Hero's Journey / Positive Psychology / Presentations

 

I
 
Unit: Positive Psychology
Them: Hero's Journey
 
Introduction
 
Positive psychology is the scientific study of what makes life most worth living, focusing on both individual and societal well-being. It studies "positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions...it aims to improve quality of life.
 
The Hero's Journey is a classic story structure that's shared by stories worldwide. Coined by American  professor of literature Joseph Campbell (1904 - 1987) the Hero's Journey illustrates how life can be seen as a transformational process. For this reason, anything that happens in one's life, even if negative, can be viewed as part of learning and making sense.
 
 
II
 
Learning Objectives 

  • Understand the Hero's Journey 
  • Explain the different stages of the Hero's Journey
  • Gain an awareness of the importance of one's own journey
  • Experience the creation of one's own individual journey

 III
Check In
 
 
IV
Main Lesson 

1
Presentations
 
Group 1
Arianna & Kaitlyn
 
Group 2
Kemeria, Sarah, Jie, Gia, Itzel 
 
Solo 1
Ambi
 
2
 
Positive Psychology's Five Critical Factors


Positive Psychology is the scientific study of the strengths that enable individuals and communities to thrive. The field is founded on the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, and to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play.

Three Pillars of Positive Psychology

Positive Psychology has three central concerns: positive experiences, positive individual traits, and positive institutions. 


  • Understanding positive emotions entails the study of contentment with the past, happiness in the present, and hope for the future. 
  • Understanding positive individual traits involves the study of strengths, such as the capacity for love and work, courage, compassion, resilience, creativity, curiosity, integrity, self-knowledge, moderation, self-control, and wisdom. 
  • Understanding positive institutions entails the study of the strengths that foster better communities, such as justice, responsibility, civility, parenting, nurturance, work ethic, leadership, teamwork, purpose, and tolerance.

Positive Psychology's Five Critical Factors

  • Positive Emotions:
  • Engagement
  • Meaning
  • Relationships
  • Accomplishment

Together these areas encapsulate two aspects of individual wellbeing:
  • Subjective wellbeing (SWB)—hedonic experience, happiness, satisfaction and positive emotions in the moment
  • Psychological wellbeing (PWB)—eudaimonic experience, the more enduring sense of fulfillment we get from personal relationships, living a meaningful life and developing as a person.

 

3

Joseph Campbell


The Hero's Journey is a classic story structure that's shared by stories worldwide. Coined by American  professor of literature Joseph Campbell (1904 - 1987).  Campbell, who taught at Sarah Lawrence College, a private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York, worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. 



(4:49 min)

Question 5

 What do you think Campbell means when he says, "if you are following your bliss"?

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 4
 

 Hero's Journey

In 1949, Campbell published The Hero with a Thousand Faces, a book in which he discusses his theory of the mythological structure of the journey of the archetypal hero found in world myths. The Hero's Journey refers to a wide-ranging category of tales in which a character ventures out to get what he/she needs, faces conflict, and ultimately triumphs over adversity. The Hero's Journey is divided into two big halves: the ordinary world and the special world. The journey has 12 stages (See the diagram below). 




5



Watch Video


(3:10 min)

Hero's Journey Stages
  1. The Ordinary World: The audience meets the Hero in the ordinary world.
  2. The Call to Adventure: The Hero receives the call to adventure: a challenge, a quest or a problem that must be faced.
  3. Refusal of the Call: The Hero expresses fear and is reluctant or refuses the call.
  4. Meeting the Mentor: A meeting with the mentor provides encouragement, wisdom, or magical gifts to  push the Hero past fear and doubt.
  5. Crossing the Threshold: The Hero finally accepts the challenge and crosses the threshold into the special world.
  6. Tests, Allies, Enemies: The Hero learns about the special world through tests, encountering allies and enemies.
  7. Approach to the Inmost Cave: The Hero makes the final preparations and approaches the innermost cave.
  8. The Ordeal: The hero endures the ordeal, the central crisis in which the Hero confronts his greatest fear and tastes death.
  9. Reward: The Hero enjoys the reward of having confronted fear and death.
  10. The Road Back: The Hero takes the road back and recommits to completing the journey.
  11. The Resurrection: The Hero faces the climactic ordeal that purifies redeems and transforms the Hero on the Threshold home.
  12. Return with the Elixir: The Hero returns with the elixir to benefit the ordinary world.

Question 6

Re-arrange the steps of the hero's journey by doing one of three things: naming them in your own words, diagramming them your own way or drawing them in a way they make sense to you.  

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V
Case Study



 Performance Piece: The Power of Expression

Jorge L. Morejon

The Healing Power of Expression: A Journey through Trauma, Pain, and Transformation, is a piece commissioned by The Renfrew Center Foundation for Eating Disorders in collaboration with Susan Kleinman, BC-DMT. The piece was produced by Adrienne Ressler, LMSW-CEDS at the Renfrew Center for Eating Disorders, Florida. The piece was specially choreographed for the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals Conference (iaedp) on  February 28, 2014 in St. Petersburg, Florida. It has been performed multiple times nationally and internationally. The last performance of the piece took place during the Opening of the the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) 54th Annual Conference in Miami, Florida, October 17-20, 2019 at the Hyatt Regency Miami.

 


LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y_PpEz4ayc

 

 

 

VI

 A Note to Remember

 Campbell, who taught at Sarah Lawrence College, a private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York, worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. The Hero's Journey is a great tool for dance/movement therapists to transform trauma into a transformational experience of successful adaptation.


VII

  Activity

Students will create a movement metaphor for each stage of the 12 steps of the Hero's Journey to create their own life story till this day.


 VIII

 Journaling

 

IX

Glossary

 

 

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Sources

Langley Group. https://langleygroup.com.au/what-we-do/positive-psychology/

Positive Psychology Center. https://ppc.sas.upenn.edu/our-mission

Excerpts from Myth and the Movies, Stuart Voytilla. http://www.tlu.ee/~rajaleid/montaazh/Hero%27s%20Journey%20Arch.pdf

 

 

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