Esme Paul

This practice-research project focuses on using performance to explore psychological processes associated with autism. Using interdisciplinary research from theatre studies and psychology, this project aims to develop a neurodivergent performance practice and physically represent processes such as emotional dysregulation and sensory issues through performance. The practice element of this research will represent these processes through the metacognitive process of mentalization: the conceptualisation of one’s own processes of thinking that sits within the broader psychological concept of theory of mind.

Autistic individuals have often been theorised as having a developmental deficiency in theory of mind. However, this research will explore Damian Milton’s ‘double empathy problem’ in which he theorises that people with autism do not have a disturbance in theory of mind or mentalization, but rather there is a bidirectional deficiency between autistic and neurotypical individuals that prevent each group from fully understanding their respective psychological processes.

The project will attempt to represent psychological processes using the exploration of conceived, abstract mental space in performance, whilst focusing on the needs of autistic performers and developing a performance practice that centres autistic voices. Working within the context of disability arts, the neurodivergent performance practice developed through this research will subvert the perceived disturbance of mentalization and reframe it. This research seeks to further understanding of neurodivergent thinking and to share and disseminate that understanding.