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This thesis aims to excavate and accentuate the poetics of transgression manifested in Thomas Pynchon¡¦s The Crying of Lot 49 in the light of psychoanalytical theory. The psychoanalytical reading of this novel is indispensable since it provides an illuminating comprehension of the concept of transgression. The idea of transgression refers emphatically to the act of crossing, traversing, or violating boundaries and, more significantly, to the subversion and undermining power latent in the act of transgression. Chapter one offers a general introduction of the historical and cultural context of the novel, the theoretical framework and thesis structure. Chapter two resorts mainly to Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari¡¦s understanding of the unconscious syntheses in Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia to delineate the textual structure, which refers to San Narciso. The city is simultaneously the projection of Pierce Inverarity¡¦s unconscious topography and the projection of capitalist society. The psychic and social registrations are similarly founded on the model of the unconscious syntheses, or, in Deleuze and Guattari¡¦s words, the desiring-machines, manifesting their assertion that there is no boundary between the psychic and the social and the two are both invested by the desire. The underground network of the Tristero otherwise projects an alternative force in contrast to the capitalist dictatorship of Pierce. The Tristero represents the schizophrenia that is produced yet renounced by capitalism and it also stands for the aggressive force that pushes the capitalist machine to its limits. Chapter three analyzes the relation between Oedipa Maas and the city San Narciso. Oedipa represents a bourgeoisie housewife whose ego centrism is cultivated by the narcissistic enclosure of the capitalist society in San Narciso. The permeating aura of narcissism precipitates her paranoia, depriving her of the alternative sight to see the real Tristero. Oedipa¡¦s paranoiac obsession makes her see the Tristero as a simple conspiracy, ignoring its schizophrenic nature. Opposite to such an arbitrary misconception, this thesis attempt to recover the proper character of the Tristero as a hyperreality in the light of Jean Baudrillard¡¦s notion of simulation.

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This essay is a psychoanalytical reading of the Scottish author Muriel Spark’s novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. The protagonist is a charismatic teacher, who is popular among her pupils, but who appears to use her power and position merely in order to manipulate her pupils. It appears that Miss Brodie’s main interest is not her pupils’ academic achievements, but she has a different agenda on her mind. This essay examines the unconscious motives behind the protagonist’s peculiar treatment of her pupils by learning more about what takes place in the human mind, when the individual starts to listen to the sound of defensive mechanisms instead of to the sound of logic.

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Thesis (Ph. D. (Psychology))--Rhodes University, 1997.

Theoretically this thesis was grounded in the discourse of transpersonal psychology and the related discourse of transpersonal feminism. The focus was on a particular category of transpersonal phenomena - past-life experiences. These experiences were viewed from a poetic and therapeutic perspective as being healing stories of the unconscious that served to articulate psychological and spiritual realities of the human psyche within both the personal and the collective unconscious. They were thus not questioned in regard to their literal occurrence. The central aims of this thesis were to (a) document and faithfully describe a participant's past-life experiences that occurred during selected psychotherapy sessions, (b) engage in a hermeneutic dialogue between the participant's past-life experiences and contemporary transpersonal literature, and, in so doing, to evaluate and extend existing theory, (c) uncover the archetypal significance of past-life experience and its relationship to the re-emerging Feminine within patriarchal culture and, finally, (d) show how the past-life stories and images contribute to the process of inner healing and transformation, a process termed 'spiritual emergence'. The research was a phenomenological-hermeneutic case study, comprising the selection of eight consecutive psychotherapy sessions in which nine past-life experiences were identified. These sessions were reduced to narrative synopses, and a hermeneutically grounded thematic analysis of a total of six past-life themes were explicated. Principle conclusions reached were that past-life stories and images contribute to the process of spiritual emergence and empowerment as well as to the re-emergence of the Feminine consciousness. Moreover, as healing stories of the unconscious, these past-life experiences can be understood as expressions of the collective struggle with unresolved archetypal forces within the collective psyche, as well as echoes of personal conflicts and dilemmas from the individual unconscious.

Personality measures were predicted to be susceptible to response distortion above and beyond volitional strategies of impression management. A 2 (Instruction Set) x 2 (Personality Feedback) x 2 (Mortality Salience) factorial design addressed social desirability biases in responding to personality measures. There were significant changes in all measures due to volitional (Fake Good) strategies. Thoughts of death lead to decreased distortion, but only on the measures sensitive to social desirability bias. Mortality Salience interacted with personality feedback, such that test responses were distorted in the opposite direction of the feedback, supporting Optimal Distinctiveness Theory. A significant interaction between Mortality Salience and Instruction Set suggests further attention be given to unconscious distortion in personality scores and that Terror Management Theory incorporate further research on individual differences. / Master of Science