Further Contributions to the Understanding of Stage Fright: Narcissistic Issues

Stage fright is an overdetermined symptom of all persons who must perform before an audience. The performer may experience disintegration anxiety as he searches for a mirroring or an idealized object to make him feel complete and loved. Anxiety may be generated by his fantasy that he is stirring up the envy and persecution of others as a defense against his own envy. He also may develop anxiety over his fear that his success is depriving others and harming them. The performer's concern over his greed may activate unconscious anxieties about depleting the very object he seeks of all it has to give. Conversely, if he projects the greediness onto the audience, he may fear that he will be devoured. Finally, he may become extraordinarily anxious over the thrust toward autonomy that his assertive act of performing represents to him. He may feel that if he does not perform according to the expectations of his audience-mother, he will lose the audience's love and admiration.

Although it is a potentially disabling problem, stage fright adds a unique dimension to the vitality of live performance. It is emblematic of the electric interaction between the performer and the audience that makes the theater a place of magic. Audience members bring a certain degree of reality to the performer's fears: they may cheer him on, but they may also secretly hope for disaster. If a faux pas occurs, they may ridicule him with laughter, and a poorly executed performance may result in fidgeting, at least, and hurling of vegetables, at worst. As the performer balances on the razor's edge of the audience's ambivalent empathy for him, a sense of dangerous excitement is created. This interactional tension makes live performance a unique medium that can never be replaced by film or recording. As one performer put it, "It creates a feeling of delicious dread, a mixture of horror and anticipation."