Abstract

This dissertation describes and reflects upon the research and development of a method of collaborative imaginal inquiry. In this project, my co-researcher, Ian Grand and I, explored a collaborative, dyadic approach to sandplay work, an imaginal process usually done individually in a clinical setting. It was then broadened to include other forms of collaborative imaginal work and to speculatively explore aspects of self-in-group and self-in-collaboration that have not been previously well documented or reflected upon in the literature. The dissertation is a series of reflections upon this method that makes contributions in sandplay theory and practice, the psychology of collaboration, psychodynamic theory, epistemology and hermeneutics. ;The method described uses sandplay and other imaginative processes such as drawings, dreams, and writing in collaborative settings. It includes explorations of aspects of collaboration, hermeneutic reflections and amplifications upon themes that occur, and the use of various literary, psychological and philosophical, and imaginal textual resources. ;The dissertation describes the interpersonal nature of the self and the imaginal field of knowing that the self engages in. This work elucidates various theoretical and philosophical concepts. These include the "group self," the "transindividual field," and "imaginal hermeneutics". These ideas are all developed in the dissertation. ;The dissertation explores both difficulties and creative possibilities that emerge in collaboration. Collaborative functioning is seen in terms of a group self, different from either the individual psyches of persons in a group or the collective unconscious described by Jung. A transindividual field operating in group life is described that is comprised of both the group self and the individual psyches of the persons involved. The method illuminates conflicts and possibilities in group functioning and enhances individual responses to them. ;Another realm in which the work makes contributions is epistemology. The use of the imagination as a way of knowing and the question of what is known when it is used are explored. Important questions are raised about the relationship between imagination, dreams, art and qualities of being, and knowing. These questions concerning the epistemology of collaboration are explored in the dissertation