Dissertation Oral Defenses
The more we search for meaning and enlightenment, the stronger our pathologies and anxieties become. No rationale can explain that letting go of something guarantees finding it—or something better, and by accepting various levels of the soul’s descent, we find ourselves on the spiritual path of transcendence. Yet this is exactly the message of religion,…
Is motherhood a well-kept secret? This heuristic research explores how the lived experience of motherhood involves emotional landscapes that catch women unaware. This body of work involves the personal stories of 11 women. Personal images, expectations, and perceptions of what a mother is are embedded in ideologies that communicate powerful messages. These ideologies contribute to…
The history of Cannabis in relation to humanity is over 12,000 years old. This study considers the archetypal role of Cannabis in many agricultural rites and shamanic traditions. The author approaches a long folk history of the plant to discern veritable ethnographic sources from modern hyperbole. A depth psychological method is applied to written folklore,…
The figure of the werewolf has changed in popular culture since the first tale was published in pulp magazines in the late 1930’s. As American attitudes changed towards violence and conflict, the way the werewolf is portrayed transformed. Through the use of myths, folklore, and literature of eras past, each generation has built upon the…
Frederick Douglass (1845), W.E.B. Du Bois (1940), and Booker T. Washington (1963) are pioneering examples of historic African American leaders who realized the fullness of their potentialities despite the inhumanity of their day-to-day circumstances (Morrison, 1987). It was through their abilities to respond to the individual and shared needs of their regularly enslaved, often mistreated,…
Defense Host: Dr. Christine Downing Los Hermanos de la Fraternidad Piadosa de Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno, better known as the Penitentes, are lay Catholic confraternities, mostly found in the rural communities of mountainous northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. The dominant discourses about the tradition aver that it is Spanish and Catholic, with roots in…
This study applies a depth symbolic approach with hermeneutic methodology to examine the psychological legacy of the historical Chinese Exclusion Act (1882-1943) and its impact on the psyche of the Chinese American. The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first and only American legislation that ever prohibited a group of immigrants from entering America solely on…
Previously, many psychologists have had limited professional involvement with older adults (Karel, Gatz, & Smyer, 2012). The ageing baby boomers in 2011foresaw the numbers of older adults increase dramatically as a proportion of the population (AHA, 2007). About 1 in 5 older adults has a mental disorder, such as depression, anxiety and dementia (NAMI, 2015)…
This research explores the inextricable link between the individual and the collective psychology through the shared ordering principle derived from the underlying image of god representative of the collective religion, spiritual tradition, or ethical beliefs. Per psychologist Carl Jung the image of god is linked to human consciousness and evolves with human consciousness. Using a…
Traditionally portrayed as personifications of an ancient archetype representative of evil, death, and darkness, male vampires have only recently become popular as romantic heroes who fall in love with the female human protagonists of their stories. This hermeneutic study employs archetypal analysis to address its central research question: in heroic vampire texts, what is the…
Significant research has been committed to studying the mental and physiological effects and repercussions of being unwanted in children who were raised with surrogates or adoptive parents. Very little inquiry has been dedicated to studying the long term effects on children unwanted by one or both biological parents. This heuristic study employs a depth psychological…
This psychoanalytically-oriented qualitative research project explores the impact of a father’s death on the development of his son’s ego-ideal through and beyond adolescence. Following Freud, Chasseguet-Smirgel, and others, the ego-ideal is understood to be a psychic agency initially founded on the fantasied image of primary narcissistic bliss and power enjoyed at the outset of life…
Through qualitative phenomenological inquiry, the study was intended to identify, understand and describe the unique cultural dynamics of developing a Mexican expatriate stepfamily through the unique lens of Mexican expatriate stepfathers who were previously unmarried and without children. Since the Mexican culture is firmly rooted in longstanding traditions surrounding marital development, sustaining patriarchy, the sanctity…
There are over 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. Given the ongoing polarized debate about immigration reform, this phenomenological study undertook the exploration of the impact of deportation upon family members. This study examined in-depth the lives of six Latinos as they continued life in the United States after their loved ones…
This dissertation explores the identity development and individuation process of a second generation Palestinian American whose parents experienced the trauma of the Nakba. An autoethnographic study, this dissertation presents the researcher’s personal story as a Palestinian American who has dealt with impact of intergenerational transmission of trauma and ongoing oppression. The purpose of this autoethnographic…
This research explores the experience of displacement and resettlement for Rwandan and Congolese refugees in New Hampshire, USA, highlighting cultural perspectives and values that contribute to psychosocial resilience and a restored sense of well-being in these communities. Participants elaborated on their childhood experiences of culture, the disruptions of war and displacement, and their experience of…
Breast Cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among women in the United States. Fortunately it has one of the best survival rates among all other types of cancer; nevertheless patients with breast cancer usually suffer long-term physical, emotional, and psychological problems. The treatment protocols for this diagnosis, usually including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, often…
This study provides a comparative analysis, using dialectical hermeneutics, of the philosophy of Plotinus and the depth psychology of C. G. Jung. While coming from different historical contexts, they each address the nature of unconsciousness, or the unconscious. This study concentrates in particular on one archetypal aspect of the unconscious that Jung calls the shadow.…
This hermeneutic intersection of electroencephalography (EEG) and psychodynamic psychotherapeutic principles connotes a connection between Jungian and Freudian lenses and neuroscience yet unseen in published literature. Within this dissertation, the corollary between EEG and Jung and Freud’s respective models of the psyche and the spectrum of brainwaves is detailed via comparisons between (a) Jung’s collective unconscious/Freud’s…
Afghanistan as a nation has a deep spiritual culture that has been influenced by many rich and varied traditions, including but not limited to Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and Islam. It is a great irony that today, the name of Afghanistan is mainly linked to the Taliban and its oppression of women. Much has been written diving…
