Gibb, Margaret Ann (2014) The Call to Individuation : Spirituality and Creative Practice. PhD thesis, Victoria University.

Abstract

This research explores and documents a contemporary phenomenon in a selective historical context and seeks to elucidate Jung’s theory and the practice of Individuation as being a lifelong process. The thesis is constructed in two volumes. Volume one is the creative work: Kissed by a Deer; a travel memoir exploring journeying in the context of both the external and internal world. In essence the book is a search for identity, connection, belonging, and self acceptance. This search was undertaken in the form of a spiritual quest which makes up the content of the memoir, but also continues in the analysis of themes in the exegesis. Volume Two is the exegesis: The Call to Individuation . Themes which arose in the creative component of the research are critically an alysed in the exegesis, elaborating, elucidating and contextualising the creative work. As well the exegesis seeks to analyse the importance of creativity in relation to Jung`s theory of individuation, and how the relationship between the process of individuation and creative practice can serve to form, inform, and transform our sense of self, spirituality, and wellbeing. Insights from other artists around the themes which emerged in the creative component of the study are also drawn upon in the exegesis, through informal interviews. In both volumes the study offers a naturalistic inquiry into the search for self; allowing for the observation and exploration of phenomena rather than forming a hypotheses and subsequent answer.

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