The Wounded Researcher: Research With Soul In Mind [Paperback]

Robert Romanyshyn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 27, 2007

What is the art of doing research that keeps soul in mind? The Wounded Researcher addresses (1) how an imaginal approach to the research process differentiates soul from the complex of psychology (2) how re-search is a vocation in which a topic chooses a researcher through his or her complexes (3) how engaging in transference dialogues helps to differentiate a researcher's complexes about the work from the soul of the work (4) how an alchemical hermeneutic method opens a space for the soul of the work (5) how this process and method have implications for how one writes down the soul of the work in writing up one's research and (6) how this imaginal approach to research that keeps soul in mind lays the foundations for an ethical epistemology.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Soul work and academic research have been so split apart that both have been lamed -- soul psychology without intellectual respectability and scholarly research utterly irrelevant to the soul's concerns. Romanyshyn's book not only follows from all his earlier diligent explorations in the Western history of soul, but charts a course that joins the integrity of scholarly work with devotion to the soul's vital needs. New winds, new directions, new methods. --James Hillman

About the Author

ROBERT ROMANYSHYN, Ph.D., is on the core faculty at Pacifica Graduate Institute and has been a practicing psychotherapist for over 25 years. An affiliate member of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts, he is the author of the following books: Mirror and Metaphor: Images and Stories of Psychological Life, Technology as Symptom and Dream, The Soul in Grief: Love, Death and Transformation, Ways of the Heart: Essays Toward an Imaginal Psychology, as well as numerous articles and essays in the fields of phenomenology and archetypal psychology.

Product Details

• Paperback: 386 pages
• Publisher: Spring Journal Books (September 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1882670477
• ISBN-13: 978-1882670475
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #275,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read, and not just for research methods, December 27, 2009

By 

M. Sameer "Madhu Sameer" (Sunnyvale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Wounded Researcher: Research With Soul In Mind (Paperback)

I have read and re-read and re-re-read this book. And in ever iteration, new insights, new ways of looking, new ways of relating and working with the soul have emerged. Our humanity is in a constant stream of exploration, we are always researching new ways of thinking, doing, existing and being, so to me this book wasn't just about research methods. It has helped me in allowing my images, and led to innovate and creative ways of writing, but more than that, the book has given me a method as well as the courage to listen to, and take my own unconscious processes seriously, without being embarrassed by "its-just-a-picture" attitude. It has enabled me to explore the previously shut down and inaccessible portions of my objective and subjective consciousness/unconscious. I have, in his words, learnt to re-member the previously dis-membered parts of myself, and to integrate myself into a whole....so it has facilitated me along the path of individuation...

As for the cons, it does require the ability to surrender to the unknown and the unknowing, to unlearn previously learnt "givens." The defensive walls create perceptual barriers to innate, repressed or simply unconscious intelligence that constitutes the core of psyche. Though the method creates experiences which may be observed by the observing ego, there isn't any repetitive constancy - like every flower and its petal, each unfolding experience/phenomenon is unique. For the scientific minded the "what is" of this method may be hard to grasp if the mind remains embroiled in "what should be."

A must read for all those who want to access and cultivate a practice of writing from the depths of their soul....

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Wounded Researcher Writes A Poor Book, January 30, 2010

By 

W. A. Carpenter (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Wounded Researcher: Research With Soul In Mind (Paperback)

I strongly support the author's intention to reintroduce the concept of "soul" into psychological research. I am sorry that this book fails to advance this cause.

The author had a genuine insight: a researcher's choice of field is influenced by the researcher's interests and unconscious complexes. Based on that rather slender insight, the author proceeds to work through his own woundedness for another 350 pages or so of dense prose.

Divided haphazardly into four sections - Theory, Process, Method, and Implications - the book contains sentences like: Insofar as the alchemical hermeneutic method is an outgrowth of the imaginal approach, with its research processes of vocation and transference dialogues, it continues the work of deepening the relational aspect by making a place for those other subtle unconscious connections between a researcher and his or her work expressed in dreams, intuitions, feelings, symptoms, and synchronicities.

I enjoy challenging books that reward careful reading and thought, unfortunately this book did not provide those rewards. I was distracted both by the writing and the rather grim tone of the author. I found this tone puzzling since the book was written during a sabbatical in New Zealand, circumstances that would make many of us rather cheerful. I fear that reading this book is also not conducive to cheerfulness.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An absolute must for doctoral candidates, September 18, 2011

By 

Jules Savage-Milner (Melbourne, Victoria Australia 3004) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Wounded Researcher: Research With Soul In Mind (Paperback)

Having sunk into the depths of "despair" - as I'm sure we all do at some stage whilst undertaking doctoral studies - the book helped me make sense of the "why" and inspired me to get back to it!