Dissertation Oral Defenses

Alcoholism is a devastating disease that can affect generations of family systems unless the pattern is stopped. Research indicates that when children are raised by an alcoholic parent they unconsciously adopt their addictive patterns and form distinct behavioral roles to combat the dysfunction. Because these roles are tied to survival within the system, they often…

The continual rise in adolescent suicide rates is astonishing in an era where awareness and prevention programs are prevalent and help readily available. Families, therapists, and researchers struggle to understand why a young person would end their life before it has barely begun. Hillman believed that “to understand a suicide we need to know what…

Romantic love conjures thoughts and ideas about blissful harmony, yet sometimes brings heartache. Individual conceptualizations and expectations of love and relationships, although subjective, often do not coincide with the reality of romantic love. This disconnect causes heartache and disappointment as love reaches an impossible point. Utilizing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009), this…

This dissertation identified affective themes and the inner voices of retired Black National Football League (NFL) players by following the dialectics of psychological processes using a relational and voice-centered approach (Gilligan & Eddy, 2017) in order to glean the nuances found within the margins of communication. Depth psychological and critical race theories provided a foundation…

Rooted in the depth tradition of Jungian and Archetypal Psychology, this creative study witnessed the perspective of Other in the midst of widescale panic and anxiety about the state of the world as an act of soul-tending. Answering Jung’s and Hillman’s call to follow images for deeper insight of psychological meaning, this research honored the…

Throughout the history of psychoanalysis, theorists and clinicians have offered theories and treatment recommendations for treatment of schizophrenia, but a comprehensive review of the literature aimed at integrating these works has not been conducted. The author reviews salient works on theory and treatment of schizophrenia within psychoanalytic literature and offers a comprehensive model of schizophrenic…

The ego-Self encounter is a crucial construct in Jungian psychology. Jung wrote of the confrontational nature of this encounter, proposing that if the ego can endure the clash, it will eventually experience the inevitable initial defeat as a victory in which the personality is enlarged and matured. If the ego is not strong and flexible…

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between domestic violence and the warrior archetype in heterosexual men. I achieved this objective through examining mythological and depth psychological influences on behavior. Utilizing Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), I focused specific attention to masculinity and femininity, and how learned gender roles influenced the activation of…

This study examined mature Iranian women relocating to the Los Angeles area during or after the 1980s Iran-Iraq War who developed conditions of depression in the aftermath of immigration. Phenomenological research was employed to analyze the participants’ experiences of difficulties faced from war, immigration, and acculturation processes in light of their psychological strengths and challenges.…

From 1961 to 1971, the U.S. Army’s tactical herbicides program focused on tropical forests in central and south Vietnam. Da Nang International Airport was a former U.S. base that stored and distributed American-made herbicides during the Vietnam War. This dissertation addresses the long-term effects of improper handling and management of the herbicides during Operation Ranch…

This hermeneutic study brings spellcraft and depth psychology’s work with alchemy into conversation. The research explores the role of imagination, the four elements, animism, synchronicity, and ritual in both depth psychology’s work with alchemy and the practice of spellcraft. The field of Jungian psychology’s work with alchemy has been limited by its lack of physical…

This study suggested that military wives live in a transcultural state between U.S. military culture and American civilian culture and investigated whether this transcultural state of being is conducive to the individuation process by utilizing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore the experience of being a military wife. The analysis of semi-structured interviews with five…

This dissertation inquires into the experience of self-transcendence that results in compassionate living. This awareness engenders a sense of belonging, a cosmological vision in a social narrative in which individuals are members of the community and become caretakers of the ecosystem. I suggest this ethos bridges religion and science, leading to an integrated psychological experience…

Cultivation and worship of maize as plant and symbol is one of the most consistent cornerstones of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures. This dissertation works across genres and eras to track the social and philosophical implications of this sacred plant, asking what the narratives and rituals around corn can teach us about the evolution of Mesoamerican culture…

This dissertation focuses on the impact of bringing embodiment to business professionals. The intention of this work was to produce a phenomenological description, through a somatic depth psychological lens, of business professionals’ experiences relating to embodiment and individuation while practicing Kundalini Yoga. This was done through workday yogic practices and after-work Kundalini Yoga classes conducted…

This autoethnographic inquiry explores the personal passage of adolescent eating disorder onset, recovery, and eventual emergence into a clinician, critiquing the collective neurosis of body objectification, fear of the feminine, and a separation from nature. This study argues that maltreatment of one’s personal body in eating disorders is a cultural complex that parallels modernity’s exploitation…

This hermeneutic inquiry explores the Mexican Day of the Dead using a close reading/active imagination methodology with a depth psychological perspective. It addresses the question, how an imaginal approach to death can deepen our understanding, and help bring meaning to our last, and most profound rite of passage. To explore this tradition venerating the dead,…

A hermeneutic exploration, through an archetypal-mythopoetic lens, of cultural complexes in the Greek economic crisis reveals a Greek hero fighting for freedom against the tyrannies of oppressive foreign lenders, an ineffective government, and a broken global financial system. Economists and sociologists have also identified idiosyncrasies within the Greek culture, which may have contributed to the…

This qualitative, textual hermeneutic study explores what influences female sexual desire inside of a heterosexual marriage via an archetypal approach to the Apollo and Daphne myth. The methodology includes Hillman’s psychologizing process and imaginal dialogues with the mythic figures. Both Ovid’s version of the myth and Bernini’s statue of the mythic pair serve as an…

Society labels boys who play destructively as bad, deviant, oppositional, or antisocial, causing parents to feel something is wrong with their child. This study shows that boys acting out destructively, dismembering inanimate objects, tearing up their rooms, and decapitating toys are not naughty or “bad” but, instead, are searching for relief in their struggle with…