The formation of K. S. Stanislavsky’s system in the context of the Silver Age Culture: Influence of the East

The article presents an overview of the All-Russian scientific conference with the contribution of international participants. It took place at GITIS on November 2–3, 2022. While creating his famous theatre system, K.S. Stanislavsky discovered some common details between his methods of pedagogical practice and yoga. He intuitively came to the same methods of influencing the psyche that had been known in the East for thousands of years. In the process of his work, he addressed the concept of “prana”, that he borrowed from the yogis. He also used such terms as “emission” and “perception”, “radiation” and “induction”, that were adopted from the French philosopher and psychologist T. Ribo. In the second half of the 19th century, the concept of psychic energy became widespread in psychology and was used to interpret numerous inexplicable phenomena during spiritual sessions. Sigmund Freud freed this term from mystical overtones and denoted it with the word “libido”. Carl Jung, the founder of analytical psychology, proposed to consider the libido neutral by its character as a universal psychic energy. By addressing some principles of yogic teaching, K. S. Stanislavsky created various methods for the development and improvement of the actor’s psychotechnics. From this basis, his colleagues, followers, and students later developed a number of psychophysical trainings. They became part of Stanislavsky’s method known throughout the world as his “system” and have proven to be very useful in the process of an actors’ education. The purpose of the conference was to reveal those aspects of the Silver Age culture which contributed to the creation and establishment of the K. S. Stanislavsky system.