Description

‘Teaching’ depth: Reflections on the challenges and rewards of integrating depth psychology into research methodology

OKSANA YAKUSHKO PHD*, AND ELIZABETH NELSON PHD+, *

Chair and Research Coordinator, Clinical Psychology Program, Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, CA, United States of America;

+Dissertation Policy Director, Research Coordinator, Psychotherapy and Somatics Specializations, Depth Psychology Program, Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, CA, United States of America

Abstract

This article discusses how students enrolled in graduate level methodology courses can integrate key depth psychological values into the research process. As Coppin and Nelson (2005, p. 101) suggest, inquiry centered on the psyche asks researchers ‘to be fully involved with the opus on every level,’ both personal and archetypal, which ‘makes the work especially meaningful and especially arduous.’ This is equally true when teaching depth research and conducting depth research. To illustrate, we describe the personal challenges and rewards of being instructors and discuss three models, composite case examples, of integrating depth that have emerged in the classroom. In the fi rst model, students begin by actively, rigorously separating their intellectual research pursuits from their depth experiences, either due to prior research education in non-depth oriented settings or due to a lack of understanding of how depth psychology applies to the research process. In the second model, the student chooses a topic based on intellectual appeal or the availability of resources for the study. Though a traditional starting point for most human science research, the student is curious about, and eager to, examine the depth psychological dimensions of their research. In the third model, students readily fi t Romanyshyn’s (2007) idea of ‘wounded researchers’ who are claimed by the topic through their own psychological complexes and seek to pursue its calling through active engagement with the unconscious.

Keywords: teaching, research methods, depth psychology