Dissertation Oral Defenses
The ego builds consciousness by knowing with an “other.” However, the ego’s partial views and personal biases stymie consciousness. This dissertation argues that the iti-iti (this too, this too) ethos of the Hindu mythic landscape aids consciousness. The mythos offers manifold perspectives of many imaginal objects and weaves them with integrative narratives. Images, myths, and…
This dissertation examines the dehumanizing trends of modern history through a close analysis of four contemporary film narratives and the psychology of their central characters. Together these narratives form what can be called a “postmodern eschatology.” It is postmodern in that it relies on methods of analysis associated with the postmodern style, particularly critical theory,…
This qualitative study conducts a phenomenological exploration of soul in addiction recovery. Addiction is the most pervasive epidemic in the U.S and is considered a national health crisis. By reframing addiction as a crisis of meaning with existential and spiritual implications, the study explores how depth psychology’s concept of “soul” informs the addiction recovery process.…
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of light pollution and resulting loss of the night sky on human psychology. The basic design of this study was a combined hermeneutical and scientific review of literature on topics related to light pollution. The areas reviewed included the psychological, ecological, spiritual, and medical impacts…
A subculture, or underground community, exists where gay men regularly use crystal meth as part of their sexual experience. These men have multiple sexual partners and often gather in groups. They may find themselves staying up for hours, sometimes days, often experimenting with intense sexual practices from sado-masochism to consciously risking HIV infection. Though the…
There is little within the literature that addresses the significance of the rise of the Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) field or the field’s effectiveness as a method for conceptualizing mental and emotional wellness, development, and healing, with the exception of a relatively small number of studies and articles (Berrol, 2016; Miller & Barrio Minton, 2016; Myers,…
What was the last interaction you had with a bird? Was it a cordial conversation with a parrot or indirectly, as while devouring deviled eggs? The colorful ways in which avian and human lives are connected are as nuanced as they are pervasive. Perhaps this is unsurprising, given that globally, birds are held in captivity…
The dance space is the warming hearth of the dancer’s heart and the active landscape in which the moving body plays, feels, and apprehends. This practice-led research study emerged from this somatic landscape assembling itself into a work choreographed around the motif of the neuromyofascial web as the architecture of the physical body and the…
This research explores what happens to some men when, despite the best of intentions and heroic efforts on all sides, a marriage ends in divorce. Using a blend of alchemical hermeneutics and hermeneutic phenomenology, this qualitative study explores the lived experience of 5 heterosexual men who suffered psychologically in divorce. Divorce was examined from Freudian,…
James Hillman (1972) declared, “What the psyche has experienced during the past seventy years in analytical therapy should also be possible for it wherever it goes” (p. 5). As a life coach—someone who starts from a place of curiosity—I became curious. Did this mean that the imaginal practices of depth psychology could be used within…
A death doula is one who holds space, supports, and helps plan for end of life care. The purpose of this hermeneutic research is to describe current palliative care models and explore an alternative practice, the Death Doula, through performative autoethnographic poetic responses to existing literature. The result will be a dialogue between current caregiving…
This study focused on the lived experience of therapists whose clients report traumatic experiences. The experience of listening to traumatic narratives was explored in order to discover any levels of awareness of hostility or other negative reactions towards clients, as well as the therapist’s ability to separate their own feelings from those of the client.…
Practices that cultivate healthy relationships with self and others are always needed and valuable, especially during this modern time of ever-increasing fragmentation through technology. Cultivating empathy individually and communally promotes increased levels of connection among individuals and can create greater harmony among communities. Centering prayer offers an intervention that respects Christian practices of contemplation and…
Given the increasing acceptance of the whole person model and integrative health care over the past few decades, this research explored how practitioners who embody a holistic view refer clients to each other. Specifically, this research investigated how depth psychotherapists and somatic practitioners know and experience the limits of their respective roles and when they…
Why would the chief’s story be omitted from a book of Native American tribal mythology? Ethnologist Morris Opler published The Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians in 1938 after studying the Jicarilla Apache people. In his book, Opler indicates that some stories, including those of the chief and his son, were left out…
This alchemical hermeneutic inquiry was conducted to explore the anadyomene motif, an image and gesture of rising from submersion toward renewal and transformation. The aim of this study was to pursue the role the female body may play in the psychological phenomenon of rebirth through the consideration of language, dreams, imagination, and various forms of…
Utilizing the hermeneutic method, dissociation is interpreted as the consequence of the industrialized-West’s cultural adaptation to the self as a binary system (mind split from matter), and a fundamental mechanism of the mind imperative to the critical functioning of the faculty of imagination and the production of meaning. Dialoguing with depth psychological, transpersonal, existential, eco-psychological…
Contemporary culture is flooded with visual images, challenging our capacity to engage such images in a deliberate and reflective manner. Yet careful engagement with photographic images in particular can offer a sense of soul and a healing potential. Through the language of photography, this theoretical study describes the healing potential that may be found in…
This Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) study explored the experiences of psychologists who treat suicidal patients. This study asked questions about how clinicians describe their experiences of treating suicidal patients and what meaning clinicians make of their experiences in treating suicidal patients. Participants included five psychologists licensed in the state of California, in practice for no…
The poet writes her way into the world and the self, an act that often requires dissolution of psychological, intellectual, and aesthetic constructs that no longer feel true or excite new vision. We can trace these impulses to mythopoetic forms manifest across epochs and creative genres. This dissertation integrates a variety of visionary and literary…
