<p> As our war veterans are growing in exponential numbers, so also are their psychic wounds in need of urgent treatment. This qualitative study explores the lives of three war veterans using a narrative-inquiry methodology, informed by their personal creations: a century-old photographic archive, a published novel, a memoire, interview transcripts, military and photography historians' accounts, and recently declassified documents in the National Security Archive of The George Washington University. The researcher addressed the questions: What are the main themes and functions of the coresearchers' self-expressive works? Can the creative process assist in restorying the lives and reconstructing the relationships of individuals? Can such works include those constructed from living memory, as well as those from the past? </p><p> Participants included World War II veteran Captain Arthur Enderlin, U.S.N.R, (deceased), former Chief, Office of Telecommunications, National Security Agency; and Vietnam War army veterans, "Harry George," Lieutenant Colonel, retired, former infantry company commander, 6/31 Infantry Battalion/9<sup> th</sup> Infantry Division; and "Mr. Tu," regulatory policy analyst, Federal Civil Service Grade GS-15, Sergeant (E-5), Delta Company 3/187 Infantry Batallion/101st Airborne Division. </p><p> The intensive in-depth research process illuminated the creative healing journey of psyche, coconstructed by both the researcher and the participants. The relational approach and sensibility integrated Jungian analytical psychology, self-psychology, and other contemporary thought in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. The outcome supports that creating and expressing "new" life narratives support (a) new self-construction born from fragments, (b) relationship construction, and (c) recovery from trauma. In their interviews and writings, the Vietnam War army veterans echoed themes from their life journeys and healing from trauma, which supported and validated those of the third coresearcher's nonverbal photographic narrative. The researcher employed visual reading and professional curating practices to reach a cohesive understanding of the life narrative of Arthur Enderlin. </p><p> The researcher combined approaches in an innovative synthesis which will be valuable to clinical and depth psychotherapists and researchers as avenues for future narrative inquiry using photographic images, writings, and creative modalities with patients and their families. The results and implications will also be accessible to individuals and groups tending to victims of diverse trauma, visual-literacy scholars, archivists, and historians. </p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:3588553 |
| Date | 30 October 2013 |
| Creators | Enderlyn Laouyane, Allyn |
| Publisher | Pacifica Graduate Institute |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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