<p> How do envisioning dreams like fairy tales inform the therapist&rsquo;s ability to talk with their clients about dreams? Using the research methodologies of heuristics and hermeneutics, the author tended to a dream while enrolled in a graduate program in psychology. He explains his dream as an imaginative story that reflects many of the ideas and concepts of depth psychology. The mythopoetic function of the unconscious is explored in relation to archetypal, historical, and fairy tale figures appearing in the dream, such as Bilbo Baggins, Trickster, Cleopatra, the Dalai Lama, and Frederick Douglass. Threads of depth and applied psychology are woven into the discussion, creating a link between the author&rsquo;s dream and fairy tales. The research suggests that dreams, when envisioned as imaginary tales, are less frightening and more palatable, inviting selfdiscovery and transformation in the process of psychotherapy. </p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Drexel University, 2005. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-107).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2006. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 103 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 86-93).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Western Conservative Baptist Seminary, 1986. / Abstract. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 127-142).

<p> Problem: The literature suggests that religious orientation and ethnic identity inform the religious coping process, which is better understood in the context of a particular stressor. However, research on this topic is limited, particularly among ethnic minorities. </p><p> Method: A survey was used to collect data on religious orientation, ethnic identity, and religious coping from a sample of 319 adults who had lost a significant other within 36 months of the study. A total of 11 variables were measured using The Means-Ends Spirituality Questionnaire, the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure-Revised, and the Brief RCOPE. </p><p> Results: A canonical variate labeled "religious engagement" was a predictor for religious coping. Further analyses using multiple regression found that variables associated with traditional religious expressions (Devotional Spiritual Means), spiritual ends with a transcendental focus (Approach-unseen-autonomous Ends, Avoidance-unseen-external Ends), and Ethnic Identity were relevant predictors of Positive Religious Coping while Transcendental Means was a relevant predictor of Negative Religious Coping. </p><p> A stepwise discriminant analysis found that "ethnic identity and conservative religious orientation" discriminated between ethnic groups. Cases with higher levels of ethnic identity and conservative religious orientation were more likely to be classified as Black/African American or Hispanic/Latino/a, while those with lower levels were more likely to be classified as White. </p><p> Conclusions: When coping with bereavement, individuals who engage in traditional expressions of spiritual worship and strive to achieve ordinary and transcendental spiritual goals are more likely to rely on a secure relationship with the sacred, a belief that life has meaning, and a sense of connectedness with their religious community. Also, individuals who place greater value and emotional significance in their sense of belonging to their ethnic group are more likely to engage in positive religious coping. Thus, counseling psychologists should strengthen their multicultural and spiritual competencies in order to provide ethical and effective services to a population that is increasingly diverse.</p>

<p> Annually, a significant number of clergy burn out, are forced out, or take on the leadership of a congregation that burned out or forced out the previous leader (Beebe, 2007; LaRue, 1996). Previous research has identified congregation types that can lead to conflict (Becker, 1999), congregational characteristics that can lead to congregants' conflict-related exit (Chou, 2008), and the impact of clergy's conflict management style on role termination (Works, 2008), emotional intelligence (Gambill, 2008), and interpersonal conflict (McKown, 2001). The aim of this mixed-method study was to determine (a) if correlations exist among five conflict management styles as exhibited by clergy and the constructs of life satisfaction and religious commitment, (b) if there are negative relationships between clergy who exhibit an avoidant conflict management style and their life satisfaction and religious commitment, and (c) if interviews with clergy who experience congregational conflict will suggest themes that potentially predict conflict between clergy and congregations. North American, Protestant clergy were solicited as the study population (N = 48) with a subsample participating (n = 9) in the qualitative interview. Five hypotheses were developed and investigated. Hypothesis 1 investigated the relationship between clergy's conflict management style and their life satisfaction and could not be supported. Hypothesis 2 investigated the relationship between clergy's conflict management style and their religious commitment and was partially supported. Hypothesis 3 investigated whether clergy who exhibit the avoidant conflict management style will experience lower levels of life satisfaction than clergy who exhibit other styles and was partially supported. Hypothesis 4 investigated whether clergy who exhibit the avoidant conflict style will experience lower levels of religious commitment than clergy who exhibit other styles and could not be supported. Hypothesis 5 investigated whether themes would emerge during interviews with clergy that might act as predictors for future congregational conflict and was supported.</p>

<p> This theoretical dissertation uses a hermeneutic methodology to weave together three strands--ecopsychology, narcissism, and death denial--to explore ecological narcissism, defined as the tendency of humans in technologically advanced cultures to be so self-absorbed as to be unable to see anything in nature except objects that might satisfy their own needs. The study responds to 3 research questions: How is ecological narcissism related to the denial of death? Does ecological narcissism, with its denial of death, play a role in our destruction of the environment? And, how might we mitigate ecological narcissism and renew a more life-sustaining attitude towards death? It posits that beneath the confident, manic fa&ccedil;ade of modern cultures lurks fear of death masquerading as death denial. Ecological narcissism co-arises with this fear as the offspring of human belief in separation from nature. The study examines the theories developed by Berman, Hillman, and Shepard to account for how humanity has come to feel separate from nature. It proposes that ecological narcissism and death denial support us in perceiving nonhuman created environments as a collection of objects devoid of the sentience and subjectivity credited to humans. Such a perceptual orientation is interested in the answer to only one question: Do these objects (which might include elephants, oaks, and oceans) help further human life? If so, we feel free to use them, and if not, we feel free to destroy them. A final conclusion of this study is that one way in which humans might move towards a more life-sustaining attitude towards nature and death is through an increase in direct experience of wilderness "out there" and "in here" (within one's psyche). Practitioners of depth psychotherapy therefore have an opportunity to support a welcoming attitude towards wild forces within and beyond us, which in turn may support a cultural transition from the prevailing attitude of narcissistic entitlement to a maturity recognizing human relationship with all nature.</p>

<p> This study presents an existential-hermeneutic analysis of nine women's first-person accounts of extended periods of solitude. The accounts were analyzed along the five existential dimensions of spatiality, temporality, embodiment, language, and co-existentiality, producing a rich portrait of the women's lived experience of solitude. One of the first-person accounts was provided by the author of the study, who underwent three solitary retreats in the interest of this project, adding an autoethnographic component to the work. Theory from the existential-phenomenological, monastic, ecopsychological, and feminist literatures was applied to the data, enabling us to interpret the significance of the shifts the women experienced through an interdisciplinary set of lenses. The women experienced both subtle and profound shifts in their senses of self and modes of being in the world over the course of their retreats. In the absence of direct human relations, the women developed greater intimacy with things, non-human beings, and the Divine. Through the practice of simplicity, the women cultivated humility and more contemplative modes of seeing, revealing previously hidden contours of the material world and fostering a child-like sense of wonder. By leaving clock time and slowing down, the women became increasingly oriented toward the present moment, entrained to the rhythms of the natural world, and attuned to their desire. By retreating from the gaze of the (human) other, the women worked to heal a sense of alienation from their own bodies, experienced a respite from feminine performativity, and came to move through the world more seamlessly and comfortably. And by observing silence, the women cultivated the ability to listen beyond the human conversation and the chattering of their own minds, developed a more sacred relationship to language, confronted their emotional "demons," and found themselves increasingly drawn toward the poetic. Overall, through their solitudes, the women developed a greater stance of receptivity toward the more-than-human world, deconstructed elements of identity and modes of being aligned with the "false self," and recovered aspects of their lived experience which had been neglected or suppressed over the course of becoming an adult, and especially a woman, in the context of contemporary American culture.</p>

<p> This thesis explores Spanish Christian mystic John of the Cross&rsquo;s concept of the dark night of the soul as a process of conscious suffering that leads to empowerment, meaning in life, and enhanced wholeness. In addition, this thesis considers depth psychological concepts of individuation and Self, and the depth psychological notions of the teleological function of suffering and conscious suffering in relation to the dark night of the soul. The work of C. G. Jung, James Hillman, Thomas Moore, James Hollis, and Barbara Sullivan, among others, is considered. Using heuristic methodology, this thesis presents the story of the author&rsquo;s personal experience in the darkness to illustrate how conscious suffering leads to personal transformation. Finally, the author provides a guideline for therapists working with clients who are experiencing a dark night of the soul.</p>

<p> Exploring a "call" to a place, this work uses the Alchemical Hermeneutic method developed by Robert Romanyshyn, along with elements of Rosemary Anderson's Intuitive Inquiry and Craig Chalquist's Terrapsychology to reflect on the "soul" of a part of Monterey, California, on a hill known to the Rumsen Ohlone people as "Hunukul." With a view of the Monterey Bay, which conceals a mile-deep canyon and provides the environment for the upwelling of a teeming marine life, a portal is found through which to enter the depths of Psyche, both historically and existentially. </p><p> Many groups have met in this place, from the time that the first buildings were erected by a group of Theosophists from Pasadena in 1918 to the current occupation by Saint James Episcopal Church. Young people with disabilities, addicts and alcoholics, people with psychiatric diagnoses seeking expression through art, Zen meditators, Korean evangelicals, and the Monterey Bay Friends of C. G. Jung have all found refuge in the place, and a way to dwell together. </p><p> Archetypal commonalities among these groups are herein explored, including the wounded image of <i>Christos Dionysos</i> (contrasted with the heroic image of <i>Christos Mithras</i>), strong manifestations of women's leadership and power, and an ongoing presence of the shadow of war. </p><p> Rather than postulate a quasi-material soul of this place, the relationship of human psyche and the psychic dimensions of place are seen as part of an ongoing process, the boundaries of which pulse in space and time through the life expressed in this place. Place may not "have" a soul. From one perspective, place may "be" soul.</p>