Women Dreaming Around Marriage: a Transpersonal Study of Personal Narratives, Group Dreamwork, Image and Archetype
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WOMEN DREAMING AROUND MARRIAGE: A TRANSPERSONAL STUDY OF PERSONAL NARRATIVES, GROUP DREAMWORK, IMAGE AND ARCHETYPE SUSAN BENSON BA, MSC, GRADUATE DIPLOMA PUBLISHING AND EDITING, GRADUATE DIPLOMA LIBRARY AND INFORMATION STUDIES DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN SYDNEY 2008 © SUSAN BENSON For my mother and father who gave so much; for my grandfather and grandmother who cared so deeply; for my husband, my children and their partners, and for my grandchildren, with love. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many thanks are due. To begin with, I would like to thank the dreamgroup participants for being who you are and your willingness and courage to extend yourself and to dream together. Each of the dreamers contributed a generous and inquiring spirit and added a rich and unique perspective. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to have worked together. I am grateful to Anne Noonan for her support, encouragement and valuing of the work of the thesis. My supervisors have been a key factor in this project. Susan Murphy shared with me a love of dreams and the ‘dreamtime’. Brenda Dobia and Robert Woog have given generously of their time, learning and experience. I would not have been able to complete this thesis without their support and encouragement. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Brenda for her exceptional generosity of ‘being’, which I especially valued in the final stages of my thesis. I would also like to thank my peer support group: Claire Jankelson and Ben Weiss. Over the course of our separate PhD work, we have shared ideas, glimmers of possibilities, creative challenges and ‘hard slog’, and through all these experiences we have found friendship. Peter White has also been a fellow PhD traveller and has contributed to good conversations, shared experiences and mutual learning; his commitment and dedication have been inspiring. To the various readers of this thesis, I also owe thanks. In particular, I would like to thank my husband for his extraordinary resilience of spirit, patience and support. To Julia, my daughter-in-law I owe special thanks for her generous assistance with formatting, style sheets and lay-out. STATEMENT OF AUTHENTICATION To the best of my knowledge and belief, this thesis is entirely original research which has not been submitted for any other degree at any place of learning. Every effort has been made to ensure that writings and ideas delivered in any medium have been acknowledged and referenced. Susan Benson TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHENTICATION ABSTRACT I ORIENTATION III CHAPTER ONE 1 INTRODUCTION 1 SCOPE OF THE THESIS 4 MY JOURNEY TO THE TOPIC 7 FRAMING THE NARRATIVE 11 RESEARCH ORIENTATION 28 CONCEPTUAL UNDERPINNINGS 31 NATURE OF THE WRITING PROCESS 32 MOVING BETWEEN MOTHER TONGUE AND FATHER TONGUE 35 WORKING WITH ARCHETYPAL IMAGINATION 36 CHAPTER TWO 39 OPENING INTO THE RESEARCH INQUIRY 39 PURPOSE OF THE INQUIRY 40 THE EMERGING GUIDING QUESTIONS OF THE STUDY 42 CONVERSING AROUND MARRIAGE 42 INITIATION OF THE RESEARCH PROJECT 52 AN EVOLVING RESEARCH DESIGN 55 CHAPTER THREE 57 ENGAGING WITH THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 57 THE HEURISTIC APPROACH 58 APPROACH VERSUS METHOD 60 ORGANIC INQUIRY 62 ORGANIC INQUIRY AND TRANSFORMATIONAL GOALS 65 ORGANIC INQUIRY AND FEMINIST EPISTEMOLOGIES 70 ORGANIC INQUIRY AND THE GOALS OF CO-PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH 74 ORGANIC INQUIRY AND THE TRANSPERSONAL VISION 76 ORGANIC INQUIRY AND HOLISTIC INSIGHTS 78 SUMMARY OF THE HEURISTIC/ORGANIC APPROACH 80 GENERALISABILITY AND VALIDITY CLAIMS 81 DISCUSSION OF OUTCOMES 83 CHAPTER FOUR 88 CHAPTER OUTLINE 88 INTRODUCTION 89 DREAMS AND SOCIAL CONTEXT 91 HERMEUNETIC REFLECTIONS 92 SOCIAL DREAMING 93 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL CONTEXT OF DREAMS 96 DEEPENING THE ENGAGEMENT WITH THE LITERATURE 100 DREAM INTERPRETATIONS 101 DREAMS AND TRANSPERSONAL INTERPRETATIONS 102 VALUING DREAMS THROUGH DREAM SHARING 106 DREAMGROUPS 109 GRASSROOTS DREAMGROUPS 110 ONLINE DREAMGROUPS 115 EXPERIENTIAL DREAMGROUPS 116 INFORMAL DREAMGROUPS AND THERAPEUTIC DREAMGROUPS 118 ETHICAL ISSUES 120 CONTRIBUTIONS OF MY STUDY TO THE FIELD 121 REFLECTIONS AND LINKING THOUGHTS 122 C. J. JUNG AND A DEPTH PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH 123 JUNG AND IMAGINAL CONSCIOUSNESS 126 IMAGE AS METAPHOR 127 DREAM FUSIONS 130 JUNG AND SYNCHRONICITY 131 CHAPTER FIVE 134 CHAPTER OUTLINE 134 INTRODUCING THE PARTICIPANTS 135 RIDING WITH OUR BACKS TO THE ENGINE 136 BLUE MOUNTAINS DREAMING 137 GRAPPLING WITH THE METHODOLOGY 138 BACKGROUND 139 BEGINNING DREAMS 142 DREAMGROUP PROCESSES AND KEY LEARNINGS 145 EMERGENT DREAM THEMES 148 DREAM INCUBATION 150 EMERGING DREAMGROUP QUESTIONS 155 DREAM OF A MARRIAGE 156 CONVERSATIONS 158 WORKING WITH SYMBOLS AND THE DREAM OF A MARRIAGE 160 THE CENTRAL THEMES OF A DREAM OF A MARRIAGE 163 DONNA’S DREAMING STORIES 165 MARRIAGE AS A CONTAINER OF SYMBOL 170 SEEKING THE DIVINE 174 WHAT IS BEHIND THIS DESIRE FOR OTHER 174 PAULA’S DREAM 175 DONNA’S INCUBATED DREAM 179 SUSAN’S DREAM 183 DREAMGROUP ENDINGS 185 FINAL DREAMS 186 CHAPTER SIX 189 CHAPTER OUTLINE 189 BEGINNINGS 191 DEEPENING THE REFLECTIONS AROUND DREAMGROUP PROCESSES 192 DREAMING IN THE LANDSCAPE 193 DREAMGROUP CONVERSATIONS 200 LUCY’S DREAMING 200 ERLA’S DREAMING 206 CLAIRE’S DREAMING 211 MICHELE’S DREAMING 216 REFLECTIONS ON INNER MALE FIGURES 219 CONVERSATIONS OF MARRIAGE 220 DREAMING AND INTERSUBJECTIVITY 221 DREAMS OF PRESIENCE 222 BLUE MOUNTAINS DREAMING 227 TRAVELLING TO BRAIDWOOD 230 KIMBERLEY DREAMING 231 HEURISTIC REFLECTIONS 233 A HEURISTIC CREATIVE SYNTHESIS 236 CHAPTER SEVEN 244 CHAPTER OUTLINE 244 STRUCTURING THE QUESTIONNAIRES 245 COMPOSITE DESCRIPTIVE INTERPRETIVE QUESTIONNAIRE REPORT 251 COMPOSITE GROUP NARRATIVE REPORT 284 CHAPTER EIGHT 291 CHAPTER OUTLINE 291 DRAWING THE THREADS TOGETHER 292 SUMMARY DREAMGROUP INQUIRY REPORT 294 METAPHOR AND ALCHEMICAL IMAGINATION 299 EMBRACING TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING THROUGH ORGANIC INQUIRY 307 REFRAMING MY PERSONAL STORY 310 SUMMARY 313 INTERSUBJECTIVITY 313 LOOKING THROUGH THE KALEIDOSCOPE OF INTER-SUBJECTIVITY 314 SUMMARY REFLECTIONS 323 LOOKING TO THE FUTURE 326 APPENDIX ONE 327 PARTICIPANTS INFORMATION SHEET 327 APPENDIX TWO 332 JUNG AND CRITICAL REFLECTIONS 332 LIST OF REFERENCES 338 LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES FIGURE 1: MECHANISTIC PARADIGM...........................................................................................37 TABLE 1: CATEGORIES OF INTERSUBJECTIVITY........................................................................37 TABLE 2: DESCRIPTION OF HEURISTIC/ORGANIC APPROACH ............................................. 62 TABLE 3: THREE TYPES OF PHENOMENOLOGICAL APPROACHES ....................................... 66 TABLE 4: TRANSPERSONAL CONSCIOUSNESS PARADIGM ..................................................... 78 TABLE 5: ORGANIC INQUIRY ASSESSMENT CRITERIA ............................................................ 82 TABLE 6: DATA ANALYSIS PROCESSES........................................................................................ 85 TABLE 7: PROFILE OF INTENTIONAL DREAMGROUPS........................................................... 121 FIGURE 2: MAPPING THE FIELD OF THE INQUIRY .................................................................198 FIGURE 3: EXPLORING THE FIELD OF THE INQUIRY.............................................................199 FIGURE 4: FIELD OF INTERSUBJECTIVITY .............................................................................. 324 ABSTRACT This thesis demonstrates how eight participants in two dreamgroups, meeting over six years, explored aspects of self-identity, change and transformation in the context of their own personal dreaming and shared dreamgroup processes. The thesis provides a rationale and argument for engagement with group dreamwork processes, as an appropriate medium of critical social/cultural inquiry, as well as for personal psycho-spiritual exploration. An initial pilot project involved four women in a short-term eight week dreamgroup process. Subsequently, two dreamgroups made up of mature-age women, who had experienced a long-term marriage, were formed. The guiding questions of the study were concerned with exploring what kept the participants in marriage or what prompted the urge to remarry? How did the participants reflect on the choices they were making? How were the experiences of the participants similar or different? To what extent did the women consider cultural conditioning as having been prescriptive or valuable? The participants also considered how they would create change, and how they would locate their visionary selves? The study is grounded in a qualitative research conceptual framework. The methodological approach used within the study is a blended heuristic and organic method of inquiry. The heuristic component is based on a personal, imaginal phenomenological method of inquiry. The organic approach draws on feminist fields of study, phenomenology and co-participatory research. The focus in the organic inquiry approach is on narratives and the ‘telling of stories’. It becomes both the method and subject of inquiry. The narratives of the dreamgroups recount the personal dreaming of individual participants. In these dreamgroup narratives, the personal stories, dreams and emergent themes and symbols are interwoven with the group story. Four central themes emerged through the personal and group work: letting go: restor(y) ing the feminine; integrating the masculine and feminine; living through image - i - ABSTRACT and metaphor. These themes are discussed and reflected upon, in relationship to the transformative potential for the participants,