#pdsd

A term I recently came across is Post-Dramatic Stress Disorder (PDSD). It describes the lasting effects actors can experience after becoming deeply immersed in a role—effects that can include difficulty separating from the character and adopting the character’s habits for weeks, months, or even years after production has ended.

One method used to address this is de-roling, a technique designed to help actors shed their characters and return to their core selves. As described in the Feldenkrais Guild:

“Typical de-roling practices combine psychological methods along with physical rituals, like talking to one’s character and telling it to remain in the theatre while taking off the costume and hanging it up. Although such a ritual can help an actor depart from the fictionalized world, it may not fully calm their nervous system and release unwanted emotional states.” — Feldenkrais Guild

I’d like to point out that while I reference this source to provide context on the concept of “de-roling,” further investigation into the Feldenkrais Guild itself reveals a lack of solid evidence supporting its methods, along with a controversial history of reported abuse. For me, this raised an important question about whether the practice of “de-roling” an actor is always ethical. As Fictionkin, we recognize that while our identities can sometimes be accompanied by significant distress, the identity itself isn’t inherently the problem. So what happens if an actor unknowingly awakens to their Fictionkin identity through a role? In that case, would the process of “de-roling” actually be harmful?

’“Avatar: The Last Airbender” Series has been announced for netflix. They are planning to do a live-action tv show that will do what the movie couldn’t. I’m so excited even though it won’t be coming for a couple of years.

But after reading about this I was brought back to Korra. She is one of my favorite female characters, and I loved each season of the series. A lot of people were upset with how things were done, and many put a lot of hate on Korra. So I wanted to make a love post for her. Because this awesome character deserves some love.

Korra is a strong Character, but she also has some faults.

One of the things I find so relatable about Korra is how she thinks, feels and acts. She is a strong-minded, with a fierce temper, and aggressive nature. But even with this she has to question a lot of things in her life. What is her purpose, especially if she can’t be what everyone else wants her to be? Is she only the avatar, or can she be more? Is she strong enough to do the right thing? How can she bring balance to the world? She is constantly asking these questions, and even though she puts on a brave face, she obviously struggles. 

At the end of Season 1, she has lost her bending ability. She questions wether or not she can be the avatar without her bending. She has to question her entire existance. She has been raised with only one purpose. She hasn’t grown up being taught how society works, heck at one point she has issues because she has never dealt with money before in her LIFE. She has been set on a course in which she has one option, be the avatar. And now that is all gone. 

She sits at the edge of the cliff and contiplates suicide. She is horribly depressed, and ready to take her life. Because if she can’t be the avatar, she can die and another one will live. Another person will take on the responsibilities that she can no longer fulfill. Someone else will be able to save the world, like she was supposed to. 

But before she does, she accepts herself. She may not be the avatar anymore but that is okay. She is happy just being Korra. 

Aang doesn’t appear because Korra was sad. Aang appears and gives her back her bending because she had found acceptance in herself as herself. 

At the end of Season 3 I think this is such a huge moment. It’s one of the sadest things. Korra keeps losing things, but she keeps coming back, but will she. She has suffered injury after injury, both mentally and physically. She was near-death and is still suffering daily from the pain of the metal in her blood. 

She is broken. In season 2 she decided that the spirit world, and the real world should reamin connected, as they are two parts of one coin. By doing so, she renounces certain aspects of her job as Avatar. She doens’t do this to be lazy, but because the world doesn’t need one person, it needs balance. And balance is not achievable if only one person is trying. This is why every Avatar before her has failed. This is why she is destined to fail. So in an attempt to change the world, and help create balance, she leaves the portals open, and becomes a symbolic instrumant for balance. 

Also she lost her connection to the her past lives. She is the last Avatar of the first era, and the first Avatar of the second era. And she is now completely alone. But this doesn’t come in until later.

In season 3 she must face the conciquences of this decision, which may or may not have been right. But as we get to the end of the season, she is left debilitated and broken, physically and mentally. She no longer had her past lives to help her, but it is through the help of her friends that they are able to succeed. Without her friends she would have failed.

Now she is left broken, unable to do her job as avatar. Unable to even be Korra. She can’t even dress herself! She is in horrible pain, and faced with all these questions. What happens next? How will the world keep balance? 

But there is hope in the world, because her friends will step up. Together everyone can do her job. The World doesn’t need her, and she no longer matters. This Sucks for her, but it’s how the world works. 

In Season 4 her fears begin to manefest. She begins to fight herself, chacing a shadow of what she once was, what she can never be again. She is alone now, trying to find herself, but never able to reach it, or accept it. 

SHE IS FIGHTING PDSD

She is suffering not only physical but MENTAL challenges. She wants to give up, but she doesn’t. She keeps fighting. She learns and evolves as a character. She accepts the pain, accepts what happened to her, and takes it in her, but she doesn’t let that stop her from being korra. It took a lot of time for her to get there. three years plus. 

In the end Korra realizes that violence isn’t the only way. She could probably have just killed Kuvira, but that wasn’t what she wanted. She needed to help Kuvira be better. To see reason. 

Each of the villains had a reason for their actions. 

Amon wanted Equality - but did so by prosecuting others

Unaloq wanted Reconnection and Convergance - but did so through destruction

Zaheer wants Freedom - but tries to take it through chaos

Kovira wanted Peace and Order - but wanted to take it from submission of others

Each of the villains had a great purpose. They were trying to help society. They were trying to help people and make the world a better place, but they did so through brute force, prosecution, hatred and destruction. By having Korra change Kovira’s mind, she has proven that love, compassion, and reason are more powerful.

Aang, from Avatar the last airbender, always was peacful. he never wanted to fight. But from the beginning Korra was a fighter, and had to fight. Aang was faced with the choice to force, and kill, but he choose peace. Korra had to develop to the point where she could choose peace. 

Korra achieves balance in her life. It wasn’t easy, but she finaly makes peace in her life, as who she is, what she stands for, what she is in the world. 

I think that the purpose of the Legend of Korra is to step back and consider everything. Look at your enemies, what are they working toward? Is there a reason that they think these things? How can we be more concious of the people around us, and make better choices to help everyone. 

The winner writes the history book, so the loser will always be written as the bad guy. What we need is to find balance, with each other, and especially ourselves. YOU ARE IMPORTANT! YOU MATTER! YOU HAVE PURPOSE! YOU CAN CHANGE THE WORLD!

I’ll probably come back to this post again, because I am by no means finished ranting about how awesome the series was. Heck, I could do a bunch of seperate threads on different aspects of the series, like the villains, how the relationships developed, various other characters and why they were awesome like Bolin, or Asami, or JINORA!!! heck i could go on about Aang’s portrail in the series.

This source was from the Wall Street Journal based in New York.  The article was written by Janis Byron and is titled: Music Therapy: A Healing Art.  The article talks about Byron’s first-hand experience working with music therapists and seeing their effect on Parkinson’s Disease, as well as what he has researched on the topic.

Byron starts with providing a background of how music therapy came to be in the world of medicine.  He mentions how in the Middle Ages, the study of music became a mandatory part of a physician's education.  Music therapy began to develop as a profession during World War I, and in World War II music was incorporated into the Army's Reconditioning Program under direct supervision of medical personnel.  This was the first official recognition of music as a therapeutic aid by the military.  Today there are over 5,000 certified music therapists in the U.S., and more than 70 colleges offer music-therapy programs treating everything from PTSD to Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's.

Bryon also references Oliver sacks and his book Musicophilia that was the first source that I looked at when researching this project. 

One of the first-hand experience that Byron had was when he was invited by the  Americans for the Arts to visit the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and participate in "Stages of Healing." The program helps patients learn how to play a musical instrument and facilitates live performances.  The aim is to enhance the healing process and enrich the lives of patients, visitors and staff and help relieve the stress often associated with a hospital setting.

Byron played for the veterans two Chopin waltzes and "A Hero's Passing By", which he had written for a TV documentary on his wife's father.  he said that throughout his performance and afterwards, he could notice the difference in the patients of the hospital and that their functioning was more intact.  Afterwards, Byron and his wife talked with some of the young veterans suffering from a range of physical and psychological conditions; many of which told him how much music had helped their recovery.

Another program at the Walter Reed Medical center is called Musicorps, where patients learn, play, compose and record music. They work with professional musicians, computer-based music workstations and actual instruments. It is designed to help patients suffering from PTSD and traumatic brain injury.

"Learning, creating, and performing music involves so many aspects of brain function that it is believed to recruit uninjured parts of the brain to compensate for parts that have been injured, and help those parts that are injured recover," notes the hospital in its literature on the program.

Byron later learned about Music for All Seasons, which hosts performances in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and California. The founders have the belief that live music has "a therapeutic, educational and healing influence on all who listen and participate." The program is now in its 22nd season.

The newest initiative, Voices of Valor, brings groups of 6 to 10 veterans together with two musician facilitators to write their lyrics to a group song, set it to music and record it in a professional studio.

This shorter article was fun to read and it was interesting to get a perspective of the work of music therapy in healing our nations veterans from an actual musician.  It was also nice to get more background on how music therapy came to be and to see how far it went back in history.  This article focused more on veterans and how music has helped them in rehabilitating or calming their symptoms. 

Source:

http://search.proquest.com/docview/1521903568?rfr_id=info%3Axri%2Fsid%3Aprimo

https://twitter.com/americans4arts

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