Dissertation Oral Defenses

This study explores the lived experiences of Brazilian students of African descent (N=8) having to self-categorize racially as they enrolled into institutions of higher education through affirmative action policies. A phenomenological methodology was used for the establishment of eight essential constituents inherent in the experience of being Black: (1) racial socialization influencing sense of Blackness,…

This qualitative study examined the psychological construct of place attachment in Louisiana and Mississippi residents [N = 6] who experienced forced relocation in 2005 due to Hurricane Katrina and ensuing events. The purpose of this study was to understand the lived experiences related to place attachment of relocated individuals who returned home and those who…

Psychologists across disciplines have examined narcissistic phenomena for over a century. Through the lenses of social constructivism and depth psychology, this dissertation illuminates the clinical psychological implications of narcissistic phenomena in American culture through an archival, phenomenological analysis of a specific cultural artifact: the lyrics of contemporary popular music. The importance of music and its…

Until September 11, 2001, Arab Americans were a concealed minority that blended within America’s multicultural fabric making the acculturation and assimilation into their host country an individualized process. However, the events of 9/11 have influenced this personalized phenomenon. This qualitative phenomenological study explores the post September 11th experiences of five women from Arab, Muslim backgrounds…

Much has been written about shame and depression and its importance for affecting change in clinical work with clients. Recent literature has suggested the importance of clarifying the role of shame as a predictor of depressive symptoms. In light of this work, this investigation hypothesized that the participants with depression would score higher on the…

This study explores the experience of soul connection through Irish music, from the comforts of feeling at home to the other-worldliness of metaphorically magical encounters. Previous psychological studies involving music have tended to focus on the listener’s experience and clinical applications, often emphasizing classical music or song lyrics. This inquiry focuses on the musician’s experience…

Objective: In this study the researcher examined the psychological mindset of men who have killed in combat and specifically the mental process that allowed them to do so. Additionally, this study examines killing from a Jungian perspective. Method: Grounded Theory Method provided the structure to examine ten written accounts of men who experienced combat and…

Depth psychologist C.G. Jung bemoaned the loss of imagination within religion. Jung’s mystical experience was far too deep and intense to be captured in any language other than that of the soul. Rather than striving for an exact or literal meaning, the soul delights in plurality as well as multiple levels of understanding, and realizations.…

This study explores the exegetical methodology of the early Christian philosopher Origen of Alexandria, and re-introduces him as a vital guide for the interpretation of the ongoing personal myth written in the living human documents of every soul. Origen utilizes a three-tiered exegetical strategy, interpreting meaning first at the literal level—with both historical and religious…

This study utilized a Grounded Theory methodology to investigate the positive and negative impact of silence in the therapeutic dyad. Thirteen licensed psychotherapists of different theoretical traditions related their experiences of using silence as a clinical tool to increase patient contact with unconscious affect needing to be expressed and integrated. Investigation centered on both the…

This study sought to contribute to the body of cross-cultural and multicultural psychology literature by embarking on a qualitative exploration of how health and illness are conceptualized and treated from an Amerindian indigenous shamanic perspective. Utilizing Charmaz’s (2006) grounded theory methodology, a conceptual theory of indigenous shamanic healing interventions and their mechanisms of efficacy was…

The purpose of this artistic self-case study is to explore how the role of the soldier might be transformed from service in war to service for community, via creative exploration of the archetypal figures, Warrior and Shaman. With this in mind, a creative and introspective method was tested for its efficacy in generating new images…

The purpose of this study was to investigate and understand MDMA-assisted psychotherapy from its early days to its current use in FDA approved studies. By utilizing a Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) method to analyze the data for this study, the team sought to shed light on the main findings of the research. The participants were…

The methodology for this work uses a psychological and phenomenological approach to listening, which emphasizes noticing affects and gestures as intimations of felt meaning in the researcher as she engages in the work. The initiating intimation called for listening into Western relatedness to mathematics across three significant discoveries in the history of Western mathematics: ancient…

This research investigated the potential for healing grief within Winnicott’s transitional or potential space, constellated within the therapeutic container, by utilizing physical objects left behind after the loss of a significant other. The study employed a qualitative narrative research approach in gathering data on two participants who were grieving the loss of a loved one…

For centuries Western sensibilities have been governed by an assumption that imagination is an exclusively human faculty, independent of the phenomenal world. This dissertation explores a view, long elaborated in mythologies and artistic traditions of pre-modern cultures, that phenomenal reality is the template of imagination, that terrestrial and celestial elemental forces are continuous with the…

This study explores how analytic Jungian psychology in dialogue with the myth of Persephone and Hades and the Hellenistic Mystery religions expand our knowledge of the intrapsychic and interpsychic processes that arise when marital couples live with mysticism. The research defines mysticism as an internal–introspective and social–contextual process involving transformative practices, self-transcendence, and consciousness of…

This qualitative phenomenological study explored the experiences of people with relational trauma in NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM), a somatically based psychotherapy. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach of depth psychotherapy, neuroscience, attachment, and somatic therapy, the literature review examined the multifaceted impact of relational trauma and the mechanisms of implicit memory and somatic psychotherapy. The literature review…

Art serves many purposes in Western society; however, its most profound contributions are largely being forgotten. Today’s artists are confronted by two dominant trends; the first proposes that anything may be called art, that everyone may create “art.” The second trend would restrict art to an increasingly elite realm of insiders and specialists. Both directions,…

Despite thirty years’ of research findings demonstrating gender-symmetry in heterosexual Partner Abuse (also known as domestic violence), the criminal justice system, treatment profession, social safety net and the media rarely acknowledge that female-on-male Partner Abuse (PA) is as serious an issue as male-on-female Partner Abuse, or, more critically, an issue at all. This misandrist bias…