Pushkareva T.V., Pushkareva E.V., Sarkisyan M.V. Materialization of the Archetype: Theory and Practice of the Psychological Master Class' Me and My Doll'

Abstract: The subject of the research article is the author's psychological master class 'Me and My Doll' as the therapeutic response tot he socio-cultural challenges of the modern age. In their research the authors describe theoretical and methodological grounds and analyze practical results of the master class. The master class is viewed as an original kind of art therapy aimed at compensation of psychological difficulties of modern human resulting from the problems of identification, increased anxiety, low self-esteem as well as satisfaction of personality needs for self-knowledge and self-realization. The authors describe the details of carrying out the master class and accompany their description with the analysis of particular examples from practice. The theoretical and methodological basis of the master class is the Gestalt approach and analytical psychology that are put to practice during creation and interpretation of the image of a folk Slavic rag doll that in our case represents the materialized form of an archetype. The experience of the twelve psychological master classes 'Me and My Doll' at the public library No. 221 of Moscow has proved the method to be efficient and therefore the method can be recommended for work with both professional and wide audience. The main point of the psychological mechanism lying in the basis of the master class is the following. The image of the Other represented in the doll becomes some kind of an identification version of one self that allows to investigate, accept and integrate the just discovered subpersonality into the personality structure, thus clarifying the most difficult processes of identification to a person and considerably increasing the psychological tension that inevitably accompanies his searches for socio-cultural identity. Moreover, materialization of the archetype that happens during the psychological master class stimulates the transfer of unconscious elements to consciousness and as a result aims at acquisition of human's integrity and harmony with himself and the world. 

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