“The Therapeutic Benefits of the Shamanic Journey”

Does the ancient spiritual practice of the shamanic journey have therapeutic value for 21st Century clients? Dr. Schmitz will offer a brief overview of the history of shamanism and its current resurgence. He will then present the findings from his research on the shamanic journey and share stories of healing and transformation for the participants. Time will be provided for questions and answers.

Immediately following with be a conversation with Steven on collaboration and the future of Transpersonal Psychology.

Bio:
Steven Schmitz, Ph.D., is an adjunct professor in the Sofia University (California, USA) Global Ph.D. Program, and teaches at transpersonal institutes in Italy, Switzerland, and Estonia. Dr. Schmitz, initiated into shamanic practice in 1974, has a private practice of transpersonal counseling and shamanic healing. He is Co-President of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology and a Board Member of the European Transpersonal Association.

Steven is in town for a workshop in Newnan, GA.  For more information on it, see here.

Anyone, including non-academics, can  now sign-up for a JSTOR account.   Non-academic accounts allow access to three articles per every two week period.

JSTOR is available here.

This is largely the result of the battle of the awareness efforts made by 26 year old Aaron Swartz, who recently ended his own life, according to this New York Times article.

More about Aaron available on his personal site and Wikipedia.   His life was one of a modern day digital Robbin Hood fighting the injustices and greed of the big and always serving justice for the people.  He was a brilliant programmer and social activist.   He will be personally missed by many, and the world will be worse off without him here.

Today this article was posted in BYU News on the research:  Psychologists: Scrooge’s transformation parallels real life-changing experiences

It discusses the process of transformation with Scrooge as reference.

The research will appear in the January issue of The Humanistic Psychologist.

Each of the study participants experienced overwhelming stress prior to their breakthrough. Hardy, an expert in human development, wonders whether hitting rock bottom is a necessary ingredient for such positive transformations.

“That led me to think, well, is there a way that people can capitalize on these mechanisms of change and initiate them themselves instead of bottoming out,” Hardy said. “Can you self-initiate this kind of change?”

Skalski shares: “We all know deep down inside that human beings can and do change in profound and significant ways.”

I often think, dream, and reflect on what would be the ideal traits of someone who would captain of our ship.  They would need to be worldly, yet they would need to be a lover of learning.  They would need to have a greater vision of how to bring depth to an educational process that faces increased demands to become more superficial, technical, and utility-driven.  They would need to have a wider vision of human unity and potential, so that we can come together and rise up as a unified whole.  And, of course, they would need to honor and respect the integrity of the different worldviews and values that exist in the different departments.  This would include listening carefully to the voices of the professors and working to support them in their individual missions.

So, who should be the ones to take on this very serious endeavor of finding our President?  Obviously the voices should largely come from within the university community.  But, if the committee were to extend outside of our organization and into the extended community, who would be best to sit on the committee?

My first thoughts would go to people “in the trenches,” those most in touch with where the students are at and what they need.  I think of local high school teachers, social workers or therapists, maybe even a local librarian.  I then think of the people who run local non-profits who are constantly working to help the lives of others.  How about one of the members of the Ferst Foundation of Carroll County who are deeply dedicated to combating childhood literacy by providing free children’s books to over 3000 families in Carroll County every month?  Or, how about a member of Carroll County CASA that provides support for abused and neglected kids?

But, none of the above was chosen for the search committee.  Let’s do a quick little tracing of the process to see how our search committee came into creation:

Then Governor of Georgia, Sonny Perdue, appointed businessman, Benjamin “Ben” J. Tarbutton III, to the Georgia Board of Regents.  Ben has just an undergraduate degree in business, so he is hardly qualified to take on a leadership position according to academic standards.  However, he was politically connected as he is a corporate man, and he got the job nonetheless.   Sonny faced several controversies during his tenure as Governor, one being the blatant appointing of someone to the State Board of Dentistry as a thank you for doing a personal favor.  In politics, for every controversy that surfaces there are 20 that remain unknown.

Businessman Ben raises through the ranks and becomes Chair of the Board of Regents.  Thus, he is responsible for appointing the committee for the our next President.  I don’t know the inner workings- I assume he just rubber-stamped someone else’s recommendations.

And who does he choose?  Thirteen of the eighteen are part of our deeply involved with the university- including faculty and staff.  Great start.  But who are the remaining five?

• H.B. Lipham, III, Metro Bank

• Ben Butler, CEO of Carrollton Orthopedic

• Cynthia Denney, Realty Broker

• Ray Fulford, founder, Ra-lin Construction Co.

• R. Cade Parian, attorney, Smith Conerly LLP

Ben Tarbutton, Chair of the GA Board of Regents, appointed these five as the community representatives to the search committee.  This is 30% of our committee being what might be best to classify as pro-business, pro-growth.  Now, I don’t know these people, and in no way would I suspect that any of them are not wonderful people with great concern for the university and the community.  But, I’m not sure if 30% of our committee, and it is OUR committee, should be businesspeople.

H.B. “Rocky” Lipham runs our local Metro Bank.  He is part of the local Chamber of Commerce.  He is a business guy.  He is also the Chair of the UWG Foundation.

Cythnia Denney, a Realtor,  is also a long-term supporter of the university and is now Secretary of the UWG Foundation.

Ray Fulford founded Ra-lin Construction Co., which is likely the largest vendor of the university this year.  They do huge projects for UWG.  They are currently working on a $26.5 million dollar residence and dining complex project for the university.  They also did the athletic stadium.  Ray has donated a lot to the school, it seems from my short web-based investigation.  However, again, the mentality is business.  And, the potential conflict of interest is obvious.

Ben Butler is a CEO of a large health care business in Carrollton.  He also is a customer of Ra-lin’s services, as they built his organization a 11,000 square feet facility.  He is also a member of the Chamber of Commerce.

Finally, R. Cade Parian is an attorney who practices (according to the firm’s website): “Business Law; Personal Injury; Premises Liability; Products Liability; Torts; Appellate Practice; Banking Law; Civil Practice; Collections; Commercial Law; Construction Law; Debtor and Creditor; Election, Campaign and Political Law; Government; Government Contracts; Litigation; Municipal Law.”   Notice that business law came first, followed by some very political endeavors.

As I was saying, I don’t question the well-wishing, intelligence, nor intentions of these people.  All I want to point out is that non-university members of the committee appear to be very much more oriented towards the outer world than the inner world.    They likely are more impressed with great buildings than the Great Books.  However, coming from the GA Board of Regent Chair who is not a man of academia and who spent his precious few years in higher education pursuing worldly/professional endeavors (a business degree), we cannot be surprised with the choices.

I strongly hope that the confidence, energy, and power that these empowered business people bring to the meetings don’t sway our university representatives to overvalue worldly capacities and underprivileged that which is most meaningful and essential to education.

And, I find it disappointing that only 2 of our 18 committee members are specialists in education, whereas our university has so many professors who are directly dedicated to that which is the very core of our existence.

Here is hoping that our committee chooses new leadership that values the inner equally to the outer, the learning environment more than the cheers in the stadium, and the retention rate not for statistical, comparative, and financial reasons, but out of a deep concern for each and every student who walks through our doors.

UPDATE: 11/29/12:  A reliable source has shared with us that those that were chosen by Deans did not get offers by the BOR to be on the final list.  So, those who have been chosen amongst the university’s rank are not necessarily reflective of our leaders’ preferences.

The Department of Psychology at the University of West Georgia announces a tenure-track Assistant/ Associate Professor position to commence Fall 2013.

The department houses dynamic undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral degree programs engaging an integrative approach with roots in humanistic, existential/phenomenological, transpersonal, depth, critical, and feminist psychologies.  We emphasize human science and other qualitative research methods, clinical interests creatively informed by broader social sensibilities, social justice approaches to intervention, and studies in consciousness and spirituality. Terminal degree in psychology required.

Please send vita, three letters of recommendation, writing sample, and a description of your vision for psychology to Victoria Yang, Department of Psychology, University of West Georgia, Carrollton, GA, 30118, vyang@westga.edu.  Review of applications will begin January 4, 2013.   The University of West Georgia is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. Should you be recommended for a position, University System of Georgia Board of Regents policy requires the completion of a background check as a prior condition of employment.

_____

The above was the official department announcement.  Here is the unofficial, student-written announcement:

We are really excited that there is another opportunity for our department to hire another tenure-track faculty member.

Our department is a fascinating place, and it would be an ideal teaching gig for the right person.

UWG Psychology is grounded in the Humanistic tradition.  We were birthed by Abraham Maslow’s recommendation of Mike Arons to develop this department three decades ago.

What professors seem to appreciate about teaching here is that they have an incredible amount of academic freedom.  This is not a place where you are told what and when to teach.   The attitude of the department is that intrinsic teaching fosters intrinsic learning.  You, the faculty follow your passions.  We, the students follow ours.  And, we co-create an optimal learning environment.

A lot of our most recent hires have been in the category of critical psychologists, so some of us students are hoping for our next faculty to be more grounded in the humanistic or transpersonal.  There are many students fascinated by phenomenology, so that would be a good fit too.

A faculty member who will thrive here is open-minded and open-hearted.

Many of our undergrads are first generation college students.  And, often their educational focus is getting their degree and fulfilling their physical needs in the world.  Many of our undergrad students sleep walk into their first psychology course, get sparked by the topic, and end up majoring and following it up with our master’s program.  So, expect diversity amongst the undergrads.

Many of our masters students are bright minds who take the existential task of engaging with their emerging adulthood directly.  Others are mature students who seek reengagement with the world via academia.  Many of these students are a pleasure to engage with.  They are interested in understanding themselves and the social world that they are embedded in.  They tend to be very interested in topics of mind-body, eco-psychology, and Rogerian approaches to therapy.   The master students can choose amongst the tracks of classwork only, thesis, and LPC.   So, you’ll find some students busy with the LPC track while others are deeply engaged with the thesis track.   It is almost like merging a philosophy department (deep reflection) with a school for social work (studying how to put it into action).  Many students tend to wear both hats, others wear one or the other.  Nonetheless, these are great students to teach, in my opinion.

Finally, there is the non-clinical doc program.  It is technically called a program in “Consciousness and Society.”  Thus, those faculty who want to teach us have the opportunity to sit more deeply with a topic.  There is also the opportunity to be involved as a dissertation advisor.  Many doc students teach undergraduate courses starting in their second year.  Not all faculty are involved with the doc program.  Some simply prefer teaching the undergrads and master students.  The doc program will hopefully give you access to some great students as support in your research in the form of graduate research assistants.  So, there is a lot of bouncing off each other amongst faculty and doc students.

In general, us grad students are very interested in our faculty members.  We often choose courses based upon the faculty as much as the subject.  And, the faculty tends to take our requests for courses seriously.  So, there is a very sweet symbiotic relationship between the students and the faculty.  You get the real feeling that we are engaging in the academic experience together, as co-creators.  We tend to all carry the same core values of deep concern for humanity and the planet.  We also share in our common rejection of simplistic answers to complicated questions.  Much of what we do is sit with that which is not known.  One might call this a common aptitude for sitting with ambiguity.

We look forward to attending your Candidate Colloquium in the spring!

If you have any questions for our student editor about this position, or even if you simply want to introduce yourself, feel free to contact him here.

We approached the square tonight to a symphony of police and fire lights.  News vans where present with their satellite antennas reaching for the sky.  Reporters were talking into the cameras.  Police were walking inside of a taped-in area with their gloves on snapping photos.  A red pickup truck with a huge grill, known as a bull bar, parked in the middle of the scene.  Everyone gathered was noticeably shaken up.  You could see the pain in the eyes of all the mothers who were on the scene, realizing that some other mother was experiencing their worst fear come true.  Totally shaken, emotional, deeply pained.  Empathetic, concern, fear, disbelief, and distraught.

In attempts to gather the proper name for such a front guard for the pickup truck so that we could call it by the proper name for this post we did a quick Internet search for it, and the first website we saw advertised it as such:

“Menacing and provocative, a custom-fit bull bar fixed to the front-end of your vehicle makes a statement that says ‘get out of my way, now.’”

This evening an 8 year old boy was killed in an accident at the East crosswalk of Adamson Square in Carrollton, GA.   He was hit by the truck.  Several our grad students were in the square at the time of the accident, and we know of at least one person who witnessed the accident.

Our hearts go out to the family of the victim and to all who knew and loved him.  And, our heart goes out the driver of that truck that will have to live with the burden of the situation.  We have no indications that the driver was at fault.  Our informant shared that the child darted out against his parent’s wishes, although this has not been confirmed.

As a community we have a serious issue with how the government is managing our town.  Serious accidents are a regular happening in Adamson Square.  This is largely due to the following conditions:

• There are minimal safety features in place.
• It is one of only a few places in town that has pedestrian traffic, so drivers are not used to it.
• It is a tight area with lots of foot traffic and is simultaneously a through street- a major road that sees a large amount of traffic.

Many of us have seen cars and especially pick-up trucks drive through red lights at this very crossing and drive too quickly when given the green.   It has been a dangerous place for a long time and there has been no significant safety measures established.  Another dangerous place that many of our department’s students encounter is the crossing of Maple Street at the beginning of Front Campus Drive.  This is a pedestrian entrance to the university and all it has is a simple crosswalk and yellow yield sign.  From our experiences Carrollton drivers tend to not yield to pedestrians at this walk unless the pedestrian is physically on the street.  And, by then it is often too late if someone is distracted.  Rare is the driver who will stop to let pedestrians cross.  Finally, it is worth mentioning the crosswalks between the new campus bookstore and the TLC building, which separates a large student parking lot from the campus.  All of these locations are dangerous.

There are safety measures that can implemented to save lives.  One such safety measure we borrow from the City of Boulder Colorado.  Their crosswalks all have buttons, and when one pushes the button the lights flash yellow as does the very crosswalk itself.  It is a visual display that is capable of saving lives.  Just as the police use lights to keep themselves safe when they pull cars over, here the pedestrian is given the power to use lights to protect their fragile bodies as they cross roads that contain heavy objects moving at high speeds.

Why does the Carrollton government not implement these measures to save our lives?  Are we not worth the expense?  Why do they have tons of money to spend on the drug war but nothing to protect pedestrians?

And, why do they focus more on seatbelt laws (which only hurt the one violating the law) than traffic safety such as enforcing pedestrian crosswalk yielding?

There is too much unconscious driving in Carrollton to keep the status quo.  There are too many drunk drivers, especially college age ones, driving on our streets late night.  It is time to put up safe crosswalks and to make sure that violators of them receive stiff penalties.

When an intersection is notoriously dangerous and the government doesn’t do more to protect the pedestrians the blood is on their hands.

How much is a life worth?  Would it be worth the cost of investing in blinking safety signs and flashing crosswalks, along with the enforcement necessary to make them effective?

It just isn’t fair to the pedestrians and to the drivers to allow someone to cross these busy streets without the protection of clear notification signals.   We drive with our habitual minds as much as our conscious minds.  We have a host of distractions including our entertainment systems, GPS devices, and texting and talking on our phones.  We drive with the urgency of the modern life where we no longer have enough hours in his day to complete all that we wish to do.  We are inviting trouble as drivers, and we need all the support to notice the few pedestrians who cross our streets.  Otherwise, eight year old boys lose their lives.

A couple sources of pedestrian life-saving technologies include:

Traffic Safety Corp

Spot Devices

Tapco

Tapco shares “More than 76,000 Americans have been killed walking or crossing the street in the past 15 years. According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, pedestrians account for nearly 12% of all traffic fatalities. Many crosswalks are poorly lit or pose other visibility challenges. Speeding, distracted and intoxicated drivers only worsen the problem.”

“Our Mama Raven’s wings have lifted her spirit from this lifetime and she is in flight to her next journey, where she will dance in our hearts forever.”

-Jonathan

Gabrielle Roth died yesterday, October 22nd, 2012.  She was the most influential teacher of meditative dance of her time.

“We are born into bodies that are fluid and free. Yet for most of us, this state of grace is sadly short lived. Judgement, emotional wounds, fear and loss become stored deep inside our muscles and bones, leaving us with shoulders that sag, hips that are locked, arms that can’t reach out, hearts that beat behind a stone wall. When we move our bodies we shake up firmly rooted systems of thought, old patterns of behavior and emotional responses that just don’t work anymore. Rhythm, breath, music and movement become tools for seeing, then freeing, the habits that hold us back. When we free the body, the heart begins to open. When the body and the heart taste freedom, the mind won’t be far behind. And when we put the psyche into motion, it will start to heal itself.“ ~Gabrielle Roth

Gabrielle Roth was a dancing meditation artisits and musician, with a special interest in shamanism and healing and awakening through dance. She created the 5Rhythms approach to dance movement in the 1960s, which has become a worldwide phenomenon.  She deeply influenced many past and current University of West Georgia Psychology students.

Roth worked at Kripalu yoga center in Massachusetts and at the Omega Institute in upstate New York.   She founded an experimental theatre company in New York.  Her legacy includes having written three books, creating over twenty albums of trance dance music with her band The Mirrors, and she has produced or been the subject of about ten videos.

___

Just four days before she left her body this was posted on her Facebook Page:

Hello Dancing Loved Ones,

Over the last few weeks Gabrielle has been moving into stillness. Robert and I have been deeply moved by the love and support pouring in from around the world. We appreciate each and every message and have been watching her smile when we share.

We have now entered a time when we need to focus our energy on Gabrielle. We would like to ask that you all please understand that we can no longer respond to the outpouring of beautiful words via phone and the email individually. Gabrielle has asked to take refuge in stillness and solitude, and as her family, we need to honor that. Together we are dancing thru an amazing spiritual, meditative journey, that, unfortunately, no longer includes shopping.

Gabrielle Roth has created some beautiful albums which are used around the world for dance and so much more.  These include:

Bones
Totem
Tribe
Luna
Initiation
Ritual

There are some great videos on her work including this one:

Death details:

Given that so many are in shock of Gabrielle’s passing and that so little news is available, we have investigated the details of her death.  This is what has been unofficially shared with us:

Time: 7:30 EST Oct 22nd

Location: NYC

Cause: most likely the Stage IV lung cancer that she has been battling for three years.

Noted Indologist, author and self-described “champion of traditional yoga,” Georg Feuerstein has died.

His wife and teaching partner, Brenda L. Feuerstein, made the following announcement on the Traditional Yoga Studies Facebook page:

“It is with great sadness that I announce that my husband and spiritual partner, Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D., left his body on August 25, 2012 at 9:10 PM.

At this time, I would like to request prayers from the worldwide community for Georg’s transition through the afterlife states and for a swift rebirth.

In lieu of flowers and gifts, Georg had requested a scholarship fund be set up to enable incarcerated people the opportunity to participate in our distance learning courses. More information about the fund will be available this week.”

The cause of death has not been publicly announced at this time.

Georg Feuerstein made an immense contribution to the understanding and transmission of yoga in the West. His thorough and well-researched books, including The Yoga Tradition, The Deeper Dimension of Yoga and The Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation (among many, many others), are required reading for yoga teacher training programs around the world.

In recent years, Feuerstein has worked to promote the “authentic yogic teachings” by offering distance learning courses – including an 800-hour course on the history, literature and philosophy of yoga – and mentorships. Earlier this month, he appointed his wife as the chief tutor for all his distance learning programs.

Sincerest condolences to Feuerstein’s family and students during this difficult time.

Source: IAYB

—-

From Georg’s website:

Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D. became interested in Yoga in his early teens and has increasingly studied Yoga philosophy and history since then. He did his postgraduate studies in England and has authored over 50 books—not all on Yoga and including a couple of poetic titles. His major works are The Encyclopedia of Yoga and Tantra (Shambhala 2011), The Yoga Tradition (Hohm Press 2008), Yoga Morality (Hohm Press, 2007), The Deeper Dimension of Yoga (Shambhala) and The Bhagavad-Gītā: A New Translation(Shambhala 2011).

Georg created several distance learning courses, which are made available through TYS, his wife’s Canadian educational company. He officially went into semiretirement in 2004. But in 2011, he agreed to make himself available in a TYS mentorship program to encourage those who are seriously interested in digging deeper into Yoga philosophy. In 2012, Georg nominated his wife, Brenda, as the tutor for all TYS courses and assistant for the mentorship program.

Georg A. Feuerstein lived a profoundly productive life of humble service and made a peaceful, conscious exit from this world on Saturday, August 25, 2012 near his home in Southern Saskatchewan, due to complications from diabetes.  His final transition occurred after a 9-day journey of loving resolution in which he was surrounded and supported by his wife Brenda and many spiritual friends.

His legacy of scholarly contribution to the global Yoga community is vast and awe inspiring, to which we all owe a huge debt of gratitude.  His work will be lovingly continued and directed by his Beloved partner, lover, friend and wife, Brenda Feuerstein.

Georg and Brenda chose to reside in the prairies in a retreat-like setting along the Frenchman River where their practices and productivity flourished.  ”In 9 years I accomplished more work…in less time…than any other time of my life.  My inspiration?  This prairie landscape and Brenda.”, stated Georg.

For those who ask what they can do to honor Georg, the request is a simple one:  put into practice the teachings of Yoga that Georg spent his life exploring and interpreting for our benefit and understanding.

In ancient times, the yogin looked to natural world and within themselves to cultivate understanding in their goal of self realization; today, we have the benefit of books that transmit the teachings, channeled through brilliant minds such as Georg’s.  When you pick up such a book…say a prayer of gratitude for the life and time of Georg that lives on through his publishings.

—-

Feuerstein is known in our department for his contributions to consciousness studies.  His book Structures of Consciousness: The Genius of Jean Gebser: An Introduction and Critique was widely influential in informing  consciousness and the evolutionary theories.  Wilber borrowed much of Feuerstein’s expanded vision of Gebser’s theories.

“It is with great sadness that I announce the death of Clark Moustakas, esteemed co-founder of the Michigan School of Professional Psychology, brilliant scholar and transformative spirit. Clark passed away Wednesday, October 10, 2012, at his home in Farmington Hills, Michigan leaving behind a rich and remarkable legacy.

We, at MiSPP, will honor his memory by being true to the values he held dear and the ideas he promoted throughout his life. They live within the walls of our school and in the beauty of our surroundings.

For those of us who have been mentored and inspired by his radiant presence in our lives, Clark will remain within us. He will serve as our North Star, our guide, to ever search for the light, the creative, the good, in every human being.

While Clark would want us to celebrate his life in our own unique and personal manner, we will also pay tribute to him as a community in a special way in the near future.

A fund will be established to continue Clark’s contributions to humanistic psychology and qualitative research.. Donations may be sent to MiSPP, 26811 Orchard Lake Rd., Farmington Hills, MI 48334.

In the spirit of the Firebrand,

Diane Blau

President

Michigan School of Professional Psychology

——-

From David Cain:

“Clark Moustakas was one of our best and brightest and probably the most creative. I recall taking workshops from him on loneliness and psychotherapy with children and recall that Clark was superb at creating extraordinary learning experiences. In one workshop, he helped participants identify some core values. Mine was “emergence.” After the workshop, I asked Clark to sign one of his books. Clark wrote in my book “”We share what is emergent and a commitment to what lives.” Not only did he remember what I shared as my learning, he joined me in it. It was gratifying to feel heard and affirmed as I’m sure others did as well.

Clark was both the gentlest and the toughest man I have ever met. Gentle in manner and tough in his convictions. His legacy is one of the most outstanding in the field of humanistic psychology and psychotherapy, His contributions to the field of qualitative research are seminal. Clark was also a champion of providing for generations of graduate students to have access to humanistc-existential opportunities for education and training. He was, in his own words, a firebrand, unafraid to stand up for what he felt was right and to provoke action when necessary.

I have had the good fortune to have met most of the founders and leaders of humanistic psychology. Had I the opportunity to pick only a few to learn from and with, Dr. Clark Moustakas would be one of those few extraordinary and inspiring individuals. His book Being-In. Being-For, Being-With” is one I often return to as I strive for continuing personal and professional development. Dr. Moustakas, I’m pretty sure that I speak for many in expressing my deep gratitude for all you have given and for showing us how to live our convictions.”

—–

According to the Michigan School of Professional Psychology

Dr. Moustakas was President Emeritus and a co-founder of the Center for Humanistic Studies (CHS), now the Michigan School of Professional Psychology. Originally as a faculty member at the Merrill-Palmer Institute in Detroit, he was joined in visioning and creating CHS as the first graduate school in the Midwest offering a Master’s degree in Humanistic & Clinical Psychology.

A contemporary of Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, he was a leader in the field of humanistic and clinical psychology. He was at the forefront of establishing the Association for Humanistic Psychology and the Journal for Humanistic Psychology.

Throughout his leadership and Presidency at CHS, his main focus was the integration of philosophy, research and psychology in the education and training of humanistic clinical psychologists. He is the author of 40 books and numerous articles on humanistic psychology, philosophy, education and human science research. Some of his most prominent books include: Loneliness; Creativity and Love: Awakening Meanings in Life; Phenomenological Research Methods; Existential Psychotherapy and The Interpretation of Dreams; Being-In, Being-For, Being-With and Relationship Play Therapy are valuable additions to research and clinical literature. His works are printed worldwide, in 10 different languages, including Loneliness (2008) in Lithuania.

Dr. Moustakas’ contributions to the field of humanistic psychology are an international legacy.

—-

Dr Moustakas has been an inspiration to many at the University of West Georgia Psychology, and his presence and contributions will be missed.

For more information on Dr Clark Moustakas see his wikipedia page.

TRAUMA AND THE ONTOLOGY OF THE MODERN SUBJECT

John Lloyd Roberts, MA, JD – Doctoral Candidate- Department of Psychology

Roberts’ dissertation, situates trauma historically as a persistent rupture in the philosophical structuring for the modern subject, bearing the failure of representation and integrative temporality, and it suggests that continual deconstruction of such discourse calls for an ontology of trauma. Although drawing from Foucault, the dissertation argues that Heidegger, Levinas, and Lacan capture the ontological and ethical dimensions of trauma through several aspects of self-withdrawal – that of being-towards-death, alterity or non-Being, and castration. The author contends that traumatic ethics for the modern subject transcends one’s usual notion of knowledge, as the modern subject’s relation to itself implicates its assumption of responsibility for its truth, whose origin in time is unknown to thought. Finally, the argument asserts that the clinical discourses on trauma operate to technologically and ontically conceal the ontological, which is a mode of disclosure for the modern subject and its originary source in trauma.

A public presentation will follow in July.

Committee:

Kareen Ror Malone- Psychology

Christopher Aanstoos – Psychology

Hugh Crawford- Georgia Institute of Technology- School of Literature, Communication & Culture