Healing and Liberation: Five Lessons From Israeli Medical Clowns
Sasha Kapustina |
TEDxPershingSq
• September 2017
Yes, in Israel “medical clowning” is an actual job. A medical clown is a proper clown (red nose, huge shoes - the works) who has received special training and works in a hospital as part of the medical staff. The basic idea is simple – to make the experience of being in a hospital less traumatic for everyone – patients, their loved ones, even the medical staff. Medical clowns don’t do simple shticks. Their work is much more complex and involved. It is a non-stop improvisation: clowns roam the halls of hospitals and engage with whatever they encounter, establishing deep and important relationships along the way. Whether it’s a parent on the verge of a nervous breakdown, a child in the middle of a painful procedure, or a dying patient in the throes of their final days – the clown is there. Medical clowning has an extra layer of meaning in Israel, a country torn apart by deep religious and cultural divides. Hospitals here have taken on an unexpected additional role – they’ve become places of peace that bring people together. Everyone is equal, leveled by the fear and suffering. A clown’s power to challenge the boundaries of what’s socially permissible, to help people change their perspective, to bridge opposites through making human connections... all this becomes invaluable here.