DOCSLIB.ORG

(2005). Cellular Resonance and the Sacred Feminine: Marion Woodman’S Story

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
(2005). Cellular Resonance and the Sacred Feminine: Marion Woodman’S Story CELLULAR RESONANCE AND THE SACRED FEMININE 1 CELLULAR RESONANCE AND THE SACRED FEMININE: MARION WOODMAN’S STORY TINA STROMSTED, PH.D. Body work is soul work. Imagination is the bridge between body and soul. —Marion Woodman Background and Contributions y first contact with Marion Woodman’s work was in 1981, when I read The Owl Was a Baker’s Daughter: Obesity, M Anorexia Nervosa, and the Repressed Feminine, which, like a good deal of Marion’s writing, draws its title from classical literature. Eight years later, I met Marion in person at a workshop she was leading through the San Francisco Jung Institute. Since then I have studied with her as often as possible, participating in the BodySoul Rhythms Photo: Marion Woodman & Tina Stromsted, Conference sponsored by the C.G. Jung Institute intensive retreats she leads for women. This article grew out of my of San Francisco, 2005. Tina Stromsted, Ph.D., ADTR, past co-founder and faculty of the Authentic Movement Institute in Berkeley, teaches at the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, the Marion Woodman Foundation and other universities and healing centers internationally. With three decades of clinical experience, she is a Candidate at the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. This article was published originally in Somatics: Journal of the Bodily Arts & Sciences XIII(1) (2000-1, Fall/Winter), 4-11 & 51-54. 2 TINA STROMSTED CELLULAR RESONANCE AND THE SACRED FEMININE 3 dissertation research, in which I interviewed Marion and other leaders At the heart of Marion’s work is the development of “conscious in the field about their personal experiences and work with women in femininity.” The daughter of a minister, she sought her soul through transformative movement practices. dance. Marion’s approach supports women in bringing conscious Marion’s early writings were followed by many other books, tracing feminine energy into relationship with the Holy Spirit. Her lectures and the development of her work and ideas: Addiction to Perfection: The experiential work bring consciousness to and activate healing in the body/ Still Unravished Bride; The Pregnant Virgin: A Process of Psychological psyche/soul split suffered by most modern women who have grown up Transformation; The Ravaged Bridegroom: Masculinity in Women; in the context of “a cultural one-sidedness that favors patriarchal values— Conscious Femininity; Bone: Dying into Life; and five co-authored books: productivity, goal orientation, intellectual excellence, and spiritual Leaving My Father’s House; Dancing in the Flames; Coming Home to perfection.”1 Marion values the earthy interpersonal values traditionally Myself; The Forsaken Garden; and The Maiden King, co-authored with recognized as the heart of the feminine, and the inner spiritual light. The poet and men’s movement leader Robert Bly. A Jungian analyst and balance of matter and spirit is at the core of her work. internationally acclaimed author, lecturer, and workshop leader, Marion In her late seventies, Marion has a presence of casual elegance. recently retired from her private practice in Toronto, Canada in order Tall, with thick, rich, wavy, graying brown hair and sparkling blue to focus on her health, writing, and teaching. eyes, she is energetic, vibrant, and articulate, packs a surprisingly wry Marion’s work with the body is rooted in her own healing journey. sense of humor, and loves to dance. Marion’s tone is informative, direct, A gifted high school English and drama teacher for 24 years, she forceful, dramatic, and warm, taking care to engage the audience— struggled with anorexia and the kidney failure that ensued, a struggle even in enormous lecture halls—in something experiential that will that eventually led her to study analytic psychology at the C. G. Jung assist them in connecting with their bodies, and then drawing them Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. There she analyzed her dreams with out in relationship to the material she is presenting. Though the her analyst and continued her healing process by exploring experiential majority of her writing and teaching addresses women’s experience, work at home. She had had a dream instructing her to place healing she is also sensitive to the wounded inner feminine in men. A true images from her dreams into afflicted areas of her body. There in her crone—experienced, unsentimental, forgiving, and conscious of life’s own room, she would stretch, breathe, and warm up her body, and many paradoxes2—she embodies androgynous qualities, weaving then lie down on the floor. After taking time to open her body through rigorous theoretical material with experiential work that awakens deep relaxation, she would place healing images from her dreams into ailing feeling, body awareness, and creativity. She speaks passionately about parts of her body, allowing the images to move and change as they the sacredness of matter and sacredness of soul in Sophia (the feminine flowed naturally in the tissue and in the expressive movements that face of God), the relationship between the feminine individuation unfolded. Working alone, with herself as witness, she tape-recorded journey and bodily experience, and the value of dreams and intuition the stream of images, feelings, and associations that surfaced, working in guiding one’s life from the depths of one’s being. with them later through writing, drawing, dancing, and analysis. Marion lives in London, Canada, with Ross, her husband of forty- These experiences provided the seed for her BodySoul Rhythms two years, who is an author and professor of the Romantic poets. Now approach, which integrates analytical psychology, dreamwork, art, retired, he sometimes accompanies Marion in her work, providing a mask-making, voice, bodywork, structured dance explorations, inner- warm and concentrated presence in the background. While we women sourced movement, and improvisation. Assisted by colleagues with are working in the studio, Ross is walking in nature and writing, later whom she has worked for decades, dancer and educator Mary Hamilton joining us for meals and offering a guest lecture on poetry that and vocal coach and mask maker Ann Skinner, she presents these illuminates areas we are exploring. His humor, intelligence, and love explorations internationally in women’s intensive retreats. Each is a for his subject are palpable and his presence brings the masculine temenos (sacred, protected space) in a natural setting. principle alive in our gatherings. 4 TINA STROMSTED CELLULAR RESONANCE AND THE SACRED FEMININE 5 Personal Background on farmers to bring them food. Her mother tried to provide for people who were coming in off the road hungry, and she couldn’t afford to arion grew up in a small town in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, buy Marion even the simplest pretty clothes. the only girl in the family, with two younger brothers. Her M Then, when Marion was three years old, her mother became father and mother met when he was giving his ordination sermon and seriously ill and was, for the most part, bed-ridden for several years. she was a soloist in the choir. Both placed a high value on their Christian While pregnant with her last child, she contracted tuberculosis of the beliefs and on a life of service. An important element in the glands through contaminated milk from the town dairy. With no one transformative movement work is the concept of being able to contact to look after her at home, Marion had to accompany her father on his the unconscious and move freely, bringing feelings, images, bodily ministerial rounds. Relegated to the parlors of parishioners while her sensations, and memories to consciousness in a safe container, in the father performed his duties, Marion made blankets out of doilies, presence of a nonjudgmental “witness.” When I asked Marion about playing in the world of her imagination and “pretty things.” “My her mother as her first “witness,” wondering how her influence may mother was the organizer in our household, and my father was my have informed Marion’s life and work, she replied: witness,” Marion reflected. Marion spent very little time with her “She was a suffragette who was very much ahead of her time in mother during her mother’s illness, and “didn’t see much joy in the conservative London. She drove her own car. She had very lovely clothes. female body” during that time. “My mother hadn’t been all that happy She had a job, and she had her hair bobbed before anybody else in in her [female] body, and the illness took away what joy there was,” 1926. That was big in her life because she had magnificent hair, and she said sadly. she decided to have it bobbed. That was more than her family could Marion’s own body “shut down” during those years as she took on deal with. I’ve still got her magnificent braid that was cut off. But she adult responsibilities that her mother wasn’t able to fulfill. “All the was not in her body. She was very proud of her body and she was a spontaneous playfulness of a child was curbed by my feeling that I very good-looking woman, but she had no sense of herself as a woman, had to be quiet. I had to take responsibility beyond my years,” she in terms of loving her menstrual cycle, or loving being a woman. She recalled. And this, she says, was a potent force behind her later putting didn’t like being a woman. Life would have been much easier for her on a great deal of weight, regardless of the number of calories she in a man’s body. I think that was one of the biggest things she had to actually consumed. “The inner archetypal image was of the maternal deal with all her life: how to get along in a woman’s body.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Remembering Gregg Schraw
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Special Education and Communication Department of Special Education and Disorders Faculty Publications Communication Disorders 11-3-2016 Remembering Gregg Schraw Matthew T. McCrudden Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/specedfacpub Part of the Special Education and Teaching Commons This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Special Education and Communication Disorders Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. digitalcommons.unl.edu Remembering Gregg Schraw Matthew T. McCrudden Faculty of Education, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington 6140, New Zealand email [email protected] Gregg Schraw passed away on September 15, 2016 at age 62 after a battle with cancer. Gregg was a Barrick Distinguished Professor of ed- ucational psychology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). He completed a bachelor’s degree in secondary education and became a certified teacher. Later, he completed a M.S. in instructional science (1986), a M.S. in applied statistics (1988), and finally a Ph.D. in cogni- tion and instruction, each from the University of Utah. The progres- sion of his degrees was a prelude to a professional career that was characterized by his emphasis on the use of theory, design, and mea- surement to investigate practical issues in education. Published in Educational Psychology Review 28 (2016), pp 673–690. doi:10.1007/s10648-016-9390-2 Copyright © 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New York.
    [Show full text]
  • The Will to Live
    University of Rhode Island DigitalCommons@URI Open Access Dissertations 1977 An Empirical Investigation of an Existential Theory as it Appears to the Elderly: The Will to Live Ann M. Varna Garis University of Rhode Island Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss Recommended Citation Varna Garis, Ann M., "An Empirical Investigation of an Existential Theory as it Appears to the Elderly: The Will to Live" (1977). Open Access Dissertations. Paper 1114. https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss/1114 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@URI. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@URI. For more information, please contact [email protected]. - AN EMPIRICALINVESTIGATION OF AN EXISTENTIALTHEORY AS IT APPLIES TO THE ELDERLY: THE WILL TO LIVE BY ANNM. VARNAGARIS A DISSERTATIONSUBMITTED IN PARTIALFULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTSFOR THE DEGREEOF DOCTOROF PHILOSOPHY IN PSYCHOLOGY UNIVERSITYOF RHODEISLAND 1977 ABSTRACT The purpose of the present study was to investigate the Will to Ltve concept as it applies to the elderly. This was accomplished by exploring the relationship among the variables of Purpose in Life; Locus of Control; Depression; and a self-ratin g Will to Live scale. These are variables which, according to the literature, could be expected to be major components of the Will to Live concept. The subjects for this study were 6J volunteers, ran gin g in a ge from 60 to 95, taken from different housing settin gs, nursing homes; apartments for the elderly; and private homes in the community.
    [Show full text]
  • Century Feminism: a Jungian Exploration of the Feminine Self
    20th Century Feminism: A Jungian Exploration of The Feminine Self by Christopher Alan Snellgrove A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Auburn University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Auburn, Alabama August 4, 2012 Keywords: Carl Jung, Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood, Archetypes Copyright 2012 by Christopher Alan Snellgrove Approved by Jonathan Bolton, Chair, Associate Professor of English Dan Latimer, Professor Emeritus of English Susana Morris, Assistant Professor of English Abstract The following work uses the theories and methods provided by Carl Jung as a way of analyzing works by three women authors: Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. The primary Jungian notion featured is that of self-actualization—the process by which a person has achieved a sense of wholeness uniting their body and mind to the greater world. Specifically, I examine how the protagonists and antagonists of these texts either complete their Jungian journey towards actualized wholeness. In order to do this, I focus greatly on Jung’s notion of archetypes, and how they either help or hinder the journey that these women are on. A large part of the analysis centers on how actualization might be defined in feminine terms, by women living in a world of patriarchal control. As such, this work continues the endeavors of other Post-Jungians to “rescue” Jung from his own patriarchal leanings, using his otherwise egalitarian theories as a way of critiquing patriarchy and envisioning sexual equality. Jung, then, becomes an interesting bridge between first, second, and third-wave feminism, as well as a bridge between modernism and post-modernism.
    [Show full text]
  • Original Research Reports Understanding the Will to Live In
    Original Research Reports Understanding the Will to Live in Patients Nearing Death HARVEY MAX CHOCHINOV, M.D., PH.D., THOMAS HACK,PH.D., C.PSYCH. THOMAS HASSARD,PH.D., LINDA J. KRISTJANSON,PH.D. SUSAN MCCLEMENT,PH.D., MIKE HARLOS, M.D. This study examined concurrent influences on the will to live in 189 patients with end-stage can- cer. The authors found significant correlations between the will to live and existential, psycholog- ical, social, and, to a lesser degree, physical sources of distress. Existential variables proved to have the most influence, with hopelessness, burden to others, and dignity entering into the final model. Health care providers must learn to appreciate the importance of existential issues and their ability to influence the will to live among patients nearing death. (Psychosomatics 2005; 46:7–10) ow can we understand the various things that help of-life care issues.6 They were recruited from two palliative Hsupport or, in some instances, undermine a patient’s care units in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. These units pro- wish to go on living in the face of a progressing terminal vide inpatient care and coordinate community-based end- illness? Prior studies have shown that psychiatric issues of-life care services. A consecutive sample of consenting influence the dynamics of how patients move to and from cancer patients meeting the inclusion criteria was recruited a wish to go on living toward the end of life.1 As a case in over 36 months. Eligibility criteria included the following: point, the association between a desire for death and de- age of at least 18 years, a terminal cancer diagnosis with a pression has been well established.2 Other sources of life expectancy of less than 6 months, ability to read and physical symptom distress, such as uncontrollable pain or speak English, no evidence of dementia or delirium that shortness of breath, have also been found in some studies might make it difficult to complete the protocol, and ability to hold considerable sway.3,4 to provide written acknowledgement of informed consent.
    [Show full text]
  • A New Approach to the Ethics of Life: the ―Will to Live‖ in Lieu of Inherent Dignity Or Autonomy- Based Approaches
    LIM BOOK PROOF 1/10/2015 3:07 PM A NEW APPROACH TO THE ETHICS OF LIFE: THE ―WILL TO LIVE‖ IN LIEU OF INHERENT DIGNITY OR AUTONOMY- BASED APPROACHES MARVIN LIM* TABLE OF CONTENTS A NEW APPROACH TO THE ETHICS OF LIFE: THE ―WILL TO LIVE‖ IN LIEU OF INHERENT DIGNITY OR AUTONOMY-BASED APPROACHES .......................................................................................... 27 I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................ 30 II. THE ―WILL TO LIVE‖ .................................................... 38 A. WHAT IS THE WILL TO LIVE? ............................... 38 B. A BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ............................... 41 III. ABORTION ...................................................................... 48 A. INHERENT DIGNITY FROM CONCEPTION .............. 49 1. Rational Biological Processes, Human Potential, and Innocence ..................................... 49 2. The Meaning of “Rational”: Motivations Matters ................................................................. 52 B. THE WILL TO LIVE ............................................... 63 * Yale Law School, J.D.; Emory University, B.A. Many thanks to James Becerra and the staff of the Interdisciplinary Law Journal for outstanding editing; to Nicole Taykhman and Elizabeth Deutsch for assistance with sources; and to JC for guidance. All assertions, opinions, and mistakes herein are my own. 27 LIM BOOK PROOF 1/10/2015 3:07 PM 28 Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal [Vol. 24:27 1. At the Beginning of Life: Distinct from Fetal
    [Show full text]
  • The Psychology of Purpose
    The Psychology of Purpose February 2018 Created by the members of the Adolescent Moral Development Lab at Claremont Graduate University for Prosocial Consulting and the John Templeton Foundation 1 Table of Contents I. Defining Purpose ......................................................................................................................................... 3 II. Measuring Purpose .................................................................................................................................... 6 III. The Benefits of Purpose ........................................................................................................................ 10 IV. The Development of Purpose ................................................................................................................ 13 V. Fostering Purpose ..................................................................................................................................... 17 VI. Purpose Among Diverse Groups ........................................................................................................... 22 VII. Annotated Bibliography ........................................................................................................................ 27 2 I. DEFINING PURPOSE The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. – Ralph Waldo Emerson You probably have your own conception of what a purpose in life
    [Show full text]
  • Death Drive in Psychoanalysis Versus Existential Psychotherapy
    Psychology and Behavioral Science International Journal ISSN 2474-7688 Mini Review Psychol Behav Sci Int J Volume 8 Issue 1 - December 2017 Copyright © All rights are reserved by Pari Tirsahar DOI: 10.19080/PBSIJ.2017.08.555726 Death Drive In Psychoanalysis versus Existential Psychotherapy Pari Tirsahar* University of Tutor, UK Submission: November 15, 2017; Published: December 05, 2017 *Corresponding author: Pari Tirsahar, University of Tutor, London, UK, Email: Introduction In by [6] says that the In Greek myth, the demon of death was the son of Nix (god Civilisation and Its Discontents S Freud pleasure principle determines the purpose of life thus being of the night) and Erebus (god of darkness) and a twin to Hypnos analogous to the reality principle. But then Freud realized that time 1920 in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, according to which (sleep). The term ‘death drive’ was coined by Freud for the first could not explain with the pleasure principle, and that led him to ‘Thanatos‘ is posited opposite of Eros, the creative and productive there were three conflicting facts in the human mind that he another principle which he found beyond the pleasure principle, drives, sexuality and survival. In classic psychoanalytic theory and this in turn led him to the concept that later became known the death drive (Thanatos) is seen as a drive towards self- as the death drive. destruction and death. The death drive forces mankind into risky and self-destructive behaviors that could lead to death S Freud [1]. The death drive can be related to the work of the German was the paradox of PTSD in working with traumatized soldiers The first conflicting problem Freud was confronted with philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer who in his book The World who had participated in World War I.
    [Show full text]
  • PHIL 300 Philosophies of Human Nature
    BOWIE STATE UNIVERSITY SYLLABUS SEMESTER: FALL 2009 Department of History and Government Philosophy 300 Philosophies of Human Nature Instructor: Dr. F. Mills, ext.-3605. [email protected] Office: MLK 0217 OfficeHours: T/TH 12:30-01:00PM; 2:30PM-04:30PM Wed. 12:00PM - 03:00PM COURSE DESCRIPTION: Philosophy of human nature studies a number of different theories of what constitutes being human. The course is interdisciplinary because it includes naturalistic, dialectical, and feminist points of view. It is also multicultural, because it encourages examination of philosophical perspectives from around the world. Among the questions raised are: Do human beings have a (unique) nature? Is there an unconscious mind? Is there a universal aspect to being human? Do human beings have a (singular) destiny? Is there a divine being to which or to whom human beings are related? Will high‐technology computers be able to have conscious mental states? Are humans basically animals? REQUIRED TEXTS Contemporary: Selected Contemporary Readings (S. Blackmore; D. Dennett) Classical: Abel, Donald C., ed. Theories of Human Nature: Classic and Contemporary Readings. New York: McGraw‐Hill, 1992. STUDENT OUTCOMES • theoretical understanding of differing conceptions of human nature • historical comprehension of the development of various theories • analytical and critical knowledge of controversial aspects of being human • practical experience in developing oral presentation/public speaking skills LEARNING OBJECTIVES The student will demonstrate attainment of the following competencies by attaining at least an overall average of 75% in the course: 1. Identify, compare, and critique a variety of theories of human nature (see course units); 2. compare physicalist to mentalistic and functionalist models of human nature; 3.
    [Show full text]
  • Assessing the Will to Live: a Scoping Review
    Vol. - No. --2020 Journal of Pain and Symptom Management 1 Review Article Assessing the Will to Live: A Scoping Review Marc-Antoine Bornet, MD, Mathieu Bernard, PhD, Cecile Jaques, MSc, Eve Rubli Truchard, MD, Gian Domenico Borasio, MD, and Ralf J. Jox, MD, PhD Chair of Geriatric Palliative Care (M.-A.B., E.R.T., R.J.J.), Palliative and Supportive Care Service and Service of Geriatric Medicine and Geriatric Rehabilitation, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne; Palliative and Supportive Care Service (M.B., G.D.B.), Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne; and Medical Library (C.J.), Research and Education Department, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland Abstract Context. The will to live (WTL) is an important factor to consider in the context of providing resource-oriented palliative care. Until now, there has been no major review of the existing research on this subject. Objectives. The primary objective of this study is to summarize the state of research concerning instruments that assess the WTL. The secondary objective is to explore the theoretical models and psychometric properties of these instruments, in studies where these instruments were initially presented. The tertiary objective is to identify, among all studies where these instruments have been used, the intensity of the WTL, and factors associated with it. Methods. We conducted a scoping review, including studies that were designed to assess the WTL among participants in all settings. Records were systematically searched from seven bibliographic databases with no date limitations up to August 2020. Results. Of the 3078 records screened, 281 were examined in detail and 111 were included in the synthesis.
    [Show full text]
  • Establishing Standards for the Assessment of Suicide Risk Among Callers to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
    Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior 37(3) June 2007 353 2007 The American Association of Suicidology Establishing Standards for the Assessment of Suicide Risk Among Callers to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Thomas Joiner, PhD, John Kalafat, PhD, John Draper, PhD, Heather Stokes, LCSW, Marshall Knudson, PhD, Alan L. Berman, PhD, and Richard McKeon, PhD The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline was launched in January 2005. Lifeline, supported by a federal grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, consists of a network of more than 120 crisis centers located in communities across the country that are committed to suicide prevention. Lifeline’s Certification and Training Subcommittee conducted an ex- tensive review of research and field practices that yielded the Lifeline’s Suicide Risk Assessment Standards. The authors of the current paper provide the back- ground on the need for these standards; describe the process that produced them; summarize the research and rationale supporting the standards; review how these standard assessment principles and their subcomponents can be weighted in rela- tion to one another so as to effectively guide crisis hotline workers in their every- day assessments of callers to Lifeline; and discuss the implementation process that will be provided by Lifeline. On January 1, 2005, the National Suicide anytime from anywhere in the nation and are Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-TALK) was routed to the nearest networked crisis center. launched. Lifeline, supported by a federal Callers are then connected with a trained grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental telephone worker who can provide emotional Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), support, assessment, crisis intervention, and/ consists of a network of more than 120 crisis or linkages to local treatment and support re- centers located in communities across the sources, including emergency services.
    [Show full text]
  • Integrating Suicide Prevention Into Overall Healthcare ©2017
    INTEGRATING SUICIDE PREVENTION INTO OVERALL HEALTHCARE ©2017 Randi J. Jensen, MA, LMHC, CCDC CEO, Jensen Suicide Prevention, Inc. STRUGGLING TO STAY ALIVE Suicidality is more common than we think All age groups studied reported suicidal thought – highest percentage in young adults aged 18 – 25 y.o. (SAMHSA, 2009) 8.3 mil U.S. adults reported serious thoughts in previous year (1.1 mil made attempts) (SAMHSA, 2009) 50% of military veterans currently attending college reveal active suicidal ideation (Rudd, 2011) THEORIES OF SUICIDE Societal and Cultural – Emile Durkheim (1867) Masaryk (1881) & Wolman (1976) – social integration and associated cultural connections determine risk – social regulation provides protection not individual factors Biological and Genetic – lower serotonin levels in brain predisposes depression/ Dysfunction of Hypothalamic- pituitary-adrenal axis (stress response) predicts suicide in depressed patients Biological and Stress - (Diathesis Model) – life events cause increased stress combined with an innate biologic vulnerability to suicide THEORIES OF SUICIDE Psychological – .Edwin Schneidman (father of suicidology, 1993) - ambivalence toward life and death, and feelings of hopelessness and helplessness – “psychache” conflict of internal aspects of self to which the only response is the ending of the personality .Interpersonal (Joiner, 2011) – thwarted belongingness & perceived burdensomeness and acquired capability .Psychobiological (Jensen, 2012) – childhood trauma with inability to alter situation creates a neural
    [Show full text]
  • Living Form in American Literature Benjamin Welner Barasch
    The Ontological Imagination: Living Form in American Literature Benjamin Welner Barasch Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2019 © 2019 Benjamin Welner Barasch All rights reserved ABSTRACT The Ontological Imagination: Living Form in American Literature Benjamin Welner Barasch “The Ontological Imagination: Living Form in American Literature” proposes a new theory of the imagination as a way forward from the long academic critique of the human subject. It is unclear how we should conceive of the human—of our potential, for example, for self-knowledge, independent thought, or moral choice—after the critiques of self-presence, intentionality, and autonomy that have come to define work in the humanities. This dissertation offers an image of the human responsive to such challenges. I argue that a set of major nineteenth-century American writers (Ralph Waldo Emerson, William James, Henry James, and Walt Whitman) held a paradoxical conception of the imagination as both the mark of human uniqueness—the faculty that raises the mind above the world’s sheer givenness, allowing for creative action—and the space of our greatest intimacy with the nonhuman world. For these writers, the highest human achievements simultaneously differentiate us from the rest of nature and abolish our difference from it. Chapter 1, “Emerson’s ‘Doctrine of Life’: Embryogenesis and the Ontology of the Fragment,” presents an Emerson whose investigations of emotional numbness reveal a disintegrative force immanent to living beings. In the new science of embryology—a model of life at its most impersonal—he finds a non-teleological principle of growth by which a human life or an imaginative essay might attain fragile coherence.
    [Show full text]