An Absent Archetype/A Missing Mirror: Unearthing the Liminal Archetypal Feminine of the Preteen Girl

Abstract

This dissertation explores the liminal psychic landscape of the preteen girl (approximately 9 to 12 years) and considers how she lacks access to the imperative unconscious influence of an age-appropriate feminine archetypal energy. Carl G. Jung stated that an “archetypal potential in the psyche” (Corbett, 2011, p. 125) is paramount to individuation. This study asserts that the preteen girl’s psychic potential is disavowed, resulting in unactualized potentiality. It offers a biological and psychological perspective on development and highlights both misleading and complementary studies about growth, potential, and the needs of the preteen girl. Aspects of The Listening Guide (Gilligan, 1982), Claudia Mitchell and Jacqueline Reid-Walsh’s (2008) girl methodology, Michelle Bae-Dimitriadis and Olga Ivashkevich’s (2012) dialogic encounters and collaborations, Robert Romanyshyn’s (2007) alchemical hermeneutics, Clark Moustakas’s transcendental phenomenology (Creswell & Poth, 2018), Joseph Coppin and Elizabeth Nelson’s (2017) Yin posture, and Rachel Pollack’s (1980) archetypal and symbolic tarot work are implemented. The researcher and the girl participants employ hermeneutic, participatory, and depth psychological methodologies such as active imagination and archetypal exploration. Collected data are shared with girl research participants who engage in discovering their own archetypal energy. The girl participants provide insight into stressors of projective assignments, the need for guidance in emotional regulation and individuation, the dislike of taking on social personas to feel a sense of belonging, and the desire to be seen clearly. This study determines that research on girls must defy delimiting social imperatives, unveil and deconstruct colonial, racist and misogynist approaches, expand and include methodologies of soul and spirit like depth and somatic psychologies and be grounded in girl-centered methods, acknowledging the liminal, magical, novel, powerful, and changing time of the preteen girl.