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Rekindling hope: deconstructing religious power discourses in the lives of Afrikaans womenViljoen, Hester Josephina Isabella 30 June 2003 (has links)
This qualitative action research was activated at the junction between three
sites of operation of modern power: the site of the woman in the family,
religious and cultural power discourses and the professional discourses of
therapy. Using an action research design for this study focused the research
on reaping benefits in real terms for the research participants. The researcher
applied a postStructuralist, feminist and narrative approach to the
phenomenon of failed personhood as manifested in the lives of two White
Afrikaans women. Narrative therapy methodologiElS, steeped in a religious
studies ethic were valuable guides on the therapy-as-research journeys,
ensuring the exposure and deconstruction of dominant cultural and religious
power discourses.
In the course of the therapeutic and research journeys, various narrative
therapy methodologies were used with positive effect on the life world of the
participants. These methodologies included the externalisation of problems
and the discovery of unique outcomes that constitute alternative, preferred life
stories that contradict problem-saturated life stories of failed personhood. The
research participants engaged in individual and communal conversations, relanguaging
their self-narratives and religious narratives as part of the coconstruction
of their preferred identities of moral agency and hope.
Support networks were created for the research participants, Mara and Grace,
to strengthen their new self- and religious narratives and to dislodge the
power of the normative cultural and religious discourses of rugged
individualism. In one instance, the researcher incorporated the healing power
of South African bush veld, by inviting a group of women on a series of
expeditions into the wilderness as part of Mara's journey. fn Grace's
narrative, we utilised the modern technologies of the internet to connect her
with a virtual response team and the Anti-Anorexia/Anti-Bulimia League.
Storytelling and reflecting conversations formed the basis of the therapy-asresearch
processes. The research participants extended therapy
conversations beyond the therapy room, by actively participating in their
therapy-as-research journeys. In line with narrative approaches, the
researcher encouraged them to honour their skills and knowledges on their
journeys: Mara extended her therapy by making resistance quilts while Grace
assimilated her art, poetry and resistance writing into her healing process. / Religious Studies and Arabic / D. Litt. et Phil. (Religious Studies)
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Of human bondage : investigating the relationship anorexia nervosa/ bulimia, spirituality and the body-self allianceCollett, Joan Elizabeth 06 1900 (has links)
A growing body of research recognizes spirituality as a key element in well-being, but the
agency of individual spirituality remains unclear. This study explores the role of embodied
knowledge in reality construction and its effect on illness by considering how spirituality as
embodied existence shapes reality. Spirituality, as a form of embodied knowing, is shown to
reach deeply into the fundamental relatedness of existence. The study argues for a mindbody-
spirit unity, making no distinction between self and spirit, emotions and subjective
experiences situated in the spirit. As the medium between body and self, spirituality gives
form to the felt reality of embodied knowledge and meaning, shaping language, cognition,
thought and action towards lived reality.
New ways of thinking about eating disorders were stimulated by innovative discoveries
through investigating the lived reality of the illness within an epistemology that included
subjective experiences as part of reality. While acknowledging the influence of social
discourse, the study calls for a recognition of vulnerability in the human condition giving rise
to the embodiment of a wounded self or disenabling spirituality, manifested in the
development of an eating disorder. It uncovers the anti-spiritual properties involved in the
lived reality of people struggling with anorexia/bulimia, evident in social withdrawal and/or
self-injury. Behavioural patterns of obsession and repetition underscore similarities to
addiction and ritual.
The study synthesised pastoral therapy and research. A postmodern approach to illness and
a qualitative design with interpretive phenomenology were used. Three young women
struggling with anorexia/bulimia participated in semi-structured research interviews. Their
narrative accounts provided a chronology of developing, living with and healing from
anorexia /bulimia. Emphasis shifted from an approach aimed at fixing the body to focusing on
individual experiences of the illness; what she brought to the encounter in her own resources
and potential to heal. Healing is envisaged as the ongoing development of a renewed sense
of self, an inherently spiritual process orchestrated from within. Previous disassociation of
body and self is replaced with reconnection between body, self and other, care of the spirit
became care of the body, expressed in harmony and wholeness of being. / Practical Theology / D.Div. (Pastoral therapy)
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3 |
Rekindling hope: deconstructing religious power discourses in the lives of Afrikaans womenViljoen, Hester Josephina Isabella 30 June 2003 (has links)
This qualitative action research was activated at the junction between three
sites of operation of modern power: the site of the woman in the family,
religious and cultural power discourses and the professional discourses of
therapy. Using an action research design for this study focused the research
on reaping benefits in real terms for the research participants. The researcher
applied a postStructuralist, feminist and narrative approach to the
phenomenon of failed personhood as manifested in the lives of two White
Afrikaans women. Narrative therapy methodologiElS, steeped in a religious
studies ethic were valuable guides on the therapy-as-research journeys,
ensuring the exposure and deconstruction of dominant cultural and religious
power discourses.
In the course of the therapeutic and research journeys, various narrative
therapy methodologies were used with positive effect on the life world of the
participants. These methodologies included the externalisation of problems
and the discovery of unique outcomes that constitute alternative, preferred life
stories that contradict problem-saturated life stories of failed personhood. The
research participants engaged in individual and communal conversations, relanguaging
their self-narratives and religious narratives as part of the coconstruction
of their preferred identities of moral agency and hope.
Support networks were created for the research participants, Mara and Grace,
to strengthen their new self- and religious narratives and to dislodge the
power of the normative cultural and religious discourses of rugged
individualism. In one instance, the researcher incorporated the healing power
of South African bush veld, by inviting a group of women on a series of
expeditions into the wilderness as part of Mara's journey. fn Grace's
narrative, we utilised the modern technologies of the internet to connect her
with a virtual response team and the Anti-Anorexia/Anti-Bulimia League.
Storytelling and reflecting conversations formed the basis of the therapy-asresearch
processes. The research participants extended therapy
conversations beyond the therapy room, by actively participating in their
therapy-as-research journeys. In line with narrative approaches, the
researcher encouraged them to honour their skills and knowledges on their
journeys: Mara extended her therapy by making resistance quilts while Grace
assimilated her art, poetry and resistance writing into her healing process. / Religious Studies and Arabic / D. Litt. et Phil. (Religious Studies)
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4 |
Of human bondage : investigating the relationship between anorexia nervosa/bulimia, spirituality and the body-self allianceCollett, Joan Elizabeth 06 1900 (has links)
A growing body of research recognizes spirituality as a key element in well-being, but the
agency of individual spirituality remains unclear. This study explores the role of embodied
knowledge in reality construction and its effect on illness by considering how spirituality as
embodied existence shapes reality. Spirituality, as a form of embodied knowing, is shown to
reach deeply into the fundamental relatedness of existence. The study argues for a mindbody-
spirit unity, making no distinction between self and spirit, emotions and subjective
experiences situated in the spirit. As the medium between body and self, spirituality gives
form to the felt reality of embodied knowledge and meaning, shaping language, cognition,
thought and action towards lived reality.
New ways of thinking about eating disorders were stimulated by innovative discoveries
through investigating the lived reality of the illness within an epistemology that included
subjective experiences as part of reality. While acknowledging the influence of social
discourse, the study calls for a recognition of vulnerability in the human condition giving rise
to the embodiment of a wounded self or disenabling spirituality, manifested in the
development of an eating disorder. It uncovers the anti-spiritual properties involved in the
lived reality of people struggling with anorexia/bulimia, evident in social withdrawal and/or
self-injury. Behavioural patterns of obsession and repetition underscore similarities to
addiction and ritual.
The study synthesised pastoral therapy and research. A postmodern approach to illness and
a qualitative design with interpretive phenomenology were used. Three young women
struggling with anorexia/bulimia participated in semi-structured research interviews. Their
narrative accounts provided a chronology of developing, living with and healing from
anorexia /bulimia. Emphasis shifted from an approach aimed at fixing the body to focusing on
individual experiences of the illness; what she brought to the encounter in her own resources
and potential to heal. Healing is envisaged as the ongoing development of a renewed sense
of self, an inherently spiritual process orchestrated from within. Previous disassociation of
body and self is replaced with reconnection between body, self and other, care of the spirit
became care of the body, expressed in harmony and wholeness of being. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / Th. D. (Pastoral therapy)
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