Dissertation Oral Defenses

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…

This phenomenological study investigates the “lived” experiences of four therapists who work with patients who have been traumatized emotionally, sexually, or physically. The study focuses on the therapists’ experiences, which may include transference, countertransference, vicarious traumatization, and factors that lead to resiliency in therapists. The therapists’ subjective and personal experiences when working with patients who…

This study explores the psychological dynamics associated with labor and birth in order to better understand the role these experiences play in women’s psychological development. This research study utilized interpretative phenomenological analysis as a research methodology and sought to address the following questions through the theoretical perspective of psychoanalysis and social constructionism: How does the…

This dissertation explores the archetypal harbinger and the means by which the harbinger connects with the human psyche to communicate an imminent event. Examination of human psycho-physical response to its message is approached from an interdisciplinary method that includes mythology, depth and archetypal psychology, C. G. Jung’s synchronicity principle, biology, ecocriticism, and recent studies in…

This theoretical dissertation is concerned with the suppression and especially the silencing of women in the Western world. In order to unearth the root of this oppression, it focuses on the civic and political institution of the ancient Greek city, in particular Athens. Ancient Athens constituted a self-worshipping male society where the supremacy of the…

In The Soul’s Code (1996), Archetypal Psychologist James Hillman wrote about the acorn theory, the idea that each of us has a unique destiny that is announced in childhood and which we seek to fulfill over the course of a lifetime. Child development experts have offered many definitions of children and childhood, and, often, those…

This qualitative study examines the situation when an individual is in psychotherapy and twelve-step recovery for compulsive overeating at the same time. Although both are common approaches, controversy exists concerning the relationship between compulsive overeating and addiction, the optimal treatment approaches for compulsive overeating, and the widespread use of twelve-step recovery by consumers and clinicians.…

This study is an inquiry into the development, imagination, and embodiment of gender in six people who have identified themselves as gender variant in some way. Gender variant means gender identities which are outside cultural norms at various levels of social interaction. This study is focused within the context of the Western cultural matrix and…

This study assesses the unconscious impact of Motown music on the psyche of two generations of African-American women: mothers who gave birth during the Motown era from 1959 to 1972 when the company was located in Detroit and their daughters. The dissertation applies a combination of hermeneutic phenomenology methodologies based on narrative, imaginal, archetypal, transference…

Paradoxes inherent in the work of psychoanalysis challenge a practitioner’s sense of identity and clinical capacities at all levels of experience. In particular, there is an insoluble tension between the analyst’s role as a highly trained, specialized professional and an emotional participant in an enigmatic and unpredictable process, engendering narcissistic vulnerabilities and their associated defenses,…

This study examined a cohort of 55 students at risk for Targeted School Violence (TSV) in Los Angeles County. Demographic and individual characteristics including gender, ethnicity, academic performance, family composition, bullying, target site and selection, socialization pattern, and pre-attack and planning strategies were examined in relation to TSV. The data gathered for this study was…

Parent–Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an evidence-based treatment designed to treat disruptive behavior disorders in young children through improving dysfunctional parent–child relationship patterns. Community providers have begun implementing PCIT in various settings to give families greater access to PCIT. This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of PCIT when disseminated in two community settings:…

A mixed methods research design consisting of both quantitative and qualitative data collection examined mental health clinicians’ perceptions, clinical understanding, and potential for bias of adult Attention-Deficit /Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD). It was predicted that clinicians who were diagnosed with AD/HD and/or have a first-degree family member with AD/HD would administer a more comprehensive diagnostic evaluation…

People living with serious mental illness have unique social and psychological needs untapped by previous needs assessments geared toward service needs and the opinions of service providers, rather than the recipients themselves. While valuable, medication and material assistance are not sufficient to help these individuals achieve satisfactory progress on their recovery journeys. One hundred twenty…

Archetypal psychologist James Hillman revisions C. G. Jung’s depth psychology for a postmodern western culture, and in that re-visioning offers a critical analysis of psychoanalytic methods within modern psychology and the logos of western culture. Although Jung is recognized as returning soul to psychology, Hillman returns soul-making and charts pathways for re-remembering Aphrodite and return…

This dissertation explores problems of cultural fragmentation, meaninglessness, and oppression—effects of humanity’s profound disenchantment with life and love—as they are situated in ruptures between the masculine and feminine. Using a classical Jungian and feminist approach, along with archetypal literary criticism that emphasizes the symbolic, metaphorical nature of myths, the study demonstrates the ways that revaluing…

This dissertation treats the reception, performance, and mediation of myth in video games. Myths are included in video games as variants in relation to other myth-variants. This study does not focus on contemporary myths per se, but rather modernized forms of myths modified for a contemporary audience of players, users, and consumers who participate in…

According to C.G. Jung, the individuation process effectively begins with the turn inward as one crosses the threshold into the second half of life. Avenues of access into psyche and her images and symbols include dreams, active imagination, myth, fairy tales, art, and poetry/writing. For some, psychological transformation during an individuation journey may occur by…

The purpose of the research was to describe, through the portal of the researcher’s mother’s memoir, a personal voice that is ignored by mainstream society and to give witness to the culture of the researcher’s Latino parents, grandparents, and ancestors. The problem addressed is the repression of the personal voices of women from marginalized ethnic/racial…

Imagination is generally recognized as an agent of fantasy, applicable to wishful thinking, childish naiveté, and many other apparently impractical or unproductive aspects of conventional, adult life. However, such renderings divest imagination of its unmistakable correspondence with reality through deep personal experience, and through its direct influence on one’s creative capacity and personal development. Imagination…