Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Individuation (Psychology)'

This thesis uses hermeneutic and heuristic methodologies to draw together the myth of Chiron and the phenomenon of spiritual bypassing. Spiritual bypassing is the tendency to use spiritual beliefs, teachings, and practices to avoid dealing with one’s psychology, painful feelings, unresolved wounds, and developmental issues. Chiron is a mythological figure who mentored a number of Greek heroes and Asclepius, the god of medicine in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Chiron, like his mentee Asclepius, embodies the Wounded Healer archetype. Chiron’s wounding and healing journey can serve as a roadmap for spiritual practitioners on how to navigate out of bypass and deepen their path toward self-realization and individuation. Developing an archetypal awareness of one’s wounds appears to reveal the aspects of one’s psychology defended against in spiritual bypass. This emerging roadmap and lessons from Chiron’s journey may help therapists, healers, and spiritual teachers accelerate their own path and assist clients.

This thesis draws on Jungian psychology, neuroscience, ecopsychology, and cosmology to explore the role of the imagination in facilitating individuation at personal and planetary levels. Employing the methodology of organic inquiry, it is proposed that our imaginative faculties be revisioned as extensions of an exquisitely creative universe. The potential of engaging these streams of creative energy through active imagination is explored, particularly their capacity to heal trauma by integrating dissociated neural nets into the mainstream flow of the brain. It is suggested that this movement toward internal psychic wholeness may be mirrored in the external world as we step into right brain, imaginal, embodied modes of being. The thesis investigates whether such a holistic lens may allow us to see through the destructive Western myth of humanity’s separation from nature, enabling us to reconnect at a profound level, to our one and only life support system, the Earth.

This thesis utilizes hermeneutic methodology and a depth perspective to explore how women’s connection with their bodies impacts their growth during the individuation process. Western culture is discussed in terms of its emphasis on rational thought and progress—the realm of Yang and Logos. Although the phenomenon of the dominating masculine principle has enabled rapid technological and scientific development, repercussions may exist as a result of the suppressed Yin and Eros energies. Such ramifications are examined in relevance to Jung’s theory of individuation and the body. Separation from the body is researched through studies on objectification theory, dissociation, disordered eating, and cosmetic surgery. Alternatively, practices including yoga, Vipassana meditation, Watsu, Authentic Movement, and image-based bodywork are reviewed to illuminate the benefit of somatic connection. Results indicate that integrating the body, mind, and soul through conscious awareness can facilitate Weetern women’s journey toward wholeness.

Unrequited love is a form of love in which a person’s feelings of romantic love toward another are not reciprocated. This thesis is an exploration of unrequited love from a depth psychological perspective, taking into account the powerful yet mysterious influence of the archetypes of the collective unconscious on this common human experience. Utilizing a hermeneutic methodology to amplify theories from both psychology and mythology, the author seeks to provide a road map for understanding how and why unrequited love can be used as a means of initiating the process of individuation. Readings of the literature serve to provide a solid foundation for understanding depth psychological concepts and to articulate the difference between the two sides of unrequited love. The author uses the protagonist from the film Angus to exemplify the way in which the projection of unconscious archetypes can eventually lead one toward a balance of psyche and self-knowledge.

Starting from Edward Edinger's portrayal of Jung's process of individuation as the creation of consciousness, this dissertation asks in what ways the creation of artificial intelligence (AI) can be seen as the recreation of consciousness, and specifically whether the AI's maturation from nonconsciousness to something equivalent to consciousness will have an analogous effect on humanity's development out of unconsciousness toward a greater state of cognitive freedom. Taking a functional perspective, this dissertation asks whether B. F. Skinner's metaphor of the human psyche as a black box, normally seen as expressing the belief that humans are mechanistic and determined, is in fact an attempt to insulate the most intimate of human experiences (the soul) from the intrusive gaze of the scientific mindset. Juxtaposing this black box metaphor with two other metaphors—that of the box that holds Schrodinger's cat and that of Pandora's box—this dissertation asks whether the presence of an entirely constructed entity that displays all the signs of soul will cause the artificially intelligent entity to act as a mirror, reflecting humanity's gaze past our inner defenses, to an inner absence where a metaphysical soul was once surmised to be. Although such a change in self-image would initially entail an apparent loss of meaning, this dissertation notes that such a lacuna of meaning is already growing in society and concludes that the loss of this concept would eventually result in a new concept of self that would represent an important milestone for the collective individuation of the species.

Billboard magazine’s Top 40 songs from one’s youth can impact one’s psyche during midlife and instill the individuation process with depth and meaning, leading toward an enlarged sense of self that can take one on a path toward wholeness. The therapeutic healing nature of music is reviewed, focusing on its influence on adolescence from a Jungian perspective and its innate relationship to shamanism. Utilizing a heuristic research methodology and the ideas of archetypal psychology, this thesis incorporates the author’s personal life experience with popular music and dreams in a brief memoir highlighting each 12-year Jupiter Return cycle, midlife, and the midlife crisis. Combining the language and concepts of depth psychology, a passion for Top 40 music, a series of dreams with pertinent synchronicities, and storytelling pave the way and inform the author’s hero’s journey, a spiritual quest unveiling an initiation of death and resurrection marking the birth of a shaman.

The dissertation seeks to understand, from a depth psychological perspective, the individual and collective manifestations of anxiety that clients bring to therapy. Anxiety has often been misunderstood as a negative and/or pathological agent, and not has been honored as a potential hidden gift for personal transformation.

The dissertation explores the reasons why it is possible for transformation to occur out of a self-aware engagement with anxiety at the level of the psyche, as opposed to treating anxiety as merely a physiological and behavioral symptom. It uncovers the metaphors and archetypal dimensions of anxiety and how they precipitate a shift within the individual and collective psyche.

The findings suggest that anxiety is potentially an inherent impulse from the psyche that is activated during the process of individuation—i.e., the period of time that Self is emerging in order to be integrated with the more ego-oriented self. Anxiety as a movement towards change operates as the inner-Hermes or messenger drive of the psyche, which informs consciousness through discomfort and suffering with the hidden intention to break inner limitations, and move one forward towards individuation.

Along these lines, this research suggests that it is important for professional psychotherapists and their clients to understand that anxiety is in fact an essential part of the human condition—a part that, despite its negative connotations (and experiential manifestations), can also serve tremendously positive transformational functions.

The research approach is hermeneutic, characterized by holistic and archetypal as well as alchemical associations. The dissertation develops a depth psychological theory by weaving philosophical, psychological, archetypal, and alchemical concepts in order to create the necessary associations that would support the notion that anxiety is a response to the inner impulse of the psyche for individuation, and therefore a potentially positive agent in the transformational process that the psyche undergoes during individuation.

Keywords: archetype, alchemy, anxiety, Hermes, individuation, Mercurius, psyche.

This thesis employs heuristic and hermeneutic methodologies to explore the lives of military wives from a depth psychological perspective. The author investigates the obstacles inherent within the military lifestyle that may hinder military wives’ journeys through the complex process of individuation. The hindrances explored include dependence, marginalization, and myriad psychological challenges such as depression, anxiety, stress, and grief that result from frequent separations from loved ones, transiency, deployments, lack of control, and loss of identity. This thesis posits that individuation is critical to achieving wholeness and a healthy psyche; however, for military wives, their lifestyles place them at a distinct disadvantage in the individuation process as compared to civilian women. Informing psychotherapists of this unique population’s struggles enables therapists to work more effectively with military wives. This work suggests possible clinical applications of the findings and discusses the clinical implications of the research.

This thesis has been written with the interest and concern for the symbolic meaning of the tale of “Beauty and the Beast,” as it illustrates a young woman’s journey of individuating, ultimately in order to meet with her own animus and true Self. The methodology for writing this thesis is hermeneutic, in that it involves a search for meaning from what has been written about the fairy tale among different texts and films that were created based on the original tale. In this thesis, “Beauty and the Beast” is analyzed by exploring what has been written about it by Jung, the post-Jungians, and Freudian thinkers. Images or objects of significance in the tale that hold meaning or power for the overall analysis of the tale are included and explained.

The persona is an essential part of personality development that allows individuals to exhibit conventionally acceptable behaviors and to adapt them as necessary in social situations. The Jungian concept of the persona is underrepresented in depth psychological studies and so merits more development. This research aims to answer how the persona affects character development and individuation journeys through the narratives of Japanese anime. Also included was the exploration of the archetypal presence of Dionysus. Using a hermeneutic analysis of four anime series, both the protagonists and antagonists were explored at length. Additionally, pivotal fighting scenes were considered to demonstrate persona development or dissolution. Through the process of the research, I found that analysis of villains yielded more results in regard to the persona. Findings indicate that Dionysian myth is often apparent within anime, despite its cultural dissonance. A broader understanding of the persona could have an influence on the field of media studies as a way of exploring narrative within and outside a specific tradition. Findings also indicate that the depth psychology concept of the persona may also be more complex than initially thought; specifically, it may be a multilayered structure, rather than a singular one. Persona identification turns individual characters into a vessel for unconscious contents. Further analysis of persona identification can be a tool to help make inferences about the personal and collective unconscious. Keywords: persona, individuation, Dionysus, anime, inflation, persona identification

Shame and guilt have been distinguished as two separate self-conscious emotions; the former depicts a global negative self-evaluation, whereas the latter describes the recognition of a specific problematic behavior. Current approaches to shame and guilt have linked proneness to shame and guilt with people's experiences of the parenting characteristics of their caregivers. Additionally, accumulating evidence has linked shame and guilt to identity development in the adolescent years. This study compared the relationship of perceived parenting behaviors to individuals' tendencies to experience shame and guilt. Partial correlations were used to separate the influence of shame and guilt, and results showed a consistent, positive relationship between positive parenting behaviors and levels of guilt-proneness. Similarly, a positive correlation emerged between shame-proneness and negative parenting behaviors, but a consistent relationship between shame-proneness and positive parenting behaviors did not emerge. Correlations also were conducted to examine whether participants' levels of shame— and guilt-proneness were predicted by their levels of individuation. Correlations between guilt-proneness and individuation were not consistent, but when significant correlations emerged, they were in the predicted direction of more guilt-proneness being linked to greater individuation. Shame-proneness negatively correlated with indivuation, and most strongly amongst older emerging adults. Finally, the relationship between parenting behaviors and guilt-proneness, but not shame-proneness, was moderated by individuation. These results emphasize the importance of separating shame and guilt in assessments of these two constructs. Additionally, they deepen an understanding of the role of socialization and developmental factors in shaping the experiences of shame and guilt.

Given an additional 10 volumes that could still be added to his Collected Works and 35,000 unpublished letters, the historical record on Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Gustav Jung, remains incomplete. An example is the unpublished letters between Jung and Carol Sawyer Baumann (1897-1958), an analysand and member of Jung's circle in Zurich for 30 years. The focus of this dissertation is the period of transition between 1927 and 1932, when, after a near-death experience, Baumann shifted her attention from her husband and two children in Cleveland to a search for individuation, first as an analysand under various Jungians, including Cary and H. G. Baynes, then under Jung himself.

Jung's place in psychology is first assessed, noting that he is either generally ignored or else cast as a mere acolyte of Freud. Alternatively, the dissertation is situated in the New Jung Scholarship, which positions Jung as the 20th century exponent of the symbolic hypothesis, but in the tradition of the late 19th century psychologies of transcendence.

Jung's emerging conceptions are chronicled using his documents on individuation from 1916 until 1931. The documents show the emergence of the concepts of the persona, the personal and collective unconscious, the anima and animus, attitudinal and functional types, the balancing mechanism of the psyche, the transcendent function, and the self. These conceptions are compared to an abundance of archival evidence available on Baumann, including papers held by her heirs and primary source material from repositories in various libraries.

The interaction of Jung's theory and Carol Sawyer Baumann's interpretation of individuation reveals to what degree and in what way each influenced the other. The process of collecting, reviewing, and presenting documentary evidence, as an alternative to a hypothesis-driven approach, raises further questions from the material. The extent to which she was successful in her quest can be gauged by Carol Sawyer Baumann's superior intellectual grasp of the principles of analytical psychology, her extensive researches into non-Western cultures, and her ability to communicate her findings on the process of individuation through her lectures and published writings.

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. A depth psychological perspective in premarital and marital counseling offers spouses the possibility of containing the opposing forces that emerge in their relationship without destroying the union. The connection between becoming holy through the sacramental marital relationship and Jung’s concept of becoming whole through individuation has received little attention in research. This study adds a dynamic aspect to Jungian studies by arguing for a new understanding of the sacrament of Matrimony as a container for psychological rebirth and transformation through individuation. In this effort, four factors that impact marriage are explored: vocation, theology of the sacrament of Matrimony, society and culture, and the body. Current clinical applications of an integrated approach are discussed demonstrating how the findings might be implemented in existing premarital and marital education and counseling programs for Catholic couples.

Keywords: marriage, premarital, Catholic, sacrament, individuation, container, couples counseling

Ces groupes ont été comparés en fonction de trois concepts importants de la pédopsychiatrie du développement. Il s'agit du parenting, de la séparation individuation, et de l'attachement.

Les outils utilisés sont des auto-questionnaires mesurant d’une part, le parenting, la séparation-individuation et l’attachement et, d’autre part, les aptitudes socio-émotionnelles des jeunes (résilience, empathie, intelligence émotionnelle). Nous avons aussi fait passer une interview diagnostic (Kiddie- Sadds) ainsi qu’un test d’évaluation intellectuelle (WISC IV ou WAIS III).

La première partie de la recherche a consisté à évaluer si les outils utilisés étaient suffisamment fiables et valides pour un usage en langue française dans un échantillon plus important. Au cours de la deuxième étape, nous avons comparé les trois groupes en fonction des trois concepts définis auparavant.

Ce sont surtout les résultats de la comparaison des trois groupes qui ont été développés dans le travail qui suit. L’autre partie des résultats peut être retrouvée dans les articles publiés.

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Doctorat en Sciences médicales
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This study proposes that the paintings of the Surrealist artist, Remedios Varo, reveal the process of individuation over the course of time. Since the Surrealistic approach to art was founded on the principle of representing the unconscious in artistic form, a basic assumption of this study is that transformational symbols of the individuation process should be revealed in the body of work compiled by a Surrealist artist. This dissertation will demonstrate that Varo's paintings, like dreams, follow a pattern comprised of classical symbols, images, and alchemical motifs that are universal and consistent, that are arise repeatedly in her work, and that are reflective of her individuation process. The goal is achieved through an exploration of twelve of Varo's paintings done in the last decade of her life, 1953 to 1963. This is a theoretical dissertation, utilizing both hermeneutic and heuristic approaches. The study views Varo's paintings as "texts," with interpretation through three "lenses"—the cultural-historical, the personal-historical, and the Depth-archetypal, as well as interpretation by direct, personal encounter with her works of art.

The cultural-historical perspective emphasizes the Surrealistic movement, the movement's attitude toward the feminine, and Varo's work within this context. Varo's personal life experiences, which shaped her view of the world and choice of subject matter, form the basis for the personal-historical lens. The Depth-archetypal perspective draws its focus from the central issues in Depth psychology, including the individuation process and active imagination. Additionally, the paintings will be examined for their collective content, particularly as it can be understood to reveal unconscious themes.

This study suggests that an intense examination of Varo's paintings can serve as a microcosm of the individuation process and provide a guide for the therapeutic enhancement of that process in the therapy room by its replicative capacity. This study also suggests that the images in this study can be utilized as "snapshots" of moments of transformation and psychic forms of expression to guide patients as they embark on their respective journeys of individuation.