Intuition and children: The experience of psychologists working with children

Smilovitz Foster, Deborah Jill Pacifica Graduate Institute 2012 해외박사(DDOD)

Many developmental psychologists posit that children are naturally intuitive and scientific. This research examines the development of intuition in children in the context of psychotherapy. In addition, the researcher investigates the proposition that there is a difference in intuitive capacity between children who have experienced severe trauma and those who experience mild or normal levels of trauma. It is suggested that children who experienced severe trauma have increased pathology and decreased intuitive capacity and exhibit behavioral manifestations of intuition in a skewed, hyper vigilant, and sensitive manner. Utilizing the phenomenological method a group of child psychotherapists were interviewed on their experience of children and intuition. Their attitudes, beliefs and experiences were expressed and transcribed. Participant data was coded into natural meaning units and defined as essential and aggregate descriptions. Results suggest that intuition correlates with mutual emotional and cognitive responses in the psychologist. Children demonstrate that they intuitively know what they need to work on, where to go, and what path to follow. In addition, children seem to have a greater capacity for intuition when a mother is present in their life (both psychologically and physically). These results further suggest that there is a relationship between intuition and transference, and that the intuitive response in the child relates to progress in therapy. It was found that children who demonstrated increased intuitive capacity are likely to have experienced decreased levels of trauma. This was demonstrated in the therapeutic relationship in their play and language, and through increased curiosity, talkativeness and the ability to have healthier levels of internal and external. affective regulation.

Levels of hope and meaning: A comparison of unemployed, underemployed, and employed professionals

Tucker, Jacinda Pacifica Graduate Institute 2014 해외박사(DDOD)

The central question for this study was: Do professionals who are unemployed, underemployed, or fully employed have different levels of meaningfulness in life or hope for the future? Meaningfulness in life and hope for the future impact both one's ability to cope with life and one's general psychological well-being. The results of this study will assist clinicians working with persons experiencing underemployment or unemployment and will help clinicians identify the role employment levels play in psychological well-being for their clients. Clinicians and researchers alike may find the results of this study relevant and useful when working with individuals who may be struggling with long-term unemployment or underemployment. This study sought to discover whether individuals with differing employment status have different levels of meaningfulness and hope for the future. This research compared the differences between the 3 groups (underemployed, unemployed, and fully employed) in regards to levels of meaningfulness in life and hope for the future. This study did not find statistically significant differences between unemployed, underemployed, and fully employed individuals with regard to levels of hope for their future and meaningfulness. The null hypothesis of the study was not rejected. The role of employment status was not found to be the basis of an individual's hope for the future and meaningfulness in life. This highlights the need for continued research with professionals to better understand how they experience hope for the future and meaningfulness in life and under what specific circumstances. The results of this research highlights the need for continued research to better understand how employment, unemployment, or underemployment impacts professionals regarding their sense of hope for the future and the feeling of meaningfulness in their lives. Future research about how professionals view their employment should also address an analysis of how current life circumstances impact their view of hope and meaning.

Ecological narcissism and the denial of death

VandenBerghe, Rose A Pacifica Graduate Institute 2014 해외박사(DDOD)

This theoretical dissertation uses a hermeneutic methodology to weave together three strands--ecopsychology, narcissism, and death denial--to explore ecological narcissism, defined as the tendency of humans in technologically advanced cultures to be so self-absorbed as to be unable to see anything in nature except objects that might satisfy their own needs. The study responds to 3 research questions: How is ecological narcissism related to the denial of death? Does ecological narcissism, with its denial of death, play a role in our destruction of the environment? And, how might we mitigate ecological narcissism and renew a more life-sustaining attitude towards death? It posits that beneath the confident, manic facade of modern cultures lurks fear of death masquerading as death denial. Ecological narcissism co-arises with this fear as the offspring of human belief in separation from nature. The study examines the theories developed by Berman, Hillman, and Shepard to account for how humanity has come to feel separate from nature. It proposes that ecological narcissism and death denial support us in perceiving nonhuman created environments as a collection of objects devoid of the sentience and subjectivity credited to humans. Such a perceptual orientation is interested in the answer to only one question: Do these objects (which might include elephants, oaks, and oceans) help further human life? If so, we feel free to use them, and if not, we feel free to destroy them. A final conclusion of this study is that one way in which humans might move towards a more life-sustaining attitude towards nature and death is through an increase in direct experience of wilderness "out there" and "in here" (within one's psyche). Practitioners of depth psychotherapy therefore have an opportunity to support a welcoming attitude towards wild forces within and beyond us, which in turn may support a cultural transition from the prevailing attitude of narcissistic entitlement to a maturity recognizing human relationship with all nature.

Third generation effects of unresolved grief from parental suicide: A depth psychological perspective

Kilcoyne, Michelle Marie Pacifica Graduate Institute 2014 해외박사(DDOD)

This study explores the third generation effects of unresolved grief from parental suicide upon individuals having a parent who lost a mother or father to suicide during childhood (i.e. before the age of 18). Most suicide research studies have addressed the relationship between first and second generations. As an under-researched area of psychology, this study helps bridge our understanding of how unresolved grief symptoms from parental suicide traverse to the third generation. Although research has supported the intergenerational transmission of unresolved loss and trauma from psychoanalytic, attachment, and family systems perspectives, it does not address the intergenerational impact of unresolved loss specifically due to parental suicide. Yet, research has suggested that suicide bereavement is different from other forms of bereavement, implying the uniqueness of its intergenerational impact. By employing a phenomenological approach, this study provides an in-depth, subjective understanding of the ways in which the impact of loss from parental suicide may be manifested in the third generation. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with two participants who had both lost their paternal grandfathers to suicide during their fathers' childhoods (i.e. under the age of 18). Interviews were transcribed verbatim and the data were analyzed utilizing Carol Gilligan's (2003) Listening Guide. Themes that emerged from the data analysis common to both participants were: family secrecy, emotional silencing in childhood, and defenses against sadness in adulthood. In addition, themes that emerged unique to each participant included: guilt, over-responsibility, absorption of unresolved grief reactions, belittlement of emotional experiences, inhibited psychological development, anxiety, unconscious representations of the deceased, and identification with the deceased. As an exploratory study, the themes that emerged are not considered definitive intergenerational effects, but possibilities to consider for further research. Additionally, this study will help clinicians recognize possible manifestations of unresolved grief from parental suicide in their third generation patients. Keywords: bereavement, grief, intergenerational, mourning, multigenerational, parental suicide, unresolved grief, unresolved loss, suicide, transgenerational.

Transmission of generational trauma in African American gang members

Ford, Bettye Jean Pacifica Graduate Institute 2014 해외박사(DDOD)

The purpose of this study was to investigate gang membership as a coping skill resulting from the impact of the traumas of African American slavery transmitted generationally. Specifically, it was hypothesized that African American gang membership is an all-encompassing coping mechanism for transmission of trauma via poor attachment, learned helplessness, and depression. Additionally, it was postulated that the maladaptive coping skills, poor attachment, and social deficiencies are developed as a result of Post Traumatic Slavery Syndrome. Descriptions of the lived experiences of 4 African American gang members were gathered from structured interviews and assessment scales. A Townsend Gang Activity Assessment Tool (TGAAT), Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Learned Helplessness Scale (LHS), and Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) were administered. It was anticipated that the participant with high gang activity would also have poor attachment styles and clinical depression and would exhibit signs of learned helplessness. Results revealed a definite relationship between high gang activity, poor attachment, depression, and learned helplessness. Participants reported extreme physical abuse, alcohol / drug addiction, mental health issues, rejection, and a higher percentage of negative relational adjectives with regard to their relationship with their parents. However, the participants reported feeling as though the effects were positive in how they regard their own children. Three of the 4 participants were not consistent in their parenting or visitation with their children. The fourth participant was female and her child was under 1 year of age at the time of the interview.

Images From Stories and Life: A Photographic Interpretation of Disability

DeRidder, Mary Frances Dittmer Pacifica Graduate Institute 2013 해외박사(DDOD)

One in six Americans has some form of physical disability, yet few photographs of people with visible disabilities appear in the media or in photographic artistic venues. Of the photographic imagery that does exist, much of it treats disability in stereotypical ways that acts to marginalize and stereotype those with disabilities. In response to this hegemony this dissertation argues for a new style of disability photography called the `personal mythic style,' and brings this style into production. This dissertation aims to honor disability as a unique form of embodiment and to promote cultural acceptance of those with disabilities. To do this, I explored disability imagery from the past, including prephotographic imagery from mythology as well as predominant photographic trends and techniques used to create disability imagery. I argue that in the past, photographic images of people with disabilities focused on the impairment or the limitations caused by the impairment, which often led to stereotypic and victimizing images of people with disabilities. I argued that the depth psychological ideas of C. G. Jung and James Hillman used as a framework for disability photography results in less hegemonic disability imagery. The first idea from depth psychology is that the psyche is real, conscious and unconscious, present and operative in all human experience. The second idea is that psyche needs to be listened and attended to, and the third idea is that psyche is an unfolding process involving dialectical and collaborative experiences. The method involved using symbolic imagery from stories, myths, and other narratives, which participants of the study and subjects of the photographs identified as meaningful and empowering to their experience of disability. These images were found and photographed in the environment and combined with a portrait of the person into a composite artistic photograph. The collaboratively created final composite images present a glimpse of the ever-deepening imagination disability calls forth.

The somatic experience of the Wounded Therapist

DeVita, Angela Pacifica Graduate Institute 2014 해외박사(DDOD)

Psychotherapists' somatic responses have largely remained an untapped resource of information and healing potential in the field of psychotherapy. This may be due in part to the difficulty of describing and understanding these experiences as well as an educational gap in teaching therapists to recognize and value them. This dissertation asks: What types of somatic phenomena do psychotherapists experience in the context of therapeutic work with clients, and what therapeutic value can be made of these experiences? This study examines the role of the therapist's woundedness in his or her experience and understanding of somatic phenomena, with particular reference to the Wounded Healer archetype. Utilizing interpretive phenomenological analysis as a research methodology, seven psychotherapists to whom the research questions were meaningful and significant were chosen to participate. They shared their somatic experiences and reflections in an interview. Several different categories of somatic phenomena emerged, which included physical sensations, physiological responses, medical conditions, behavioral impulses, postural shifts, emotions, and conceptual images. The images and themes conveyed participants' conceptual understandings of somatic field dynamics. The study found that participants unanimously related to the Wounded Healer archetype, agreeing that their wounding experiences played a significant role in their therapeutic work, including but not limited to their vocational call, countertransference, heightened awareness and understanding, and increased capacity for empathy. The majority of participants made a variety of meaningful connections between their wounding experiences and somatic experiences. Specific types of somatic experiences were related to areas of the body that were either previously injured, ill, or associated with previous emotional traumas. The necessity of self-care was emphasized as it related to their wounds, discernment processes, and perceived demands of the profession. The findings of this study validate the significance of therapists' somatic experiences, highlight the presence of both personal and interactive field dynamics, and suggest that the therapist's own woundedness deepens empathy and thus predisposes one to somatic experiences. Participants used their somatic experiences to further explore and deepen into the psychotherapeutic work.

A depth psychological view of the Christian myth: C. G. Jung, Elizabeth Boyden Howes, and the Guild for Psychological Studies

Norris, Eleanor Lou Pacifica Graduate Institute 2008 해외공개박사

This dissertation presents the theoretical foundation for a depth psychological perspective of the Christian myth---as myth, not as creed or dogma---which sees it as the story not of one God-man, Jesus Christ, but of all humanity's journey of individuation and the evolution of consciousness. It also presents a particular method of study of the Christian myth, and of all myth, which I contend allows the student to see through myth to the collective unconscious, the archetypal realm from which it arises. This psychological view derives from the work of two thinkers. The first is C. G. Jung and his theory of the archetypes of the collective unconscious, which he theorizes reveals itself to us in creative art, dreams, myths, and symbol. One of the central archetypes is the self, and one of the great symbols of the self, he theorizes, is "the Christ." It is this archetypal self which he hypothesizes came alive in psyche 2000 years ago, but was soon projected onto one person, Jesus Christ. The second scholar is Elizabeth Boyden Howes, who, to Jung's views about the archetypal Christ, adds her belief in the centrality of Jesus of Nazareth as a human being living out his life in service to this archetype, but never identifying himself with it. Howes and associates in the Guild for Psychological Studies, founded in 1956, evolved a particular method of studying Jesus' life and teachings as told in the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In a sixteen-day residential seminar which weaves together techniques which draw on critical thinking, imagination, and wisdom of the body, students are challenged to deal with their own beliefs and assumptions, conscious and unconscious, about the Christian story and its central character, Jesus. I explain the seminar process and method in the theoretical section of this dissertation, In memoir, I tell of my own experiences of many of these residential seminars, its challenges and significance for my life. I hope in this way to make clear how such study contributes to each person's own journey of individuation, and thus to the evolution of consciousness.

Medical procedures in childhood: A phenomenological study from the adult perspective

Morrison, Rebecca G. Palmer Pacifica Graduate Institute 2005 해외공개박사

There have been numerous and significant research contributions to the field of psychology regarding psychological trauma following various forms of abuse and neglect, terrorism, and natural disasters that occur on both personal and societal levels. Even vicarious traumas incurred by the exposure to the aforementioned have been given due recognition. However, an area of potential psychological trauma that has remained relatively unexplored is the immediate consequences and long-term effects of medical procedures. Statistics indicate that experiencing medical interventions in a variety of forms is commonplace. Further, medical experiences are likely to involve physical and psychological discomfort and pain among other side effects, some of which leave lasting physical, emotional, and mental impact on the patient. Yet despite this knowledge, there has been very little research conducted to understand short or long-term psychological and developmental effects of medical interventions on the patients who experience them, particularly from the perspective of adults who experienced such procedures during their childhoods. This qualitative, phenomenological study explored medical procedures from the perspective of the adult who experienced them in childhood. Individual, face-to-face, audio-taped interviews were conducted during which participants were asked to describe their medical procedure(s) in childhood and in what, if any ways, they felt impacted by those experiences throughout their lives. From the interviews, portraits were written, which illuminated common themes. The co-researchers were four men (one of whom served in a pilot study capacity) and three women ranging in age from 38-59 years who were eight or younger at the onset of their initial medical procedures. The results of the study showed that there was little or no validation, either in the form of having procedures explained or having feelings attended to during the medical procedures. Also suggested was that medical procedures in childhood are traumatic for some individuals under some circumstances with influential factors being, among others, age and level of autonomy at the time of the procedure, parent involvement, number of procedures, receiving explanations, having feelings validated, level of medical technology (e.g., pain management techniques, types of procedures performed, whether hospitalization was involved or patient was cared for at home), and perceptions of how the medical professionals treated them. The results showed that medical procedures experienced in childhood have life-long consequences such as influence over choices of whether or not to seek medical care as an adult; compromised trust with health care professionals; tendencies to seek out specialized medical knowledge to self diagnosis health issues; and, for some, tendencies to advocate for others in medical situations. The implications of the results of the study are numerous for the field of psychology and include the need to recognize medical procedures in childhood as sometimes traumatic but likely unrecognized as such, due to the intrinsic nature of medical procedures across the lifespan. Further research to understand variables such as age, gender, types of procedures, level of physical invasiveness, and psychological treatment outcomes is warranted.

Sound as a gateway to a personal relationship with nature

Nelson, Paul Thelin Pacifica Graduate Institute 2008 해외공개박사

The significant challenge of the twenty-first century is for humans to establish an intention of engaging nature in a relationship of mutuality. As the wounding of nature proliferates and the severity of the wounds increase, humans may recognize that the wounds of nature are simultaneously inflicted on the self. This understanding has the potential to change the way of being in the world. This study explores how sound opens the conscious mind to an engagement with nature. It is an engagement of mutuality where one not only speaks but listens. In The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, Jung writes, "... we need a method of inquiry which imposes the fewest possible conditions, or if possible no conditions at all, and then leave Nature to answer out of her fullness" (CW 8: 864). This study uses a theoretical method of inquiry to examine evidence of the power of sound to engage nature in the mythologies of Hinduism, mystical Islam, depth psychology, and modern science. The context in which the relationship with nature is described is diverse and depends on the culture and the uniqueness of the individual. However, underneath the surface description sound and its precursor vibration appear. Sound manifests in the context of its attributes of tone and timbre, and its extensions of rhythm and harmony. Sound then returns to the unitary reality of vibration resonating within and without the body. This experience awakens the potential for a higher order of union with the unus mundus or nature. In modern Western societies, where story has replaced myth, mythologies no longer exist in a vibrant unifying form. In this circumstance story has replaced myth. Story often behaves as myth and has the potential to lead the way to a mythology that encompasses a personal relationship with nature. For stories to perform this mythological role, they need to reflect a mythological core. Nature is waiting to serve as this core. The ineffable quality of nature lends itself to a host of entry points to a relationship. Rather than a monolithic strategy, each individual is invited to follow his or her own unique path to a relationship.