Beyond “Survivor”: How Childhood Sexual Abuse Informs the Identity of Adult Women at the End of the Therapeutic Process

A qualitative method was used to explore how adult women experienced their identity after extensive therapy to deal with childhood sexual abuse. Seven women shared their healing journeys and their perceptions of the role of the abuse in their current life and self‐perceptions. Phenomenological analysis of the interview data revealed 5 common themes related to participants' self‐definition and self‐acceptance, sense of visibility and connection to others, current worldview, and residual losses. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for trauma counselors.     

Women’s spiritually mediated stories about recovery from Alcohol Use Disorder: A brief report

This study explored women’s lived recovery experiences from alcohol use disorder (AUD) facilitated by Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). The women (n?=?10; age range 30–62 years; married?=?6) completed life story interviews regarding their recovery from AUD with AA participation. Discourse analysis of the interview data yielded themes to suggest the women characterise their recovery as spiritual growth, a healing process with reliance of a higher authority, renewed purpose of life, and actively engaging rehabilitation. Spirituality appears a key resource in women’s AUD recovery.     

Marital satisfaction of Chinese under stress: Moderating effects of personal control and social support

Stressful life events, personal control, and social support were examined relative to marital satisfaction among 1749 participants in seven Chinese cities. Stressful life events were categorized as life crises and life transitions. Life crises, rather than transitions, negatively predicted the marital satisfaction of Chinese. The moderating effects of personal control were found among women, but not men, and occurred only in the relationship between marital satisfaction and life crises, not life transitions. Social support buffers the negative effects of life crises on marital satisfaction. The results extend family stress‐coping theory in specifying two coping resources for Chinese marriages under stress.     

Agentic and Communal Personality Traits: Their Associations with Depression and Resilience among Transgender Women

Research reports the perpetuation of communal traits by transgender women, possibly to affirm their core gender identity. Transgender women in the United States are nearly 6 times more likely than the general population to experience significant depressive symptoms. Studies among non-transgender individuals in the United States demonstrate that agentic traits are associated with less depressive symptoms, while studies on communal traits are more inconsistent in their association with indicators of depression. Our study’s central objective was to examine the associations of agency and communion with depression and resilience (i.e., personal competence and acceptance of self and life) among transgender women living part-time and full-time in the female gender role. Participants in the United States were recruited through online and offline purposive sampling. One hundred and twenty-two transgender women (primarily Caucasian; ages ranging from 22 to 75) completed a web-based questionnaire. Results indicated that agentic and communal traits were significantly associated with decreased symptoms of depression and increased levels of resilience. One component of resilience – acceptance of self and life – mediated the relationship between agentic/communal traits and depression, however, for communal traits this pattern was only found for transgender women living in the female role full-time. There were no significant differences on depressive symptoms and one component of resilience - personal competence – among transgender women living full-time compared to transgender women living in the female role part-time. Transgender women living full-time in the female gender role reported higher levels of agentic/communal traits and acceptance of self and life compared to those living part-time in the female gender role. Our findings are discussed in the context of mental health among transgender women.     

Women’s Experiences of Female Ejaculation

Thirteen women responded to an open-ended questionnaire about their female ejaculation experiences. Responses are described from a phenomenological perspective. The major themes of responses include feelings of humiliation and shame or feelings of exploration and wonder, moving towards acceptance or acceptance tinged with resignation. Women explain their relationships to their bodies as well as their relationship to the ejaculation fluids and how this affects their sexual identities. The origins of their sexual fluids are mysterious. The stimulation needed for ejaculation differed among respondents, and was also found to occur separately from orgasm for some women. Ejaculation began at one of two distinct time points in the life course. This study supports the existence of female ejaculation as a common experience for some women, and proposes new areas for further exploration.     

British Muslim lesbians: reclaiming Islam and reconfiguring religious identity

Religiously infused ideology and doctrine on maleness/femaleness, procreation, family and the condemnatory attitude towards homosexuality has been significantly damaging for lesbians. Lesbians from a Muslim background, in particular, are forced to confront religious dogma, which advocates the punishment of non-heterosexuals leading them to repress and deny their sexuality. Despite this, an investment and belief in religion continues and remains important. In the present study the powerful appeal of religion and its influence on 5 Muslim women who identify as lesbian is explored. The study seeks to understand the way in which the women reconfigure their religious identity to address the difficulties they experience in incorporating discordant identities (faith and sexuality). The data gained indicates that rather than disconnect or reject their association with their faith they contest the condemnation of homosexuality within Islam, which in turn allows them to reclaim their Muslim identity. The alienation and ostracism the women experience from the Muslim ‘community’ has not led to their disaffection from Islam. Rather they resolutely pledge the importance of faith, practice and leading a life according to Islamic moral standards and principles. The women manage and integrate complex and layered aspects of their identity, through their commitment to Islam but also a determination to recognise an intrinsic aspect of the self that they no longer refuse to deny or suppress.     

How affiliates of an Australian FPMT centre come to accept the concepts of karma,rebirth and merit-making

The karma-rebirth doctrine is one of the core doctrines of the Buddhist worldview. Some forms of Western Buddhism emphasize doctrinal study and meditation practice over traditional Buddhist elements that have their foundation in the karma-rebirth doctrine, such as merit-making practices and other forms of ritual. Conversely, the worldwide Gelugpa Tibetan Buddhist Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) encourages its affiliates to perform traditional ritual such as chanting and pujas to make merit for oneself and others, in addition to attending teachings and developing a regular meditation practice. During their exploration of the FPMT's activities, participants undergo a process of experimental validation of the teachings and practices, in which they come to accept doctrinal notions in one of two ways: the notion's capacity to validate and give meaning to personal experience, or to lend conceptual support to the newly acquired framework of ideas. Utilizing data obtained from fieldwork undertaken between 2003 and 2006 at Vajrayana Institute (VI), an FPMT centre in Sydney, Australia, I illustrate the way in which the karma-rebirth doctrine supports those aspects of the belief-system more capable of experiential validation through their capacity to frame and give meaning to personal experience. The acceptance of notions such as karma, rebirth and merit-making involves an interpretive shift from previously held notions about cause and effect and the nature of this-worldly existence, toward a Buddhist appreciation of these concepts.     

Impact of chronic illness: Differing perspectives of younger and older women

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the life experiences of six women with chronic illness who represent three differing life stages. The participants included two women who were in young adulthood, two who were between the ages of 40 and 60, and two women in their late 70s. The women were all diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, or a combination of these disorders. They were interviewed concerning the impact illness has had on their lives, the manner in which chronic illness has altered their self-perceptions, and the ways in which they have come to make meaning from the event. While the women had achieved varying levels of acceptance of their illness, it appeared that the ability to cope was dependent on numerous factors across several life circumstances. Distinctions were made regarding ability to either adjust to the illness or use the experience as a catalyst for personal growth.     

The Purusārthas: An Axiological Exploration of Hinduism

Three doctrines have often been identified in the context of Hindu civilization as its distinctive markers: the doctrine of the varnas (or the doctrine of the four classes), the doctrine of asramas (or the doctrine of the four stages of life), and the doctrine of the purusarthas (or the doctrine of the four goals of life). The study of the last of these has been comparatively neglected and the doctrine has even been dubbed a myth (Krishna 1996, 189–205). The purpose of this article is twofold: to establish the cogency of the doctrine of the purusarthas in the face of such criticism and to indicate the directions in which the doctrine could be developed further.     

Re-Membering Spirituality

Ritual has been used as a therapeutic tool within family therapy for nearly two decades. Our understanding of ritual has been drawn from studies of cultures in which all life was viewed as sacred. However, common use of ritual in therapy lifts ritual out of its sacred context and secularizes it. Blending some of the key thinking in feminist theology with feminist psychology can help women reconnect with a perspective on the sacred that is empowering. Reimbuing ritual with the sacred and expanding its use in therapy make it a powerful healing process for women.     

A Challenge to the Integrity of Creation: An African Woman's Perspective

Is JPIC a compelling process calling churches and Christians to commitment and involvement within the life of the world? Or, as some critics claim, is JPIC a rather a handy but not too practical theoretical construct within which to house the various environment and development commitments of the ecumenical movement? These are ongoing and helpful questions which are not new to the JPIC process. They are important, and necessary to keep in the forefront of debate and discussions in churches, for they point to a central truth — that JPIC is effective only to the extent that it makes a difference in the lives of people. The wealth of theological reflection and socio-political assessment of the JPIC process, as evidenced by the articles of this issue of The Ecumenical Review, are meaningful precisely in relation to their capacity to form and inform the understandings and actions of churches and Christians in the world. For in the last analysis, JPIC can only be measured in terms of human life, and of flesh and blood. Therefore, it seems worthwhile, and perhaps necessary, within a journal of theological reflection which has as its focus the JPIC process, to include a testimony to JPIC as it is lived out at the grassroots level. We know that women bear a disproportionate impact of the effects of poverty and unjust economic systems. Women too experience a disproportionate impact of the effects of racism. As bearers of life into the world, and as the primary nurturers of future generations, women claim a special place in relation to the environment. It is appropriate, therefore, that Cecilia Asogwa inserts into these JPIC reflections a personal account of a community of rural women in Africa who begin to work together in an economic self-help group, and in so doing discover themselves involved as active participants and leaders in their community. For these women, JPIC has meant personal and community empowerment which they have experienced as part of the healing of creation.     

Continuing education,identity, sex role,and psychosocial development in adult women

Comparisons on psychosocial development and sex-role identification were made between 39 adult women returning to college in midlife and 40 traditional homemakers. Significantly more homemakers had foreclosed on the adult identity issues of goals and religion and scored lower on a measure of psychological androgyny. Women in continuing education showed greater evidence of identity crisis as they neared graduation. The two groups did not differ along Eriksonian developmental stages, but there were differences in the pattern of favorable and unfavorable resolutions of psychosocial crises within both groups. The results support the existence of an identity crisis as a response to life events in adulthood and demonstrate a relationship between behavioral and self-report indices of rejection or acceptance of the traditional feminine role.This research was completed in partial fulfillment of the doctorate degree from the Graduate School of Education and Human Development, University of Rochester.     

The relation between remembered parental acceptance in childhood and self‐acceptance among young Turkish adults

This study examined the relation between young adults' age and remembrances of parental acceptance in childhood, and their current self‐acceptance. The study was based on a sample of 236 young adults in Turkey (139 women and 97 men). The adult version of the Parental Acceptance‐Rejection/Control Questionnaire for mothers and fathers along with the Self‐Acceptance subscale of the Psychological Well‐Being Scale, and the Personal Information Form were used as measures. Results showed that both men and women tended to remember having been accepted in childhood by both their mothers and fathers. Women, however, reported more maternal and paternal acceptance in childhood than did men. Similarly, the level of self‐acceptance was high among both men and women. However, women's self‐acceptance was higher than men's. Correlational analyses showed that self‐acceptance was positively related to remembrances of maternal and paternal acceptance among both women and men. Results indicated that age and remembered paternal acceptance significantly predicted women's self‐acceptance. Age and remembered maternal acceptance made significant and independent contributions to men's self‐acceptance. Men's remembrances of paternal acceptance in childhood did not make significant contribution to their self‐acceptance. Finally, the relation between women's age and self‐acceptance was significantly moderated by remembrances of paternal acceptance in childhood.     

Hamlet and the Soul-Sleepers

ABSTRACT

The article argues that the soliloquy, ‘To be, or not to be,’ in Shakespeare’s Hamlet is informed by soul-sleeping: the belief that on its separation from the body at death, the soul enters an unconscious state typically described as sleep or a sleep-like stupor, in which it remains until wakened and joined with the resurrected body, and then assessed at the Last Judgment. The doctrine was advocated in some of Luther’s works of the 1520s and 1530s and found acceptance among some early English Protestants, but was destined to be repudiated by later Protestant orthodoxy, and was universally condemned by mainstream Protestant thinking of Shakespeare’s day. The article surveys the history of this heterodoxy in England, demonstrates its continuing significance in the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth century, elucidates the references to the doctrine in Hamlet’s soliloquy, and discusses their relevance to the broader understanding of the religious subtext of the play.     

Patients' rights in Japan: progress and resistance

The discussion of patients' rights in Japan began in 1968 when a surgeon was accused of violating a potential organ donor's right to life by arbitrarily employing brain-based criteria in the determination of his death. A proliferation of documents that articulate and endorse patients' rights occurred in the 1980s and early 1990s. The doctrine of informed consent, which has been a central aspect of the movement toward patients' rights, is increasingly recognized in Japan, although importance rarely has been attached to the element of the patient's "appreciation" of the information disclosed by the physician, much less to the "voluntariness" of the patient's decision. Nevertheless, recent court decisions indicate progress both in the acceptance and the understanding of the doctrine in Japan.     

Women's Empowerment Through Feminist Rituals

This article examines the function of ritual in feminist spiritual support groups and describes its therapeutic potential to empower women to make and face transitions. It describes and discusses two ceremonies-reclaiming healing powers after incest and coming out as a lesbian-as examples of individual and collective empowerment. Many women are creating and joining feminist spiritual support groups to develop their sense of their full selves and to gain strength for social change. This feminist religious revolution aims to empower and heal women, communities and the earth. Groups provide participants a safe place in which to pay attention to sources of spiritual strength and to celebrate rituals such as life cycle transitions and healing.     

Jung's Breath-Body and African Spiritual Healing

Psychology essentially refers to the study and use (logos) of the breath, soul or spirit of life (psyche) that leaves a person at death and continues in some other form. From such a fundamental perspective, all forms of ancient and modern caring, helping and healing have their foundations in breath-based behaviour, experiences and spirituality. This article examines Jung's image of the breath-body or spirit-body in relation to various spiritual healing traditions with special focus on their source in African spiritual healing.