“The most important thing on stage is to create conflict,” a theater director explained. Otherwise, he said, the audience will quickly lose interest.
Strange, right? Haven’t people had enough negativity in their own lives? And what about harmony?
My guess: living through conflict on the outside lets you work through it a little on the inside. The fact is that every person is torn from within by a multitude of contradictions.
But try dealing with them up close — it’s like removing your own appendix. Worse still, many don’t even realize that the horns of a dilemma are piercing their brain from the inside.
Yet recognizing your own drama out there, on the stage, is so much easier.
If the actors are talented, then for the duration of the performance the boundary between inner and outer dissolves. A vaguely felt conflict receives form, dynamics, and sometimes a resolution and meaning.
That’s why the spectator can feel relief and a rise in energy after the show. Even if just a little, his own process has taken a real step forward.
And it would all be fine if the projection of one’s conflicts outward were limited to the theater. Alas, people are capable of starting quarrels, lawsuits, and even wars.
They will go to any lengths just to avoid turning their gaze inward. Our Earth would be a much quieter planet if everyone put real effort into studying… himself.
Sincerely yours,
-Alexander
As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.
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