Personal Theatre of the Broken Hearts: Processing Post-breakup Trauma and Masculinity Through Therapeutic Performance

Relationship breakups can impact people’s mental health adversely, especially when they are rejected by their partner. This research explored relationship breakup of five heterosexual men using autobiographical therapeutic performance (ATP) intervention. Three themes emerged after analysing the data using interpretative phenomenological analysis that include Aftereffects of relationship breakup: trauma and attachment; Self and Others: the interplay and its effects on mental health; and Therapeutic process: a zigzag road.

It is found that participants experienced trauma after relationship breakup that created barriers in getting into a new relationship. Some participants also showed the tendency to go back to their ex-partners to fulfil their attachment needs. The interplay of self and others and its impact on self-esteem and mental health was found in all the participants. All the participants showed ambivalence about therapy. All of them were apprehensive in the beginning but gradually found some value and experienced positive effects of it.