Encountering the minotaur| Archetypal reflections from a former alternative high school teacher

• Main Author: Barre, Robin Therese
• Language: EN
• Published: Pacifica Graduate Institute 2015
• Subjects: Educational psychology|Psychology
• Online Access: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3730814

<p> This inquiry follows several threads: Adolescence as an archetypal complex; manifestations of trauma and countertransferential responses in the alternative high school classroom; and resistances to self-transformation, the hallmark of heuristic self-search inquiry. Guiding questions address the necessary, ethical, and compassionate practice of honoring a mythopoetic approach and the imaginal field in the alternative high school classroom. Using a heuristic self-search inquiry approach, research was conducted in four nonlinear and nonchronological phases: immersion, acquisition, realization, and synthesis. The inquiry can be viewed as a poetic reverie of the author&rsquo;s transformative journey of healing from personal trauma by encountering and working through resistance. Alternately, the inquiry can also be viewed as an example and extended praxis of archetypal reflectivity, a professional development practice that fosters mythopoesis in education. </p><p> Held within the metaphoric framework of the myth of Dionysos, including motifs of Ariadne&rsquo;s Thread, <i>Duende,</i> and the archetype of indestructible life, the research is presented as a journey through the Passages of the labyrinth to a final encounter with the Minotaur. The concluding chapter includes a psychoanalysis of the author&rsquo;s journey, identifies unconscious countertransferential responses in the classroom which curtailed effective student progress, and argues that nuturing the archetypal Adolescent plays a vital role in our humanity. </p><p> Keywords: adolescence, alternative education, archetypal reflectivity, Dionysos, trauma, mythopoesis.</p>