepios Beyond the Classical World		93
1		Asklepios and Jesus		93
2		Healing Saints of the Greek Orthodox Church		97
V		Conclusion and Epilogue		100
		Notes		105
		Bibliography		113
		Index		121

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