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Article
The Making of Everyday Heroes: Women’s Experiences With Transformation and Integration
Journal of Humanistic Psychology
(2019)
Abstract
Heroes are not born heroic. They achieve prominence because they dare to enter into a voyage to become an entirely different human being: to transform. What happens to the hero on return? This is a qualitative investigation into the experience of integrating a transformative journey in the lives of seven women, 1 to 3 years after life-changing travel. The method used was cooperative inquiry, a heuristic approach involving cycles of action and reflection to construct knowledge based on shared lived experiences and group analysis. Coresearchers convened over a period of 13 months to examine the question, “What is our experience of integrating transformation?” Findings yielded an underlying pattern comprising nine phases: (1) displacement, (2) grief and denial, (3) disorientation, (4) dismemberment, (5) surrender and healing, (6) birth, (7) abundance and creativity, (8) power, and (9) integration. A major outcome identifies the integration of transformation as a feminine descent into one’s underworld, delineating a feminine complement to the already well-documented hero’s journey. One unexpected result shows that in combination, the journey’s ascent (transformative peak experiences) cultivates one’s masculine; the descent (integrative deep experiences) develops one’s feminine. Together, these rounds form an upright figure eight, a wholly realized transformation.
Keywords
- transformation,
- integration,
- Jung,
- wholeness,
- transformational travel,
- transpersonal psychology,
- hero’s journey,
- goddess,
- rites of passage,
- peak experience,
- and initiation
Disciplines
Publication Date
July 1, 2019
DOI
10.1177/0022167817705773
Publisher Statement
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Citation Information
Susan L. Ross. "The Making of Everyday Heroes: Women’s Experiences With Transformation and Integration" Journal of Humanistic Psychology Vol. 59 Iss. 4 (2019) p. 499 - 521 ISSN: 0022-1678 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/susan_ross/21/