Walk in/walk as my shoes: Puppetry and prosocial empathy in healthcare

Abstract

This article explores the connections between puppetry performance practice and the activation of empathy, considering the synergies between puppetry and medical practice where empathy is a key factor in healing. I draw on a consideration of the place of puppetry within ritual transitional and healing practices to develop an examination of contemporary modes of performance, which require deep listening, response and attention. I examine the connections between neuroscience and puppetry, which suggest that attitude-taking engenders empathy, and compare this to my puppetry training practice to suggest that training for and engaging in puppetry practice can encourage and stimulate empathy. This has significance for practitioners of puppetry working in healthcare contexts and for medical practitioners who undertake some form of puppetry, either within their training or as continuing professional development. Although the different forms of empathy are connected in practice, the article focuses especially on affective (emotional), cognitive and social empathy.

Theatre in paediatrics: can participatory performance mitigate educational, emotional and social consequences of missing out school during hospitalisation?

“…Thanks to the capacity of the puppet to protect the participant when entering an unknown emotional place, puppets become tools of empathetic communication. Puppets contribute to the emotional safety of participants who experience fragile situations (Astles 2020). The above stories prove that the use of puppets as an invitation for engagement and interaction provided a child-friendly and protecting environment that generated avenues of spontaneous communication and expression of feelings.…”

“…For example, the storyteller animates Puppet Sam as a 'mediator' between the child and her character. The puppet, as mediator in hospital settings, enables empathic communication and offers emotional safety to children of fragile health (Astles 2020). The artist performs a short ritual to help Sam fall asleep.…”

“…Research into bedside, arts-based activities, such as bedside theatre and puppetry in healthcare, found that they distract hospitalised children from pain and have a positive impact on them. This includes stress reduction and improved psychological and physiological well-being in hospital settings (Eisen 2006;Sextou 2016;Astles 2020). The use of art sensory activities based on the positive distraction theory with paediatric patients (preschool children 4-6 years old) reduces pain perception with positive psychological outcomes (Sparks 2001).…”