Abstracts
of 1999 Award Winners' Papers:
Weaving
the Fabric of Culture:
The Emergence Of Wisdom in the Stories of Young Adults Participating
In A Wilderness Rite of Passage
By
Denise Marie Hutter
This year-long
study explores the integration of the experience and wisdom of
eight young adults, aged 18-21, who participated in a wilderness
rite of passage to mark their transition into adulthood. Five
females (including a set of twins) and 3 males, all Caucasians
from diverse socioeconomic back-rounds, gathered from 7 states
in the continental United States for a two week vision fast experience
in eastern California, led by veteran teachers Steven Foster and
Meredith Little and supported by a council of eight elders, including
the researcher. The wilderness vision fast included 3 days and
nights in the desert without food, company or shelter. Informed
by Van Gannep's classic three-step model of initiatory experience,
the researcher interviewed each participant three times: before
the wilderness fasting experience, immediately following the fast,
and one year later. During these interviews the researcher recorded
the participants' current life issues and reasons for participation
in this rite of passage; the fasting experience itself, and their
incorporation of the experience over the following year. The research
focuses on three critical aspects of the youths' experience: the
issues young people face as they transition into adulthood in
contemporary culture; the wisdom they bring to that culture; and
the impact of the rite of passage on the process of the transition.
Participants discussed education, work, separation from family
of origin, sexuality, drug use, relationships, spirituality, and
despair over current environmental and social realities, as the
issues compelling their attention during this developmental phase.
Some participants provided art, poetry, and photography to assist
in conveying their experiences over the year. Using organic/heuristic
inquiry, in which the researcher serves as an instrument of analysis,
the treatment of data will include: a) presentation of the individual
stories in a way that recreates the experiences of the participants
for the reader; b) individual portraits summarizing each participant's
experience over the year of the study, c) an analysis of common
themes emerging from the stories, and d) the researcher's experience
of being transformed by the stories of the participants. This
study is an in-depth portrait of the strengths, challenges and
wisdom our young adults bring to contemporary culture, a contribution
to the literature on rites of passage, as well as an examination
of the developmental stage of young adulthood.
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Coping
with Change: The Buddhist Response
By Belinda Khong, ABD
This paper
examines spontaneous change as promulgated in Taoism and Buddhism.
In these Eastern perspectives, change is perceived as in the nature
of things, and is spontaneous. This view of change is frightening
to most people as it gives rise to the feeling that things are
beyond our control. To overcome this, people attempt to "control"
change by superimposing their own agenda of unspontaneous change,
so that life could be otherwise. According to Lao Tzu and the
Buddha, such attempts are futile and will lead to great suffering.
It is proposed that Buddhist insight meditation can help people
to cope with change psychologically. Through right mindfulness,
that is training the mind to focus on the phenomenon itself, and
letting go of associative thinking, the meditator observes that
nothing stays the same for two moments. This is true of our experiences
and of reality. Meditation enables the meditator to experience
change as ontological and inevitable. This insight leads to the
realization we cannot avoid change by clinging to symbols of permanence.
We can however refine our responses to changing situations by
remaining open to change.
----- --- -----
Healing
the Father-Son Relationship:
A Qualitative Inquiry Into Adult Reconciliation
By
Shawn H. Katz
The research
study currently in progress is investigating reconciliation between
fathers and adult sons. It is a qualitative study, using multiple
cases and informed by grounded theory. A 45-item, 5-point Likert
scale instrument was developed as a screening measure to determine
fathers and sons who have gone through reconciliation and positive
change in their relationship. A total of 40 men-12 father-son
pairs, 14 sons (30 years or older) and 2 fathers- responded to
the questionnaire by mail (10% return rate) and from these, six
pairs of fathers and sons, who are at various stages in the process
of reconciliation with each other, were chosen for interviews.
The ages of the men being interviewed ranged from 30 to 80 years
of age, all were Caucasian, and of middle to upper socioeconomic
levels. Each father-son pair is being interviewed together twice,
with each interview approximately 90 minutes in duration. A 25-itern,
5-point Likert scale instrument was developed to assess the impact
of the interview process on the participants. Through qualitative
analyses conducted during periods between interviews, various
theories emerge regarding the process of reconciling estrangement
and working through emotionally laden issues between fathers and
sons. This study is investigating the characteristic events, moments
of reconciliation, transformative qualities, resolution of conflict,
functional inter-relational dynamics, and the process of healing
old wounds which lead to a healthy, open, communicative, and loving
relationship between father and son. While keeping the wounded
aspects of this relationship in mind, the study focuses on the
beneficial and positive aspects of the father-son relationship,
in the hopes of discovering themes in the healing, reconciliatory
process.
The results
to date, indicate that there is no mythological, ideal, or standard
"healthy" relationship between fathers and sons. While each father-son
pair may score the same and self-report the same satisfaction
in their relationship, each version of a "healthy, nurturing,
satisfying relationship" is unique and varied, and in the researcher's
opinion not necessarily clinically healthy. There were common
qualities and characteristics which enabled reconciliation and
continued intimate connection between these fathers and sons.
All the men involved indicated the need for developing one's own
spiritual (not necessarily "religious") life as a basis for doing
emotional and psychological inner work. Most men agreed that they
needed to stop blaming or holding the other person responsible
for past wounds. In order for reconciliation to be possible, it
is critical that the individual take responsibility for their
own feelings of hurt, anger, rage, sadness, and to deal with these
emotions himself, rather than confront, dump, or project them
onto the other. Communication was the most commonly identified
factor in the reconciliation process, with the need to identify
one's own feelings and communicate them directly to the other
person. Other qualities of appreciation, gratitude, humility,
humor, acceptance, ability to listen, an openness to the possibility
that things can be different, a willingness to change, forgiveness,
and the father's mortality and aging were common attributes of
the reconciliation processes that these men reported. The process
of reconciliation had impacts upon their careers, relationships
with other family members, and overall well-being and satisfaction.
Healing the "father wound" and reconciling with one's father has
had enormous personal and transpersonal relevance to the 12 men
involved in this study.
Call
for student papers for next year's convention
