Dissertation Oral Defenses
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…
This research explores the shadow side of the human psyche and its relationship to the archetype of the dark God image. This study adds to the understanding that the psyche cannot operate from wholeness if paradox is left unintegrated. Utilizing an imaginal approach, an alchemical-hermeneutic methodology is applied to answer the research question: how can…
This research explored Jung’s development of the concept of soul and its manifestation in the material world. In particular, this phenomenological study investigated Hillman’s anima mundi, the soul in and of the world, and how individual and community transformation occurred through the making of traditional Hawaiian quilts by hand. Using qualitative organic inquiry, ten participants…
On the backs of ancient philosophers to current neuroscientists, cognitive and depth psychologists, this work argues that memory is not a fixed substance residing within the brain; further, the writing seeks to demonstrate it unwise to shove memory into the binary buckets of true or false. Highly influenced by the present self, memory also influences…
From the perspective of Depth Psychology, each of us to some degree suffers neurotic complexes of inferiority, superiority, and blind spots in our internal and external awareness. Hence, managing any organization requires managing oneself, or at least understanding the psychological processes involve. As demonstrated throughout this study, not only our inherent functional (neurophysiological) blindness but…
Pregnancy and childbirth are powerful events in the life of a woman initiating profound physical and psychological changes. This theoretical dissertation explored pregnancy in relation to mythology, archetypal energies and the theme of empowerment. Through utilizing a hermeneutic phenomenological approach and analyzing relevant texts, poetry, and artistic renderings, this work examined the experience of pregnancy…
Beauty lifts our souls above, mundane concerns to realms of love. Sophia is the soul that falls asleep, identifies with the conditioned ego story associated with matter, and is awakened by Jesus, the spirit. The spirit arouses the soul with dreams, beauty, art, poetry, love, and life events, to remind her of his presence and…
This interpretive phenomenological analysis research study articulates the experiences of three Christians who manifest secure attachment to God characteristics. Human infant attachment theory and subsequent attachment to God conceptualizations were the perspectives used in order to explore the phenomenon. Analysis of the data led to four emergent themes focused on the psychological implications of having…
This dissertation investigated the use of personal therapy in the training of psychologists and clinical psychology students from two distinct theoretical orientations: cognitive behavioral and psychoanalytic. Qualitative case study methodology was used to explicate the experiences of eight participants. The study findings suggested that psychoanalytic psychologists view personal therapy as a vital component of clinical…
Compassion is often misunderstood. To live with compassion does not mean to give up one’s own well-being or to jeopardize the well-being of her family in order to serve the needs of others. Compassion means one must first take care of oneself before she is able to tend to another. True compassion can only exist…
This dissertation explored resilience and the ability to overcome adversity and thrive. Using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis, six resilient participants were interviewed to analyze resilience, where resilience derives, and how to access resilience. The six participants included a Holocaust survivor, a NASA rocket-scientist raised in poverty, a university professor diagnosed quadriplegic as a teenager after a…
This qualitative case study explored songwriters and therapists’ engagement with their creative capacity as part of their respective professional experiences. The results showed that the creative process may allow for elements important to their work to rise, fall and integrate in a natural way while rejecting linear and rigid pathways toward creative outcomes. This research…
According to C. G. Jung, the individuation process requires a reflective turn inward toward the voice of psyche, or said differently the inner voice. The inner voice can only be heard by the individual, but that does not mean the individual must discover it alone. A Quaker practice termed the clearness committee brings a small…
Loss of a child is the most complex death a person can experience. This event is multifaceted containing intricate layers of mourning woven throughout the bereaved parent’s lifetime. Despite considerable attention emphasizing grief reactions of the bereaved, relatively few studies have recognized the unique mourning of bereaved parents including dreams related to their child. This…
This theoretical and interdisciplinary dissertation explores the role that the visual image plays in emerging consciousness along with the importance of creativity as an essential component in the founding and recreation of the world. Creative activity can be understood as part of a larger pattern of on-going growth and transformation in human consciousness that seeks…
This qualitative inquiry takes place within a growing body of interdisciplinary work dedicated to reimagining community, one’s relationship to it, and ultimately one’s place within the global community. The study is rooted in depth psychology’s recognition that the psyche is independently real and everything has meaning. Community is an ongoing story: a living myth. One…
Home is much more than a profane house, but a deeply meaningful and abstract concept. The ancient Greeks, as well as many other cultures, used mythological imagery to symbolize home, specifically the image of a glowing hearth which was also represented and worshipped as the goddess Hestia. The mythological figure of Hestia is underrepresented in…
