Description
Carly Larson Solome, clinical psychology doctoral candidate at Fielding Graduate University and recipient of the Kristine Mann award for psychoanalytic research, presents the results of a phenomenological investigation of Liberals and Conservatives in conversation. In-depth interviews with individuals who participated in depolarizing communication training revealed multi-dimensional aspects of tension and suffering experienced through dialogue with socio-politically different others. The study results give voice to lived first-person experiences of people who responded to the extreme U.S. political divide by engaging with interpersonal, intrapersonal, and transpersonal conflict. Research themes and images are presented in relation to alchemical symbols and Jungian interpretations of individuation processes.