<p>This research explores edges, boundaries and borders. Presuming that modern experience is mediated through the negotiation of boundaries that are constructed unconsciously, this work compares, contrasts, employs, and encounters the writings of Carl Jung and Martin Heidegger. It gives attention to the way each thinker deals with the limitations that subject-object metaphysics impose on conceptions of self and other, consciousness, experience, body, psyche, and Being. Combining phenomenological hermeneutics, poetic auto-ethnography, and critical cultural analysis, this work offers a casual but detailed textual analysis of Jung&rsquo;s psychology and Heidegger&rsquo;s philosophy. Adopting the term <i>Edgliness</i>, this dissertation encounters the ambiguous and often contradictory experience of living with boundaries. It is not about theory, nor concepts, nor other containable ideas that are imagined like tangible contents either placed into a vessel called understanding or unpacked with the X-acto knife of comprehension. Instead, it is about concepts that are not easily graspable. One cannot hold on to them. One cannot dissect them or open them up. It is about a kind of methodological order, or a process, or a forming. It is about a way of thinking that emerges when Jung and Heidegger are held up simultaneously alongside one another; about the edges, or seams where two thinkers come together. </p>

<p> This study provides a comparative analysis, using dialectical hermeneutics, of the philosophy of Plotinus and the depth psychology of C. G. Jung. While coming from different historical contexts, they each address the nature of unconsciousness, or the unconscious. This study concentrates in particular on one archetypal aspect of the unconscious that Jung calls the shadow. According to Jung, the shadow is a psychological dynamic that both hides from our awareness certain aspects or depths of our own inner reality, and also, when recognized, mediates our initial confrontation with those fuller realities. The first aim of this study is to analyze Jung&rsquo;s view of the psyche, through the lens of shadow, to reveal the shadow in Jung&rsquo;s work, examining how he denies or disavows metaphysical reality as a legitimate domain of depth psychological inquiry. Secondly, the biographical and historical backgrounds to this shadow are explored, and the potential consequences of it are discussed. Finally, Plotinus&rsquo; ancient perspective on unconsciousness and what he understands as the metaphysics of shadow are brought into dialogue with Jung. The goal is to address the shadow in Jung&rsquo;s work&mdash;what his view of depth psychology denies to depth psychology, offering another way of understanding the psyche, and the shadow in particular, that includes metaphysical reality as a legitimate domain of depth psychological experience and analysis.</p>

<p> Seventeenth Century lens grinder and Dutch philosopher, Benedict de Spinoza, illuminates a rigorous and dynamic theory of knowledge and action in his major system the Ethics. What we learn by adequately learning Spinoza&rsquo;s epistemology is that within it is a proto-physics of ideational force between the three kinds of knowledge expressed by the attribute of thought and, simultaneously, expressed as ratios of motion and rest, speed and slowness, intensity and transformation by the attribute of extension. Such dynamic processes or ways lead to one&rsquo;s capacity for increased rational thought and action, increased uses of creativity, and the enhanced ability to join with others in powerfully effective, affirmative ways. This is Spinoza&rsquo;s proto-physics of force. The outcome of the enhanced ideational force and extensive action includes an increase in one&rsquo;s overall singular conatus, the capacity for continuous understanding, and perseverance, joy and energy, not only for oneself but also for the benefit of all of Nature. In the end, Spinoza rigorously demonstrates that all of Nature is one organic substance with infinite varieties of expressive power. We are singular, conscious expressions of that power in our own determinate ways. Our mind does not have ideas, it is ideas, and our ratios of motion and rest expressed in extension are multiple yet maintain a homeostatic balance for bodily integrity and comportment. Combined, the two attributes create affects that influence the increases and decreases in our power of continued thought and action. Affects cannot be explained by any theory of representation. Spinoza&rsquo;s dynamic epistemology requires such an understanding. In the end, Spinoza&rsquo;s ethology involves an enhancement in our ability for creativity and experimentation as well. Such expressions and affects are not possible without other minds and bodies, but they are also not possible without a singular power and enhanced capacity for increasing ideational power and rational conscious reflection. As Paulo Freire writes, &ldquo;Liberating education consists in acts of cognition, not transferrals of information.&rdquo; For Spinoza, acts of enhanced cognition (and thus action) are increases in our overall conatus through continued understanding of natural phenomena. Our love of Nature (or God) is transformed into actions of real living experiences, joy and levity, peace of mind, and an acute interest in all expressions of the laws of Nature. Still, we cannot possibly approach or exhaust the totality of causal processes and effects in Nature. In our awareness of this fact, we are transformed to create and understand our individual human affects and relations with other bodies in our environments towards freedom of thought, happiness, and safety while living amidst a diversity of interests and desires.</p>

<p> This hermeneutic study employs the theoretical lens of James Hillman&rsquo;s archetypal psychology to re-imagine Friedrich Nietzsche&rsquo;s writings as a polytheistic odyssey, that is to say, as a daring journey into the unknown, informed by an array of archetypal perspectives, each represented by a specific Greek god or goddess. Nietzsche, it is argued, anticipated archetypal psychology, most notably in his employment of the Greek gods, Apollo and especially Dionysus. This study builds on Nietzsche&rsquo;s limited archetypal field, and considers other gods and goddesses essential to his thought and writing&mdash;deities that until now have remained largely unconscious factors. Two gods in particular, Hermes and Ares, are singled out and subjected to extensive analysis. The study specifically explores how these two gods contribute to the experience of reading Nietzsche and also help address the problem of personal alienation. The odyssey begins with Nietzsche&rsquo;s notion of the death of god, understood psychologically as the loss of an ultimate source of meaning and values. This loss can lead to a profound sense of alienation; however, it also opens up the possibility of discovering new archetypal perspectives, and thereby new ways of meaningfully connecting to life. The study concludes that Hermes, as boundary-crosser and connection-maker, and Ares, in his capacity to fight through adversity and destroy outdated monotheistic structures, play essential roles in this process.</p><p>

<p> People make important first impression judgments of the trustworthiness of strangers every day and in many settings. This study investigated whether ethnic background and age of the observer affected first impressions drawn solely from the physiognomics, the nonverbal facial cues, of the stranger. The researcher extended the methodology used by Xu et al. to two groups of 36 Chinese-American and Caucasian-American senior females over the age of 53 in Phoenix, Arizona. The women used a 9-point Likert scale (from very untrustworthy to very trustworthy) to evaluate photographs modified by FaceGen software of 150 Caucasian, Asian, and African-American and Hispanic men and women of varied ages. The results supported prior findings that ethnic background did not affect trustworthiness evaluations, but age did. The two ethnic groups showed no significant difference in their evaluations: the mean Chinese-American evaluation was 5.81 (SD = 1.06), and the mean score for Caucasians was 5.33 (SD = 1.37). Both groups showed a statistically significant linear correlation between age and mean trustworthiness scores (r = -.38, p = .001). As age increased, trustworthiness scores decreased. This negative correlation between age and trust differed from findings of prior research that older adults are somewhat more trusting than younger adults. There is a need for additional research to determine how age and other demographic factors affect first impressions of trustworthiness from physiognomic characteristics.</p>

<p> In <i>Surviving Death</i>, Mark Johnston claims we can trace the persistence of others and ourselves in simple and offhand ways that are criterionless--that do not depend on the use of sufficient conditions for cross-time identity. According to Johnston, we offload the question of persistence onto substances. Furthermore, Johnston claims, if we are able to trace others and ourselves by way of offloading, then neo-Lockean accounts of personal identity fail. According to Johnston, personal identity depends on how concern is directed rather than psychological continuity. </p><p> In this thesis, I respond to Johnston's arguments against neo-Lockeanism presented in <i>Surviving Death</i>. I argue that Johnston's account of offloading misinterprets research in cognitive science and developmental psychology. While we may trace some objects non-conceptually, it is implausible that we could trace persons in the manner Johnston claims. In addition, I argue that Johnston's concern based account of personal identity is problematic. </p>

<p> This hermeneutic phenomenological study explores the role of the sacred in engendering the courage to be embodied in adult survivors of severe sexual abuse. It adopts an interdisciplinary approach to depth psychology and mystical theology that utilizes the theories of D. W. Winnicott, C. G. Jung, and T. Merton to illuminate the dynamics of embodiment in clinical practice, focusing primarily on the clinical dyad. Through exploring the similarities and differences between potential space and creativity (Winnicott), the Self and Psyche (Jung), and the Trinity and the Holy Spirit (Merton), this study establishes that the spirit and the body is a false dichotomy; therefore, the sacred should enhance the courage to connect more deeply with the body, not less. This study further demonstrates that the body is critical to the development of healthy subjectivity, and that the sacred should never be used as a means to dissociate from the body. This study concludes that hope, faith, and love fuel the capacity for courage in both patient and clinician, and in the third area that is co-created between them. The sacred participates through nurturing hope, faith, and love by appearing as images, affects, and synchronicities, which thereby presents the clinician with a delicate task: How best to bring such manifestations to the patient&rsquo;s awareness in order to nurture healthy embodied subjectivity in the survivor of severe sexual abuse. </p>

<p> The thesis that perceptual experience is transparent has received considerable air-time in contemporary philosophy of mind and perception. Debate over its truth-value has reached an impasse. I diagnose this mired debate, and pursue a reformulation of the &ldquo;transparency thesis&rdquo; such that it can be more readily evaluated form the perspective of perceptual psychology and related subdisciplines. I argue that the empirical methods characteristic of these disciplines are important for evaluating the transparency thesis. Both historical and contemporary empirical results but substantial pressure on the transparency thesis.</p>

This thesis argues that the neglected images of the history of science, found in the western alchemical tradition, provide a unique resource for thinking about same-sex union. It provides an opportunity to re-examine the cultural appropriation of these images, used by Jungian psychoanalysis and Evolian traditionalist metaphysics, which deny the validity of same-sex union and homosexuality. By adopting Foucauldian methodologies and using his effective historical, archaeological and genealogical approaches, the thesis argues that there is a silent secondary discourse supported through alchemical imagery that celebrates male same-sex union. The thesis shows how alchemy can be seen as a counter-memory to the dominant regime of sexual-union. By integrating Foucault and the suppressed alchemical images of the Solidonius manuscript with its unique all-male union I argue that this manuscript is a contemporary to Jung's seminal exploration of the Rosarium Philosophorum from which Jung, and Evola, outline the basis of a compulsive heteronormativity in their respective individuation and intiatic techniques. The thesis challenges the existing denial of same-sex union manifesting through identity politics and same-sex marriage. Chapter 1 demonstrates the problem and paradox of the internalized image of the hermaphrodite of Jung and Evola. It outlines a framework of etymological and phenomenological language which is used to critically expose the sui generis claims of the hermaphrodite's role in denying same-sex union. Chapter 2 provides the historical contextualization of the alchemical images, tracing the hermaphrodite trope through four successive phases. These are the philosophical, the alchemical (proper), the hermetic and the psychic. Finally, chapters 3 and 4 combined the alchemical symbols and Foucauldian critical perspectives to develop a reclamation of alchemical same-sex union. Although Foucault dismissed the value of alchemy, this integration offers an original reconceptualization that has the potential to impact directly on the internalized lives of those participating in same-sex identity politics today.

<p> This dissertation explores the analogical complexity of the soul's unfolding mythos within human consciousness as it mediates and constellates creative psychic impulses into the form of mythic narrative. This study argues how, through its fundamentally poetic, narrative action, the epical soul reciprocally seeks its own development as it raises human consciousness to the larger ground of its being, with its consequent healing of the human soul. </p><p> Depth psychotherapy accords to a mimetic pattern of soul that contains an epic sensibility in its power to differentiate, then integrate, the full dimensions of psychic life. The purpose of this essentially poetic journey is to amplify human awareness of the imaginal soul and its guiding principals in reviewing one's personal and ancestral past. It conveys how literalized stories of human life can be deconstructed and re-mythologized through the eyes of the soul. </p><p> The complexity of the soul's mythopoetic impulse constructs a world of personal meaning based in divine purpose for the individual; it also bridges one to a larger sense of communal order. Such an expansive mythic vision unleashes a flow of healing energy. With such healing, compassionate energy spirals out, enriching communal life and connecting us to the world. </p><p> Throughout the dissertation, an image of the giant sequoia tree is used as a symbol of an expanded form of consciousness and that carries the narrative essential to the human soul. It serves as a guiding metaphor to demonstrate the transformation of one's painful past into a fictional, healing narrative. Deeply rooted in the soul's soil of significance, every ring of one's personal history carries the ghostly stories of ancestors and cultural history that, when deeply explored and explicated, impart meaning to one's journey and the aspirations of an ensouled spirit. </p><p> This theoretically-informed dissertation employs a phenomenological hermeneutic as its methodological approach. As an interdisciplinary study, the work weaves together literary criticism, depth psychology, and mythological studies in support of its argument. Clinical material is used to illustrate the depth psychotherapeutic dynamics and how the soul heals through that process.</p>