DOCUMENT RESUME ED 375 432 CS 214 586 AUTHOR Stewart, Richard D. TITLE Meditation, Twilight Imagery, and Individuation in Creative Writing. PUB DATE Jun 94 NOTE 383p.; Ph.D. Dissertation, Indiana University. PUB TYPE Dissertations/Theses Doctoral Dissertations (041) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC16 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Case Studies; College Students; *Creative Writing; Higher Education; Imagery; Interviews; *Journal Writing; *Meditation; *Self Expression; Writing Research IDENTIFIERS Archetypes; *Individuation; Intrapersonal Communication; Jung (Carl G); Writers Block; *Writing Development ABSTRACT A study explored the relationship between meditation, meditative journal writing, and the Jungian-archetypal notions of creative formulation and individuation or self-integration in student and non-student writing. A case study method was used to examine data from four lu,jects: an undergraduate, a social services worker, a doctoral student, and a psychological counselor. All subjects were practicing creative writers. Creative writing was defined as work in the traditional literary genres of poetry, short fiction, the novel, the play, and/or the literary essay. Subjects were trained in an introductory meditation practice and a modified form of Progoff's "Intensive Journal," and they provided creative writings produced before and during the study's research period. Data also came from audiotaped pre-, mid-, aid post-study interviews and from subjects' journals written during the research period. Jungian-archetypal concepts of individuation and creative formulation were used as criteria for analysis with the interpretive technique of amplification as an analytic tool. Subjects' views on changes in their writing ability/performance, self-concept, and psychological state relating to the study's procedures were also examined. Results indicated that meditation and journal writing helped to stimulate production of affective imagery, which in turn influenced the ability to write with greater flow, richness, and feeling. In addition, subjects experienced growth in creative expression, enhanced self-esteem, elimination of writer's block, and other personal benefits. (Contains 8 figures, over 400 references, and 2 appendixes.)(NKA) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** MEDITATION, TWILIGHT IMAGERY, AND INDIVIDUATION IN CREATIVE WRITING Richard D. Stewart Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Education Indiana University June, 1994 -PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS U.S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY Office Si EduCahhnal Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) IV(Thisdocument has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES Points of view or opinions slated in this INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC).- document do not necessarily represent official OERI positron or policy. BES1 COPY AVAILABLE © Copyright 1994 Richard D. Stewart ALL RIGHTS RESERVED i3 Acknowledgements I would like to thank the following: my participants for allowing me to study and write about them; my committee members, Dr. Sharon Pugh, the chairperson, and Drs. Hasan EI-Shamy, Curtis Bonk, and Martha Nyikos for their excellent advice on specific chapters, sections, and the overall conception of the study; Drs. Jerome Harste and Larry Mikulecky for helping me in deciding to pursue a doctorate in language education at Indiana University; Dr. Roger Farr for good-humored advice on dissertation writing in his course on research methods in language education; Dr. Carolyn Burke for her interest in my Jungian-archetypal ideas; Dr. Robert S. McCully of the Medical University of South Carolina for his advice and guidance on Jungian-archetypal theory and practice; Dr. Robert Magliola of the National Taiwan University for his advice and guidance on dissertation- writing and current views on feminine consciousness; Dr. Sam Guskin for invaluable advice on research design; and my friend Vicky Waltermire for her moral and spiritual support during the course of my dissertation studies. Special thanks also are due to Swami Veda Bharati (previously Dr. Usharbudh Arya) for initiating me into the medithtion tradition of the Himalayan Masters, who inspired and supported this work and my life as a whole. iv Abstract Richard D. Stewart Meditation. Twilight Imagery. and Individuation in Creative Writing This study explored the relationship between meditation, meditative journal writing, and the Jungian-archetypal notions of creative formulat;on and individuation or self- integration in student and non-student writing. I used a case study method to examine data. Four individuals participated: two females (an undergraduate student and a social services worker), and two males (a doctoral student and a psychological counselor). All participants were practicing creative writers prior to the study, where creative writing was defined as work in the traditional literary genres of poetry, short fiction, the novel, the play, and/or the literary essay. Participants were trained in an introductory meditation practice and a modified form of Progoffs Intensive Journal, and provided creative writings produced before and during the study's research period as samples of their work. I also derived data from audio-taped pre-, mid-, and post-study interviews, and from participants' journals written during the research period.I used the Jungian- archetypal concepts of individuation and creative formulation as criteria for analyzing writings and interview responses, and the interpretive technique of amplification as an analytic tool. In addition, I conducted non-Jungian-archetypal analyses of participants' interview responses to determine their views on changes in writing ability/performance, self-concept, and psycho- physical state as related to doing the study's procedures, as well as differences between these procedures and their previous writing instruction. The results indicate that meditation and journal writing help to stimulate production of affective imagery, which in turn influences one's ability to write with greater flow, richness, and feeling. In addition, participants showed growth toward individuation and enhanced creative expression by becoming better able to access imagery and feelings related to personal life issues and transpersonal/mythic- archetypal themes, which were integrated into their personal mythologies (as defined by Feinstein & Krippner), as well as other benefits, including alleviation of pre-existing medical conditions, enhanced awareness of inner imagery, intuitions, and feelings, experiences of unitive states of consciousness, enhanced relaxation, greater understanding of themselves and their creative writing processes, enhanced self-esteem, greater ability to focus while writing, and elimination of writer's block. Table of Contents Acceptance Page ii Copyright Page iii Acknowledgements iv List of Tables and Figures Section I. Background of Research Problems and Literature Review 1 Inadequacy of Current Approaches to Writing Instruction 1 Approaches to Language Use and Learning Limited to Personal Conscious and Unconscious Processes 2 Reader Response Theory 2 Rosenblatt's Transactional Theory 3 Bleich's Subjective Criticism 3 Summary of Reader Response Views on Reading and Writing 4 Jungian-archetypal Theory and Research 4 Jung's Work on Archetypal P.'ntials 4 Subsequent Work on Archetypal Imagery 6 Archetypal Potentials, Individuation, and Education 7 The Feminine, Androgyny, and Creative Writing 12 Accessing the Archetypal Level 15 Creativity, Imaginal-Archetypal Experience, and Education 15 Language Education's Neglect of Image Making and Intuition 16 Designing Instruction to Promote Image Making and Creativity 17 Twilight States and Creativity 18 Psychophysiology of Twilight States 18 General Creative Nature of Twilight Imagery 19 Cases of Twilight State Creativity 19 Other Approaches to Language Use and Learning and Creativity 21 Socio-Semiotic Views on Language Education and Creativity 21 Socio-semiotic Approaches to Language Use and Learning 21 Socio-semiotic Views on Critical Thinking and Creativity 23 vi Criticism of Semiotic/Constructivist Theory and Practice 23 Expanding Socio-semiotics with Archetypal-Meditative Approaches 24 The Jungian-archetypal Technique of Amplification 25 Cognitive Psychological Views on Creativity and Writing 30 Cognitive Perspectives on General Creativity 30 Cognitive Views on Creativity in Writing 33 Expanding Cognitive Approaches with Archetypal-Meditative Methods 35 Metacognitive Approaches to Language Use/Learning & Creativity 39 Roots of Metacognitive Views on Language Use/Creativity 40 Expanding Metacognitive Views with Archetypal-Meditative Approaches 40 Case Study and Psychoanalytic Approaches to Creativity 42 Meditative Approaches to Language Education/Creative Writing 44 Meditation as an Aid to General Creativity 45 Prescriptive Studies on Meditation and Creativity in Writing 47 Empirical Studies on Meditation and Creativity in Writing 54 Research Problems and Summary of Literature Review 58 II. Research Objectives and Questions 59 III. Methodology 60 Overview of Methodology 60