<p> This production thesis investigates the unique and valuable role image creation can play in the exploration of inner psychological processes. The alchemical operations provide rich metaphors for particular psychological stages. Using artistic-creative and heuristic methodologies, specific alchemical operations are explored through research, amplification, and, ultimately, an experiential creative process. The importance of image as a natural expression of psyche and the particular benefits of working with images as a means to psychological insight are realized through image making. The entire production process is examined as a means to increased insight regarding the alchemical process, inner psychological experiences, and the natural bridges between psychological and creative processes. This first-hand exploration of psychological processes through image demonstrates that imaginal work can be a source for emergent meaning, evoke affect, access and embrace multiple meanings, provide perspective on both personal and archetypal levels, and ultimately serve as a vehicle for personal transformation.</p>

<p> Clothing serves as material evidence of the mental space we occupy. My designs are inspired by the man-made landscapes that surround me and I apply those patterns to the landscape of the body.</p><p> Like graphic design, fashion is a medium employed to convey messages and ideas. It is an expression of identity that is established through color, form, pattern and texture. My work seeks to synthesize human geography with graphic design in order to clothe the body and thus, fabricate identity.</p>

<p> This production-style dissertation explores the psychological aspect of drawing with dream images. It introduces a practical method, called Mythic Drawing, which can help artists work with dream images in an authentic way. For James Hillman, the founder of Archetypal Psychology, dreams do not reflect the outer world of empirical reality. Rather, they express the inner world of psychic reality through mythological resemblances. Therefore, to draw adequately with images, the artist must give up the rational approach of step-by-step formulas and abstract concepts, and instead, sensitize these methods to the metaphorical style of the dream. </p><p> The essence of Mythic Drawing is play. The artist engages the dream image as an active participant, like an actor playing a part. The role of "artist" is relativized and seen through to the many archetypal figures one embodies while drawing, such as a child, a dancer, an architect, or a shaman. The artist accepts the dream images as alive, intelligent and capable of asserting a will of their own. In this way, drawing becomes a collaborative activity that fosters a dynamic relationship between the artist and the creative figures of his or her imagination. </p><p> Using a hermeneutic method, the dissertation outlines the theoretical basis of Mythic Drawing, while at the same time examining traditional assumptions and biases in art education. It then tests the efficacy of the ideas discussed through two intensive drawing projects. A heuristic method is applied throughout the production of drawings which helps provide reflection upon and analysis of the creative process.</p>

<p> This dissertation circles around the creation of an arts-based film script entitled "Behind Locked Doors." With a story that is located within a fictional psychiatric hospital, the text includes a number of characters whose psychic wounds allow for a depth psychological exploration into a variety of agitating symptoms: sexual trauma, bereavement, psychosis, grandiosity, narcissism, and multiple personality disorder, among others. The core theme underlying the creative work is that of imagination, especially how it reveals and expresses itself along a twisting ambivalent line between healing and disintegration. Viewing the imaginative function from diverse standpoints as embodied in each character's personality, the dissertation examines how traditional Western pharmaceutical and re-adjustment therapies stack up against more soul-oriented healing methodologies, including Jung's individuation process, Hillman's archetypal psychologizing, Sufi imaginal traditions, and creative play therapies. The literature review and methodology chapters survey the imaginal landscape from hermeneutic, phenomenological, active imagining, carnivalesque, narrative storytelling and arts based traditions, amongst others. Scientific and theological concepts, especially those that incorporate an abundance of imagination, such as cosmological physics and Dante's divine poetic crossing of life and death thresholds, are also explored. The concluding chapter reflects upon similarities between the alchemical process of psychic expansion as revealed in the Rosarium pictures and the film scriptwriting process of discovering transformational images through a long-term steady practice of active imagination. A brief review of popular films that address psychiatric hospital themes and issues rounds off the dissertation.</p>

<p> 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"&mdash;the cultural-historical, the personal-historical, and the Depth-archetypal, as well as interpretation by direct, personal encounter with her works of art. </p><p> 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. </p><p> 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. </p>

There is an extensive body of work in the fields of philosophy, psychology, and sociology which identifies a specific world view based on the following criticism of modern society: that people live monocerebral existences divided from their physical, emotional, and intuitive abilities. In this state, the capacity for affect -emotional response - is believed to be atrophied, and experience nullified. Such a condition - which may be loosely termed 'mind/body split' - results in a diminished ability to relate to other people, a sense of alienation from the world, and a pathological loss of human capacities. Many psychologists believe that this state prefigures neuroses, destructiveness, and schizophrenia. This thesis is concerned with the concept of 'mind/body split' and its relation to affective communication in the theatre. The subjects of my enquiry are theatre practitioners or companies whose work has directly addressed these issues: Antonin Artaud, Jerzy Grotowski, The Living Theatre, The Performance Group, The Open Theatre, Peter Brook, and Eugenio Barba. My aim has been to re-examine the work of these seven in order to produce evidence of their concern for affect, heightened experience, and the healing of mind-body schism. I propose that an understanding of these concerns provides a major critical key to the appraisal of the practitioners in question.

As its title suggests, this study is divided into two separate but related parts. Each part of the thesis is then sub-divided into sections. Part I is evolutionary in nature, building its argument in a more linear and expository style than those sections which comprise Part II which stand in a more dialogical relation to each other and are self-sufficient in form. The title of the thesis uses the term 'psycho-analysis' as it was first introduced by Freud with reference to a systemic methodology. It should be noted that the 'textual production' to which I refer in the title should not suggest a Marxist-based analysis. Instead, it refers to the activation of the text in conjunction with its encounter with the reading subject. As such, it does not refer to the creation of an author, nor to the material production via institutions in the strict historical sense. It does, however, refer to a material affect of the signifier in its interpretative rendering by emphasizing its bodily interlinking with the imaginary of the reader in a scene which is analogous to that of hysterical symptomatology. Part I is entitled 'Psycho-Analysis' and consists of three sections which explore the beginnings of psychoanalysis, its main theories on hysteria and the relationship between Josef Breuer and Sigmund Freud. The theoretical base of hysteria is considered to be illuminating to analyses of critical procedures such as those employed in literary criticism. Part II is entitled 'Textual Production' and is comprised of six sections of textual readings. These readings are presented as discrete in themselves yet of an interlocking character. This study of psycho-analysis and textual production has attempted to examine the mechanisms of critical encounter in relation to the psychoanalytical text and the literary text. Theories offered by psycho-analysis formulated with reference to hysteria are considered to offer an illuminating parallel to those processes which occur in critical practice.

Added t.p. with thesis note: Akademisk avhandling - Uppsala. / Includes bibliographical references.

<p> Chethiya is a brown, gay, disabled (ultimately), abused young man from Sri Lanka, who comes to the U.S. on a full scholarship. His dream is to be a Broadway star, but after coming out of his first relationship with an emotionally abusive, alcoholic man, he is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a chronic, degenerative neurological disease that results in demyelination, causing progressive debilitation. The story is divided into six chapters that narrate his life under various marginalizations he is subjected to, culminating in traumatization. The story, however, ends on a positive note of redemption with the narrator looking forward to his days to come.</p>

The Pilgrim's Progress is accepted in the canon of children's literature due to its early adoption by child readers and because of its outstanding qualities. This thesis explores some possible reasons for the work's popularity and longevity. A New Historicist approach suggests the relevance of Bunyan's pilgrim hero and his narrative to each of the three centuries since the work's first publication. It focuses particularly on the interaction between society, child and text, considering the societal and psychic dimensions. History and Developmental Theory, including that of Faith Development, are drawn on as particular resources. A propositional model provides visual explanation for the interactionary role of the components and suggests a scientific basis for the relevance factors. A broad sample of copies of The Pilgrim's Progress, published from 1678 until 1994, is surveyed in order to test the hypothesis that the hero is a changing one, affected by society's changing norms and ethos. Bunyan's influence on writers for children over the three centuries is also considered, leading to recognition of The Pilgrim's Progress as a prototype for children's literature.