Medical Clowning

The Healing Performance

Amnon Raviv

Forthcoming

 

6 x 9 inches, 200pp, 35 halftones January 2018

ISBN : 9780857423870

Rs  750.00 (PB)
$35.00 (PB)
£24.50 (PB)

Buy (PB)

Clowns are not just the stuff of backyard children’s parties any more. These days, clown doctors see patients—especially children—to introduce humour and imagination into an anxiety-filled and painful experience. The origins of medical clowning can be traced to the Big Apple Circus Clown Care Unit at the Infants and Children’s Hospital of New York, established about 30 years ago. Since that time, the practice has developed extensively and medical clowns now work in hospitals around the world. Over the past 10 years, the number of scientific studies on medical clowning has increased, with findings showing the important contribution of medical clowns to children and adults suffering from mild to incurable illnesses.

Medical Clowning is the first guide to this phenomenon, summing up decades of research, education and practice to give readers a comprehensive look into this innovative field. Amnon Raviv analyses the performance of medical clowns, looking at research and case studies, and goes on to propose a training and evaluation model, including hands-on exercises to train experienced clowns for work in hospitals.

Amnon Raviv teaches at the medical school at the Ben-Gurion University, Beer Sheva, Israel, and at Tel Hai College, and works as a medical clown in several medical centres as part of the Dream Doctors Project. He is a member of the scientific committee of the Healthcare Clowning International 2016. Raviv is the first practitioner to be awarded a PhD in Medical Clowning.  

 

Enactments