Dissertation Oral Defenses

This work explores the phenomenology of numinous experiences during a time of critical illness and how these experiences create healing. Diagnosed with breast cancer as I was beginning research on the power of numinous experiences, this work evolved into a partial memoir of my dreams during illness and recovery. Because numinous experiences are a powerful…

This dissertation is a close examination of the theory of individuation as set forth by C. G. Jung. Specifically, this study employs Jung’s guiding image of archaeology as an overarching method by which to conceptualize the layered process of uncovering the contents of the unconscious in relationship to the quest for individuation. In keeping with…

The literature on leaving fundamentalist religious traditions is persistently insensitive to gender differences, specifically the experiences of women who have left a fundamentalist religion (Peek, Lowe, & Williams, 1991). Recently, women have begun sharing their personal experiences of apostasy through memoirs, blogs, and social media (Cross, 2006; Drain & Pulitzer, 2013; Jessop & Palmer, 2008).…

An epistemological and ontological discussion of the elements—earth, water, fire, and air—has been considered by the most ancient of Western philosophers— from Anaximenes, Heraclitus, and Empedocles to Plato and Aristotle. Hitherto, philosophy and cosmology dominate the discourse of the elements. In most of these discussions, the element space has been neglected. Hence, drawing from the…

This qualitative study illuminates the lived experience of five adult siblings growing up in a family with a sibling or siblings diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The participants completed two semistructured interviews designed to elicit a narrative about their perceptions regarding their relationships within their family constellation with an emphasis on the relationship with…

The process of becoming holy within marriage generates psychological deaths and rebirths, much like the transformational process of individuation conceptualized by Carl G. Jung. This hermeneutic study explores how a distinctively Jungian approach to clinical practice with couples can assist in developing a marital bond that can become a strong container for the spouses’ individuation.…

This single case memoir production dissertation explores a healing process for childhood trauma through the lived experience of embodied memory; specifically focusing on the problem of trauma memory, perception, and communication in interpersonal relationships. Investigating the mind and body through neuroscience theories lends an understanding of the development of a child in an unstable environment…

Within the cultural complex of menstrual panic, menstrual meaning is overdetermined; psychological space is small, imagination withered. Bloody others are those psychic images of menstrual filiation who are regulated to the borderlands of subjectivity and cultural spaces. Menstrually stained, denied fluid, creative potential, they are kept stagnant, dogmatic, and virginal. This dissertation evokes ethical intimacy…

This study explores the theoretical intersection of philosophy and psychoanalysis with consideration of the hermeneutic-interpretive tradition and the phenomenology of consciousness as the theoretical and practical foundation for psychoanalysis. This paper places emphasis on key contemporary psychoanalytic models, namely relational theory and intersubjective systems theory (IST), and examines these theories in light of Freudian and…

Separation from nature, in all of its forms, rests upon the illusion of self and the universe as separate and discrete subjects. This conception of self is deeply woven into contemporary Western culture. The research framework for this exploration utilizes heuristic inquiry. Depth psychological approaches supplement and support the understanding generated by heuristic inquiry and…

Eye contact is central to the process of attachment, and hence intrapsychic and interpersonal development. This study shows how strabismus, a congenital eye condition, produces loss of vital eye contact with mother, and consequently loss of emotional connection with her, during the earliest days of life. This loss contributes to a rupture that arrests emotional…

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of physicians in the process of healing within the context of our current medical system. As an autoethnographic study it explores the healing process from wounds the researcher experienced as a physician, teacher, student, and at times a sick patient. This study reflects on the…

This study explores what happened that led a woman with long term recovery from a severe substance use disorder back into active addiction. Recovery over the long term requires ongoing personal development and involves awareness and interaction between both conscious and unconscious aspects of the psyche. Long term recovery was likened to C.G. Jung’s concept…

Psychological studies of the lives of competitive swimmers focus primarily on training and competition, rather than life experience as a whole. Addressing the need for research in this area, this narrative inquiry draws on Jungian and archetypal psychology to explore the archetypal patterns and themes shaping the swimmer’s life, both inside and outside the pool.…

Both her feminine subjectivity and extensive time frame (ranging from 1914-1974), make the works of Anaïs Nin’s an important example of the depth and range of self-exploration, perhaps more so than in previous writers. Nin was committed to a creative process inclusive of psyche, the body and aesthetics derived from her own life experiences. This…

This dissertation explores how desire is a motivator for individual change and growth. The conscious presence of material desires is often a driving force of tension between the mind and body. Examining how the body communicates biologically aids in our understanding of some of the conflicts that arise in the individual psyche. By understanding the…

The practice of yoga is far more powerful than it is currently being given credit for in the West. It is seen as primarily a physical practice, but the benefits of yoga reach far beyond the body and mind. Yoga is capable of producing emotional, spiritual, and psychological wholeness—benefits that are not being fully explored…

The purpose of this hermeneutic study was to explore how concepts from the empirical turn in the philosophy of technology could be used to understand the expanding roles of technologies in clinical psychological issues. We live surrounded by advancing technologies with accelerating development. However, depth psychology has a notable lack of the vocabulary, frameworks, and…

Television, purveyor of episodic story and moving image, the glowing hearth of countless homes, is an undeniably powerful force in contemporary Western culture. It is a veritable god to many of us. When we invite Television into our living rooms and bed-rooms, we enter into relationship with a mythological sibling of the ancient Greek god…

Links between shame and art making have been felt, intuited, and examined but have not been sufficiently documented in depth psychological studies. This research explores the relationship between creating assemblage art and shame; effectively asking: can assemblage art help to re-assemble the self? The study surveys depth psychological conceptions of shame, art, and the role…