Dissertation Title:
Encountering the Minotaur: Archetypal Reflections from a Former Alternative High School Teacher
Candidate:
Encountering the Minotaur: Archetypal Reflections from a Former Alternative High School Teacher
Date, Time & Place:
July 21, 2015 at 2:00 pm
Studio, Lambert Road Campus
Abstract
This inquiry follows several threads: Adolescence as an archeytpal complex; manifestations of trauma and countertransferential responses in the alternative high school classroom; and resistances to self-transformation, the hallmark of heuristic self-search inquiry. Guiding questions address the necessary, ethical, and compassionate practice of honoring a mythopoetic approach and the imaginal field in the alternative high school classroom. Using a heuristic self-search inquiry approach, research was conducted in four nonlinear and nonchronological phases: immersion, acquisition, realization, and synthesis. The inquiry can be viewed as a poetic reverie of the author���s transformative journey of healing from personal trauma by encountering and working through resistance. Alternately, the inquiry can also be viewed as an example and extended praxis of archetypal reflectivity, a professional development practice that fosters mythopoesis in education.
Held within the metaphoric framework of the myth of Dionysos, including motifs of Ariadne���s Thread, Duende, and the archetype of indestructible life, the research is presented as a journey through the Passages of the labyrinth to a final encounter with the Minotaur. The concluding chapter includes a psychoanalysis of the author���s journey, identifies unconscious countertransferential responses in the classroom which curtailed effective student progress, and argues that nuturing the archetypal Adolescent plays a vital role in our humanity.
Note
All oral defense attendees must shuttle to the Lambert Road Campus from the Best Western Hotel in Carpinteria. Parking on campus is not available.
- Program/Track/Year: Depth Psychology, Track J, 2006
- Chair: Dr. Alexandra Fidyk
- Reader: Dr. Jennifer Freed
- External Reader: Carl Leggo
- Keywords: Adolescence, Dionysos, Trauma, Alternative Education, Mythopoesis, Archetypal Reflectivity
