[Theater and psychiatry]

It is the look which creates theater, for the spectator as well as for the comedian. When this look does not exist anymore, the game disappears and the theater dies. In our work with patients, we have emphasized the representation, the look and the game. This is true for psychotic and neurotic patients, the working methods being however different. The director is there as guarantee of ethics of "well playing". He forces a door, but what lies behind does not concern him. To talk about his perception, his fantasies, has no room in the repetition. We think it is important that theater remains theater, respecting its own laws, and that it can only become therapeutic at this price. This work is dedicated to Claude Etienne who helped us to make our first steps in the theater.