The Cop in the Head: Three Hypotheses

Author(s): Augusto Boal and Susana Epstein

Source: TDR (1988-), Vol. 34, No. 3 (Autumn, 1990), pp. 35-42
Published by: The MIT Press
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The
Cop
in the Head
Three
Hypotheses
Augusto
Boal
What
we do takes
from
art not science!
Therefore,
we cannot
present
concrete
proofs of anything.
We do not demonstrate theorems. We
only
propose hypotheses.
"Hypo"
. . . means
"on
this side
of,
underneath."
Hypotheses
need
practical verification
in order to be valuable. And our
practice
has
verified
our
hypotheses.
The theatre of the
oppressed emphasizes
theatre as a
language
that must
be
spoken,
not a discourse that must be listened to. It also stresses theatre as
a
process
that must be
developed,
rather than a finished
product
that must
be consumed. The theatre of the
oppressed goes beyond
the
ordinary
boundaries of theatre because it asserts the
oppressed
are the
subjects
rather
than the
objects
of theatrical
activity.
Also,
it advances toward other do-
mains:
sports, politics, psychology,
and
philosophy-all
fields as
complex
as ours.
"The
Cop
in the
Head,"
part of
a more
general concept
within the
framework
of
the theatre
of
the
oppressed,
concerns those
oppressions
that have been inter-
nalized.
We
usually
work on the boundaries
of politics, using
theatre
of
the
oppressed
techniques
to
study specific
events such as how to
organize
a strike. There are
many
people
who dare not
participate
in a strike or other
political
actions.
Why?
Because
they
have
cops
in their heads.
They
have internalized their
oppressions.
The
cops
are in their
heads,
but the
headquarters of
these
cops
are in the external
reality.
It is
necessary
to locate both the
cops
and their
headquarters.
In this
instance,
we are at the border
of psychology,
but
always
on the side
of
theatre.
There is no
spectator
in a theatre of the
oppressed
session: there are
only
active observers. The center of
gravity
is in the auditorium rather than on
stage.
An
image
or a scene that does not reflect
upon
the observers cannot
be dealt with
using
our
technique,
since it constitutes a
personal
case that
cannot be considered
collectively.
We
may empathize
with the
person
who
has shown us such a
scene,
but we cannot
really speak
other than as
The Drama Review
34,
no.
3 (T127),
Fall
1990
35
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36 Augusto
Boal
1.
Boal
wrote
Torque-
mada while in
prison
in
1971-where "cops"
were
not
only
in the head. Later
that
year,
Boal
directed the
show at New York Univer-
sity,
Tisch School
of
the
Arts.
(Photo courtesy of
Au-
gusto Boal)
oppressed people
ourselves. We can
give good advice; however,
we do not
run the same risks.
The theatre of the
oppressed
has two fundamental
principles:
I)
To
help
the
spectator
become a
protagonist
of the dramatic action so that s/he can
2) apply
those actions s/he has
practiced
in the theatre to real life.
In order to be able to realize these two basic
tasks,
the theatre of the
oppressed
and
particularly
the
process
of The
Cop
in the Head
proposes
three
hypotheses:
I.
Osmosis between macrocosm and microcosm.
2. Metaxis.
3. Analogical
Induction.
First
Hypothesis:
Osmosis--The
Macrocosm and the Microcosm
Hypothesis:
"All the moral and
political
values of a
given society along
with its structures of
power
and
domination,
as well as its
corresponding
mechanisms of
oppression
are contained in the smallest cells of the social
organization (the couple,
the
family,
the
neighborhood,
the
school,
the
office,
the
factory, etc.)
and in the smallest events of social life
(an
accident
at the end of a
street,
the ID control in the
subway,
a doctor's
visit, etc.)."
The
big
national themes are inscribed in the small
personal
ones. Ac-
cording
to this
hypothesis,
if one
speaks
of a
strictly
individual
case,
one is
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The Cop in the Head 37
also
speaking
about all similar cases and therefore the
society
in which this
particular
case takes
place.
For this to be true it is
necessary
that all the
singular
elements of individ-
ual discourses become
symbolic
and lose their
exclusivity.
In this shift from
the
particular
event to its social
context,
we abandon
psychotherapy
for
theatre.
One can also add: "The
dominating
ideas in a
given society
are those of
the
dominating
class"
(Marx).
An Indian who sees a
cowboy
movie will
end
up thinking
as a
cowboy
rather than as an Indian.
Twenty years ago,
we had a
very interesting experience
in the
U.S.,
comparing
social values in the
segregationist
South with those in New
York,
where
"integration" appeared
to be more advanced. We showed a
dozen or so dolls to hundreds of black children. The dolls were different
colors:
white,
green,
blue, black,
etc. We asked them to
point
out the
prettiest
and the
ugliest.
In the
South,
where the
segregated
blacks had
better
kept
their aesthetic values
(along
with other
values),
the children said
that the
prettiest
was the black doll and the
ugliest
the white one. In the
North,
where
"integration" imposes
the values of the white
society,
the
results were
just
the
opposite:
the white doll was the
prettiest
and the black
was the
ugliest.
The black kids had
acquired
the whites' values.
I call the
propagation
of
ideas, values,
and tastes "osmosis." Osmosis
happens through repression
and seduction. Also
by repulsion,
hate, fear,
violence,
constraint
or,
on the
contrary, by
attraction, love, desire,
prom-
ises,
dependency,
etc.
Where does osmosis
happen? Everywhere.
In
every
cell of social life: in
the
family through legal parental power, money, dependency,
affections;
at work
through salary,
bonuses, vacations,
unemployment,
retirement;
in
the
army through punishment, promotion, hierarchy,
the seduction of
exercising power;
in school
through grades,
end of the
year
marks, files;
in
advertising through
the false association of ideas-beautiful women and
cigarettes, Niagara
Falls and
whisky,
etc., etc.;
in the
newspapers through
the selection of
news,
the
manipulation
of
diagrams;
in the church
through
hell,
paradise,
the
unknown, communion,
forgiveness, guilt, hope.
Also,
in the theatre. How?
The
theatre,
as we know
it,
puts
two different worlds in contact: the
auditorium and the
stage.
Conventional theatrical rituals determine the
roles that both worlds must
play. Onstage, images
of social life are
pre-
sented in an
organic,
autonomous fashion which cannot be modified
by
the
auditorium.
During
the
performance,
the auditorium is
deactivated,
re-
duced to
contemplation (sometimes critical)
of the events that
develop
onstage.
Osmosis moves from the
stage
to the auditorium in an intransi-
tive manner. If there is
strong
resistance to deactivation in the
auditorium,
the
performance
can be
stopped,
but it cannot be transformed since it is
predetermined.
The conventional theatrical ritual does not
change.
It
may
broadcast, mobilizing
ideas,
but the ritual itself remains
unchanged.
Numancia, a
play by Cervantes, tells the
story
of a
city
under
siege
whose
inhabitants decide to resist until the last man, the last woman, and the last
child die.
They
are all killed, but
they
do not surrender.
During
the Civil
War in
Spain,
Numancia was
performed
in a
city
under
siege by
the fascists.
It is obvious that the
piece produced
a
great mobilizing
effect in
spite
of
theatrical conventions. In this
particular instance, reality
shattered the
ritual. In an
"ordinary" performance,
one
usually forgets
about real life
because it is
necessary
to
pay
attention to the
stage. Here, the
stage
re-
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38 Augusto
Boal
minded the
spectators
of what was
actually happening
in the streets. The
convention of the theatrical ritual was broken
by
the
dynamism
of the
social events.
In the theatre of the
oppressed,
one tries to make the
auditorium-stage dialog
entirely
transitive: the
stage may attempt
to transform the
auditorium,
but
the auditorium can
attempt
to
change everything.
The transmission
by
osmosis is not
always peaceful.
It relies on
subject-
object relationships. Nobody
can be reduced to the condition of absolute
object,
however.
Therefore, the
oppressor produces
two different reac-
tions in the
oppressed:
subversion and submission.
Every oppressed
is a
submissive subversive. His submission is his
Cop
in the Head. But he is also
subversive. Our
goal
is to render the subversion more
dynamic
while
making
the submission
disappear.
Second
Hypothesis:
Metaxis
In a traditional theatrical
performance,
the
spectator/character (or actor)
relationship
takes
place through
what we call
empathy: "en," inside;
"pathos,"
emotion.
The emotions of the characters strike us and the moral world of the
performance
invades us
through
osmosis. We are led
by
the characters and
their actions which we cannot control. We
experience
a vicarious emotion.
In an
ordinary
theatre of the
oppressed session,
in which the
oppressed
have created a world of
images
based on their own
oppressions,
the rela-
tionship
active
observer/character changes drastically
and becomes
sympathy:
"sym,"
with. We are no
longer led,
now we lead. I am not touched
by somebody
else's emotions. I
produce my
own. I control
my
actions.
I
am the
subject. There,
where
somebody
like me led the
action,
we are now the
subjects.
In the
first instance,
the
stage
that moves takes me with it. In the
second,
it is me
who makes it move.
The
oppressed
become the artists.
The
oppressed-artist produces
a world of art. She creates the
images
of
her real
life,
that
is,
her real
oppressions.
This world of
images
contains the
same
oppressions
that exist in the real world that
produces them,
but
they
have been transformed
aesthetically.
When the
oppressed-artist
creates the
images
of her
oppressive reality,
she
belongs
to both the real and aesthetic world in an active rather than
vicarious
way.
In this
instance,
we have the metaxis
phenomenon:
the total
and simultaneous adherence to two different and autonomous worlds.
The aesthetic transubstantiation
belongs
to the two autonomous worlds:
reality
and the
image
of
reality
that has been created
by
this
process.
It is
very important
that these two worlds are
truly
autonomous. The
artistic
creativity
of the
oppressed-protagonist
should not limit itself to a
simple reproduction
of
reality,
or to the
symbolic
illustration of the real
oppression:
artistic
creativity
must have its own aesthetic dimension.
Usually,
the
participants
insist
upon
the
meaning
of each
image.
This
requires
the translation of an
image
into another
language,
the verbal. But
images
cannot be translated, just
as the first chords of Beethoven's Fifth
Symphony
cannot be translated into a
500oo-page
book.
There are
many people
who cannot
enjoy
abstract
painting
because
they
are
always trying
to
interpret,
to translate the
images.
If a
painting
is called
Still Nature
they try
to find where the
grapes,
or the
pineapple,
or the
bananas are. Think, for instance, of Picasso's Naked Woman with
Apple
in
which one can find neither the woman nor the
apple.
The woman and the
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The
Cop
in the Head
39
2. Boal's
1984 production of
Nicht Mehr Nach Calin-
gasta (Nothing
More Af-
ter
Calingasta)
in
Graz,
Austria,
won best
play of
the
year-an example of
Boal's
ability
to deal in
"vicarious" emotion.
(Photo
courtesy of Augusto Boal)
3. Dealing
in an "active"
aesthetic
world, participants
engage
in a theatre
of
the
op-
pressed workshop
in Rio de
Janeiro
in
1980. (Photo
courtesy of Augusto Boal)
apple
no
longer
exist in the same
way they
did when
being
created:
they
are
transubstantiated in the
painting.
Now
they only
exist in Picasso's head.
The metaxis takes
place
inside him. We must
identify
with
Picasso,
through sym-pathy,
in order to also
experience
metaxis and
produce
a
similar
painting.
If our
society,
our
culture,
or our social life have
nothing
to do with
Picasso's,
the metaxis will not
happen
because our transitive identification
(sympathy)
with him is
impossible.
A Chinese or a Chilean of the same
generation
and social class as a French
person
will not
experience
the
painting
in the same
way.
Similarly,
when an
oppressed produces images
of his
oppression,
it is
necessary
for us to
identify
ourselves with him
"sympathetically."
Solidar-
ity
is not
enough.
His
oppression
must be ours.
The
image
must become autonomous for metaxis to occur. In this in-
stance,
the
image of reality
is as real as an
image.
The
oppressed
creates
images of
his
reality. Afterwards,
he must
play
with
the
reality of
those
images.
The
oppressions
are the
same,
but
they present
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4o Augusto
Boal
themselves transubstantiated. The
oppressed
must
forget
the real world in
which his
image
has
originated
in order to be able to
play
with the artistic
image.
He must
extrapolate
himself from social
reality
into the
reality
we
call fiction
(theatre, image)
and,
after he has
played
with the
image,
after
having
made
"theatre,"
he must reverse the
extrapolation:
He will
manipu-
late the aesthetic
reality
in order to
change
the social one.
The transubstantiation
process
must be
accomplished by
the
oppressed-
artist
herself.
She is the one who has to create the
image
on which
partici-
pants
will work. She is not
required
to remain within the boundaries of
realism,
nor is this
expressionism,
in which
everything
is deformed
by
individual
subjectivity.
Since we
speak
in the
first person plural, however,
it
can be
thought
of as an
objective expression:
how does this
group
of
people,
who
belong
to the same social class and work in the same
place,
see the
other characters who
oppress
them,
and how do
they perceive
themselves
who
being
the
subject
of such
oppression?
Even if the
images
are created
by only
one
person, they
will
speak
for
everyone.
It is
very important
to maintain the coherence of the new world
being
created.
During
the
game,
one cannot make references to the
origin
of this
world. Each world has its
own,
unique origin.
The second
hypothesis
can be formulated as follows: "If the
oppressed-
artist is able to create an autonomous world of
images
based on his own
reality,
and
play
out his freedom in these
images,
he can then
apply every-
thing
he has
accomplished
in the fiction to his own life."
This
hypothesis
calls for
precision
in
categorizing images
and differ-
entiating
between the
concepts
of
person, personality, character,
and
mask.
The
person
is
potential.
Each human
being
is
infinitely rich,
full of
psychological
and intellectual
possibilities.
One
may
consider these
pos-
sibilities
good
or bad.
Everyone
is
potentially capable
of
performing
all the
actions,
feeling
all the
emotions,
and
enjoying
all the
pleasures
a
person
is
able
to,
without
any
moral connotations.
In each
culture,
these
potentials
are
only partially accomplished through
education, work,
and social life. Either
by
choice or
constraint,
each of
these areas form an individual's
personality.
If the
person
realizes her
potential,
her
personality
is the action. If the
person
is the "I can do
it,"
the
personality
is the "I do it." The
person
is
much richer and more varied than the
personality,
but this is not revealed
in
daily
life.
Restrictions exist in the name of
reality.
But which
reality?
It is an
historically
determined
reality.
In a
society
where a class
struggle exists,
it
is obvious that the dominant classes
impose
their constraints. It is time to
break them!
The character is "the other." It is the other
echoing
within ourselves. If the
character exists within
ourselves,
we can
play
it even if it is
completely
different from our
personality.
On the other
hand,
we cannot
play
a char-
acter which does not exist in us. We could not
play
two Martians in
love,
for instance, unless we
project
our own
personality
onto them.
The same text of Hamlet
may
arouse a
totally
different character within
different
people.
To
play
a character means to
transform
into action
(fiction)
a
part
of our
potentiality,
of our
person.
And this is a
part
which does not
coincide with our
personality.
The mask is the death
of
the
personality.
It is the mechanization and the
hardening
of the
personality.
It is the absence of
creativity.
It is death.
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The
Cop
in the Head
41
4. Boal
leading
a
1979
workshop
in
Stockholm,
Sweden.
(Photo courtesy of
Augusto Boal)
Third
Hypothesis:
The
Analogical
Induction
In a theatre of the
oppressed
session in which the
participants belong
to
the same social
group (students
from the same
school,
neighbors,
workers
from the same
factory, etc.)
and suffer the same
oppressions,
the individual
story
of a
person
will
immediately
become
plural,
since one's
oppression
is
everybody's oppression.
The characteristics of each individual case can be
neglected
due to their
similarity
with all the others.
Therefore,
during
such
a
session,
sym-pathy
is immediate: We are all
speaking
about ourselves.
On the
contrary,
in a
specific
session of The
Cop
in the
Head,
it is
possible
that
somebody
tells a
story
of an individual
oppression
whose characteris-
tics can be
singled
out and be
very
different from the individual circum-
stances of the other
participants.
In this
instance,
we would be
caught by
em-pathy, becoming spectators
to the
person
who is
telling
the
story.
We
can also be in
solidarity
with that
person,
but this would not be the theatre
of
but the theatre
for
the
oppressed.
Third
Hypothesis:
"If an individual's farewell
image
or scene
prompts
other
analogous images
or scenes from
colleagues
in the
session,
and if one
builds a model detached from the
particular
circumstances of each individ-
ual case
using
these
images,
such a model will contain the
general
mecha-
nisms
through
which
oppression
is
produced.
This revelation of the
general
mechanisms of
oppression
will enable us to
study
the different
possibilities
for
breaking
the
oppression sym-pathetically."
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42 Augusto
Boal
5.
Boal with cultural work-
ers in a Brazilian
public
school in
1986, presenting
their own
plays
about vio-
lence, sex,
and lack
of
money. (Photo courtesy of
Augusto Boal)
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Even if one does not
get
to the
point
of
building
a
model,
or if one
considers that it is not
necessary
in a
specific instance,
the confrontation
between,
or
juxtaposition
of,
similar cases and the
resulting
forum will be
sufficient to
produce sym-pathy
because
during
such a forum the
particu-
larities will
acquire
a
symbolic
character
(given
the fact that we have
previ-
ously produced,
seen,
and studied other cases which have
deeply engaged
us).
The function of
analogical
induction allows for a
gestaltic analysis
which
provides
several different
perspectives
on each situation. We do not
interpret
or
explain anything.
We
simply offer multiple points of
view. The
oppressed
must
be
helped
so that she can
reflect upon
her own
actions, i.e.,
regarding possible
alternatives shown to her
by
other
participants
based on their
particular
circum-
stances. We must
provide
a distance between action and
reflecting
on it. The
protagonist
must be able to see herself both as a
protagonist
and as an
object.
She is the observer of the observed
person.
These three
hypotheses
are based on the fundamental
hypothesis
of the
theatre of the
oppressed:
"If the
oppressed
himself
(and
not a
surrogate
artist) performs
an
action,
this
action,
performed
in a theatrical
fiction,
will
allow him to
change things
in his real life."
This
hypothesis
contradicts the
theory
of
catharsis,
according
to which
the
spectator's
role leads her to void the emotions she has
experienced
during
the
performance.
Translated
from
the French
by
Susana
Epstein
Originally published
in the Bulletin du theatre de
l'opprime,
no.
5, 1981.
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