The Netherlands on the Sofa: Peter Buwalda

A country goes to see the psychiatrist! The writer and columnist plays the role of The Netherlands, between happiness and anxiety.

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Information

Date and time Friday 19 January 2018 20:00 tot 20:40 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2

A country goes to see the doctor! The Netherlands feels fantastic. In 2017, it held sixth place on the list of the happiest countries in the world. Not too bad when you consider, for example, the quality of Dutch health care and education. Or the freedoms enjoyed by its population. On an individual level, the future looks rosy, to say the least.

At the same time, the Netherlands seems to have lost its way. The expectations of society as a whole seem much more sombre. There is growing unrest about the collective identity. The Netherlands is frightened of losing ist norms and values.

What's going on? Writer and columnist Peter Buwalda, in the role of the Netherlands, interpreted these paradoxical feelings on psychiatrist Damiaan Denys' sofa.

Line-up

Damiaan Denys

(1965) is a prominent psychiatrist, neuroscientist, writer and theatre actor. Born in Flanders, he works and lives in The Netherlands. He studied philosophy and medicine in Belgium, graduated in psychiatry from Utrecht University, and worked as head of anxiety disorders of UMC Utrecht. He is a professor at the University of Amsterdam and department head of psychiatry at AMC Amsterdam. Denys developed Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), a method to master compulsive thoughts. In his book Angstparadox (Anxiety Paradox, 2016) he states: "If there is a single word that holds the essence of the world in which we live now, of what guides us and of what holds us back, it is anxiety." Denys writes and acts in theatre monologues, among them Van angst naar vrijheid (From Anxiety to Freedom, 2016), which is "about the sense and nonsense of our contemporary culture of anxiety".
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Peter Buwalda

(Brussels, 1971) made his debut as novelist in 2010 with Bonita Avenue which became a best seller. Buwalda describes the demise of a family against the backdrop of the fireworks disaster in Enschede in 2000. The novel was awarded with five prizes and was translated into eighteen languages. Since then, Buwalda works on his second novel that will be published Fall 2018. Additionally he writes columns for Dutch national newspaper de Volkskrant. In 2017 he published a collection of these columns titled De kleine voeten van Lowell George (The Small Feet of Lowell George).
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