Mythological Studies Dissertations

Crofts, Mary L.  Down into the abyss, up into the shelter: My journey to rockart/ists of the lower pecos region of texas. 2006.

Kumelos, Rae A. //Feathered Grace: Animal Guides in Mythology, Literature, and Life//. 2005. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2005. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3222031|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1176531641&sid=3&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]].

<<<
''Abstract''
The Greek word for soul is psyche , which also translates as breath, the divine breath that animates all living things. Birds, as animal guides in myth, serve as a powerful connection to the soul; the very nature of a bird's movement is to swim in the divine breath, air. If, as the ancient Greeks maintain, the soul too is part of this divine breath, then it has a special relation to the winged animals that inhabit the element of air.

Mythology can be defined as a narrative that carries one back and forth between this world and a timeless otherworld, and also as a vehicle for archetypal patterns that serve as reflections of our own inner nature. These archetypal patterns provide a blueprint for each individual's journey toward apotheosis, a connection with one's own divine essence, the soul. The heroes of myth consistently experience a transcendent life-altering experience with the divine through their archetypal journeys, through the core elements of shamanism, and most importantly, through the guidance and inspiration of winged animals, including swan, turkey, vulture, and dove.

Celtic, Greek, Roman, Navajo, Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, Jewish, and Christian mythologies and literary traditions reveal the essential role of the winged animal helper in achieving a wholeness and harmonic balance of the individual and community. With special attention to Marie Louise von Franz's depth psychological finding that the advice of the animal helper is essential to human success, study of the shaman's role in relationship to animals in each selected culture, and analysis of the appearance of animals that provide the necessary guidance in the Call to Adventure stage of the heroes' journeys, it is clear a relationship of mutual respect and harmony between animals and humans is an essential component to a spiritually fulfilled and inspired life.

The study concludes with recent stories of winged animals and their effects on the lives and psyches of contemporary individuals. Today, as in the ancient myths, their presence, whether in our homes, backyards, or the wilderness, is a reminder that the inspiration of the animal helper is only a breath away.
<<<

Strong, Laura //Psychopomp Stories: Contemplating death in a spiritual diverse society//. 2005. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2005. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3211961|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1126759531&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]].

<<<
''Abstract''
Humans have always wondered what survives the death of the body and how it makes the transition from this existence to the next. Imagined solutions have become embedded in many of the world's mythological tales, religious texts, and sacred narratives. Psychopomps, which act as escorts to the afterlife, appear repeatedly throughout these stories and are the focus of this exploration.

The idea of an eternal psyche or soul that can be guided at the time of death was once a common concept in the West. Rites of passage, including the Eleusinian Mysteries and the bedside reading of Ars Moriendi (Art of Dying) literature, assured people there was life after death and a guide would be there to assist them. Yet, a number of historical events created an atmosphere where death became such a taboo in the mid-twentieth century that even "terminally ill" patients were not told they were dying. The accompanying shift towards prolonging life at all costs created new fears and anxieties, and now leaves many underprepared to face their final journey.

Over the past few decades, many have worked to reverse this trend. At the same time, psychopomps have been reemerging in the collective imagination through such means as Jungian depth psychology, The Tibetan Book of the Dead , shamanism, near-death experiences, and the work of psychics, mediums, channelers, and other contemporary explorers.

To gain a better understanding of these compassionate guides, this work examines the archetypal attributes of the Greek god Hermes, as well as psychopomps from other cultures. These include Barnumbir, the Australian Morning Star; the Aurora Borealis of Labrador Eskimos; Anubis, Egypt's jackal-headed god; Daena, the Zoroastrian self-guide; the Valkeries of Northern Europe; the Japanese Bodhisattva Jizo; angelic beings including Islam's Azrail and the Christian Archangel Michael; and various animal guides.

I believe psychopomps are returning to our consciousness at this time to lead our multicultural and spiritually diverse society towards a better relationship with death. Consequently, I conclude with a discussion of the "mythological advantage" of sharing archetypal images and stories in an effort to expand such difficult discussions as the transition to the afterlife.
<<<

Estelle, Jane C. //Taking bad girl lessons: On the role of disobedience and archetypal encounter//. 2005. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2005. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3211952|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1126760131&sid=8&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]]).

<<<
''Abstract''

The first decade of life is a time of impossible courage. We are underlings in every way&mdash;the smallest, the least experienced, the most malleable of creatures. Yet, it is from this bantam position that we face trauma, engage an outside world, and move valiantly into challenges or instinctively hide from things too large, all in an inmate response to our imperative for survival.

This dissertation honors these movements of childhood, particularly the strivings of little girls, for autonomy in the face of familial and cultural injunctions that seek to goad them into predictability and limitation. Further, this work asserts that it is in our very disobedience that the clues to our truest natures reside; for in our intransigence, we champion uniqueness&mdash;those aspects of our natures that demand our loyalty and our effort because they are the truths that set us apart.

The theoretical portion of this work proposes that in the 1950s, the largely unquestioned and unchallenged notions of women as caregivers created a "good girl agenda" which modulated and directed female behavior in white, middle-class America. The Christian interpretation of the myth of the archetypal child provided both the restrictions and the hope for mothers of that era, who projected their unlived hopes and dreams upon their daughters. Because the cultural restrictions were so solidly in place, employment of the energies of the archetype of the trickster&mdash;breaking of existing structures, opening individuals and cultures to new possibilities, and creation of new consciousness-became a necessary antidote to cultural insistence upon virtuous homogeneity.

Disobedience and archetypal encounter inform the production portion of this dissertation. Four pieces of fiction illustrate a little girl's defiance, her punishment, and her ensuing encounters with four immutable figures from Western myth&mdash;Artemis, fierce protector of childhood; Lilith, exemplar of ownership of one's senses; Hephaestos, creative worker; and Hermes, clever prototype of self-sufficiency. Each encounter provides support for what girls and women already intuit: the power of subversion and of story in re-imagining oneself.
<<<

Juhasz, Zena //The soul's journey: a mythic imagining of exile and the return home//. 2005. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2005. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3222027|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1176531861&sid=10&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]].

<<<
''Abstract''

By deciphering a pattern to the soul's journey over historical and even prehistorical time, this dissertation unearths the fine impressions left by the footfalls of soul, to divine where soul is today and where she may be leading us. The body of this work traces the soul's wanderings from her birthing into human consciousness to her apparent absence from our industrialized and technological world today. It names, defines and creates a topography of the soul's exile and speaks to the telos of the soul's journey as the evolution of human consciousness and as the conjunctio of the individual soul with the soul of the world. Working from a survey of stories&mdash;mythological, philosophical, historical, psychological, and scientific&mdash;this study leads her reader to imagine that the soul's presence in the world today, paradoxically, is felt as her absence. Therefore, the notion that soul is both in exile and at home in the world has provided the springboard from which I entered this work on the soul's opus, challenging me to think about the soul anew, from the perspective of seeing exile as soul.

This study also understands that historically the soul has moved toward psychic integration in two ways: the first is the hunter path, which moves outward into the world in its bid for conscious union with the world at large; and the second is the planter path, which moves downward into self, in its desire for self-actualization. This study, however, finds that either path alone is only partially instructive of the way home. We have gained enough perspective of the human journey to recognize, if we wish, that the two paths of being ensouled are two sides of an archetypal whole; that each path has been experienced historically and predominately in exclusion of the other; and that each has been largely forgotten, repressed, demonized or dismissed. If, as Jung understands, birthing a "new level of being" requires a confrontation of opposites, and if our conscious participation is what soul inevitably longs, then the path home may very well be the path into exile.
<<<

Perrah, Anne S. //The temenos of imagination: Childhood's imaginal fields//. 2006.Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2006. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3247251|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1257795261&sid=8&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]].

<<<
''Abstract''

This dissertation is a co-creative inquiry with children into the vital, mythopoetic relation between Story and Imagination in Childhood. As a cultural intervention production, it explores directly the ways in which children learn who they are and who they, and we as the human family, are to become. Imagination is pre-eminently the realm of the child, and meaning-making in humans is innate: we each story ourselves into being . As children live along the ecological boundaries between the collective unconscious and consensus reality, theirs is yet a world of poetic possibility.

Utilizing theoretical analysis of writers that include James Hillman, C. G. Jung, Thom Hartmann, and Edith Cobb, as well as personal narrative derived from forty years of Montessori work with children from around the world, I have developed an applied research which advances a mythopoetic view of Childhood's intuitive connection to the soul of the world. It questions the consensus reality regarding Childhood from several vantage points: when we invite children to actively and authentically engage with the natural world in their process of storymaking ( mythopoiesis ) and storytelling (narrative), and when we empower them to engage playfully in imaginal worlds of humanity's past or present, what are possible insights and creative outcomes? What timeless stories need re-visioning? What new stories need telling?

The production portion of this work, including a narrative CD and a Video Pilot and three Folded Spiral books, focuses on children as meaning-makers within a specific application of Thom Hartmann's profound and prophetic metaphor for ADD/ADHD: "Hunters in a Farmer's World." My "Imaginary Islands" project affords insights into the ubiquitous "Hunter/Farmer" paradigm and suggests further research toward re-visioning the dynamic role that Imagination's Childhood plays in storying our world. My conclusion: adults are called as elders to consciously honor children's capacity for world-making and meaning-creation. For the sake of a viable future, we deeply need their sense of wonder and their gnosis , their stories, and the re-enchantment their stories bring to life.
<<<

~McReynolds, Rae M. //Wyoming: Between a Rock and a Heart Place//. 2005. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2005. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3211953|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1126760071&sid=17&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]].

<<<
''Abstract''
The point of departure for this dissertation was the call, thirteen years ago, to return to Wyoming, the place where I was born, and discovering the lifegiving importance of having done so. C. G. Jung's notion, archetype of place, is central to this work. His phrase suggests that archetypes, fundamental patterns of history and energy, inhabit places and affect the people who live there. Questions begin to arise: What is it about certain places that calls to us? Do they sometimes wish we would leave them alone? What is the meaning of home? Of sacred space?

The dissertation responds to these questions via three personal and creative essays about Wyoming places: "The Big Empty" focuses upon the Powder River Basin and the incursion of coalbed methane development there. "Tongues of Fire" relates a geothermally active place on the Tongue River, a crucible that embodies the alchemist's maxim, "The fire must always burn slowly and should be kept low." "Heart of Stone" relates a pilgrimage to Heart Mountain and explores the geology, history, and topography of this place, whose mystery is captured by the Buddhist koan: "The heart of stone from which all compassion flows."

The essays discover and express archetypal forms, or elementary ideas, inhabiting each of these places. In doing so, the dissertation fuses archetypal theory with other disciplines: geology, ecology, history, politics, and economics. A theoretical commentary then elaborates upon underlying themes: the other, alchemy and active imagination, and detachment.

The notion of the duality of archetypal forms lies at the heart of this work: Everything contains its opposite. Thus, if I experience Wyoming as a place of physical beauty, solitude, and slowness, I may expect to experience it also as lonely, isolated, and as a place where beauty is destroyed. This understanding in turn suggests that changes in beloved places are inherent in the nature of matter itself. The dissertation suggests how to inhabit such disequilibrium, and how to live "between a rock and a heart place" in a way that is vital and compelling.
<<<

Landau, Marcia A. //A Jungian Commentary On Thomas Hardy’s Novels, Return Of The Native, Tess Of The D'urbervilles, And Jude The Obscure//. 2001.Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2001. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3060746|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=764677791&sid=5&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]].

<<<
''Abstract''
The purpose of this study was to examine Attention Deficit Disorder from a Jungian perspective. Carl Jung's theory postulates that individuals have both a dominant psychological function through which they operate in the world as well as individual preferences among functions.

The study examined children who were diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder to determine their dominant Jungian function and to further examine whether they specifically preferred the intuitive function. My clinical experience indicated that these children operated intuitively much of the time.

The study examined the responses of 40 ADD children. Each child was given two pen and pencil tests. Each set of parents was also given a pen and pencil test. The Conners' Parent Scale was given to the parents to reconfirm the diagnosis of ADD. In addition this instrument was able to give information about specific behavioral problems from which ADD children frequently suffer.

The tests administered to the children were the Murphy Meisgeier Type Indicator and the Eysenck Personality Inventory. The first of these tests was administered to determine children's dominant Jungian function. The second of these tests was administered to determine the degree of extroversion and emotionality of these children.

Although not statistically significant, the results suggests that ADD children do have a tendency to prefer the intuitive function as their dominant function. A statistically significant number of ADD children did prefer the intuitive function over the sensing function when tested with the Murphy Meisgeier Type Indicator. It was also of interest to note that the behavioral problems often associated with Attention Deficit Disorder remained consistent from ages six through twelve.
<<<

Hendrickson, Jane A.  //A focus on the fire: Reawakening the imaginal through mytho-ceramic experiences//. 2002. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2002. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT  [[3074954 | http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=765170941&sid=10&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]]).

<<<
''Abstract''
This production dissertation is quasi-experimental, with the aim of developing pedagogical methods for high school art teachers. Incorporating mythic themes with the creative process, it establishes a basis on which to build a curriculum for the arts that employs the depth psychology process of active imagination. The goal is the students' personal growth through explorations in clay and myth.

The dissertation study included a workshop (A Focus on the Fire) with ten participants (including the author as participant and guide) engaged in mytho-ceramic activities as a self-discovery process over a ten-month period. The activities included research, writing, dance movement, art installations, and ritual, as well as the process of constructing and firing artworks molded in clay. The use of the kiln was an instrumental part of the process, establishing a link to beliefs and practices in Ancient Greece. Finished masks and body cast forms were exhibited at a concluding ritual that celebrated the transformation and rebirth of participants in identity with the first potter, the goddess Aruru.

Fundamental to this work are C. G. Jung's Active Imagination uniting Psyche (soul, mind) and Soma (body); the feminine principle of The Great Mother archetype (vessel = body = world); and the idea of psychological wounding. Inner and outer wounding, comprising the mythic landscape of the body, were represented in the body casts. Individual identification with mythical personae introduced through Active Imagination was represented in the masks.

The workshop provided a better understanding of the mytho-ceramics process and its meanings, e.g., body wrapping as "mummification" leading to transformation and new life. The validity of applying mythological sources to personal experience is confirmed in the writings of the women themselves as well as in the beauty of their artworks.

The concluding chapter discusses mytho-ceramics in the broader framework of secondary education. It suggests that educators redefine the arts as a means to students' acquisition of intra- and interpersonal skills. It calls for those of us who are teachers (with the full support of school authorities) to become participants in the whole life of the child by sharing their own lives and growth across our woundedness.
<<<

Pye, Lori L. //A mythological perspective on the hero: A treatise on human violence//. 2002. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2002. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3067636|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=764991411&sid=2&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]].

<<<
''Abstract''

Devotees of Dionysus. Queer Culture in the United States , is production-style dissertation exploring the mythic, ritualistic, psychological qualities of the Dionysian archetype as they relate to modern-day queer men. Many queer men have been exploring their history and their mythology in search of an understanding and a purpose for their difference. I am arguing that for queer men, the Dionysian archetype and mythology provide the best model for understanding the homosexual lifestyle and consciousness. For queer men already, consciously and unconsciously, have played with this energy as being an "other," apart from the a larger heterosexual world; have displayed acts of revolution and liberation from confines of heterosexuality; have been involved in drama, drag, and camp; and have been linked to the process of death and dying confronting teen-age suicide and the HIV pandemic. This dissertation uncovers the shadow and light-side contributions that queer men make in the world, wielding the energies of the Dionysian archetype as an expression of queer soul. Dionysian qualities such as liberation, revolution, excess, ecstasy, dance, sex, orgy, drunkenness, drugs, drama, drag, death, and dismemberment all account for the life experiences of many of its devotees. Devotees of Dionysus bring to light the qualities and nature of queer soul, not only for the queer community but for the larger heterosexual community as well. Following this historical, mythological, and archetypal exploration into the Dionysian archetype will be an archetypal play called A Twi§t of Hair , which parallels and illustrates the Dionysian, in relation to queer life. Inspired by Euripides' The Bacchae, A Twi§t of Hair , not only provides an example of the archetype, but once performed, becomes a ritual in honor of the god and his queer devotees.
<<<

Faris, Barbara A. //A mythological study of Clare of Assisi: A medieval woman for the twenty-first century (Saint Clare of Assisi)//. 2003. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2003. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3084879|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=765376191&sid=10&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]]).

<<<
''Abstract''

The Catholic hagiographical myths surrounding Clare of Assisi describe a woman of extraordinary virtue and superhuman perfection. Little is known about her influence in changing the course of history during her own feudal times, and her spiritual legacy to women and men who long for inner understanding. For eight hundred years Clare has stood in the shadow of the charismatic personality of Francis of Assisi. However, in recent years there is a growing number, particularly in the Franciscan tradition, who seek to know more of the life and spirituality of Clare.

This study is mythological in approach and uses history, depth psychology, and literature to interpret Clare's life and her extant writings. The introductory chapters offer the academic framework upon which a later topical study builds. Psycho-mythology, which depends upon an expanded use of active imagination, undergirds elements of the personal content incorporated into the study. Legends, dreams, and visions share insights with historical fact and rational investigation, in order to portray a Clare who uniquely contributed to the storehouse of human history and wisdom.

An examination of Clare's historical setting in the feudal times undergirds a topical study which is based upon four elements in Clare's practical application of love: contemplation, community, poverty, and union. These topics allowed this study to investigate Clare's life from an empirical standpoint and an imaginal hermeneutic. The historical and mythical intermingled.

A new Clare emerged as the study progressed. She is a woman who fits into the twenty-first century. She practiced a contemplation in keeping with the fast pace of modern society, developed a style of leadership-of-the-many, lived a simple life-style which frees the overindulged, and espoused a manner of relationship which tenders affection to the individual while strengthening the bonds of the communal. She tended the soul and loved being human.

The appendix offers a means of a further development of Clare's story. It incorporates the theater's use of a Duologue to give voice to her message. I hope it will be heard.
<<<

Wright, Jacob I. Privileging Logos: The Myth of the western world view. 2006.

Knowles, Debra S. //Along a path apart: Conflict and concordance in C. G. Jung and Martin Heidegger]]//. 2002. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2002. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3065324|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=764925591&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]].

<<<
''Abstract''

The Swiss psychologist C. G. Jung and the German philosopher Martin Heidegger were two outstanding twentieth-century figures who made significant contributions to a Western understanding of what it is to be human. Their lives overlapped by some seventy years, during which time they revisioned their fields with unconventional thinking: Jung by returning the notion of soul to psychology; Heidegger by deconstructing a philosophical tradition based on a subject-object split and a forgetting of Being. Heidegger's struggle to open the Western mind to another way of understanding truth parallels Jung's struggle to convince the West of the reality of the psyche. The radical approaches of both thinkers involved expanding the boundaries of their respective disciplines to incorporate each other's fields. Both were deeply concerned about the fate of humanity, warned about the dangers of an unexamined life, and sought urgently to communicate to others a sense of a crucial forgotten something intimately linked to human purpose and destiny. Both abjured metaphysical dogmatism, scientific reductionism, and one-sided intellectualism that either ignored or denigrated the poetic, the mythic, the mysterious. Both adopted phenomenological and hermeneutical approaches to their work, both were drawn to Eastern teachings, and both made a central place in their work for the gods, the religious, the holy. Both were among the leading deconstructors of the prevailing onto-theological myth, as well as creators of modern myths which share key aspects.

Yet despite these and other important and deep parallels, despite their proximity in time, space, and interests, despite their yearning for like company, Jung and Heidegger never met, never directly collaborated, never directly influenced one another. Thus they present the interesting case of two major personalities producing large and influential bodies of work, one (Jung) openly hostile to the other; one (Heidegger) virtually ignoring the other, working relatively independently, yet often in accord against the predominant worldview. This dissertation argues that this non-meeting would have been a mere historical curiosity were it not for the fact that this dubious tradition of mutual antipathy and ignorance has largely continued to the present day among the followers of Jung and Heidegger&mdash;to the detriment of both psychology and philosophy.
<<<

Langhans, Dennis H. //An Odyssey of the heart: A return to the place, rhythm, and time of the imaginal heart (Homer, Greece)//. 2002. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2002. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3060744|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=764703581&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]].

<<<
''Abstract''
In the modern West the heart has been divided. It has become either the mechanical pump of empirical medicine or the sentimental heart of Valentine's Day. Notwithstanding this binary division, there lingers in the collective imagination a sense that there is more to the heart than simply "my pump" or "my feelings." This intuition is an invitation to a journey; it is a calling to return to a lost place.

The theme of returning emanates from the Odyssey , arguably the ur-epic of the Western tradition. The many turnings of the polytropic hero, Odysseus, re-collect the metanoia , the many turnings of the imaginal heart.

Like the heartbeat itself, this journey requires a two-fold motion. Mimetic of the systolic-diastolic heartbeat, the journey to the imaginal heart is a fluctuation between two epistemological forces: the critic and the witness. The critic is a searching motion, a hermeneutical approach. It calls upon rational process, a critical interpretation of what has gone before. The witness, on the other hand, is a more receptive motion, a phenomenological approach. It calls upon a poetic process, a reading of the soul of the world that has been lost to enlightened reason.

Although the method of the journey is epistemological, its goal is ontological. The search is for the imaginal realm, that domain of being which was lost in the Cartesian division of subjective and objective. In this great chasm complex rhythm to mechanical motion; storied time to clock measurement.

Like Virgil in the Divine Comedy , the hermeneutical guides in this study lead back to a phenomenal and poetic realm. The journey of critical inquiry moves into the realm of the witness and a poetic encounter with the more-than-human world. The setting for this encounter is a coastal wetland. From a disregarded mud flat, a phenomenal presence speaks of a heart lost to us, yet which lingers in the Sufi tradition and the pre-Scholastic West. Neither the heart of positive science nor of sentimental humanism, it is a paradoxical heart, one found in the fluidity of stillness.
<<<

Mickelson, Jane L. //Applied mythology and postmodern marriage: A workshop for couples//. 2002. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2002. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3077729| http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=765190691&sid=19&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]].

This production-style, cultural-intervention dissertation examines recent understanding of gender development and the history of love and marriage in American culture. It presents a workshop for couples in long-term relationships using three myths that represent corresponding developmental stages of marriage.

Despite high rates of divorce, marriage remains the lifestyle choice for a majority of the population. Rapidly changing roles of men and women and contemporary societal context no longer match traditional expectations, while studies in gender development further challenge previous criteria for male and female behavior. Most American couples base their marriages on unsustainable romantic love, and few find appropriate models for more mature relationships that reflect the realities of postmodern life.

New definitions of marriage are emerging. One possibility is to view the relationship as an ideal psychological and spiritual container for personal growth. It is here that I place the production component of this dissertation. The workshop for couples is based upon the educational theory of transformative learning, an epistemological approach to adult education which encourages changes of cultural perspective and behavior. The method used for the creation of the workshop is applied mythology, which I define as reinterpretation of myths in such a way as to reveal their relevance to contemporary behavior and psychology, and thereby to effect a change or transformation in understanding and action.

I have deliberately chosen myths applicable to the psychological development of either a relationship or an individual, and although the characters in the myths are specifically male or female, the themes enacted may be interpreted as relevant to those of either gender: independence and interdependence, development of skills and individuation, acceptance of self and other, and wholeness in later life.

The workshop also employs narrative inquiry, art, music, and body movement to encourage couples to create a sustained, shared personal myth at a time when dominant cultural myths are fading. Through this hermeneutical act, couples may be enabled to reinterpret their relationship as a postmodern marriage: that is, one in which both partners' perceptions are validated, and both have equal voice, shared responsibilities, and mutual respect.

Marie, Leona V. //Attaining sovereignty: Reconciliation, rupture, retaliation//. 2002.
Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2002. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT
[[3074955|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=765122871&sid=9&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]].

<<<
''Abstract''

Fairy tales offer contemporary women who were abused in childhood a choice of solutions that will enable them to take the steps necessary to claim their own sovereignty as queens, rather than remaining trapped as perpetual maidens.

These steps are clearly shown by the maidens in the fairy tales of One-Eye, Two-Eyes, and Three-Eyes, Rapunzel, and Snow White. Each fairy tale maiden acts to attain her own sovereignty and put an end to her dependent, abused maiden status. Some of the solutions to the challenges of being a maiden or a queen are contained in these three fairy tales. Together, these fairy tales demonstrate the spiritual and psychological constructs that can guide women seeking sovereignty.

The mother's curse is often the underlying cause of a daughter's reluctance or inability to become sovereign. Such a curse can be devastating to a daughter, causing her to remain subject to her abusive mother's tyrannical demands well into middle age. As an abused daughter--now grown seeks to end this abusive treatment and recognizes the results of this treatment--in her own inappropriately prolonged maidenhood--she may find herself waylaid by fear, thwarted by ineffective strategies, and trapped by indecision.

The fairy tales discussed herein offer workable pathways to sovereignty. They allow us to revise the current view of maidens as people lacking in passion and power, who sentimentally indulge in an insipid accommodation to an unwanted destiny. They reveal a seldom-acknowledged darkness in women's power, as seen in through the mothers' revolting manifestations of wickedness.

Each of the daughters in these stories turns to one of these three sovereignty-seeking solutions: reconciliation , a strategy, I argue, that is grounded in the Christian belief system; rupture , based in Hebraic beliefs; and retaliation , founded in a pagan world view.

The case studies will reveal the relevance of these fairy tales for women today.
<<<

Awazuhara, Atsushi //Beauty never dies//. 2005. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2005. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3173609|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=913523781&sid=4&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]]).

<<<
''Abstract''

This research examines the worldview of para-reality . Para-reality is defined as a state in which polar natures coexist and influence each other, and their boundaries are sometimes ambiguous, as if their opposing elements are identical. That is, this idea offers visions of joining, both-and, ambiguity, or coexistence of polar natures.

The view of para will contribute to the reconsideration of the dualistic way of thinking. Dualism is characterized by the master code of dividing, either-or, or excluding. As Jacques Derrida acutely points out, Western metaphysics dichotomizes morality, values, and other concepts to binary opposites, thereby hierarchically ranking the oppositions as superior/inferior. The dichotic view tends to think little of the other seen as the inferior, giving rise to a rift between the binary natures. This way of thinking does not provide a place for human relative and subjective intuitions, reconciliations of conflicted things, or equal co-relationships between two domains.

In Japan, para-reality is a traditional worldview and it is expressed as many metaphoric images in myths, literature, arts, poems, or manga (graphic novels). In order to discuss the map of para , this research follows the mythopoetic analysis. This method sees various phenomena and ideas through their fundamental images and myths.

This research also uses the textual pluralism approach, which deconstructs a dominant interpretation of a myth. This method makes it possible to understand a narrative from various points of view. Reading a tale from this perspective, one will notice many images and voices of the individual characters that are regarded as subjugated or secondary positions in the story.

The textural pluralism is highly important for reading of the Japanese myths. Japanese mythology in Kojiki and Nihongi is compiled from the political perspectives of the imperial clan in early Japan. In their images and characters, the myths describe the superiority of the early Japanese government over other tribes in Japan and other countries in East Asia in the eighth century. Meanwhile, this research discovered new para-realistic imageries by focusing on each character and their voices in the same Japanese myths
<<<

Houston, Madeleine C. //Co-respondance: Presence and praxis in land, life and myth//. 2005. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2005. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3074954 | http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1127197491&sid=2&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]]).

<<<
''Abstract''
Inspired by the notion carried forward through the works of C. G. Jung, Henry Corbin, James Hillman, and others that psyche is not contained within the human mind but that the human mind exists in psyche, this dissertation explores an active commitment to perceiving nature and culture, self and other as mutually creative forces in a co-responding imaginal field. It proposes that essential and purposeful aspects of this dynamic relatedness may be reflected through psychic image, and that the enactment of such image constitutes a meaningful gesture of reciprocity, deepening and furthering an embodied consciousness of interdependence. Co-responDance is offered as a term to describe this participatory awareness, and an inquiry into its application is presented. Theoretical discussion considers the formative influence that cultural mythologies have on perception, interpretation, response, and consequence.

An engaged relationship with land and landscape has been emphasized, which in practice led to the production aspect of this work: building a frog temple on the Arcadia property near Port Townsend, Washington, in accordance with an image that arose spontaneously as an enspirited directive while driving through the Camas Creek Valley in Idaho. To demonstrate the significance of the frog temple at Arcadia as a received and incorporated gesture of co-respondance, the image is developed and deepened by adapting the three-faceted approach of " remembering , contemplating , and loving " that David Miller describes and applies in his book Three Faces of God: Traces of the Trinnity in Literature and Life . Geographic, historical, and mythological contexts interweave the elements of the image, portraying a contemporary relevance in the immediacy and range of psyche's presentation.

The construction of the frog temple itself is documented in text and photographs. Although the manifest effect of the temple can only be experienced directly, the geometry of its design and the labor involved in its production convey at least some sense of the integrative psychic field it conducts.
<<<

Linehan, William //Combat and Transformation: The Necessity of Madness, the Numinous, and Reflection//. 2003. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2003. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3113903|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=765213611&sid=4&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]].

<<<
''Abstract''

Life is a process of change. In order to accommodate these changes, the individual must undertake the challenges of life as a warrior. The opponents can be nature, another warrior, or himself. During his daily routines of life, the contemporary warrior expresses his basic needs and defends the personal mythology that supports his existence. In each battle the warrior is guided by the mythological and psychological structure that served him well in the previous skirmish. Yet as these skills and abilities are utilized in the new conflict, they can be found wanting. Hence the warrior must undergo a transformation during combat in which his mythology of life is adjusted and realigned. Combat is essential in determining the strength of the warrior's beliefs and the mythology of life that ensures his existence.

The warrior's transformation proceeds during a process of stages: the entry into battle, the influences of the opponent and the field of battle, chaos, the psychological trauma and madness when the warrior's needs are rejected, a numinous experience, the reordering of beliefs, reflection, and acknowledgment. This transformational process applies to female as well as male warriors, and the role of gender and combat is addressed.

Promoting a process of combat as a method of enhancing a mythology of life can be viewed with suspicion. Aggression for many people is unpopular. Silence, meditation, and counseling are often encouraged as a remedy for aggression, and conflict resolution is recommended. But this is to miss the point. Transformational combat is a process , not isolated incidents of violence. During such combat, the warrior surrenders to a process that will allow him beneficial change. Transformational combat sees flux and chaos as essential in helping the warrior bolster his mythological perspective and discard outmoded ways of thought. Passivity in the face of change will not ensure the survival of the warrior, let alone enhance his mythological and psychological development. The process of transformational combat, of course, should continue for the life of the warrior.

Aspects of transformational combat can be seen in the unconscious, the Self, synchronicity, the Tao, alchemy, quantum physics, Dionysus, the morphogenetic field, and Buddhism. Also pertinent are the teachings and perspectives of C. G. Jung, Abraham Maslow, James Hillman, Nathan Schwartz-Salant, Wolfgang Giegerich, and many others. All of these have a mutual commonality concerning some of the stages of transformational combat. Also, examples from literature and films illustrate and clarify these scholarly observations.
<<<

Hall, Elizabeth A. //Couching The Phenomenological//. 2004. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2004. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3155824 | http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=828443701&sid=6&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]]).

<<<
''Abstract''

Depth psychotherapy is concerned with psyche's inner topography and the movement from outer known identifications to the undiscovered interior realm of soul. As such, any direct discussion of the interiority of the psychotherapeutic process is, paradoxically, unspeakable. Thus, I turn to the metaphoric other, the epic poem, to name the nameless inner action of depth psychotherapy. Although the dissertation is theoretically informed, it does not offer clinical explanations; instead, it imaginatively describes the therapeutic experience from the client's point of view, while arguing that the action of epic poetry is analogous to the interior movement of the analytic client. Rather than using psychology to illuminate epic literature, my proposal moves in a different direction, utilizing the literary image as an interpretive opening for the psychotherapeutic process. As an interdisciplinary hermeneutic study, Couching the Phenomenological weaves together literary criticism, depth psychology, mythological studies, and the following works of literature: The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, Moby-Dick , and Beloved .

The epic image allows us to look through to the poiesis of the analytic pilgrim-poet and the inner making of soul, thus revealing the motive, the happening and the essential truth of soul's desire to be known in all its complexity and subtlety. With profound courage and the assistance of essential others, the epic and analytic hero descends to the underworld topos of memoria in order to retrieve sacred knowledge. Dis-membered and re-membered through the recursive and curative function of memory, the hero returns from the depths and creates a new cosmos, founded in personal, cultural, ancestral, and archetypal wisdom. As epic demonstrates a concern for both the individual and cultural psyche, so does this dissertation by arguing that the field of psychology and contemporary society are mired in a one-sided consciousness that devalues the past, memory, depth, and darkness. Following Jung's argument, epics provide a compensatory balance to cultural unconsciousness. Through the introduction of the epic model of depth psychotherapy, the unspeakable finds form, while imagination, memory, an old heroic ideal, and the dark complexity of soul reclaim their communal virtue.
<<<

* Diana Zakhour - Editor
* Mark Kelly - ~TiddlyWiki advisor

Taylor, Priscilla //Culture and Mythos: Remembering the Hollywood blacklist//. 2005. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2005. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3187920|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=994230441&sid=2&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]].

<<<
''Abstract''

The anti-Communist purge in Hollywood in the 1940s and 50s is connected to a larger cultural mythology, a collective dream of humanity. This dissertation explores the American historical and cultural climate at the time and intersperses archetypal themes throughout to highlight the premise that culture is mythos. Memory plays a vital role in this work. In addition to the theoretical component, I include a memoir that re-imagines the life of my mother, a blacklisted screenwriter, and utilizes thematic aspects of the dual-natured god Dionysus to explore our relationship.

The culture of Hollywood is steeped in the myth of paradise: it grew out of a semitropical landscape where money and carnal pleasures were abundant, filled with people who idolized eternal youth and beauty. Many artists who came to Hollywood in the 1920s-40s were from Europe and New York, identified with the values of marginalized and countercultural people, and brought utopic political ideologies to add to the cultural mix. The extreme polarization of political ideologies in post-World War II America was characterized by "splitting," separating good and evil, a practice central to the Genesis myth. Proponents of a particular ideology, whether liberalism, conservatism, socialism, or fascism, became blind to their own shadows and projected all shadow aspects onto an "Other."

This study shows how the Red hunts and blacklists of the 1940s and 50s in the United States contained traces of sacrificial rituals that began as religious practices in ancient societies and have transformed over time into secular, sociopolitical mechanisms. In the Old Testament a goat was sacrificed to atone for the sins of the people. In modern Western societies scapegoats&mdash;like the Communists and left-wingers&mdash;have served as a symbolic sacrificial antidote against catastrophe.

Those who were labeled as Communist contagion and refused to repent their past and name other fellow travelers were blacklisted, suspended in a liminal phase of the rite in which all aspects of social standing and identity were erased, their voices silenced. Many blacklistees experienced depression, divorce, or early death. Some, like my mother, were drawn to the creative power of alcohol, represented by the god Dionysus, to cope with their losses, and were consumed by the coexistent destructive force of the archetype.
<<<

[[Dissertations]]

Plessas, Peter J. //Devotees of Dionysus: Queer Culture in the United States//. 2003.
Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2003. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.
Publication No. AAT
[[3119804|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=765266391&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]].

<<<
''Abstract''

Ferrentelli, Francesca //Dionysian Madness and Dismemberment: Compulsive Overeating and Gastric Bypass Surgery//. 2003. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3119807|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=765336661&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]]).

<<<
''Abstract''

Obesity has become endemic in the United States, and extreme obesity poses myriad physical, psychological, and spiritual risks. In the last decade gastric bypass surgery had become popular in treating severe obesity. Compulsive overeating is not an ecstatic celebration of food; it is an addiction, and for some, an uncontrolled madness. Bingeing disrespects Dionysos and can be understood as an affront to the ecstatic god, who, when dishonored, inflicts madness&mdash;which inevitably leads to dismemberment&mdash;upon his transgressors. Extreme overeating therefore becomes a form of Dionysian madness: gastric bypass surgery is the inescapable dismemberment.

After surgery, the process of re-membering begins, a time for patients to re-member previous trauma, their bodies, and eventually, the feminine. Many descend into Hades; they experience depression and even flashbacks. The high correlation between eating disorders and sexual trauma necessitates that sexuality is addressed in the ensuing psychotherapy, because fat has been a metaphorical protection. In addition, many patients have excluded Aphrodite from their lives, an omission which results in feelings of alienation, decreased sexuality, and unavoidably aridity. She, too, must be re-membered.

Further, all the hardships Dionysos experiences in his early life are because of Hera's jealousy, a direct response to Zeus' habitual infidelity. This archetypal dyad manifests in the media's seduction of women via advertising, with its culturally imposed body image ideals, and society's collective hatred of the feminine. Human attempts to control the body, like attempts to control the earth, are hubristic notions exacerbating overconsumption, consumerism, and cultural colonialism, all of which influence both compulsive overeating and body image hatred, collectively seeking to obliterate the feminine.

Dionysos, renowned for his relationship with the feminine, descends into the Underworld to rescue and retrieve his mother, Semele; therefore the archetype of Dionysos provides a portal for re-membering the lost feminine. Ironically, the wild, ecstatic god is a paragon of balance: in him, male and female, divine and human, ecstasy and calm, all seemingly opposing qualities, co-exist. Within the Dionysian archetype lie the etiology of and the treatment for gastric bypass patients, who, like him, re-member the lost and abandoned feminine via the psychotherapeutic journey.
<<<

Altenhoff, Jenifer J. [[Greek myth and landscape]]. 2001. AAT 3029746

~Arriola-Nickell, Gail E. [[Punctuation as Symbol: Experiencing Archetypal Patterns Through Personal Narrative]]. 2003. 

Awazuhara, Atsushi [[Beauty never dies]]. 2005.

Bailes, Katherine J. [[The Themis principle: Mystery and irrationality in the United States legal system]]. 2003.

Berggren, Kristina [[Prehistoric symbols of transformation: The case of the bell-shaped figurines]]. 2001.

Bijou, Jacqueline  [[Re-imagining the elements: Ensouling the world]]. 2001.

Borofka, Deb E. [[Mnemosyne's Realm: Crafting Memoir]]. 2005.

Brimm, Michal A. [[Psyche: The Burden of Her Humanity]]. 2000.

Bringle, Katherine A. [[Mythophysiology: A hermeneutics of pain]]. 2002.

Broenen, Mari [[Endless weaving: Encountering the Feminine in abstract art-making]]. 2001.

~Brundage-Rude, Patricia A. [[Manannan's Reach]]. 2005.

Cater, Nancy C. [[Re-envisioning Electra: Jungian perspectives]]. 2001.

Caulder, Sharon //African Vodu: the spirituality of a people//. 2000.

~Clark-Kenny, Carrie F. [[The Inspired Narcissist: Recovering the narcissistic wound through renewed individual, cultural, and environmental experience]]. 2005.

Coleman, Renee F. [[Finding Grace: An archetypal exploration of grace through the myth of Demeter and Persephone]]. 2002.

Collins, Brenda D. [[Gods and Heroes Onstage]]. 2004.

~Collins-Shields, Mary E. [[Sexes, gods, and Southern Christians]]. 2000.

Copp, Lynne R. [[Gods on Madison Avenue: The all-consuming power of advertising]]. 1999.

Crofts, Mary L. [[ Down into the abyss, up into the shelter: My journey to rockart/ists of the lower pecos region of texas]]. 2006.

De Ciantis, Cheryl [[Return of Hephaistos: Reconstructing the fragmented mythos of the maker]]. 2005.

Dean, Laramee  [[Story's daring spin into self: Feminine emancipation and transformation through myth and epic (Toni Morrison)]]. 2002.

Denslow, Jack M. [[Hephaistos: Symbols of individuation in the Hephaistos myth]]. 2001.

Dillingham, Theodore C. [[The uses of myth for scientific education: The case of cosmology and mythology]]. 2002.

Drake, William M. [[Representation: Re-collecting mythology in an age of showing and telling]]. 2001.

Duffy, Rochelle M. [[Shelleys' sibliography: Releasing the incarcerated voice through memory, imagination, and dialogue]]. 2001.

Edwards, Selden  [[Mythic leadership (Homer, Greece, William Shakespeare)]]. 2002.

~Elliot-Gartner  [[Mythotheatrics: Archetypal Psychology as Theater in the Hauntings of Don Quixote]]. 2003.

Emery, Leslie M. [[Manifesting the many in the one: Polycentric psyche, metamorphic dynamism, and inclusive knowing of self/other/world by way of the 'un-real real']]. 2002.

Estelle, Jane C. [[ Taking bad girl lessons: On the role of disobedience and archetypal encounter]]. 2005.

Faessel, Victor A. [[Giant signatures: myths and histories of a robust stranger]]. 2004.

Faris, Barbara A. [[A mythological study of Clare of Assisi: A medieval woman for the twenty-first century (Saint Clare of Assisi)]]. 2003.

Federman, Sheila C. [[Love, death, and underworld journeys: Women's rituals as myth-retrieval and myth-making]]. 2002.

~Fergus-Jean, Elizabeth F. [[The elusive action of creativity: Art and its making]]. 2002.

Ferrentelli, Francesca [[Dionysian Madness and Dismemberment: Compulsive Overeating and Gastric Bypass Surgery]]. 2003.

French, Druscilla  [[The power of choice: A critique of Joseph Campbell's 'monomyth,' Northrop Frye's theory of myth, Mark Twain's orthodoxy to heresy and C. G. Jung's God-image]]. 1998.

Friedman, Leah  [[Hestia, Hekate, and Hermes: An archetypal trinity of constancy, complexity, and change (Greece)]]. 2002.

Gottlieb, Mel I. [[King David's journey into wholeness: An archetypical study]]. 2000.

Grant, Ginger J. E. [[Return of the hero's journey]]. 2005.

Greene, Mark  [[Re-imagining as a method for the elucidation of myth: The case of Orpheus and Eurydice accompanied by a screenplay adaptation (with Original writing)]]. 1999.

Hall, Elizabeth A. [[Couching The Phenomenological]]. 2004.

Hartzell, Dina [[The Irrepressible Dance: A Choreomythology]]. 2000.

Heller, Sophia [[The Absence of Myth]]. 2003.

Hendrickson, Jane A. [[A focus on the fire: Reawakening the imaginal through mytho-ceramic experiences]]. 2002.

Houston, Madeleine C. [[Co-respondance: Presence and praxis in land, life and myth]]. 2005.

~Hunter-Welborn Ann K. [[From greed to grace: An archetypal analysis of capitalism]]. 2000.

Imparato, Noelle M. [[How I returned to my mother's house: Deliteralizing a family mythology]]. 2002.

Jackson, Melody [[The Mythic Power of Film: The Impact of Cinema on Individuals and Culture]]. 2003.

Jennings, Janis [[Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth]]. 2004.

Jensen, Judith L. [[Narrative as valid knowing]]. 2001.

Johnston, Barbara A. [[Epic Structure Found in a Ten-Year Dream Journal]]. 2004.

Joram, Bette R. [[Experientia Testi Est]]. 2004.

 Juhasz, Zena [[ The soul's journey: a mythic imagining of exile and the return home]]. 2005.

~Kelly-Gonzalez [[Myth Making and Modem Medicine: The Case of Kidney Transplantation]]. 1999.

Keluche, Freita F. [[Secret of the tan stone: A personal perspective of reality]]. 2001.

Kennedy, Donna [[Esse Livingston and her dolls: A midlife journey of creativity, ritual, and play]]. 2005.

King, Cynthia E. [[Weaving Wisdom: Creating Partnership Organizations in a Heroic and Hierarchical World]]. 2004.

Knowles, Debra S. [[Along a path apart: Conflict and concordance in C. G. Jung and Martin Heidegger]]. 2002.

Koh, Hea K. [[The goddesses of Cheju Island: A study of the myths of a Korean egalitarian culture]]. 2001.

Kumelos, Rae A. [[ Feathered Grace: Animal Guides in Mythology, Literature, and Life]]. 2005. 

Lackenbauer, Sandra E.  [[Poem as psychopomp, poem as prayer: A reading of T. S. Eliot's 'Four Quartets']]. 2003.

Landau, Marcia A. [[A Jungian Commentary On Thomas Hardy’s Novels, Return Of The Native, Tess Of The D'urbervilles, And Jude The Obscure]]. 2001.

Langhans, Dennis H. [[An Odyssey of the heart: A return to the place, rhythm, and time of the imaginal heart (Homer, Greece)]]. 2002.

~Lewis-McLaren, Grace  [[The mythos quartet: A hermeneutical exploration of four ancestral voices]]. 2000.

Lickus Cravens, Anne L. [[Elephant Dreams: An exploration into the importance of re-storying]]. 2000.

Linehan, William [[Combat and Transformation: The Necessity of Madness, the Numinous, and Reflection]]. 2003.

Lipson, Sandy L. [[Re-imagining Grimms' fairy tales (Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm)]]. 2001.

Lugaro, Marilyn B. [[Hunting the Myth of the Hunter in AD/HD:]]. 2004.

~MacGregor [[Alma: A Flight Back Home to the Centrality of Story]]. 1999.

Marabella, Lynne  [[Women and God: Dialogues. Hermeneutical interpretations of conversations in the Book of Genesis]]. 2001.

Marie, Leona V.  [[Attaining sovereignty: Reconciliation, rupture, retaliation]]. 2002.

Martin, Jeanne L. [[Revisioning Persephone in Hades: Marriage and beyond (with Original writing, Screenplay)]]. 2001.

~McClellan, Zoe [[In search of the divine mother: A journey to heal the feminine voice]]. 2001.

~McNeil, Shirley F. [[The Memory of an Emotion]]. 2004.

~McReynolds, Rae M. [[ Wyoming: Between a Rock and a Heart Place]]. 2005

Melat, Leanna F. [[The mythical and psychological meaning of a woman's purse]]. 2001.

Mickelson, Jane L. [[Applied mythology and postmodern marriage: A workshop for couples]]. 2002.

Miller, Jeri L. [[Melt Down]]. 2005.

Momi, Adrienne [[Footprints at Tesetice-Kyjovice: 7500 years of sacred story (Czech Republic)]]. 2000.

Montana, Clare  [[Schizophrenia and story: Intimate threads weaving psyche's fabric]]. 2002.

Morris, Deborah A. [[Four Elemental Narratives of the Sacred]]. 2002.

Muecke, Patricia A. [[Wrinkles: A Depth Psychological View]]. 2003.

Newport, Tiare [[The gifts of Alzheimer's]]. 2002.

Olson, Bradley A. [[The Soul's Awkward Bow]]. 2004. 

Peacock, Martha  [[The myth of Pandora and the repression of women's appetites (Hesiod)]]. 2003.

Perrah, Anne S. [[ The temenos of imagination: Childhood's imaginal fields]]. 2006.

Plessas, Peter J. [[Devotees of Dionysus: Queer Culture in the United States]]. 2003.

Pye, Lori L. [[A mythological perspective on the hero: A treatise on human violence]]. 2002.

Quale, Jane. [[No more happy endings? Saying yes to archetypal entropy]]. 2000.

Roanoake, Gale [[Invoking the muse: An archetypal approach to personal story]]. 2001.

Root, Alice [[Equine-assisted therapy: A healing arena for myth and method]]. 2000.

Rossi, April C. (2002). [[Taming the flame: Transformation from Dionysian archetypal possession to individuation]].

Rubio, Ramona P. [[Natives of a new skinscape: Tattoos as cultural coding]]. 2000.

Shamas, Laura A. [[“We Three”: The Mythology Of Shakespeares Weird Sisters]]. 2003.

Shore, Barbara S. [[Pseudoinnocence: An invitation to murder]]. 1999.

Smith, Albert L. [[Mythopoesis: Aphrodite's trinity of love, beauty, and desire with a book of poems]]. 2002.

~Smith-Hanssen, Kathryn M. [[Pope Joan: Heretic or heroine?]]. 2001.

Storey, Pearl L. [[Mythic tracings in near-death experiences]]. 2004.

Stout, Georgia R. [[Wolves and wilderness: A mythological and psychological approach]]. 2001.

Stromer, Richard S. [[Faith in the Journey: Personal Mythology as Pathway to the Sacred]]. 2003.

Strong, Laura  [[ Psychopomp Stories: Contemplating death in a spiritual diverse society]]. 2005.

Swarthout, Janeil P. [[The Gods of Silicon Valley]]. 2003.

Talbot, Deborah L. [[Psyche and Play]]. 2005.

Taylor, Jennifer L. [[The Feminine Initiation into the Polytheistic Wholeness of the Psyche through Love,]]. 2003.

Taylor, Sofia F. [[The Image in the Labyrinth: An Artist's Symbolic Journey from Cancer Toward Wholeness]]. 2003.

Taylor, Priscilla [[Culture and Mythos: Remembering the Hollywood blacklist]]. 2005.

~Temple-Hoon, Judatha  [[Returning to the labyrinth]]. 2002.

Terzian, Elizabeth  [[The Aesthetics and Poetics of Light in Eastern Christian Iconography]]. 2003.

Todd, Kay L. [[‘Bidden or Not Bidden, God is Present”]]. 2004.

Vincent, Rebecca L. [[Mythic water creatures and spirit beings of the deep: Reenchanting the world of water]]. 2002.

White, Dana C. [[Re-Imagining Work: Awakening the Call of Right Livelihood]]. 2003.

Wilkes, Carolyn C. [[The Wild Sacred: Revisioning the Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood]]. 2001.

Winters, Carol W. [[Volutions of voice and vulva: Hera, Helen, Sophia, and Mary]]. 2002.

Wolf, Barbara  [[Universe makers: Mythology and the creative work of women writers of speculative fiction]]. 2002).

Wright, Jacob I. [[Privileging Logos: The Myth of the western world view]]. 2006.

Lickus Cravens, Anne L. //Elephant Dreams: An exploration into the importance of re-storying//. 2000. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2000. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3008498|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=728852501&sid=3&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]].

<<<
''Abstract''

For the creative portion of my dissertation, I have written a novel titled Elephant Dreams . The novel is told from the perspective of four women whose stories have been woven together into a modern interpretation of the myth "The Descent Inanna: From the Great Above to the Great Below." Through the image of Inanna's descent into the underworld retold as modern-day novel, the idea of re-storying women's voice has been explored. The main character of the novel, Sara, descends to the underworld and faces those aspects of herself that have been silenced. As a result of this journey, the possibility is opened up for Sara to begin regaining her own strong, self-expressive voice.

The theoretical introductory chapters to the novel explore the importance of retelling myth as story with a postmodern perspective in order to restore or remember. To enter the realm of myth and in particular, myth as story to be retold, however, is to enter into imagination. We need to open up our perception of reality to understand the inherent metaphor of being; there is no one truth, no original that we can ever know, but only an infinite number of reflections. Therefore, this study examines historical and postmodern perceptions of imagination. This examination introduces us to the need for stories that are already themselves re-storied stories, stories that reconstruct luster-filled perceptions for a wider public audience, thereby deconstructing the literalizing of "real" fiction.

When turning toward a practical method of implementing the concepts presented in the above examination, this text uses archetypal psychology in relation to mythology. Specifically, pathologizing as it deepens us into soul or an unconscious language of imagination through our symptoms, which in this dissertation is the silencing of women's voice. Through archetypal play with words we are led into an unconscious language that moves in our belly, inhabits our bodies, and breathes out a "feminine" (in conjunction with a "masculine") voice. Hence, my contribution, an interweaving story of myth, postmodern imagination, soul, symptom, "feminine" voice into the novel, Elephant Dreams , as one example of a "new" necessary perception of literature.
<<<

Broenen (2001). //Endless weaving: Encountering the Feminine in abstract art-making//. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2001. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3035182|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=726110651&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]].

<<<
''Abstract''

This production-type dissertation explores the relationship between art-making, and theoretical reflections to apply what Wendy Doniger describes as "the double vision of the human microscope and cosmic telescope" to the subject of creativity (25). Specifically, this dissertation relates one woman's experience of the Feminine as this archetype is encountered in experiential aspect of this engagement illustrates how the Feminine functions as an essential factor in a female artist's creative development. This argument is positioned within a discussion of art-making that emphasizes feeling, form, and meaning as foundation elements in a creative process which is itself re-cast as contributing to the generation of myth
<<<

Johnston, Barbara A. //Epic Structure Found in a Ten-Year Dream Journal//. 2004. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2004. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3155822|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=828443691&sid=5&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]].

<<<
''Abstract''

Dreams are a primary medium of the unconscious, bringing its riches, both terrifying and benign, into consciousness to facilitate the integration between these two major terrains of the psyche. Typically dreams are explored as singular events, or only in a small series, in psychotherapy or in other methods of hermeneutical interpretations in which the individual desires personal psychological growth.

As a literary genre, epic is the most inclusive and perhaps most universal and ongoing structure of the psyche as well as an enveloping genre of soul's terrain that can be known if it is expressed poetically or empirically through the unique method used in this dissertation which can trace its patterns. In this production-type dissertation, dreams from a journal kept for a decade are combined to embody many of the patterns of epic as a poetic genre. By combining dreams over such an extended period of time, this created epic captures and makes visible Psyche's movement.

The Serpent and The Rose was written by re-activating the dreams and engaging the dreams as, initially, creative instruments of Psyche. They emerged from the unconscious as its creative eruption into consciousness. I used active imagination to move into the dreamscapes to be receptive to and in mimesis with Psyche in the recreation of the dreams. During this process the exercise of active imagination expanded the dreams by inviting more insights into the dream figures. It also continued the dreams in a waking state which allowed Psyche to combine the dreams in a narrative form that I consciously crafted from what I have learned of epic structure.

The theoretical analysis demonstrates the epic nature of the combined dreams and soul's movement throughout the narrative by using the hermeneutic of bringing together the epic genre, analytical psychology, archetypal psychology, and mythology. Identifying the archetypes, mythologies and mythemes revealed in the dreams shows their relevance to the goal of the epic journey: to retrieve the culture's original mythology, reformulate it, and refound the cultural mythology that no longer supports the culture because it had lost its psychological grounding.
<<<

Root, Alice //Equine-assisted therapy: A healing arena for myth and method//. 2000. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2000. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3008508|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=764920011&sid=2&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]].

<<<
''Abstract''
Horses and donkeys partner with humans to bring the multi-sensory gifts of alignment and adjustment to the less able, the unable, and the disabled. Hippo(horse) and ono(donkey) therapy engage the physical, cognitive, emotional, behavioral, spiritual, and storied lives of people in an actual arena for healing. Myths, folklore, and fairy-tale reflect the tenets of equine-assisted therapy, reinforcing and resurfacing the foundational power of a practice whose worth is already acclaimed through medical evidence.

Energy released by the volatile combination of my two lifetime passions, equines and literature, inspired this extensive exploration into the wide-ranging territory of myths, fairy tales, folklore, and rituals about horses and donkeys. Personal experience of equine-assisted therapy, volunteer work in a therapeutic riding program, attendance at numerous conferences, and the establishment of a now fully functioning therapeutic center at my own farm have emerged from and merged with the writing of this dissertation. The study is inevitably heuristic, evidencing as it does the reflection of internal enthusiasm in external phenomena. Both story and therapy are viewed through the lens of depth psychology and mythology.

Stories and myths are templates for healing: humans are humbled into donkeys and realize their own potential; magic horses leap with their underprivileged riders to great heights of heroism. We invoke the winged Pegasus as we ask a disabled child to balance on the horse's back with arms akimbo. We mount with Apollo in his chariot of the sun when we ride behind a donkey in a specially adapted cart for the handicapped.

The ancient god Silenus and his understudy, Dionysus, stand by when we ask the ass to share its wisdom, compassion, and persistence. The half-horse, half-man centaur, Chiron, presides over the healing of both humans and animals in any treatment that relies on the human animal bond. From mighty myth to humble tale, the mythological perspective enriches enormously the field of equine-assisted therapy.
<<<

Kennedy, Donna //Esse Livingston and her dolls: A midlife journey of creativity, ritual, and play//. 2005. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2005. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3211964|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1127197501&sid=2&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]].

<<<
''Abstract''

Artists have long invoked the Muses through prayer, active imagination, dreams, memory, and reverie, windows through which unconscious material becomes conscious in the creative process. This dissertation explores both the imaginal and the theoretical domains that constitute a production dissertation. This dissertation consists of two parts: Esse Livingston and Her Dolls , a novel; and "A Midlife Journey of Creativity, Ritual, and Play," a theoretical examination of themes implicit in the novel. The protagonist, Esse Livingston, wakes from a dream that predicts the date of her death, a revelation that begins her spiritual journey. The theoretical section that follows provides an in-depth discussion of the following themes: creativity, ritual, play, and story.

Jung's ideas are predominant in this discussion of the creative process and most specifically of creativity itself, the first theme addressed in the theoretical section. Of particular interest is his discussion of psychological and visionary art, his mistrust of the anima figure who values his mandalas as art, and his dislike of fragmented modern art.

Ritual is the second theme addressed. The novel unconsciously follows the steps inherent in "rites of passage" outlined by anthropologist Arnold Van Gennep within the archetype of "the hero's journey" by mythologist Joseph Campbell. The underlying ritual of the novel, Esse's journey into death and her return, embodies a mimetic action of the hero's and the heroine's inevitable journey toward wholeness. Midlife seems an appropriate time for such a journey because, as Jung notes, it is a time of spiritual and psychological growth, possibly the last chance to reconnect with unconscious goals. Play, then, is treated as the most imaginal process engaged by the hero and heroine to establish this crucial reconnection, particularly as play occurs in the liminal space between real and pretend. Such is the importance of the archetypal role of dolls in the lives of children and adults.

The final theme is explored in the last chapter of the theoretical section of the dissertation: telling one's story , the necessary gift which completes the journey and is bestowed on the community when the hero or heroine returns.
<<<

Joram, Bette R. //Experientia Testi Est//. 2004.Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2004. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2004. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3247248|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1253473471&sid=6&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]].

<<<
''Abstract''

Experientia Testi Est reveals the transformation of a beleaguered soul into a soul with an awakened heart, not only conscious of its suffering, but also protected and renewed by a deep connection to the archetypal Self. This study investigates the nature of the relationships that exist between alchemical imagery, the clinical presentation, and the psychotherapeutic processes of depth psychology.

The five illustrations of Les Vaisseaux D'Hermes, an anonymously illumined alchemical manuscript, circa 1700, serve as the armature of this hermeneutic dissertation. Entering the hermeneutic circle through the title page, alchemy's historical roots in metallurgy and ancient initiatory practices are shown to be fundamental to understanding the processes and products of transformation.

The methodology, grounded in Jungian theory and alchemical procedures, begins with a meta-analysis of illustrations two through five by dividing them into four quadrants: Conscious Spirit, Unconscious Spirit, Unconscious Matter, and Conscious Matter. Each quadrant, in illustrations 2 through 4, is subjected to five alchemical operations analyzing the dominant and dynamic elements, the interplay of dominant and subtle elements, the researcher's transference and countertransference responses, observations pertaining to astrological time, and the numbers of elements. The fifth illustration, a Rosicrucian emblem with a quaternary structure, is subjected, as a whole; to the five operations.

The hermeneutic method employed throughout this study interweaves theoretical, clinical, and historical sources, punctuated by contemporary events, with dreams and other amplificatory material germane to a depth psychological understanding of these unusual images. The entire work thus becomes an ongoing conversation between theorists, clinicians, alchemists, cultural historians, the researcher, and the manuscript.

The alchemical images prove to be relevant to contemporary clinical practice. Dismemberment, depicted in the second illustration, gave rise to the hypothesis that traumatic events were projected into the alchemist's observations about the matter in the flask and its subsequent transformations. The theoretical constructs of self psychology, object relations, and Jungian psychology in conjunction with these alchemical images, aid in understanding the presenting clinical picture, intrapsychic structure, selfobject functions and their evolution. The final illustration, an example of structural integration, supports Jung's contention that individuation is powerful medicine for healing the wounded psyche.
<<<

Stromer, Richard S. //Faith in the Journey: Personal Mythology as Pathway to the Sacred//. 2003. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2003. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3113906|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=765162551&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]].

<<<
''Abstract''
This dissertation explores the idea of personal mythology as an approach for engaging in the search for a more personal relationship to the sacred. Underlying this work is a concern with the post-modern dilemma of how to approach religious renewal in an age dominated by a reductionistic, materialistically oriented secularism on the one hand and dogmatic religious fundamentalisms on the other. Seeking to avoid both the demythologizing tendency of secularism and the equally damaging tendency of fundamentalism to literalize archetypal and mythic material, this dissertation explores the possibility of a third alternative. That alternative approach requires an ongoing personal engagement with both the world's religious and mythological traditions and the sacred dimension of each individual's life story from a perspective that is inherently symbolic, metaphorical, archetypal, and imaginal.

This work is interdisciplinary in nature and draws on content from the fields of comparative mythology, religious studies, and depth psychology. It is hermeneutical in approach, exploring and synthesizing this varied content in order to explicate the concept of personal mythology as a religious endeavor. In doing so, this dissertation first focuses on the evolution of the concept of personal mythology over the past century. Secondly, it explores a range of contemporary theological approaches for understanding the nature of the sacred, of divinity, and of religious faith that make sense in relationship to the concept of personal mythology. Thirdly, this work explores ways in which personal mythology effectively synthesizes insights drawn from both depth psychology and religion. Fourthly, it focuses on relevant aspects of the work of Joseph Campbell and C. G. Jung, two individuals who have played key roles in conceptualizing the contemporary mythological approach to the religious domain of life. Lastly, this dissertation proposes the concept of "faith in the journey" as a metaphor for the religious implications of exploring one's personal mythology. In this context, it is argued that seeking the sacred through the mythic text of one's life leads to a personal form of religious faith predicated on a profound sense on the inherent rightness and necessity of one's unique life journey.
<<<

Coleman, Renee F. //Finding Grace: An archetypal exploration of grace through the myth of Demeter and Persephone//. 2002. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2002. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3077727|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=765190661&sid=5&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]]).

<<<
''Abstract''

This production-style dissertation deals with invisible presences&mdash;recalled through the myth of Demeter and Persephone&mdash;and remembered forward through Finding Grace giving it its identity, shape, and form. It explores what memories, dreams, and imagination have to say about motherhood now, about today's daughter and tomorrow's mother, ultimately uncovering a reality&mdash;intimately linked with the human body as a social construction&mdash;that is waiting to be discovered there.

Finding Grace is a novel-length re-visioning of the Demeter/Persephone myth, or more precisely, Demeter and Persephone as they appear in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter . Anne Blackwell is forced to watch as her daughter, Grace, is brutally violated by the same person who once assaulted her. Rape, in this particular instance, however, serves to underscore how rape is always a mother's tragedy but not necessarily the victim's. Forced into accepting Grace's fate as separate from her own, Anne is finally brought wholly into what it means to be a mother, while at the same time she finds grace in and through her daughter, Grace.

Though deeply tormented and still suffering, Anne accepts Grace's right to her own version of the rape, to her own story, which is ultimately a recognition and an acceptance, on Anne's part, of their separateness. Thus, she is returned to "common unhappiness," to borrow a term from Freud. For Anne, to be returned to common unhappiness is to find grace. It means that a part of her personal anguish, her despair and anger, are released so that at long last, she is initiated into what it means to be a mother. She is finally willing to suffer humanly, to be a mother, to be a woman, to be an en-souled being in the full spectrum of all that means. She has descended to the underworld and by an act of grace, and through her daughter Grace, Anne has also been given the gift of ascent and is thereby returned to the creative burden of her own existence.
<<<

Momi, Adrienne //Footprints at ~Tesetice-Kyjovice: 7500 years of sacred story (Czech Republic)//. 2000. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2000. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3015791|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=728864361&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]].

<<<
''Abstract''

Footprints at Tesetice began as an investigation of the Neolithic origins of the female divine and their continued reflection in contemporary life. I set to work learning a language I needed for survival in the Czech Republic, and I heard remembered inklings of the language of my grandmothers. The archaeological excavation that had turned into an artistic excavation had also become a psychological excavation. Two years of art installation, human interaction, and scholarly research revealed layers of origins: my origins as a second-generation Central European immigrant, the Czech artists' origins as contemporary, Europeans, and the culture's origins grounded in sacred story first told before written language.

Central Europe has long been hidden behind veils. Countries here swirled together first as the Austro-Hungarian empire, then as parts of Germany, and most recently were swallowed up by the USSR. In our Western European chauvinism, we falsely assumed that the tiny country of Czechoslovakia was either merely a shadow of its neighbors, echoing their culture and psychology, or simply a wide space in the road trampled by successive conquerors.

Archaeological evidence points to 250,000 years of nearly continuous human settlement in what is now Czech Republic. Like waves on a beach, an ebb and flow or cultures has passed across this land; depositing new bits and re-arranging the old ones. The Czechs are tenacious, however, holding onto their customs--one strategy for retaining identity in the face of repeated colonization. Stories there are told over and over, dressed in new clothes for each retelling.

Our team listened with the mythologist's ear and looked with the artist's eye. We heard the early stories held in the Neolithic stones: stories of abundance, stories of thankfulness, stories of continuation. Those ancient stories are present in contemporary religious practice, remembered village customs, and traditional design motifs.
<<<

Morris, Deborah A. //Four Elemental Narratives of the Sacred//. 2002. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2002. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3107140|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=764942071&sid=3&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]].

<<<
''Abstract''

The mythopoetic expressions of earth, wind, fire, and water in the Tanakh represent a dynamic mosaic "composed of symbols that express the movements, conflicts, interactions, and developments of the great energy systems within the unconscious" (Johnson 19).

Humankind in its beginning was made whole. In the likeness of the Creator's image, a single human being was created. By His word, "Adonai formed a person [ adam ] from the dust of the ground [ adamah ] and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life" (Genesis 2:7).

From the finest particles of earth, a form was molded to embody a G-d-breathed image of the Creator. The creature was shaped as a symbolic reflection of the divine likeness which waits for a call, for an asking of a journey. The call sets our feet upon the road to self-discovery. It is a journey to restore the fragmented parts within the self and to renew unity with others.

All creation is one. This vision weaves a thread from the beginnings of human life on earth to the end of days. G-d is continually calling the self back into wholeness through his covenanted way of living, a narrative which binds G-d, humankind, and nature into an intricate web of interdependency. This way of being first began in the garden where the Creator and his creation lived in oneness, ' ehad .

The archetypal state of wholeness exists in unbroken relationships with community. The images of earth, water, fire, and wind, as symbols, metaphors, and archetypes, lead the self through an inner journey, revealing the identity of the sacred in relationship to our own human condition. When the self steps onto the path of restoring this vision, she or he begins a walk of holiness, qadosh , a personal story of transformation leading to the presence of G-d.

As outward forms mediate the words of our ancient past, the narrative is sustained by the unfolding images, often in motion, found within story. The cultural memory of G-d's covenanted people mentors the self, as the dialogue is internalized. Such a moment allows for a restoration, shalom , with the Creator, for a renewed unity with Other and for a return to wholeness within the inner sanctuary of our own selves.
<<<

~Hunter-Welborn Ann K. //From greed to grace: An archetypal analysis of capitalism//. 2000. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2000. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3008497 | http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=728852341&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]].
<<<
Karl Marx wrote, long before Carl Jung or James Hillman, "the products of the human brain appear as autonomous figures endowed with a life of their own, which enter into relations with each other and with the human race." I have drawn upon this statement to explore the images which lie underneath the theory and practice of capitalism. Drawing first from the works of the philosophers of capitalism from various eras, I identify the philosophical, mythological, historical, and psychological images upon which their theories are based. To illustrate the profound effect of these images, I have put Adam Smith, Parson Malthus, Karl Marx, Thorstein Veblen, Max Weber, Ayn Rand, and Karl Polanyi in conversation with one another, each arguing in his or her own words. By teasing the images out of their works, we begin to see how economics and psychology have interacted over the last few centuries to remove the vitality form the social structure and replace it with "self-interested man."

After extracting the dogma from the theory and allowing the images and myths of capitalism to come alive through some imaginative play, it becomes clear that capitalism is far more than an economic system. This point is further illustrated through an exploration of capitalism as a mythology, as an ideology, and as a religion. Then alternative theoretical histories of capitalism are presented. One holds that capitalism is inevitable, another that history ends with capitalism. A third traces the history of greed, making the case that the current most prevalent form of capitalism allows the baser human instincts to flourish.

Finally, the images from early capitalism are updated, and the images driving the current system and behaviors are explored, illuminating capitalism as the central myth of modern society. With this background, and with the help of the ancient Greek deities, I offer suggestions for new images upon which to base our assumptions regarding human nature and economic/social relations. It is my hope that by making some of the unconscious aspects of present-day Western economics more conscious, a greater element of justice might be injected into the emerging global system.
<<<

Faessel, Victor A. //Giant signatures: myths and histories of a robust stranger//. 2004. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2004. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3144559|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=790254451&sid=9&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]]).

<<<
''Abstract''
In one of its robust guises, the world of human experience presents a looming superabundance of potent, threatening forces. Deep-rooted ambivalence toward a phenomenal world encountered as overabundant to excess seems to arise in the twin human finitudes of a frail body and an ever-frustrated capacity of signification: the scale of this world and its frightening powers overwhelm the body, and provoke attempts to circumscribe or control these magnitudes with signs. The mythology of giants magnifies and serves to mitigate such ambivalence. This dissertation examines the West's historical reception of mythic giants to the threshold of the Middle Ages, sampling Greek and Roman myths, the Hebrew Scriptures, apocryphal texts, Midrash, historiographical works, and Christian Patristic writings.

My approach, which engages phenomenological, semiotic, and narrative theories, understands myth to create contingent meaning from the abysmal ambiguities of the life-world. Mythopoesis as a cardinal human signifying reflex 'posits' names, attributes, spatial coordinates, and genealogies for experienced and imagined powers. In doing so it also elaborates systems of classification that help define cultural and social identities. With respect to giants, this reflex issues in a particular imagination of space: the feared, overpowering 'Other' looms somewhere beyond a variously conceptualized horizon .

The rhetoric of myth frequently marks some Other as 'dangerous,' as existing 'outside' of culture. But besides this articulation in stories, basic human ambivalence is also instrumentalized through interpretive strategies. Myths of giants and related figures are often appropriated by later readers to proffer diverse 'authoritative' narratives aiming to secure particular spaces of culture over against the ambiguous lifeways of known or imagined others.

The mythic giants of the West's foundational literary traditions represent a kind of threshold, where human anxieties about identity and difference are both appealed to and projected. Typically, giants are depicted as excessively natural (often supernatural), as 'foreign,' combative, dynamic, destructive, transgressive, and atavistic.

Myths of giants reveal clear compositional intentions, a mode of discourse both poetical and ideological. Myth reception emerges from the study as an intertextual process of cultural history, bearing witness to ongoing human efforts to circumscribe the world's threatening overabundance, its ever-receding horizon of significance.
<<<

Collins, Brenda D. //Gods and Heroes Onstage//. 2004. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2004. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT [[3173602|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=913498271&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]]).

<<<
''Abstract''
In the mid 20 th century, a new music phenomenon was born in the Western world-rock and roll. Maligned by many as "the devil's music" due to its physiologically arousing rhythm and timbre, it rose to unprecedented popularity among the Western masses, particularly those under the age of thirty. In the eyes of their admirers, rock and roll performers shine with the blinding luminosity of the "gods." Their song lyrics are taken by many to be instructions on how to live life, and their music, especially when heard live at a rock concert, can elicit a psychological shifting of consciousness that is independent of space and time.

For the mythologist steeped in the tenets of depth psychology, rock and roll is viewed as a pop culture phenomenon. The rock performers act out various archetypal patterns and mythological themes that resonate in the psyche of people in modern Western culture. The god Dionysos reigns supreme over the rock and roll stage; his archetypal constellation of irrationality, excess, altered consciousness, dismemberment, and sexual ecstasy are readily observed in virtually all rock performers. But Dionysos is not the only god or the only archetypal pattern that inhabits the psyche of the rock and roll performer.

This dissertation is a study of the various archetypal patterns and themes that are observed in the rock and roll performer. These are the archetypal patterns associated with some of the Greek gods and heroes, including, first and foremost, Dionysos, but also Hermes, Orpheus, and even Apollo. It also examines other rock star archetypal constellations such as the Trickster, the Destroyer, the Orphan, and the Messiah. The evidence of these archetypal patterns is observed in four major ways: the performer's physical appearance and behavior, the lyrics and the tone of the music, and the media's portrayal of the rock star.

Drawing from the extensive texts on archetypal theory and the large body of mythological stories and themes, this text presents an informative portrait of the rock and roll phenomenon and its charismatic performers.
<<<

Copp, Lynne R. //Gods on Madison Avenue: The all-consuming power of advertising//. 1999. Diss. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 1999. ~ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Publication No. AAT  [[9987394|http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=728360531&sid=3&Fmt=2&clientId=45844&RQT=309&VName=PQD]]).

<<<
''Abstract''

This theoretical study examines a potent force in contemporary society&mdash;one which has created a compelling vision of the world and of humankind's place in it. That force is advertising, and in the course of one hundred years, it has come to wield immense social influence and has become a powerful arbitrator of reality. While at first advertising primarily influenced matters of taste, dress, and food preferences, it eventually began to influence more fundamental concepts: what it means to be human, how to attain happiness, what signifies value, how to define beauty, what our relationship is to the natural world, and how to develop a sense of identity and self-worth. The enormity of this influence is why many have plainly labelled advertising either a form of religion or myth.

Advertising has shaped our lives and brought to members of the middle class an affluence previously unknown. It has also caused a commodification of human relating and a misuse of natural resources. By utilizing historical data, philosophical theories, depth psychology, myths, legends, and literature, as well as widely-used advertising techniques and advertisements, this analysis focuses on answering four questions: (1) What are the historical and philosophical underpinnings of advertising? (2) How do advertisers create the brand mythologies that influence our value system and our buying behaviors, without our realizing that psychic manipulation is going on? (3) What effects does advertising have on us as individuals and as a world community? (4) Can products by re-mythified, that is, are there alternatives to the vision of reality prom