Countertransference as Koinonia

This thesis inquires after the lived-through experience of community in the congregation by the pastoral leader. It is predicated upon the multiple self whose plurality is understood through psychoanalytical and postcolonial theories as well as by developmental processes illumined by interpersonal neurobiology. The phenomenological inquiry into one pastor’s experience of community in the congregation yielded in vivo themes – movement, joy, and open; connect, conflict, and centering; table, hospitality, love, and diversity -- that were understood broadly from the wondering perspective of desire. Closer theoretical analysis of these in vivo themes from theological, psychological, and interpersonal neurobiological conceptual categories was ordered by privileging bottom up experiences – sensations, images, feelings, and thoughts -- of the relational body and its wisdom. This phenomenological description of community engages two differing but related theological understandings of community or koinonia. The first such understanding is from a Neo-orthodox Protestant perspective that emphasizes an asymmetrical ordering of divine and human relatedness through the Holy Spirit. In this framework that draws upon and innovates from Karl Barth, koinonia is reconciliation, where human and divine coinhere in interlocking relationships. The spirited paradox of human-divine presence, action, and agency joins with relational insights of the emotional body in community or the second understanding of koinonia. Of particular importance in this particular conversation is how new understandings emerge around embodied and conceptual realities of trust and truth; witness and participation; time and power; and freedom. The engagement of these realities in the second understanding of koinonia is from a liberation theological perspective that privileges the suffering body and its emotional wisdom from a stance of relational integration. The interplay of Neo-orthodox Protestant and liberation theologies provides for the proposal that koinonia is the emotional coinherence of relational bodies. Thus, the unconscious relational dimensions of experienced emotion, that is, countertransference, are constitutive of koinonia. The in vivo themes flesh out the significance and implications of countertransference as koinonia

Experiential transmission: an auto-ethnographical study of coaching in educational contexts

My research uses an auto-ethnographic narrative to discuss a phenomenon called experiential transmission which I use in my coaching practice in an educational context. My primary aim is to explore experiential transmission for its potential to improve coaching outcomes in such a context. I have chosen an auto-ethnographic methodology in order to tell the story of how I started to explore experiential transmission and how I further developed my understanding of the phenomenon. I pose the question: How is the process of experiential transmission felt by my clients and by me when I am coaching in schools? To answer my question I examine in detail the personal transition experience between coach and coachee and I analyse the stages of personal expansion for the coachee directly after experiential transmission has taken place. With my project I seek to add to the slowly growing movement of coaching practitioners who are looking to reveal possibilities that are divorced from the technically led, compartmentalized and linear approaches. My findings have suggested that experiential transmission may be a plausible and exciting area for future study

Seeing the Unseen: An Educational Criticism of a Gifted School

There is systemic oppression of gifted children in many traditional school models resulting in disenfranchisement (Chu & Myers, 2015; Delisle, 2014). Yet, how can teachers be responsive to aspects of student development that they cannot see or do not understand? All students deserve instruction responsive to their unique strengths and needs, inclusive of gifted students. This study explores the aspirations and practices of a school designed to empower diverse gifted children. The selected school site is located in an urban area in the western United States and has been serving gifted students with a creative approach for more than 25 years. Currently the school enrolls approximately 250 kindergarten through eighth grade students. Eisner\u27s educational criticism and connoisseurship research approach is utilized to grow understanding of the program\u27s intricacies. Primary data sources include educator interviews, campus observations and artifacts. The study informs a program evaluation highlighting gaps and tensions between intentions and practices and success relative to the interpretive frame, Dabrowski’s theory of positive disintegration and social baseline theory. In the end, themes emerged from descriptions, interpretations and evaluation which facilitate recommendations for other schools and educators aiming to empower diverse gifted students

Moral Luck in Medical Ethics and Practical Politics

Typically we maintain two incompatible standards towards right action and good character, and the tension between these polarities creates the paradox of moral luck. In practice we regard actions as right or wrong, and character as good or bad, partly according to what happens as a result of the agent's decision. Yet we also think that people should not be held responsible for matters beyond their control. This split underpins Kant's assertion that only the good will is securely good, that its goodness is impervious to outcome ill-luck. Some commentators, such as Martha Nussbaum and to some extent Bernard Williams, think that this simply writes off the paradox. Williams asserts that the paradox is insoluble, and that its inescapability threatens the notion of agent responsibility. In contrast Thomas Nagel argues that agents' most cherished projects may be indeed be subject to luck, but that does not mean that their deepest motivations are moral. This, I suggest, is one of several means whereby we might limit the effect of the paradox without denying that the tension exists. But I also argue that it is wrong to accuse Kant of ignoring the paradox. Ethical consequentialists, on the other hand, appear to have no problem with moral luck, because the paradox depends on a dichotomy between the outside world and the locus of moral worth in the individual agent. But this turns out not to be true. The problem of moral luck is not some strange Kantian fixation, but a general dilemma: a variant on what Nagel terms "the problem of excess objectivity" which cuts across all of ethics and metaphysics. Retaining a broadly Kantian notion of agent-responsibility, but limiting what agents are responsible for, requires us to delineate the realm of ethics more narrowly than has been done by those who believe that the rational and/or prudential are coterminous with the ethical. This strategy for minimising the paradox's impact is explored in two areas from medical ethics, the allocation of scarce medical resources and informed consent, and two from public policy, secrecy and nuclear deterrence. Throughout, the analysis seeks to test Nagel's maxim that the best we can hope for is to act in such a manner that we would not have to revise our opinion of how we should have acted once the consequences of our actions become apparent

Fuller Magazine, Issue 006, 2016 - Restore

Since 2014, Fuller Magazine has been published for the global community of Fuller Theological Seminary. The sections of Story, Theology, Voice, and Departments are to reflect the life of Fuller in all her permutations: this is who we are, what we are talking about, and who we are becoming together. The editorial content of FULLER magazine reflects the opinions of the various authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the views of Fuller Theological Seminary. Table of Contents STORY 14 The Blessing and Burden of Cultural Diversity storyteller: Brandon Hook 18 A Voice from Narnia storyteller: Michael Wright 22 “Good Morning! Fuller Seminary” storyteller: Tamara Johnston Mcmahon 24 More Than One Can Bear storyteller: Becky Still THEOLOGY 32 Introduction by Miyoung Yoon Hammer 36 Restoring Creation: With Reflections on Laudato Si by Tommy Givens 40 Restoring Identity by Terry and Sharon Hargrave 44 Restoring Hope: Being Weak and Becoming Well by Kutter Callaway 50 Restoring Hospitality: A Blessing for Visitor and Host by Christine Pohl with Miyoung Yoon Hammer 56 A Moratorium on Hospitality? by Evelyne A. Reisacher 62 Restoring Belonging among “The Least of These” by Lisseth Rojas-Flores 66 Sabbath as a Model for Restoration by Johnny Ramírez-Johnson VOICE 74 Spiritual Formation 80 Humility 86 Who Is My Neighbor? DEPARTMENTS 10 From Mark Labberton, President 96 New Faculty Books 98 Benediction 98 About Fuller Theological Seminaryhttps://digitalcommons.fuller.edu/fuller-magazine/1005/thumbnail.jp

Leading in a VUCA World

This open access book brings together works by specialists from different disciplines and continents to reflect on the nexus between leadership, spirituality and discernment, particularly with regard to a world that is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA). The book spells out, first of all, what our VUCA world entails, and how it affects businesses, organizations, and societies as a whole. Secondly, the book develops new perspectives on the processes of leadership, spirituality, and discernment, particularly in this VUCA context. These perspectives are interdisciplinary in nature, and are informed by e.g. management studies, leadership theory, philosophy, and theology

An interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) investigation of positive psychological change (PPC), including post traumatic growth (PTG)

Positive Psychological Change (PPC) following trauma is a developing field for which there is no standard terminology. The plethora of labels, of which Post Traumatic Growth (PTG) is probably the most common descriptor, arguably masks a significant gap in clinical and theoretical understanding of the phenomenon. One specific gap addressed by this study is PPC following psychological trauma stemming from a Road Traffic Accident (RTA) in which the person involved has subsequently received Eye Movement Desensitisation & Reprocessing (EMDR). To investigate this gap in knowledge, an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach was used and twelve participants recruited via a snowball sampling method. The participants were then interviewed using a Semi-structured Interview Questionnaire (SSIQ) and the interviews were then transcribed for IPA analysis. Key themes that emerged included Navigational Struggle (NS) to describe Negative Psychological Change (NPC), and Network Growth (NG), to describe PPC. At any one post-RTA/EMDR point there was a preponderance of one over the other, however, NS and NG were inseparable and found to co-exist along an NS-NG continuum. In addition, Figurative Language Use (FLU) had a significant role in both NS and NG yet was independent of both and apparently driving change towards the development of NG. Whilst NS and NG were both post-trauma phenomena, FLU seemed to hallmark expansion of memory networks as part of a general maturation process post-RTA. Furthermore, there was evidence that participants were incorporating their traumatic experiences via FLU into the rebuilding of their assumptive worlds. To account for these findings, an extension to Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) – the theory widely accepted to underpin EMDR - is proposed based upon a hypothesised Plasticity of Meaning (PoM), which is observable through FLU. PoM predicts which, why and how memory networks connect resulting in the adaptive processing predicted by AIP. The study’s findings are re-examined in terms of consequential modifications to the clinical use of EMDR. Extensive suggestions for further research are provided