“Movement psychology” is a branch of psychology that emerged in the early twentieth century with the research of the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. The work was further developed by Rudolph Laban, the architect of European Contemporary dance, and completed by a Swiss dancer and actor named Yat Malmgren in the middle of the twentieth century.
Yat recognized that this would be a powerful tool for actors and went on to complete Laban’s theory. He extended Laban’s ideas by creating a psychological typology which brings together Laban and Stanislavsky. Inner motivation and outer expression are linked together leading to the detailed and accurate construction of character.
Yat taught this work to scores of acting students at the Drama Center in London. His students included Anthony Hopkins, Sean Connery, and Colin Firth to name a few
How is this work useful for lawyers?
This work is enormously useful for storytellers (i.e., lawyers) in the sense that they have to tell their stories from the perspective of many different people (i.e., witnesses), none of whom are alike.
Practically speaking, this presentation could help litigation attorneys when it comes to cross-examining witnesses by helping them to identify a witness’s inner attitudes and thus what behavior would be most beneficial to adopt when it comes to questioning that witness in order to elicit favorable testimony.
It can also be enormously helpful during jury selection as you will come to find out.
Michael DeBlis, III is a partner in the boutique law firm of DeBlis Law where he specializes in tax compliance and entertainment law. Michael graduated from Western Michigan University School of Law in 2007 and later went on to earn his Masters of Law in taxation (LL.M.) from Thomas Jefferson School of Law in 2012.
As a former public defender, Michael has spent nearly eight years cutting his teeth on some of the most serious felony cases to pass through the state courts of New Jersey.
Michael’s unique background in tax law puts him into an elite category of criminal defense attorneys who specialize in criminal tax defense. His extensive trial experience and solid grounding in all major areas of federal taxation make him uniquely qualified to handle any white-collar case, no matter how sophisticated it might be.
Michael is known for his creativity, his charismatic personality, and his unyielding dedication to his clients. As a graduate of the National Criminal Defense College, Michael has trained under some of the best-known criminal defense attorneys in the country. That experience has taught him that justice for a person accused of a crime is only won through a full understanding of the client and the case. To that end, Michael attempts to understand each client’s case as a convincing narrative, not just as a set of innocuous facts and arcane legal rules.
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