Exploring the Aventine: An autoethnography on making sense of immersive daydreaming in the context of developmental trauma

Thomson, Charlene

Abstract

Immersive daydreaming is fantasy activity that is vivid, intricate and highly absorptive. Akin to an ongoing ‘movie-in-the-mind’, it often has the quality of feeling real and can continue over a period of months or years. The term ‘maladaptive’ daydreaming (MD) was introduced (Somer, 2002) to describe immersive daydreaming before researchers investigated it as a distinct psychiatric condition (e.g. Somer, Soffer-Dudek, Ross & Halpern, 2017) related to developmental trauma.

This thesis presents an autoethnographic journey into the Aventine, a term I use to refer to an elusive, liminal space. I ask readers to adopt and experiment with various lenses I use in my attempts to navigate immersive daydreaming from a critical, post-qualitative perspective. Under the boughs of this autoethnographic forest, I dialogue with, and am challenged by, my inner editor and Leonora Carrington, a feminist, surrealist artist. Inspired by the Venice Biennale art exhibition, ‘Milk of Dreams’, and Jung’s ideas on active imagination, I summon my fantasy world characters and imagined others into dialogue and interaction. As we all converge at an intersection of immersive daydreaming and developmental trauma, ancestors whisper of intergenerational trauma and patriarchal psychiatric discourse. The pathologization of creative responses to trauma is then countered to reveal fantasy as a site of liberation.

This creative-relational research is situated, experience-near and dialogical. Attending to the social/political, I challenge traditional forms of trauma-related fantasy representation and claim a space where the intuitive, imaginative and numinous are welcomed into therapeutic practice and scholarship. This thesis highlights the importance of process-driven research: from intrapsychic wars to synchronicities , and ultimately to a sense of homeness, I invite you as reader to accompany me on what became a reclamation of artistic and spiritual freedom.

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Sep 14, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 7, 2025
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/12889290
• Award Date: Jan 7, 2025