Transgression of the Self—the Total Act in Jerzy Grotowski’s Laboratory Theatre and Jungian Archetype Experience
Transgression of the Self—the Total Act in Jerzy Grotowski’s Laboratory Theatre and Jungian Archetype Experience

Summary/Abstract: This article will be devoted to one of Jerzy Grotowski’s most important discoveries, the total act, a specific kind of action and experience. It was created as part of theatrical practice, but apart from the function related to the dramaturgy of performances, it had a higher purpose, associated with the search for the essence of humanity and sources of the experience of reality. Jerzy Grotowski sought to transform actors and observers, open them to what is authentic, alive and present. This achievement was a kind of experience in which the sacrum and the profanum are overcome. The total act allowed a person “to become watched” and, paradoxically, allowed them to participate in the duality of passive action, in which a person becomes an observer and agent at the same time. My goal is to describe the role of the principle of coexistence of opposites in the work of J. Grotowski. I am describing the total act as an opportunity to reach an experience of reality in which the mind and the body merge with each other. Humankind as a psychophysical unity precedes all differences in this experience, he or she is able to reach the very center of their own self, that which Jung called Selbst. According to J. Grotowski, this state is possible when the influence of myths and collective ideas is overcome.

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