LEARNING and ALTERITY: the PUBLIC PEDAGOGY of POLYVALENT SELVES in SELECTED CINEMATIC TEXTS by WAYLAND RAY WALKER, JR. Under
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LEARNING AND ALTERITY: THE PUBLIC PEDAGOGY OF POLYVALENT SELVES IN SELECTED CINEMATIC TEXTS by WAYLAND RAY WALKER, JR. Under the Direction of ROBERT J. HILL ABSTRACT I analyzed six purposively selected cinematic texts that depicted protagonists experiencing alter personalities, and what is commonly known as Multiple Personality Disorder (“MPD”) or Dissociative Identity Disorder (“DID”) and which I have labeled “alterity” for this project. I employed a rhizoanalysis to examine messages in these films regarding alterity. I explored the disabling notions regarding the experience of alters that were present in these films, as well as both how and why the characters learned to experience alters. The unitary, cohesive and modernist Self is central to much Western thinking and to theoretical discourse in adult education, including research on authenticity in teaching and transformative learning, and yet protagonists in these movies presented polyvalent selves functioning in an assemblage rather than any such unitary or cohesive Self. I performed a public policy analysis and made recommendations congruent with adult education’s tradition of advocacy and protecting benign human difference. I confront the oppressive role of the Self in psychiatric and adult education discourse and outline the possibility for the emergence of a culture of alterity and needs for future research. INDEX WORDS: Adult Education, Public Policy, Rhizoanalysis, Assemblage, Postmodernism, Foucault, Multiple Personality Disorder, Dissociative Identity Disorder LEARNING AND ALTERITY: THE PUBLIC PEDAGOGY OF POLYVALENT SELVES IN SELECTED CINEMATIC TEXTS by WAYLAND RAY WALKER, JR. B.A., Psychology, Eckerd College, 1986 M.A., West Georgia College, Psychology, 1989 M.A., Anthropology, University of Georgia, 1993 J.D., Tulane Law School, 1997 M.Ed., Health Promotion and Behavior, The University of Georgia, 2001 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2012 © 2012 WAYLAND WALKER All Rights Reserved LEARNING AND ALTERITY: THE PUBLIC PEDAGOGY OF POLYVALENT SELVES IN SELECTED CINEMATIC TEXTS by WAYLAND WALKER Major Professor: ROBERT J. HILL Committee: Elizabeth A. St. Pierre Laura L. Bierma Wendy E. A. Ruona Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia June, 2012 DEDICATION Dedicated to my major professor, Robert J. Hill whose longsuffering personal and professional patience, support, kindness, and insight made this work (and with it my dream of earning a Ph.D.) possible. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge, first, Dr. Bettie St. Pierre, who provided me with the intellectual tools I needed to challenge the hegemony of the modernist Self; my other longsuffering committee members, Dr. Laura Bierema and Dr. Wendy Ruona, who provided intellectual support and input from my prospectus to the completion of this project; and Dr. Robert Hill, without whose guidance this project would have been impossible. I would also like to acknowledge William Collins, my longtime partner, who has endured with me the agonies of my research and writing from my start to the finish of this project; Brad Miller and Zak Vaudo, who provided intellectual support and challenges for my ideas about the alterity; Donald Seymour, who was there for me as I prepared for and then celebrated my prospectus defense; Dr. Shelby Outlaw, who helped me continue when the task seemed insurmountable; and Aline Robolin, who provided the emotional support I needed to formulate, undertake, and complete this work. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................................. ix CHAPTER 1 ALTERITY AND THE PSYCHIATRIC MACHINE.......................................1 Unitary Self as Regulation and Control.......................................................4 Failures of Normalization: Alterity.............................................................8 Public Pedagogy as Discursive Machine ...................................................12 Adult Education as Resistance...................................................................14 The Assemblage and Alterity.....................................................................15 The Research Problem ...............................................................................16 Definitions..................................................................................................16 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................22 Power, Discipline, Rhizome and Assemblage ...........................................23 Self as Educational Construct ....................................................................34 Public Pedagogy Research in Adult Education .........................................46 3 ON METHOD..................................................................................................56 Rhizoanalysis Described............................................................................58 Selection of Cinematic Texts.....................................................................60 The Process of Rhizoanalysis ....................................................................66 vi Conclusion on Methods .............................................................................73 4 ALTERITY: RESISTING DISABLING NOTIONS OF THE SELF ............77 Dissociative Identity Disorder as Mental Illness .......................................78 Other Explanations of Alterity...................................................................80 The Theoretical Importance of the Self .....................................................82 Disabling Notions of the Self.....................................................................84 Conclusion: Resistance .............................................................................87 5 LEARNING TO DISSOCIATE ......................................................................89 Why Characters Experience Alterity .........................................................90 How Characters Facilitate Alterity ..........................................................111 Conflict among Alters..............................................................................125 Conclusion on Learning Alterity .............................................................128 6 PUBLIC POLICY, ALTERITY, AND THE SELF.......................................129 Introduction on Policy..............................................................................130 Where Policy Is Made..............................................................................146 Choices and Policy Alternatives ..............................................................149 Implementing and Assessing Policy Options ..........................................154 Pros and Cons of Each Policy Option......................................................160 Policy Recommendation ..........................................................................164 Conclusions on Policy .............................................................................167 7 POSTCRIPT AND PERSPECTIVES ON FUTURE RESEARCH ..............170 Possible Emergence of a Culture of Alterity ...........................................173 Future Research .......................................................................................180 vii REFERENCES ................................................................................................................188 viii LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1: Summary of Selected Cinematic Texts..............................................................185 ix Chapter 1: Alterity and the Psychiatric Machine In madness, the totality of soul and body is parceled out: not according to the elements which constitute that totality metaphysically; but according to figures, images which envelope segments of the body and ideas of the soul in a kind of absurd unity. (Foucault, 1961/1988, p. 93) This project was undertaken to challenge the hegemony of the psychiatric story told and messages learned about the experiences of alter personas or personalities known as “Multiple Personality Disorder.” It is a story that usually sounds like a fairy tale. Imagine that you awake after months or years only to find yourself accountable for things you do not recall doing, in relationships with strangers, and employed in a job you can’t remember using skills that you never learned. Imagine that you must share your body with other, unfamiliar consciousnesses known as “alters.” Imagine that you and your alters can only sometimes communicate and often argue and disagree. All of this would be very, very confusing and difficult to navigate. But then imagine that, if anyone found out that you experience alters, you would face imprisonment and treatment by professionals who were already convinced, without even interviewing you, that your parents were either horribly negligent or deviant criminals. You would be hypnotized, drugged, imprisoned and “helped” to remember childhood sexual abuse. If encounters with alters are frightening, the psychiatric response is horrifying. As my readers will see, 1 this story is a reality that faces that minority of people who experience what is commonly