<p> The purpose of this inquiry was to develop a depth psychological understanding of immigration as a liminal experience. The Free Association Narrative Interview (FANI) method derived meaning from the lived experiences of five recent immigrants from both Western and Eastern cultures. Emergent themes referenced the expanded understanding of immigration as a process of homecoming, perceived psychoanalytically as a transitional phenomenon; in Jungian terms, a transcendent one. Homecoming represented both a process of transformation and an area of experiencing as the individual came to terms with the liminal experience of immigration by integrating self-experience and bridging differences and similarities. Results offered a new view of a depth psychological approach to the phenomenon of immigration, suggesting an association between trauma and the loss of a sense of home, and the function of symbolization in the process of bridging differences and similarities, enabling psychic growth. Clinical implications included understanding the nature of the sense of loss of home, developing coping strategies for immigrants who see themselves as being in between worlds or homeless, and integrating immigrant clients into the new culture. Future research emphasized methodological considerations.</p><p>

<p> Research has demonstrated that gossip meets many social and individual needs and serves several functions, often conflicting in the literature. The current study focused on examining the experiences of mothers as they publicly share and privately consume celebrity gossip to better understand celebrity gossip's functions. Motherhood is a demanding role filled with uncertainty and information seeking, as mothers seek to understand what constitutes a "good mother." Given that mothers may selectively seek and expose themselves to content to gain information, reduce uncertainty and to find validation they are a "good mother," this study revealed that participation in celebrity gossip plays a functional role by meeting both social and individual needs in these mothers' lives. Of particular interest however, was the exploration of the relationship between the public sharing and private consumption of celebrity gossip. Three focus groups and six individual interviews were conducted with mothers who enjoy sharing and consuming celebrity gossip. A Grounded Theory approach was used to analyze the data, revealing eight emergent categories. The study found that while celebrity gossip does meet social and individual functions, the process is also more complex, involving a simultaneous interaction taking place when mothers publicly share and privately consume celebrity gossip. </p>

<p> This qualitative inquiry takes place within a growing body of interdisciplinary work dedicated to reimagining community, one&rsquo;s relationship to it, and ultimately one&rsquo;s place within the global community. The study is rooted in depth psychology&rsquo;s recognition that the psyche is independently real and everything has meaning. Community is an ongoing story: a living myth. One can tally all the concrete aspects of community yet still not understand what makes community. To better understand community, this study used a hermeneutic-phenomenological approach to explore the lived experience of those living in a small Tuscan village, Pari. This entailed relying on an archetypal mythological lens to interpret a rich harvesting of interviews, storytelling, dreamy attention, and the researcher&rsquo;s own reflections. The goal was to understand what it means to be part of this ancient community today, to appreciate the dynamics at work within the community psyche, and to dream the community on into the future. It was found that life in this community has a rhythmic structure that permeates everyone and everything. The most important common thread was that love connects people to this place. It was also found that as this once self-enclosed community becomes increasingly porous to the world, the population diversity increases and self-sufficiency decreases. It was concluded that Pari&rsquo;s myth is to become a global village. The community&rsquo;s challenge for survival is to integrate its core rhythmic structure with the incoming technology age. </p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> community, door, myth, rebirth, hermeneutic-phenomenology, Janus</p>

<p> Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, there has been a significant amount of research on the Middle East and Islam. These studies inform the academic community regarding the culture and religion of the region and its people. An area of research regarding the culture and people of the Middle East that has not been represented in the literature is the experience of honor. Honor has been researched from a sociological and anthropological perspective, and honor killings have been present in the media. However, there was a need for the experience of honor, specifically among first generation Levantine Arab American women, to be explored in a qualitative study. The methodology used for this study was Moustakas&rsquo; heuristic research design, which allowed the primary researcher to illuminate the experience of honor among first generation Levantine Arab American women. The study found that honor was a complex experience for the participants. The multifaceted experience was familial and societal, public and private, and individual and collective. The experience of honor among first generation Levantine Arab American women was found to be one that started in early childhood and continued into adulthood, never really ending for the participant. The participants describe their lives as a struggle between the wants of the individual and the wants of the family and community. The implications of the study are discussed further in Chapter 5.</p>

<p> The purpose of this artistic self-case study is to explore how the role of the soldier might be transformed from service <i>in war</i> to service <i>for community,</i> 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 and stories to promote conflict transformation for our warrior class. </p><p> The strategy of inquiry employed is based on the case study model, modified to be a self-case study. Creation-based data was generated by the researcher to evoke intersubjective dialogue between academically rational and creatively nonrational data and processes in this research. In lieu of the traditional written chapters that comprise the body of a dissertation, &ldquo;creative chapters&rdquo; in the form of mixed media pictorial representations are presented. Data analysis was conducted using Abt&rsquo;s (2005) articulation of Jungian picture interpretation, in order to discern meaning from each creative chapter&mdash;the titles of which served as a query for topics related to the research question. </p><p> A liberation paradigm was then utilized as a critical point of departure, to guide the issues examined (healing and community roles for our warrior class), the people for whom the study is relevant (the warrior class and practitioners working with them), the researcher&rsquo;s role in the study (up front/personal; grounded in experience), and how the research was presented in its final form (written text with supporting pictorial data; conclusions drawn from creative interpretation). </p><p> The combined chapter interpretations were reviewed and analyzed in the concluding chapter for their implications in community praxis with returning soldiers and veterans. They revealed consistent themes of imbalanced masculine and feminine energies, and the need for development of an introspective, Shamanic aptitude by our Warriors in order for them to continue their duty of protection and care of their local communities. </p><p> Recommendations are then made for adapting this research model in community work with soldiers and veterans, along with suggestions for building greater levels of reliability, validity, and generalizability into creative qualitative research. </p><p> Keywords: Warrior, Shaman, trauma, conflict transformation, resilient communities, Jungian, phronesis, counterinsurgency, initiation, creative.</p>

The main purpose of the present research is to develop a critical reading of the double identity such as it is expressed in the novels of the North African immigrants living in France. But, and far from proposing another socio-historical analysis on North African immigration in France, the interest of this work is in filling the surprising lack of critical literary works on the subject. It is based on the concept of the wandering, which forms the imaginary identity of the "Beurs". This perspective reactivates older debates about the significance of "us", "the other", the races, the Nation-State and the nature and limit of the concept of national culture. It will also allow us to present some of the main characteristics of the Beurs's identity, and from there, will help us to redefine the myth of the modern stranger. The thesis of this research proposes that the Beurs's identity is mainly built through denunciation and subversion of the Nation State's official discourse and finally produces an original formulation. From the study of the themes, the form the way the story is told, and from the subversive character of the discourse about otherness (which refuses the idea of unity and wholeness that the French national culture is still pushing forward today), this paper shows, finally, how this new discourse on one's identity (coming from the world of the North African immigration, but from within the occidental world), could very well be a modern inversion of the concept of Orientalism. The novelty, which for us is capable of renewing the way the Western world looks at the Stranger, is that the latter is at once subject and object of the discourse, and that this neo-orientalism is itself a production of the western world, with the clear intent of ruining it.

<p> In this theoretical dissertation, the author identifies social problems that arise from patriarchy and that are attributed to what is called <i> gender culture</i>, which exists as a consequence of the gender polarization required for patriarchy. The dissertation demonstrates how beliefs and attitudes that emanate from gender culture, and are transmitted through patriarchal mythology, provide a template that shapes maladaptive decision-making in ways that warp the relational capacity of individuals and reinforce and perpetuate social injustice. Using examples from her own and others&rsquo; research investigating egalitarianism in the parenting and relationship dynamics of heterosexual couples, the author discuses how, despite the potential of egalitarianism in heterosexual relationships to subvert the patriarchal paradigm, unrecognized internalized patriarchal mythology acts as a force to pull egalitarian-minded couples back into traditional marital structures. Drawing on her own research (Ballantyne, 2004) exploring the effect of the romantic myth on women in same sex intimate partner relationships, and the realization of egalitarianism as exemplified by a couple in her research (Ballantyne, 2011), the author discusses the role of outcasts and misfits as way showers, who, as a result of their rejection from or inability to conform to the prevailing mythology of mainstream norms, have the potential to create alternatives that benefit society at large. Finally, the dissertation provides evidence of emerging mythology that is already visible, offers suggestions for imagery and storylines to sow into our culture, and proposes a framework for a new mythology that is requisite to the cultivation of egalitarian imagery in the internal psychological landscape of the collective. Cultivating a new mythology will support what the author believes is the evolutionary movement away from systems of oppression and towards democracy, not only for the sake of gender justice, but for the sake of earth justice and peace as well.</p>