Never before has the relationship between psychoanalysis and performance been mapped out, either in terms of analyzing the nature of performance itself, or in terms of making sense of specific performance-related activities. In this volume some of the most distinguished thinkers in the field make this exciting new connection and offer original perspectives on a wide variety of topics, including: * the history of hypnotism * ventriloquism * cloning * the cultural politics of race and nation * transgressive performance * Futurism. From rehearsal process to consciousness theory, from digital performance to collective social trauma, the arguments advanced here are based on the dual principle that psychoanalysis can help our understanding of performance, and that performance can illuminate the workings of the human psyche.

Preface: The returns of psychoanalysis, and performance Introduction SECTION A Thinking through theatre 1 Rehearsing the impossible: the insane root 2 As if: blocking the Cartesian stage 3 Scanning sublimation: the digital Pôles of performance and psychoanalysis 4 Now and then: psychotherapy and the rehearsal process SECTION B Parallel performances 5 Violence, ventriloquism and the vocalic body 6 Hello Dolly Well Hello Dolly: the double and its theatre 7 Writing home: post-modern melancholia and the uncanny space of living-room theatre 8 The writer's block: performance, play and the responsibilities of analysis 9 The placebo of performance: psychoanalysis in its place SECTION C History, memory, trauma 10 Freud, Futurism, and Polly Dick 11 (Laughter) 12 Speak whiteness: staging 'race', performing responsibility 13 The Upsilon Project: a post-tragic testimonial 14 Staging social memory: Yuyachkani