Abstract
This chapter is an extended consideration of the question of depth in our everyday lives. Drama implies a distinction between what appears on the stage and what is real. In our lives in and out of the theater, we are constantly vigilant to recognize the distinction between appearance and reality. The surfaces of things often conceal a deeper truth. Science is required in our world, but brings the danger of flattening human experience. Human beings can vary on a dimension of shallowness or depth. Having a genuine character is a difficult achievement in our modern world. The psychologist must appreciate and accept the dimension of human depth. The perspectives of drama facilitate the achievement of a rounded view of life.
“Strange mutual dependence this, in which the appearance needs the reality in order to exist, but the reality needs the appearance in order to be known.”
–William James , Principles of Psychology , Vol II, p, 301
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Notes
- 1.
Based on a New York Times report 06/05/2013, p. 2.
- 2.
See Kroeber (1957/1973).
- 3.
See Michael Barbaro, nytimes.com/2016/10/26/us/politics/donald-trump-interviews.html?
- 4.
See DSM-V, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association.
- 5.
These are considered to be Axis II disorders, under the multiaxial system of classification. “A personality disorder an enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual’s culture, is pervasive and inflexible, has an onset in adolescence or early adulthood, is stable over time, and leads to distress or impairment” (DSM-IV-TR, p. 685).
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Scheibe, K.E. (2017). Profound Drama. In: Deep Drama. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62986-5_1
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