This phenomenological study was conducted in order to understand the everyday experiences of contemporary mystics in the Jewish traditions of Kabbalah. This author could find no available information about psychological research of this topic in psychological, educational or psychiatric databases. She used the applied phenomenological methodology of Howard Pollio and the Research Groups at the University of Tennessee. Interviews were conducted by this author with eight volunteer, living, adult participants who lived throughout the United States and ranged in age from 37 to 60+ years. These mystics were found through various means after they had described themselves, by their own definitions, as mystics in the Jewish traditions(s) of Kabbalah. There were six men and two women who participated; four were Jewish and four were not. The interviews ranged from one to three hours in length, were recorded, and later transcribed for confidential analyses. After analyzing the results, the Ground of the participants’ experience was determined to be Being Aware. The Thematic Structure of the participants’ everyday experiences of living with their mystical events and processes contained six themes: 1) Divine/Sacred, 2) Receiving/Calling/Gift, 3) Knowing/Realizing, 4) Practices/Body, 5)Developing/Stages, and 6) Struggling: Self/Others/World. Implications for this study suggest that the everyday experiences of these mystical participants are different in many ways from everyday experiences of non-mystics. There is some support for the ideas of spiritual intelligence, spiritual giftedness, consciousness advancement. Appreciating intuition, higher emotional states, and the deeper, yet usually hidden parts of human experience, along with learning to identify and support young people who are having mystical experiences is a worthwhile goal for psychologists.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 319-334.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Csikszentmihalyi's (1975b) 'flow' theory has been extensively developed and utilised, providing the leading explanation for positive subjective experiences in the study of leisure. The prescriptive tenets along with the archetypal descriptive characteristics of the flow state have been well documented. What is less explicit, however, is what occurs within experience in the instances immediately prior to the onset of flow and those immediately following: in what the author has come to term as pre-flow and post-flow experience (Elkington, 2006 and 2007). This research approaches the dearth of knowledge concerning pre- and post-flow experience from the perspective of existential-phenomenological psychology with the aim of bringing clarity to the experiential, conceptual, and theoretical uncertainty surrounding what goes before and after a state of flow and with it a more complete and holistic understanding of flow experience. The research explores the intricacies of flow experiences of participants from one activity characteristic of each of Stebbins' (2007a) amateur, hobbyist, and career volunteer serious leisure categories, namely: amateur actors, hobbyist table tennis players, and volunteer sports coaches. Using narrative meaning as an interpretative tool to generate descriptions of the specific experiential situations and action sequences that comprise pre- and post-flow produced a single representative narrative of pre- and post-flow experience, and the first empirical insights into the phenomenology of such phases of experience. Examining flow in the context of serious leisure has revealed there to be significantly more to the act of experiencing flow than depicted in Csikszentmihalyi's (1975b) original framework, re-conceptualising flow as a focal state of mind in a broader experience-process model comprising distinct, intricate, and highly-personalised phases of pre-flow, flow-in-action, and post-flow experience. Combining flow and serious leisure has evoked the affinity of serious leisure activity for flow experience and the discovery that serious leisure and flow are not two disparate frameworks, but are structurally and experientially 'mutually reinforcing' of one another, revealing an explanatory framework of optimal leisure experience. The newly-emerged process view of flow was used to provide insights into the phenomenology of flow in serious leisure, adding to the explanatory capacity of Stebbins' serious leisure theoretical framework. Conflating flow and serious leisure in this way provides for significant and exciting opportunities for knowledge transfer between these two established leisure-related frameworks and signifies new vistas for future research in both fields.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Education / Master / Master of Education

To examine possible links between biophilia (love for living systems) and outdoor adventure training, this study explored various emotional relationships participants developed during Hooksum Outdoor School on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Drawing from phenomenological psychology, ecopsychology, outdoor adventure training, and biophilia literature, I sought to answer the questions (1) if, and how, individuals develop emotional relationships with coastal environments; (2) what role the ocean plays in emotional change; (3) how individuals act in response to their relationships with the coast. Analysis included grouping themes from observation notes, questionnaires, and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of individual interviews. A focus was bringing the researcher into participants' lifeworlds as they experienced the program. Four individual participant stories demonstrate active relationship-building (1) within participants' inner selves; (2) between each other; (3) with the coastal environment. Findings contribute to recommendations for future research, providing insight into how program design can effectively address the biophilia tendency.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Duquesne University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 112-115).

The present study involves an exploration of the phenomenological expenence of posttraumatic growth in the context of a traumatic bereavement. An idiographic case study of a student who had witnessed her mother's death twelve years previously was conducted. Semi-structured interviews elicited data which was analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IP A). Posttraumatic growth was found to have developed with regards to self-perception, relationships, and also in a broader spiritual and existential domain. The findings of this study shed light on the extant posttraumatic growth literature. In particular, findings were discussed in relation to the posttraumatic growth model as proposed by Calhoun and Tedeschi (2006). As posttraumatic growth is a relatively young concept, further research is needed in order to understand the meaning of reported growth more fully. While posttraumatic growth has been investigated in the context of bereavement, future research should distinguish more clearly between growth following traumatic and non-traumatic bereavement. Posttraumatic growth has received minimal empirical attention in South Africa, and therefore exploration of this area is suggested in the future. / KMBT_363 / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / O mote da presente pesquisa é perseguir os sentidos postos em circulação no Rio de Janeiro entre 1945 e 1955 sobre o existencialismo, em especial vinculado às ideias de Jean-Paul Sartre. Fortemente relacionado ao ambiente francês do pós-guerra, o existencialismo aqui é intencionado como produto que passa pelo crivo da carioquice, dialogando, por exemplo, com o carnaval e com as gestões de Vargas e Dutra. Das matérias jornalísticas coletadas em A Manhã e Última Hora, ambos periódicos cariocas importantes na época aqui focalizada, emergem três eixos principais: a encenação do existencialismo no campo político e religioso carioca; a circulação dessa filosofia entre os intelectuais brasileiros, bem como um levantamento das produções culturais conectadas ao existencialismo que circularam pela então capital nacional; e, por fim, a criação de certa moda existencialista no Rio e no país, atrelada a certos papéis de gênero, crimes, vícios, depravação. O que se afirma, afinal, é o quanto o existencialismo que circula pela cidade é menos um ismo de importação, noção presente em uma das matérias de jornal coletadas, do que uma produção também brasileira

O presente estudo realiza um aprofundamento da depressão, convocando as questões existenciais do indivíduo e sua relação com o mundo como uma possibilidade de melhor compreender o seu sofrimento psíquico e suas imbricações com o social hodierno. Inspirando-me na abordagem fenomenológica existencial que muito contribuiu para minha reflexão sobre a depressão, - entendida como um sintoma de crise de sentido da vida - realizei um cruzamento com o trânsito social deste sujeito - como ser-nomundo. A questão se levanta em saber como o homem responde às atuais condições ônticas de seu existir, marcadas por aspectos sociológicos que trazem traços bem delineados no trabalho e que foram nomeados de mecanismos depressivizadores. O modo de afetação deste indivíduo aos aspectos psicossociais da contemporaneidade pode ser entendido como uma resposta à forma como o mundo se lhe apresenta. Desta forma, pode se caracterizar como um modo de desistência - quando o deprimido nega a vida, negando a si mesmo, condicionado a sentimentos de fracasso, insuficiência pessoal, culpa e frustração ou de resistência, quando o deprimido responde ao mundo como um ato de protesto - vivendo em auto-punição, não obstante, estéril, porque paralisa o sujeito diante de outras possibilidades de seu existir. O estudo faz uma peregrinação perquiridora na problematização da depressão que pode ser compreendida, como comentado acima, a partir de uma resistência ou de uma desistência de viver. Finalmente, o estudo desemboca na clínica psicológica como um lugar onde esse indivíduo pode ressignificar seu sentido de vida, ao mesmo tempo em que propõe uma reflexão da clínica da depressão na atualidade. Acredito na importância de uma abordagem fenomenológica existencial deste sujeito, que deve inserir, em sua analítica, um olhar mais acurado, não somente quanto às questões ontológicas do homem, mas, como este indivíduo sendo ser-no-mundo passa a ser atravessado pelos aspectos histórico, cultural e social em seu modo de subjetivação / The present work make deeper of the depression, summon the existence questions of the individual and your world relation, how the possibility for the better to comprehend your psychic pain and yours report with the modern social. With inspiration in the existential phenomenologic approach, what help me too much in my depression reflection, - how the crise of life sense symptom to did realize a intersections with the social transit this individual how being-in the-world. The questions rise in to know how the man in actuality answer a the actuals ontics conditions of your exist marked for the social what bring mark well delineated in the work and what did nominated depressivist mechanism.The mode of affectation this individual for the contemporary psychological-social aspects it may be understanding how a answer for the mode how the world appear to him; may to characterize how a desistance manner when the depressed deny the life, negating yourself, condition at miscarriage sentiment, personal insufficience, guilt and frustration; or the resistance, when the depressed answer for the world how the protest act living in self- punishment. In despite of, this a sterile protest because paralyze the individual in front of another possibility in your exist. The work travelling about in the problematic of the depression what may be comprise how a resistance or desistance of live. At last, the work disembogue in the psychological clinic how a place where this individual may be change your life sense, at the same time, propose a reflection for the depression clinic in the actuality how much the importance at a existential phenomenologic approach this individual what insert in your analytical a look more accurate not other than individual ontological questions, but how this individual being-in the-world pass by historical-cultural-social in your subjectivation mode