|
Performance Anxiety
Sweet Music's Power Orpheus with his lute made trees And the mountain tops that freeze Bow themselves when he did sing: To his music plants and flowers Ever sprung; as sun and showers There had made a lasting spring. Every thing that heard him play, Even the billows of the sea, Hung their heads and then lay by. In sweet music is such art, Killing care and grief of heart Fall asleep, or hearing, die. William Shakespeare
Gabbard, G. O. (1979). Stage fright. Int J Psychoanal, 60, 383-92. (Stage fright is a universal human experience that occurs with varying intensity in everyone who stands before an audience. The anxiety generated in this situation stems from the re-emergence of certain key developmental experiences. The dynamics involved are related both to genital and to pre-genital conflicts. Shame arises from conflicts around exhibitionism, from concerns over genital inadequacy, and from the fear of loss of control. Guilt is produced from the aggression inherent in self-display and from the fear of the destruction of one's rivals, along with the dread of retaliation. A major portion of the stage fright reaction is the reactivation of the crisis of separation-individuation, which generates separation anxiety connected to the fear that asserting oneself as a separate individual will result in withdrawal of love and admiration by maternal figures, i.e. the audience. The various developmental experiences are differentially weighted in each individual's stage fright reaction depending on the vicissitudes of his early childhood experience. Perhaps it is fortunate that few performers ever completely master stage fright for an intangible sense of communion between the performer and his audience might well be lost as a by-product of the mastery).
In societies in which the function of the artist, whether painter, sculptor, musician, or story-teller, was to serve the community by giving expression to traditional wisdom, his skills were valued, but his individuality was not. Today, we demand that he shall display originality, and that what he produces shall bear the unmistakable imprint of his uniqueness. We treat a genuine Titian with reverence; but if some art historian tells us that it is only a copy, however beautiful, we are likely to pass by on the other side. The commercial value of a work of art depends on its demonstrable authenticity rather than upon its intrinsic merit. Art has become an individual statement and, for the artist himself, a means whereby he can pursue his own self-realization. Anthony Storr. Solitude. Harper/Collins. 1988.
As a general principal, people are more or less in conflict, whether this is conscious or unconscious, about their aims in life, and what represents achievement or success according to one set of aims may well point to failure in terms of another set of aims. Freud (1900) was pointing to this conflict when he stated that what is pleasurable for one psychic system may be painful for another.
It is important to look into the question of what motivates the performer when thinking about performance anxiety. Why is the performer performing, what provides the motivation, the propelling forces behind the desire to perform, what desires and wishes are being satisfied? Desires and wishes are closely linked to associated anxieties, as are issues involving self-concept, self-esteem, and "the ideal or idealized self".
Kato Havas, in her valuable monograph on the causes and treatment of nervous affections in violin playing, posed the interesting question why it is that Hungarian gypsy-players appear to be immune to such disorders. She said that the reasons are manifold, but "first of all they are not burdened with the responsibilities of our social system. They do not have to do better than their fellows in order to succeed. In fact, they would be hard pressed to understand why anyone wants to succeed at all. Secondly, their sole interest is in the pleasure of the listeners. They are free from all obligations, except the one and only obligation - to communicate." From Music and the Brain. MacDonald Critchley.
|
