Case Report
Dianna T Kenny
Abstract
Most people experience performance anxiety (PA) at some time in a range of diverse endeavours. However, for those in careers related to the performing arts (music, theatre and dance), public speaking, or sport, it can be a career-limiting or career-ending experience. Little attention has been paid to performance anxiety, empirically, diagnostically, or therapeutically. This paper contributes to the theory proposed by Kenny that the underlying psychopathology of severe performance anxiety is an attachment rupture in early life that is unresponsive to cognitive behavioural therapies. Accordingly, a short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (STPP) whose therapeutic focus is the resolution of attachment ruptures was undertaken with a young female musician who was in danger of failing her final year at a prestigious music school because she could no longer perform without breaking down. This paper describes the application of the triangle of conflict and the triangle of time/person in the resolution of the attachment ruptures of the three key attachment figures in the life of this young musician. This paper represents only the second detailed case report on the treatment of debilitating music performance anxiety using STPP. Given the successful outcome of both case reports, further investigation of this therapeutic approach for severe performance anxiety is warranted.