Читать книгу First Aid for the Artist's Soul - Christina Barandun - Страница 21

In view of these dramatic developments, it is only logical that companies should be called upon to assume social responsibility. It would be preposterous that they profit from their employees, overwork them to the point of illness, and then send them back out into society as if they are now the responsibility of the taxpayer.

By their very nature, the strain on artists is largely psychological (stage fright, for example). In the past, mental stress was not recorded in any formal way, and so there no effective impetus to develop measures to deal with it. Now there is a legal requirement that these intangible mental and social issues must be included in the so-called risk assessment, which has had to be prepared for every workplace for many years. All stresses that are adverse to health and well-being must be recorded and rectified by counter-measures, if necessary.

With the foregrounding of occupational health and safety regulations with regard to psychological stress, a new opportunity has opened up for artists in the theatre business.

Thanks to the extensive research in the field of work organisation and health management in the workplace, many tools are available today for dealing with our various psychological stresses. We just need to pick them up, try them out, and adapt them to or redevelop them for the purposes of art.

Healthy passion