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By a Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For COUPLES AT PLAY: IMAGINATION, AFFECT, AND THE EMERGENCE OF HOPE by CLIFF STEVENS A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN PSYCHOLOGY MERIDIAN UNIVERSITY 2018 Copyright by CLIFF STEVENS 2018 COUPLES AT PLAY: IMAGINATION, AFFECT, AND THE EMERGENCE OF HOPE by CLIFF STEVENS A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN PSYCHOLOGY MERIDIAN UNIVERSITY 2018 This dissertation has been accepted for the faculty of Meridian University by: ________________________________________ Arthur C. Bohart, Ph.D. Dissertation Advisor _________________________________________ Joy Meeker, Ph.D. Dissertation Chair ________________________________________ Melissa Schwartz, Ph.D. Vice President of Academic Affairs Thereupon I said to myself: ‘Since I know nothing at all, I shall simply do whatever occurs to me.’ Thus I consciously submitted to the impulses of the unconscious. — C.G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections v ABSTRACT This study explored the experience of five couples to address a Research Problem that asked: in what ways might collaborative imaginative play affect each partner’s perception of hope and possibility within their relationship? The Hypothesis stated that collaborative imaginative play with a trusted other might awaken implicit memories of an earlier transformative relationship, which, in turn, might imbue the current, adult relationship with a sense of hope and possibility. Imaginal Transformation Praxis served as the theory-in-practice for this study. The literature review explored topics including: Jungian, Imaginal, and feminist psychology, attachment theory, object relations, arts-based inquiry, and play theory. The literature reveals a lack of research focusing on creative collaboration, particularly in the context of adult play. The research methodology used was Imaginal Inquiry, consisting of four phases: Evoking, Expressing, Interpreting and Integrating Experience. The primary experience studied was hope, generated by collaborative imaginative play. Six learnings and a cumulative learning emerged from the study. The cumulative learning states: the positive affects of joy and interest/excitement generated during collaborative, imaginative play with trusted others, rather than the reawakening of implicit memories of an earlier transformational relationship, were the necessary precursors to expressions of hope and possibility. The first learning states: creative play enabled reconnection with an earlier stage of life, imbued with joy and interest/excitement. The second states: the group as a whole had a transformative effect vi on each participant’s experience. The third states: the evocative nature of the mask- making methodology fostered emergence of a liminal, transformative state. The fourth states: issues of authority and control were experienced both intrapersonally and interpersonally. The fifth states: gender informed the participants’ experience of control and vulnerability, and their permission to claim and express an “artistic self.” The sixth states: hope was expressed through images suggesting transformation and pathways toward future possibilities. The mythic context for this inquiry is the Wounded Feminine, as personified in the tale of Persephone. The relationship between playful, creative collaboration and the affects of joy and interest/excitement demonstrated in the study could have a significant effect on our understanding of how hope is generated and maintained. vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS With love and gratitude to my mother, Elizabeth Dyer Stevens, whose curiosity and playfulness enlivened my imagination as a child. Blessed, indeed, was I! Gratitude as well to my father, Clifford E. Stevens, who provided me with the secure base on which this project rests and, ever and always, much to ponder. Many thanks to Lori Richloff, whose unflinching honesty led me to question the meaning and direction of my life and set me on this path, and whose soulful creativity and depth have been a continuing source of inspiration. There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophies… With appreciation to the members of Cohort 18, and my teachers and mentors at Meridian University, who helped me prepare and tend the dark soil from which this vital green shoot emerged, and special acknowledgment to my co-researcher Robert Rowen- Herzog for his insight, companionship, and ready humor. Thanks as well to the members of my dissertation committee: Art Bohart, Melissa Schwarz, and, especially, Joy Meeker, whose steadfast support and positive outlook were vital in bringing this project to fruition. Finally, much gratitude and affection to Charles Asher, alchemist, analyst, guide and companion on the Way – a muddle, a night voyage, a circumnambulation of the self. viii CONTENTS ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………………………... v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ………………………………………………...…………... vii ILLUSTRATIONS ………………………………………………………………......... xi Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………... 1 Research Topic Relationship to the Topic Theory-In-Practice Research Problem and Hypothesis Methodology and Research Design Learnings Significance and Implications of the Study 2. LITERATURE REVIEW …………………………………………………... 19 Introduction and Overview Play Relationship Hope The Mundus Imaginalis Poïesis ix 3. METHODOLOGY ……………………………………………………......... 86 Introduction and Overview Four Phases of Imaginal Inquiry 4. LEARNINGS …………………………………………………………......... 108 Introduction and Overview Cumulative Learning: “Music Heard So Deeply That It Is Not Heard At All” Learning One: “So Now We Can Grow Up Again” Learning Two: “The Right Mix of Vegetables, Meats and Spices” Learning Three: “Mask Just Wants to Be Young Again” Learning Four: “Shutting Me Up Was Really Good” Learning Five: I'm Not an Artist, But I'm Married to One Learning Six: Hope is the Opening Door Conclusion 5. REFLECTIONS ………………………………………………………......... 161 Significance of the Learnings Mythic and Archetypal Reflections Reflections on Participants and Methodology Implications of the Study Areas of Future Research and Praxis Conclusion APPENDIX 1. ETHICS APPLICATION .……………………………………………..…... 183 2. CONCEPTUAL OUTLINE ..………………………………………………. 187 x 3. CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINE …………………………………………... 189 4. INFORMED CONSENT FORM ………………………………………….. 193 5. FLYER …………………………………………………………………….. 196 6. PRINT/ONLINE ADVERTISEMENT ………………………………......... 197 7. SCRIPTS: INITIAL TELEPHONE SCREENING ………………………... 198 8. SCRIPTS: ACCEPTANCE/REJECTION PROCESS ……...……………... 199 9. MEETING ONE: SCRIPTS PRIOR TO DATA COLLECTION …………. 200 10. MEETING ONE: SCRIPTS, MORNING …………………………………. 203 11. MEETING ONE: SCRIPTS, AFTERNOON ……………………………… 207 12. POEMS: MEETINGS ONE AND TWO …………………………………... 210 13. PHOTOS: MASKS AND MASK MAKING ……………………………… 212 14. SUMMARY OF DATA………………………………………………......... 221 15. SUMMARY OF LEARNINGS ……………………………………………. 240 16. SIX TUTELARY SPIRITS ………………………………………………... 245 NOTES ……………………………………………………………………………….. 246 REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………………….. 278 xi ILLUSTRATIONS Dante and Virgil Leaving the Dark Wood – Gustave Doré ………………….… Epigraph Persephone – Martinique Louise Fisher (by permission of artist) …………………... 166 1 INTRODUCTION Research Topic This study examined the capacity of creative, collaborative play to enliven and transform the relationship of adult couples, married or in a long-term committed relationship. Outreach for the study described it as an opportunity for “creative collaboration,” “creative play,” and “playful and imaginative collaboration.” The choice of language was predicated on an assumption that prospective participants would be more likely to give up a Saturday in their busy lives if the day promised to be novel and exciting. Whether or not the language posed a disincentive to other prospective participants is an unexplored possibility. In any event, play was and is the defining activity of the study. In attempting to say something more definitive about the topic of play, we are immediately led in several directions, for play is a vast subject area. By proposing that play comprises seven “rhetorics,” or persuasive discourses, Brian Sutton-Smith does much to disentangle and clarify what play is, who does it, and why, by placing play in the context of more comprehensive value systems – learning, growth, imagination, and so forth.1 Importantly, Sutton Smith’s work lends theoretical support to the particular kind of play comprising the shared art-making methodology of this study. Sutton-Smith’s “rhetoric of play as the imaginary” and “rhetoric of the self” are particularly relevant. Through the lenses they provide, we can see play as a creative and imaginative activity, with a capacity to inform and transform, and ultimately, to lead to an expanded sense of 2 oneself, both alone and in relationship. The desire – one might safely say the need – to play is characteristic of humans and certain other higher animals. Although play may be at times solitary, it is for the most part a lifelong, relational activity. For a perspective on the importance of play in human development, I am indebted to the work of Donald W. Winnicott, who argues, in Playing and Reality that play is at the heart of the early relationship between mother and child.2 Play occurs in a special, intermediary place that is different from the inner psychic reality of the child, a place that Winnicott describes as “outside the individual, but…not [wholly] the external world.” 3 In
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