Dissertation Oral Defenses

In the creative process, intention and spontaneity are distinct yet related positions of consciousness in relationship to the unconscious: planned and unplanned, directed and receptive. Both are necessary for creativity. Rather than binary opposites, intention and spontaneity could represent a relationship between two ways of perceiving: one that divides things into parts and one that…

This hermeneutical study provides an analysis of contemporary events and trends in modern America through a depth psychological lens, particularly analytical and archetypal psychology. Building upon the theory of archetypes postulated by psychologist C. G. Jung, this study focuses upon a particular archetype known as the trickster. Present in virtually every culture’s mythology, the trickster…

This dissertation explores both Jungian Psychology and autism by engaging with episodes and films from the Star Trek metaverse. Jungian concepts that will be discussed include the makeup of the psyche, including the ego, consciousness, the personal unconscious, the collective unconscious, the shadow, the anima and animus, and the self. It will explore these parts…

This dissertation explores Carl G. Jung’s assertion that the primary task of our age is the anamnesis—the remembrance—of Sophia, the divine feminine archetype, through an alchemical hermeneutical analysis of the Gnostic poem, “Thunder, Perfect Mind,” discovered among the Nag Hammadi Codices in Egypt in 1945. Using psychologist Robert Romanyshyn’s (2013) wounded researcher model, the study…

This dissertation explores the role of companion animals in supporting the psychological well-being of older adults as they approach the end of life. Grounded in a psychoanalytic framework, this study examines how relationships with pets may function as sources of comfort, emotional regulation, and meaning-making during the aging process and in confronting mortality. While existing…

Within the field of psychology, it is commonplace to delineate therapeutic trauma work from non-trauma-focused therapy. This clinical divide portrays the theoretical position modern Western society takes on the incidence of psychological trauma, a position that assumes trauma is experienced only by a relative few. In recent decades, many theories have emerged suggesting psychological trauma…

Despite contributing to Alchemical studies, Jungian psychology has not yet sufficiently explored the vast diversity of Alchemical disciplines, across world cultures and epochs, from prehistory to modernity. Furthermore, Jungian psychology might be taking too much credit for “discovering” Alchemy’s psychological relevance without giving enough credence to Alchemy’s metaphysical insights. Yet many of Jungian psychology’s basic…

This research study is an alchemical hermeneutic inquiry into the relationship between dreams and suicidality, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Specifically, this dissertation interprets dream images of transformation in scholarly works and examines how symbols derived from dreams could engender hope and healing. While there is significant research on dreams, dream meaning, and dream…

This study explored the lived experience of retired enlisted male military veterans as they reintegrate into civilian culture following long-term service. Utilizing interpretive phenomenological analysis, semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants who had served 20 or more years and were actively attempting to transition outside of U.S. Department of Defense employment. The analysis yielded six…

This qualitative study examines the influence of systemic violence on LA County’s fostercare system through the perceptions and experiences of professionals working in and those serviced by foster-care. Guided by a decolonial analytic framework, the study draws on interviews with fourteen participants representing multiple roles within and adjacent to the foster care system. Data were…

While the abolition of policing and prisons has been widely examined as a political and institutional project, far less attention has been paid to its ontological stakes: the ways abolitionist praxis questions reality itself. This dissertation argues that the contemporary movement for police and prison abolition—particularly in the wake of the police murder of George…

This study examined art therapist Joan Kellogg’s theory of the Archetypal Stages of the Great Round of Mandala (Great Round) in relation to Jungian psychology. Using a hermeneutic comparative methodology, Kellogg’s writings and her clinical application of creating mandalas through art were analyzed alongside Carl Jung’s works regarding his model of the psyche with particular…

This qualitative, constructivist study explored Lingít language acquisition (Lingít yoo xʼatángi) among the Lingít People of Lingít Aaní (Southeast Alaska). It examined how learners interpret their language learning experiences in relation to historical trauma, racism, and ongoing cultural oppression. The literature review situates Indigenous language loss within settler colonialism and systemic racism, drawing from Indigenous…

This dissertation explored emergent, non-dogmatic religion (ENDR), a phenomenon in contemporary Western popular culture. The research addressed a gap in depth psychological literature by analyzing a movement frequently linked to the ideas of C. G. Jung but seldom examined from within the Jungian field. Using a hermeneutical phenomenological method and Jung’s theories of archetypes and…

Novelist Henry James illuminated the enigmatic nature of the human condition when he wrote, “The whole of anything is never told.” This autoethnographic research project was initially conceptualized to interpret the content of a profound personal encounter with Michelangelo’s four marble statues known as The Four Prisoners on June 8, 2022, at the Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence, Italy.…

This phenomenological, participant-based study explores the attachment experiences of sexual and/or gender diverse youth across regions of the United States. Guided by Kimberlé Crenshaw’s intersectionality-informed framework and grounded in archetypal psychology, the research seeks to formalize a protocol aimed at early trauma prevention for this population. The study emphasizes the preservation of the innate enthusiasm…

This study critiqued the Eurocentric foundations of depth psychology in counseling psychology, specifically focusing on the mental health of Filipino Americans. It employed critical race and transgressive decolonial hermeneutics to explore key questions regarding the concepts of depth psychology that need reevaluation, the unique mental health influences affecting Filipino Americans, and the educational gaps for…

Lack of forgiveness can perpetuate trauma, harming an individual’s psychological and physical well-being. Scholars and clinicians have given much attention to the phenomenon of forgiveness, but how an individual achieves forgiveness has not been clearly defined in the literature, nor is it clear how the psyche and the soul interact to support true forgiveness. Therefore,…

Humans have been seeking to improve their tools since they first learned how to tie a stone to a stick or put flint to a pile of twigs. This hermeneutic study examined the myths of Prometheus and Epimetheus, the Titan brothers associated with forethought and afterthought, respectively, and how their relationship with each other and…

This dissertation is a ceremonial journey into the mystery of the Inner Healing Intelligence—a force known to Jung as the Self and to Indigenous traditions as the soul’s innate will to return to wholeness. Bridging the mythic pathways of depth psychology and the ancestral rituals of Indigenous soul retrieval, this work traces how entheogens open…