<p> This dissertation discusses the roles of oracular priestesses and Goddesses in Krete and Greece. The appointment of oracular priestesses to the service of a particular Goddess such as Gaia or Athena is reviewed. In addition, this study demonstrates the extent to which the worship of Goddesses, led by oracular priestesses, was a pre-eminent aspect of religion in ancient Krete and Greece. Various types of conduits and methods used to receive oracular messages are also considered, including trees, baetyls, the inhalation of gaseous vapors, the chewing of laurel leaves, and the possible use of bees and snakes.</p><p> This dissertation also considers the implications that feminist archaeology brings to the interpretation of evidence regarding oracular priestess and Goddess traditions in Krete at the Temple-Palace of Knossos, and in mainland Greece at the oracular sites of Delphi and Dodona. An interdisciplinary methodology is employed, drawing on archaeology, mythology, archaeomythology, and feminist spiritual hermeneutics in the academic field of women&rsquo;s spirituality. </p><p> To facilitate this study, a set of characteristics is specified for determining which figurines can plausibly be considered oracular priestesses and/or Goddesses. The set of characteristics which distinguish a Goddess from an ordinary woman or girl include (1) ritual or sacred &ldquo;find contexts&rdquo;; (2) the presence of worshippers or adorants; (3) symbolic attributes of divinity, especially those which are representative of the female in local cultural context and perhaps also in cross-cultural contexts; (4) gestures of divinity, in local and/or cross-cultural contexts; and (5) larger relative size. Priestesses are distinguished by (1) typical gestures of adoration or offering of votives; (2) typical attributes in cultural context and/or cross-cultural contexts; (3) the study of epigraphy (where possible); and/or (4) prosopography. The characteristics which distinguish oracular priestesses from other kinds of priestesses include the priestess&rsquo; interactions with trees, baetyls, bees, birds, and snakes, or inhaling gaseous vapors.</p>

I examine a problem or dilemma of legitimation faced by the critical theorist who takes as the object of his or her critique a totality of which she or he is a part. The dilemma is that the theorist must either illegitimately exempt her critical theory from the determining influences of the totality or lose normative authority. The critics I examine in detail are: Adorno and Horkheimer; Kant; Hegel; feminist standpoint epistemologists, in particular, Sandra Harding; Irigaray; Foucault; and Arendt. I conclude that a purely theoretical or epistemic ground for the legitimacy of totalizing critique is impossible; philosophical critique must involve an extra-rational faith or a political commitment. However, I also argue that the project of theoretical grounding should not be abandoned. I continue this project by drawing out of the critical theorists I examined some preliminary concepts and strategies (such as mimesis, hysteria, free action, and psychoanalytic practice) that may, after further development, serve to provide a theory of the legitimacy of critical philosophy.

This dissertation draws on the Aristotelian and contemporary communitarian belief that humans are socially constituted, and analyzes the manifestations of this belief in contemporary identity politics and in the concept of 'culture' that often underlies identity politics. While I argue that it is important to maintain a communitarian conception of the self, I depart from Aristotle and the communitarian tradition by rejecting the assumption that a constitutive community is characterized by unity and homogeneity. I then claim that identity politics has inherited both the virtues and the problems of communitarian theory. Just as communitarians claim that the self is never free from social constitution, so identity politics have taken the self's identity to be formed along lines of socially defined group differences, and like communitarianism, some identity politics has entailed a call for unity. In the case of identity politics, the requirement for membership in the community may be sharing certain essential characteristics of identity; difference can result in marginalization, forced assimilation to the group norm, or expulsion. Because identity politics often relies upon the concept of 'culture' to ground group identities, I also examine this concept. When a community's unity derives from its members understanding themselves to share a culture, the maintenance of the culture itself can be conservatizing; the culture can remain closed off from changes as it preserves the "traditional" or "authentic"; furthermore, it can come to be treated as an object outside of the people who live it and as such the changing lived realities of these people--particularly changes that cross lines of identity--do not serve to continually offer new, changing, and ambiguous ways of conceiving of what is shared between members of the community. I argue for the development of group identity that recognizes intersecting group differences, and can permit hybridity or mixed identities. I end by suggesting that for a constitutive community to remain truly constitutive without harming its members through marginalization, forced assimilation to a norm or a shared essence, or stagnation, members must give up the sort of control that maintains the community as a unity.

In this dissertation I argue that reason is nothing more than the term we give to thinking taken to be legitimate. It has no a priori content. Because of this, there is no objective thing called reason which could be accepted or rejected. I argue that Nietzsche's most important contribution to the critique of the Enlightenment is his exposing of reason as a socially constructed discourse of desire. This puts him above the fray of the debates over the acceptance or rejection of reason, and onto what I claim is the more productive terrain of looking at reason as problematic but unavoidable. Irigaray develops this Nietzschian approach to reason in a way that exposes the tendencies of philosophical notions of reason to prevent women from being able to articulate their interests in discourses taken to be legitimate. Through this example of the marginalization of the interests of women, she is also able to help us see just how it is that reason can operate hegemonically. This epistemological perspective lends a certain plausability to Habermas' claim that in the absence of a transcendental ground for a notion of rationality, what we should call rational is a judgment that all participants in a discussion agree is correct. Where Habermas' position becomes problematic is in his insistence that a rational consensus can be distinguished philosophically from a non rational one. It is here that Habermas' position operates to reinforce dominant exclusionary mechanisms. I draw out the implications of this position for looking at feminist in an international context, and argue that we do not need universal notions of what counts as women's liberation to be able to make cross-cultural critical judgments. Rather, what we need to be able to do this is an open ear to the self articulation of the concerns of real women. I argue that critique can be rational if we do not suppose that we can ever have a fixed notion of what counts as rational, but rather if we accept that rationality is a place holder concept for the discourses which we take to be legitimate. From this it follows that the rational is the site of inevitable struggles over legitimation.

<p> Eating disorders are one of the most prevalent and life threatening mental health disorders in the United States today. Most recent statistics estimate upwards of 24 million people in the United States alone are suffering with anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder, among others. Recovery from the disorder is poorly defined and often focuses on physical and behavioral changes, however typically does not explore psychospiritual dimensions of recovery. This constructivist grounded theory study sought to uncover a psychospiritual dimension of recovery through exploring the nature of the experience of self-compassion in those who reported sustained recovery from an eating disorder for over 3 years. Data were gathered through in-depth interviews with 21 women, honoring the cocreative process of meaning-making, guided by the assumption that social reality is multiple, processual, and constructed between researcher and participant. The constructed theory, <i>Self-Compassion Spectrum of Recovery,</i> consists of 9 sequential categories: broken; outside in influence; power and independence; embodiment; self-compassion as action/core experience; recovery through the lens of self-compassion; worthy of healing; healing and wholeness; and self-love. The findings illuminate how the body and embodiment play a central role in recovery along with self-compassion by creating movement toward worthiness, self-integration, and self-love. This study seeks to further advance clinical knowledge in defining recovery beyond the focus on behavioral changes toward whole-person, transformational recovery that is inclusive of body, mind, and spirit.</p>

<p> This study argues that the veneration, romanticization and projection of the feminine in depth psychology is problematic. Depth psychology claims that the masculine and feminine principles exist as archetypes in the collective unconscious. It also claims that these principles are not attached to men and women, yet it coopts imagery that represents the principles in ways that identify them as such, as well as describing certain modes of thinking or acting as definitively masculine or feminine. Specifically, the claim that the masculine principle dominates conscious life results in positing the feminine as a powerful unconscious force, leading to an interpretation of it as transcendent or numinous, revered as a principle needed to heal psychic damage from the overreach of the masculine in patriarchy. This veneration leads to the feminine being romanticized as a panacea for sociocultural ills and projected onto women as carriers of this healing potential. </p><p> This dissertation employs philosophical and depth psychological theories highlighting the relationship between truth, history, myth and fiction to challenge mythopoetic narratives of the feminine and their effect on perceptions of women. Specifically, it uses James Hillman&rsquo;s concept of healing fiction to demonstrate how narratives that result from mythopoetic collusion between psychological fictions are believed as true, and when applied retroactively, are used to reframe historical personal and cultural experiences. The study critiques the comingling of women and the feminine and the resultant essentializing of women by analyzing depth psychology&rsquo;s anima theory, matriarchal and Goddess mythology popularized in the twentieth century, the conflation of women, nature and the feminine in the ecology movement, and narratives implying women&rsquo;s obligation to use the feminine to heal the world. </p><p> The findings of this study call for the lived experience and potential of women to be recognized and valued above fantasies about the feminine. They also suggest that depth psychology&rsquo;s insistence on the masculine/feminine polarization contributes to patriarchal ideology. Finally, they identify the feminine as a psychological fiction that helps the psyche navigate through the sociocultural complexity of patriarchal culture. Keywords: the feminine, healing fiction, women, patriarchy</p>

In this dissertation I argue that self and social transformation attempted by self-change in order to produce and change the material conditions of the human world and the changing of material circumstances, in mutual relations, eventuates only partial change/transformation. I have pointed out that this partial transformation, based on a materialist view of self and social activity, contributes to the continuation of self and social oppression. I have presented empirical evidence for this argument in the case study of Saamstaan women's housing collective in Namibia. By “self-change” or “becoming” active and collective participants in changing material conditions of their lives, that is, securing houses for all members of the collective, they experience a sense of authentic self-change and changing material conditions. Simultaneously, they are faced with the disappointment, frustration, mental disharmony, and oppression both within and the social, when individual collective members choose not to abide by the ideals of sharing labor and paying off loans, once they acquire their houses. Transformation/change is occurring but the process of full liberation from oppression is not. I have pointed out that the contradiction between self and material changes which are assumed to be positive, good, and empowering and the accompanying pain and grief due to individuals' failings to abide by the ideals of the collective arise owing to the unchanged non-material, non-conceptual inner condition of possessive selves. If the self and social transformation is to be free of pain and grief, the approach needs to be one which provides for skills in ensuing material change and skills in letting go of possessive selves. I have presented the Abhidhamma approach as an alternative for bringing about self and social transformation from liberatory space within and the social. While in this dissertation I have extensively discussed inner liberation, it does not privilege inner over social transformation. Rather, this is an approach which considers both inner and outer/social transformation as inseparable and interdependent processes. Thus, I take the position that letting go of possessive self, and self-change and changing of material conditions must occur simultaneously, with equal weight, to achieve full liberation from oppression.

Although popular education efforts developed during the decade of Sandinista government in Nicaragua were singularly successful in promoting literacy and constructing popular power, they were limited by an exclusive focus on class analysis and a masculine epistemological framework. In the deployment of the practice-theory-practice methodology of popular education, the specificities of women's day-to-day experience--centered in both private and public realms, and including subjective as well as "objective" dimensions--were not considered as aspects of that practice or reality. Because reality was not understood dialectically, (a) its transformation was limited to the public sphere, at the expense of challenging inequalities for women in the domestic realm; (b) was concerned only with women's immediate needs, at the expense of the strategic gender needs which must be pursued if women are to overcome their marginalization; and (c) neglected women's intimate, psychological aspects, at the expense of examining sources of rivalry and competition between women so that a new form of "sisterhood" or "power-with" could be developed to replace the verticalism and "power-over" inherent in the male exercise of power. Feminist pedagogy might contribute more to popular education than a modification of content--adding gender consciousness to class analysis, and introducing themes such as the validation and reclaiming of women's bodies in order to deconstruct their subordinated identities. By recognizing the existence of multiple forms of oppression and the complexity of interconnected power relations, this pedagogy has opened pathways toward achieving a holistic approach to confronting oppression by means of educational practices. Using power relations as a point of departure for popular education, regardless of the specific context of any particular group, would allow the development of the critical consciousness, common visions, and collective will to strive for comprehensive equity in social relations.

With the impact of feminism and other liberationist movements of the 1960s and beyond, academic disciplines have faced intensive scrutiny, and re-examination of many of their basic premises and methodologies. Art history is one such discipline. By the 1970s, feminist critique of art history and practices in the art world had brought about the feminist art movement. This movement continues today and has developed and grown in many directions. Artwriting by feminists has proliferated and the literature includes research on female artists, studies on representation of women in art, critiques of texts and other previous artwriting, and discussion on biases, omissions, inadequacies, and the nature of the discipline itself. Attempts at an overview of the movement have focused on discrete issues, events, or histories of developments. Review articles and anthologies have not adequately studied the underlying philosophical and ethical motivations of the movement as a whole. This study considers the over-arching philosophical elements implicit in feminist artwriting. Through a review of the literature, and aspects of general feminist studies and feminist philosophy, particularly ethics, I examine how they contribute to the feminist art movement, and how the movement has changed thinking, teaching and learning about the history of art.

<p> This research asks the question, <i>How does yoga help women heal when coping with divorce?</i> To answer this question, the researcher asked four women to tell their stories through interviews. Those interviews were then synthesized into narratives. The research was completed using the heuristic inquiry method as well as story-telling and photo elicitation. The heuristics method recognizes that the primary researcher has intimate knowledge of the subject. Therefore, the researcher became the fifth participant. Through cross-referencing the five stories, two primary and two secondary themes were uncovered. The primary themes were a connection to nature and the support of a community. The researcher presents the data as stories punctuated with photos self-selected by each participant. The themes are then further explored and corroborated using scholarly literature. This research will assist yoga teachers in supporting their students who are healing during or after divorce. It may also inform teaching practices and curriculum inside yoga classrooms. </p>