Hospital Clowning as a Way to Overcome Trauma

Hospital clowning is a relatively new social practice for patients under prolonged medical treatment by means of play, fantasy, and humor. Opposed to circus or theater, hospital clowning is based on an individual, personal contact with a patient. It is not accidental that this social practice plays an important role not only in clinical context, but also as a wider social phenomenon. In the modern world with its tendencies of globalization, virtualization, standardization, isolation, and specialization the value of intimate face-to-face communication is gradually increasing. The study aimed at exploring the relationship between hospital clowning and trauma: 1) trauma of the patient; 2) trauma of the clown; 3) meeting of the two traumas in the interaction within hospital clowning; and 4) hospital clowning as a social movement in the traumatized modern society. In order to reach such a complex goal, a combination of a literature review, empirical study, and single observations was applied. The empirical study was conducted in cooperation with a Russian organization “Doctor Clown”, and included 19 semi-structured interviews with working clowns. The results revealed three kinds of trauma related to hospital clowning. First, the trauma of the patient, a victim of the modern medicine. Second, the trauma of the clown, which may lead them to practicing clowning. Hospital clowning may have a healing and developing impact not only for the patients, but also for the clowns themselves. Third, the collective trauma in the modern society, which is being treated by clowning in the most general sense. Based on the modern concept of coexisting positive and negative aspects of trauma, such as post-traumatic growth and post-traumatic depreciation, some practical implications, such as professional selection of the clowns, are discussed.